Chapter 15: Using the Address Book and Outlook Contacts
Outlook includes two tools for managing addresses -- the Contacts folders and the Personal Address Book. This chapter explains why Outlook includes several ways to manage addresses, how to maintain addresses in both the Contacts folders and the PAB, and how to use the Address Book as an overall window into many address lists.
If you are part of an organization with its own e-mail system, you have access to addresses stored for the entire enterprise, or at least your part of it. Lists tied to your organization’s mail system — whether Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Mail, or some other system — are managed by a system administrator.
MIGRATING TO OUTLOOK
If you are moving to Outlook from Exchange or Windows Messaging, you should be happy to know that the Contacts folder addresses some of the most aggravating shortcomings of Exchange. Table 15.1 lists some of the solutions you’ll want to examine as you start working with Contacts.
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TABLE 15.1: EXCHANGE ADDRESS PROBLEMS SOLVED BY OUTLOOK |
| Exchange problem
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Outlook solution
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| Need to make multiple entries for an individual with more than one e-mail address |
You can keep up to three e-mail addresses and three fax numbers for each contact.
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| Need to create separate e-mail and fax entries |
Numbers entered in the Business, Home, or Other Fax fields can be used to send faxes.
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| Inability to access more than one PAB at a time |
You add any number of Contacts folders to the address lists available in the Address Book.
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| Lack of shared contacts list |
For Exchange Server users, you can maintain a Contacts folder in Public Folders. For other users, you can update a personal Contacts folder from a central list. |
UNDERSTANDING THE ADDRESS LISTS
Most of the address lists you encounter are either personal or organizational, either your own set of addresses or the roster of people where you work. You may also have access to special lists, such as all subscribers to The Microsoft Network.
Let’s take a quick look at the address lists you’re likely to encounter.
Outlook Contacts
Keep addresses for people who are not part of your organization in the Contacts folder within your Personal Folders file or Exchange Server mailbox. In addition to e-mail addresses and fax numbers, you can add notes, plus details such as telephone numbers, Web site addresses, birthdays, and even your own custom fields. If phone numbers are entered and you have a modem, you can use the Phone Dialer to dial the numbers for you. Other applications, such as Microsoft Word, can also use the information contained in the Contacts folder.
Personal Address Book
The Personal Address Book, or PAB, may be installed by default in your Outlook profile, depending on your configuration. You can have only one PAB in a profile. (See “Tips and Tricks” for a way to switch PABs without restarting Outlook.)
While the PAB has fields that are similar to some of those in Contacts, it is nowhere near as flexible. Most Outlook users will want to import the addresses from their PAB into Contacts (see “Importing a Personal Address Book” in Chapter 16).
Why does Outlook include both a Personal Address Book and Contacts folders? One reason is backward compatibility. People who have many PAB addresses from Exchange or Windows Messaging may not get around to importing them into Contacts for a while. Another is for special types of addresses, such as Public Folders, that don’t really fit into the Contacts mold (though there’s no reason you couldn’t keep an address for a public folder as a Contacts record). A third reason is that if you connect to Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0, you can use the PAB to keep track of which recipients get MIME instead of UUencode, or vice versa.
The main reason for using a PAB, though, is for personal distribution lists. These are mailing lists of people that you want to send to as a group. While you can maintain distribution lists in Contacts through categories and grouping or filters (see “Managing Contacts Distribution Lists” later in this chapter), many people find the PAB more efficient.
Organization Address Lists
Organization or enterprise address lists come in several flavors. A global address list (GAL) includes everyone in the organization (or at least everyone the mail administrator has included). In addition, you may see postoffice address lists (for Microsoft Mail) and Recipients lists (for Microsoft Exchange Server) that represent subsets of the GAL for a particular location. Finally, there may be gateway lists that show you addresses on another mail system that is linked to Microsoft Mail or Microsoft Exchange Server.
You can copy addresses from these lists to Contacts or to the PAB, but keep in mind that the addresses in those personal address lists are not updated when changes are made to the organization address lists.
If your organization uses both Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook, you may also have a public Contacts folder that you can use just as you would your personal Contacts folder.
Other Address Lists
Different information services may add address-list functions to your profile. CompuServe and The Microsoft Network (MSN) are two examples. The CompuServe Address Book is a personal address list shared with WinCIM or other CompuServe software. This address book can contain only CompuServe addresses.
If you use MSN in its “classic” form (rather than MSN 2.5), you can access a searchable list of all MSN members. When you sign up with MSN, an entry is made in this list with your name and member ID. You also can add personal and professional information about yourself that other members can view. Here’s how:
- Connect to MSN.
- In Outlook, choose Tools, Address Book, or click the Address Book button.
- In the Address Book dialog box, under Show Names, choose The Microsoft Network. (If you don’t see this address list, you are not using the classic MSN service and won’t be able to access the MSN address list.)
- Choose Tools, Find.
- In the Find dialog box, enter your Member ID or Name, then click OK.
- When the search is completed, double-click the address to bring up its properties.
- On the General, Personal, and Professional tabs, enter information you want other MSN members to be able to see, then click OK to save it.
You can also use the Find dialog box to search for other MSN members, perhaps looking for those in your area or with similar interests.