Crabby Office Lady

The Outlook Address Book is probably something that you use every day, multiple times a day. Understanding its possibilities — as well as its limitations — will make you a more efficient Outlook user.

---

Subscribe to Crabby's columns
Read all the Crabby Office Lady columns
Get the Crabby Office Lady's book

---

Something new for the Crabby Office Lady

Before I hop right in there and explain the ins and out of the Address Book, I have something very exciting to tell you: Notifications of new Crabby Office Lady columns are now available via RSS.

 Note   In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, read how to get the latest Crabby columns with RSS and it will explain, in detail, what RSS is and why you should go without it no longer.

In a nutshell, you now have the opportunity to receive my columns as soon as they're ready for human consumption. They'll show up in your RSS reader fresh and bright as the day they were born (well, a little less than fresh since my editor gets to them before you do) (Ed: Humanity may never know how many lives I've saved through the occasional de-freshening). Many of you have asked for a way to get the latest columns right away, and I could deny you no longer. And while an RSS feed isn't the same as a subscription e-mail notification (which many of you have requested), once you get started using an RSS reader, you'll wonder how you ever did without it. So, I hope you'll enjoy this convenience, brought to you by the fine folks at MSN Spaces and Office Online. Why go searching for the newest Crabby column when it can pop up right on your desktop? Why indeed....

And now...let's not keep that address book waiting any longer, shall we?

A rose by any other name...

...is still an address book. See, I know that some of you call your list of names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses your "address book." Some of you call it your "contacts list." One coworker calls his "The Usual Suspects." But whatever you call it, let's make sure that you know what you're talking about.

The crux if this column is:

1. To teach you (or remind you) that the Address Book is a collection (a.k.a. "container") of several address books or address lists.
2. To offer some handy tips to help you make the most out of the various parts of the Address Book.

OK, first part. Remember: The Address Book is the term we use when we're talking about the collection of the various address lists in Outlook. These lists are:

• The Global Address List, which contains the names and e-mail addresses of everyone in your organization. (This type of list requires you to use Microsoft Exchange Server.)
• The Outlook Address Book, which is created automatically and contains the contacts in your Contacts folder that have a contact entry in the E-mail or Fax boxes. These contacts display in the Address Book dialog box when you click Contacts in the Show names from the list. Here is what I'm talking about:

   Note   I believe that this is where some of the confusion arises (at least for me): The Outlook Address Book is really what is in your Contacts list. Why it isn't called the Contacts Book, I have no idea.

• The Personal Address Book, which is a list of names and distribution lists that you create and maintain. We recommend that you switch from the Personal Address Book to Contacts for three basic reasons:
  1. You'll have one fewer list to keep track of
  2. Contacts are more fully integrated into Outlook than entries in the Personal Address Book
  3. If you use different languages in Outlook, you should be aware that Contacts are Unicode compliant, while entries in a Personal Address Book are not
  Read more about how to convert your Personal Address Book to a Contacts folder.
• Internet directory services (LDAPs) are used to find e-mail addresses that are not in a local address book or a corporate-wide directory such as the Global Address List. An Internet connection is required to view an LDAP address book unless the LDAP directory is part of your organization's network.
• Third-party address books can be added to Outlook by using the third-party provider's Setup program. Outlook displays third-party address books in the Additional Address Book Types list.

Now that we know that the items above are parts of the larger Address Book, here are a few tips and tricks that are handy to know.

Tip #1: Make your address book available offline

Picture this: You're in a coffee shop and you have your laptop with you. You have an important e-mail message that you need to pass on to a coworker, so you need to access your company's contact list, and of course, you need to be connected to the network to do this. Now, because of where you live and who you are, you just assume that this coffee joint has an available wireless connection, allowing you to search for your coworker's e-mail address on the network.

Now for the bad news: This coffee shop does not provide access — wireless or otherwise — to the Internet. Therefore, you can't get to the company address book. Drat; you're sunk.

But wait; you're not! If you had done just a little pre-coffee shop homework, you'd know that you could have made your address book available offline.

• On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, and then click Download Address Book.

Tip #2: Display the Contacts list in LastName, FirstName format

This is one that makes everyone crazy. See, by default, Outlook displays names in your Contacts list in the FirstName, LastName format, rather than the LastName, FirstName format. In this case, the first names of contacts are used to sort your Contacts list alphabetically, driving you (and me) mad. There is a way to change this, but it takes 3 steps. However, it's well worth the effort.

Rather than type it all out here, I'm going to send you to a page that will explain it all for you. Once you have the info you need, get right back here so that I can impart more Address Book wisdom upon you.

• Display the Contacts list in LastName, FirstName format

Tip #3: How to remove an address from AutoComplete

You were best friends all through high school. You shared clothes, homework, and your deepest feelings. Times change, honey, and I know you didn't expect to have to share your husband with your former best girlfriend. Now it's time to get what's-her-name's e-mail address out of your AutoComplete list.

See, when you type directly in the To, Cc, or Bcc box of an e-mail message, Outlook offers to complete the address, e-mail alias, or name, based on addresses, aliases, or names that you have used previously. But what if you want that name banished for good? Simple: Use your arrow key to select what's-her-name's name or e-mail address, press DELETE, and *poof* she's gone for good. If only it were so easy to purge all bad things from our lives....

Tip #4: Import contacts from Outlook Express

Congratulations! You finally took my advice and now you're switching from Outlook Express to Outlook. Wait...what's that? You're putting it off because you can't fathom how you're going to gather up the energy to input all those names you have in Outlook Express and their corresponding info into Outlook?

Well, whatever stage you're in, it's easy-peasy to get your addresses and other info from Outlook Express into Outlook. What's your next excuse?

1. In Outlook, on the File menu, click Import and Export.
2. Under Choose an action to perform, click Import Internet Mail and Addresses.
3. Under Select the Internet Mail application to import from, click Outlook Express 4.x, 5.x, 6.x.
4. Clear the check boxes for Import Mail and Import Rules. Only the Import Address Book check box should be selected.
5. Click Next, and then Select one of the following:
   • Replace duplicates with items imported  Existing data will be overwritten with the information in the file that is being imported.
   • Allow duplicates to be created  Existing data will not be overwritten, and duplicates will be added to the current Outlook folder.
   • Do not import duplicate items  Existing data will be kept, and the duplicate information in the file will not be copied to the current Outlook folder.
6. Click Finish.
7. After the export is complete, click Save in Inbox if you want a message in your Inbox that logs what was exported, or click OK.

Tip #5: Print out an address book

You're heading out for vacation and you know that you may want to send postcards or e-mails while you're gone (the best intentions...) but you're not bringing your laptop along. Printing an address book — whether it's just the names and e-mail addresses or all the info you have for that particular person — is the easiest way to make sure you'll have all the information you need to call, write, or e-mail someone who is expecting it.

• Print an address book

That wasn't so bad, was it? A little knowledge about the Address Book can go a long way. If you have some great tips of your own about how to work with this little devil, write me at crabby@microsoft.com.

Tip of the week

J.C. of Colorado read my Crabby's Font Facts 104: Your questions column with great interest, and offered me of one heckuva great tip on how to quickly change the case of a letter or an entire word.

First, place your cursor on or at the beginning of the word whose case you want to change. Then, hold down the Shift key and press F3.

• To capitalize the first letter, press F3 once.
• To capitalize the entire word, press F3 twice.
• To make the entire word lower case, press F3 three times.

This is something I'd never heard of and I love it. This is a tip I know we'll all use a lot. Thanks, J.C. Say "hey" to the Rockies (the mountains, not the team) for me.

"Addresses are given to us to conceal our whereabouts." — Saki

About the author

Annik Stahl, the Crabby Office Lady columnist, takes all of your complaints, compliments, and knee-jerk reactions to heart. Therefore, she graciously asks that you let her know whether this column was useful to you — or not — by entering your feedback using the Was this information helpful? tool below. And remember: If you don't vote, you can't complain.

Subscribe to Crabby's columns
Read all the Crabby Office Lady columns
Get the Crabby Office Lady's book