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MICROSOFT OUTLOOK

managing your contacts

About Contacts

The contacts folder is your e-mail address book and information storage for the people and businesses you want to communicate with. Use the contacts folder to store the e-mail address, street address, multiple phone numbers, and any other information that relates to the contact, such as birthday or anniversary date. You can link any Outlook item or Office document to a contact to help you track your activities associated with a contact.

When you enter a name or address for a contact, Outlook separates the name or address into parts and puts each part in a separate field. You can sort, group, or filter contacts by any part of the name or any part of the address you want.

From a contact in your contact list, you can click a button or menu command to have Outlook address a meeting request, e-mail message, or task request to the contact. If you have a modem, you can also have Outlook dial the contact's phone number. You can have Outlook time the call and keep a record in Journal complete with the notes you take during the conversation.

You can file contact information under a last name, first name, company name, nickname, or any word that helps you find the contact quickly—for example, "caterer." Outlook gives you several naming choices to file the contact under, or you can enter your own choice. You can enter up to three addresses for each contact. Designate one address as the mailing address, and use it for mailing labels, envelopes, or creating mail merge letters.

Look up contact information from an item

You can look up information about a contact from an e-mail message, a meeting request, and a task request. You can also look up information about a contact from a journal entry if the contact name is underlined in the Contacts box. The contact must be in your original contact list (contact list In Contacts, the list of people and organizations you correspond with). If you keep several contact lists in different folders, the original contact list is the list you see when you click Contacts in the Outlook group on the Outlook Bar (The column on the left side of the program window that includes groups such as Other or Other Shortcuts, and the shortcuts available within each group. Click a group to show the shortcuts in the group. Click a shortcut to gain quick access to folders).

  • In the To, Cc, and Bcc boxes (You can send a message to recipients by separating their e-mail names with semicolons ( ; ) in the To, Cc, and Bcc boxes).

    Box Meaning:--
    To:- Message is sent directly to the recipient.
    Cc:- Carbon Copy. A copy of the message is sent to the recipient, and the recipient's 
    name is visible to other recipients of the message.
    Bcc:- Blind Carbon Copy. A copy of the message is sent to the recipient, and the 
    recipient's name is not visible to other recipients of the message.

    of an e-mail message, meeting request, or task request you received, right-click the contact name, and then click Look up Contact on the shortcut menu.

    In the Contacts box of an item, double-click the underlined contact name.

Create a message from a contact

  1. Select the contact, click the Actions menu, and then click New Message to Contact.
  2. In the Subject box, type the subject of the message.
  3. In the text box, type the message.
  4. Click Send .

Create a meeting request from a contact

  1. Select the contact, click the Actions menu, and then click New Meeting Request to Contact.
  2. In the Subject box, type a description.
  3. In the Location box, enter the location.
  4. Enter start and end times.
  5. Select other options you want.
  6. Click Send .

View a map for an address in the United States

  1. Open the contact.
  2. In the Address area, click the down arrow to select the type of address you want to find on a map—Business, Home, or Other.
  3. On the Actions menu, click Display Map of Address.

    The Web browser starts and then opens the Address Finder page.

Create a contact with new information

  1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Contact.
  2. In the Full Name box, type a name for the contact.
  3. Enter the information you want to include for the contact.
  4. Click Save and Close

Create a contact from an e-mail message you receive

  1. Open the e-mail message that contains the name you want to add to your contact list.
  2. In the From field, right-click the name you want to make into a contact, and then click Add to Contacts on the shortcut menu.

Create a contact from the same company as another contact

  1. Click Contacts
  2. Click a contact from the same company as the contact you want to create.
  3. Click Actions, and then click New Contact from Same Company.
  4. In the Full Name box, type a name for the contact.
  5. Enter the information you want to include for the contact.
  6. Click Save and Close

Quickly find a contact

  • On the toolbar, type the name of the contact you want to find in the Find a contact box.

    You can enter a partial name, such as Judy L, a first or last name, or an e-mail alias. To quickly open a contact you previously searched for, click the Find a contact arrow and select a name.

Open a contact

  1. Click Contacts .
  2. Select the contact(s) you want to open.
  3. On the File menu, click Open, and then click Selected Items.

Tips

  • To quickly open one or more selected contacts, press ENTER.
  • To quickly open a contact in a card view type (The basic structure of a view. When you create a view, you must first select one of five view types [table, timeline, day/week/month, card, or icon] to determine information will be arranged and formatted in your new view) double-click the card heading.

Import a contact list or a file from another Office program

  1. On the File menu, click Import and Export.
  2. Click Import from another program or file.
  3. Follow the instructions in the Import and Export Wizard.

Note   If you import from a file used in Microsoft Word or Microsoft PowerPoint, the file should be in either the Tab Separated Values or the Comma Separated Values file type.

Import a Personal Address Book into a Contacts folder

  1. On the File menu, click Import and Export.
  2. Click Import from another program or file.
  3. Follow the instructions in the Import and Export Wizard.

Enter the full name for a contact

  1. Create or open a contact.
  2. In the Full Name box, type the full name (The first and last name for the contact, or the first and last name plus any middle name, title, and suffix [for example, Jr. or Dr.]. You can enter parts of the full name as follows: Title First Middle Last Suffix or Last Suffix, Title First Middle) of the contact.

Notes

  • To make sure the parts of a name are identified correctly for sorting, filtering, or mail merge, click Full Name. Review each entry, and make changes as appropriate.
  • You can enter two names in the First name field by including the word "and" or the ampersand (&) between the names, for example, Tony & Jean.
  • You can change the name a contact is filed under in the contact list.

Enter an address for a contact

  1. Create or open a contact.
  2. Under Address, click the arrow button and click Business, Home, or Other.
  3. In the Address box, type the address.

    Press RETURN after each line of the address.

  4. To enter additional addresses for the contact, repeat steps 2 and 3 and use a different selection for step 2.
  5. To set the mailing address (When you create a contact, you can enter up to three addresses for the contact. You select one address as the mailing address, which becomes the primary address that appears in most views and that is used in mail merges in Microsoft Word) click Business, Home, or Other, and then select the This is the mailing address check box.

    If you enter only one address, that address is used as the mailing address.

Notes

  • To make sure the parts of an address are identified correctly for sorting, filtering, or mail merge, click Business, Home, or Other to display the address you want to check, and then click Address. Review each entry, and make changes as appropriate.
  • If you don't enter a country name, the country you set in the Regional Settings dialog box in Windows Control Panel is used.

Enter an e-mail address for a contact

  1. Create or open a contact.
  2. To enter a standard Internet e-mail address (An Internet e-mail address consists of a user name and a domain name, with the two separated by an at sign [@]. In the following example, jim256 is the user name and msn.com is the domain name.jim256@msn.com The domain name extension indicates the domain type; in this case, a commercial institution), type the e-mail address in the E-mail box. Or click Address Book to select from a list of e-mail addresses if one is set up for your company.
  3. To enter additional e-mail addresses for the contact, repeat step 2, click the down arrow button, and click E-mail 2 or E-mail 3.

Enter phone numbers for a contact

  1. Create or open a contact.
  2. In the Phone area, click the down arrow to select an option that describes the phone number.
  3. In the box next to the down arrow, type the phone number.

    Use the following format for international phone numbers and for automatic phone dialing: +country code (area code) local number.

  4. To enter additional phone numbers, repeat steps 2 and 3 with another description and phone number.

Notes

  • If you omit the country code and area code from the phone number, the automatic phone dialer uses settings from Dialing Properties in the New Call dialog box (on the Actions menu, point to Call, and then click New Call).
  • If you include letters in the phone number, they are not recognized by the automatic phone dialer.
  • You can include dialing notes (for example, "ext. 1234" or "before 10:00") after the phone number. The automatic phone dialer will dial the number and ignore your notes.
  • To see the details of the phone number, double-click the underlined phone number.

Enter personal information about a contact

  1. Create or open a contact.
  2. On the Details tab, enter the information you want to include for the contact.

Set a reminder for a contact

  1. Create or open a contact.
  2. On the Actions menu, click Flag for Follow Up.
  3. In the Flag to list, click the setting you want.
  4. In the Due by list, click the down arrow to display a calendar. Click a date on the calendar.

Notes  

  • To change the time for the reminder, select the time in the Due by list and then type in a new time.
  • After you complete your follow-up action, return to the Flag for Follow Up dialog box, and then select the Completed check box.

Go to the World Wide Web page for a contact

  1. Open the contact.
  2. In the Web page address box, click the hyperlink (Colored and underlined text or a graphic that you click to go to a file, a location in a file, an HTML page on the World Wide Web, or an HTML page on an intranet. Hyperlinks can also go to Gopher, telnet, newsgroup, and FTP sites)

Save contact information for use on the Internet

Outlook supports the use of vCards, the Internet standard for creating and sharing virtual business cards. You can save a contact as a vCard or save vCards sent in e-mail messages.

What do you want to do?

1) Save a contact as a vCard

2) Save a vCard sent to you in an e-mail message

1) Save a contact as a vCard

  1. Click Contacts.
  2. Open the contact you want to save as a Vcard.
  3. On the File menu, click Export to vCard file.

2) Save a vCard sent to you in an e-mail message

  1. Double-click the attached vCard in the message.
  2. Type any additional information you want to include for the contact.
  3. Click Save and Close .

Change how new contacts are filed

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. On the Preferences tab, click Contact Options.
  3. In the Default file as order list, click the option you want.

Resolve a duplicate contact

If you save a contact with the same name or e-mail name as one that already exists in your Contacts folder, Microsoft Outlook will display a dialog box that allows you to either add the new contact or update your existing contact with the new information from the new contact.

If you click Add this as a new contact anyway, the new contact will be added to your Contacts folder. So, for example, if you made a contact with the name Judy Lew, and you already had a contact with that name, you would have two contacts named Judy Lew. To distinguish between the two you might want to add a middle initial to one.

If you click Update new information from this contact to the existing one, Outlook will compare all the fields with data in them and copy the data from the new contact into any fields that have conflicting data. For example, if you have a contact named Judy Lew with the phone number 555-5655, and you get a vCard with a new phone number, Outlook will copy the new number into the old contact and leave all the other fields the same.

When you click Update new information from this contact to the existing one, the links on the Activities tab, any categories you’ve assigned, and any text in the message box from the new contact will not be copied into the existing contact. If you want to copy these fields from a new contact into an existing contact, you will have to copy them manually.

In case you need to revert to the information in the original contact, a copy of the original contact is stored in your Deleted Items folder whenever Outlook copies new data.

What happens when you merge duplicate contacts

In the Duplicate Contact Detected dialog box, when you click Update new information from this contact to the existing one, the information in your original contact is replaced by the information from the new contact. For example, the name field, phone number field, e-mail address field, and address fields in the original contact are replaced if there is new information. The fields on the All Fields tab will also be copied. If the new contact does not have new information in a field, the original contact is not changed.

The following information will not be copied from a new contact:

  • Categories
  • Text in the message box
  • Attachments

If you want to copy these fields from a new contact into an existing contact, you will have to copy them manually.

Certificates and links on the Activities tab will be copied from the new contact and added to the existing contact without replacing the original information.

Delete a contact

  1. Click Contacts
  2. Select the contact(s) you want to delete.
  3. Click Delete

Note   Deleting a contact does not delete journal entries (An item in Journal that represents an activity that has been recorded. A journal entry is a shortcut to the activity it represents. You can distinguish a journal entry from other items by the clock that appears in the lower-left corner of the icon. For example, or ) that refer to the contact.

Tracking activities related to a contact

To track tasks, appointments, e-mail, notes, or documents related to a contact, you can link any item or document to a contact. For example, when you create a new Microsoft Outlook item, such as a task, you can link it to the contact it relates to. And you can link to a contact any items already existing in folders.

What do you want to do?

1) Link a new item to a contact

2) Link existing items to a contact

3) Link a document to a contact

1) Link a new item to a contact

  1. Create an item (An item is the basic element that holds information in Outlook [similar to a file in other programs]. Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, and notes)
  2. Do one of the following:

    In a message, click Options, and then click Contacts.

    In all other items, click Contacts.

  3. In the Look in list, click the folder that contains the contact you want to link the item to.
  4. In the Items list, click the contact or contacts you want to link the item to.

Tip   You can quickly create a link to a person in your contacts folder by typing their name in the Contacts box and then on the Tools menu, click Check Names.

2) Link existing items to a contact

  1. Open the contact you want to link items to.
  2. On the Actions menu, point to Link, and then click Items.
  3. In the Look in box, click the folder that contains the items you want to link to the contact.
  4. In the Items list, select the items you want to link to the contact.

Tip   You can open a contact from any item that’s linked to it just by double-clicking the contact’s name in the Contacts box in the item. In an e-mail item, on the View menu, click Options, and then double-click the contact’s name in the Contacts box.

3) Link a document to a contact

  1. Open the contact you want to link a document to.
  2. On the Actions menu, point to Link, and then click File.
  3. In the Choose a file dialog box, double-click the file you want to link to the contact.
  4. Click Save and Close.

View items related to a contact

  1. Open the contact that you want to view the related items for.
  2. Click the Activities tab.
  3. In the Show list, click the type of item you want to see, or click All Items.

Change the folders that are searched automatically for related items

  1. In the Folder List, click the Contacts folder you want.
  2. On the File menu, point to Folder, click Properties, and then click the Activities tab.
  3. In the Default Activities view list, click the folder you want to be searched by default.

Find related items in folders other than Outlook main folders

When you select the Activities tab in a contact item, the Show list displays a folder group name, such as All items. By default, Microsoft Outlook only searches for links to items in the main Outlook folders. You can create and add new folder groups to the Show list, and for each folder group, you can add and delete folders to be searched.

What do you want to do?

1) Create a new folder group to search for related items

2) Add or remove folders to be searched in an existing folder group

3) Search an archive file or personal folder file (.pst) for linked items

1) Create a new folder group to search for related items

  1. In the Folder List, click the Contacts folder you want.
  2. On the File menu, point to Folder, click Properties, and then click the Activities tab.
  3. Click New.

    Click the plus sign (+) next to Mailbox to see your folders.

  4. In the folder list, click the folders you want to search for related items.
  5. In the Name box, type a name for the folder group.

    This name will be added to the Show list on the Activities tab of all contact items.

Tip   A quick way to create a new folder group is to copy an existing folder group and modify it. To copy an existing folder group, select the folder group, and then click Copy.

2) Add or remove folders to be searched in a folder group

  1. In the Folder List, click the Contacts folder you want.
  2. On the File menu, point to Folder, click Properties, and then click the Activities tab.
  3. In the Folder groups list, select the folder group you want to change.
  4. Click Modify.
  5. Select the check box next to folders you want to add to the search and clear the check box next to folders you want to remove from it.

Tip   To undo any additions or deletions you’ve made to a folder group, click the folder group and then click Reset.

3) Search an archive file or .pst file for related items

  1. Open the personal folder file (Open a personal folder file
    1. On the File menu, point to Open, and then click Personal Folders File [.pst].
    2. Click the .pst file you want to open) you want to search for linked items.
  2. Click Contacts.
  3. On the File menu, point to Folder, click Properties, and then click the Activities tab.
  4. Click New.
  5. In the Name box, type a name for the folder group.

    This name will be added to the Show list on the Activities tab of all contact items.

  6. Select the archive folder or personal folder file (.pst) you want to search.

Note   Microsoft Outlook can only search one set of personal folders at a time. For example, you cannot search in your archive folder and in another .pst file during the same search. You have to make a separate folder group for each set of folders and search in each one separately.

Record the date and time you worked with a contact

  1. Open the contact item.
  2. On the Actions menu, click New Journal Entry for Contact, and then select the options you want.

    The journal item records the date and the length of time you worked with the contact.

Remove a link to an item in a contact

  1. Open the contact that has the link you want to remove.
  2. Click the Activities tab.
  3. Double-click the item you want to remove.

    Do one of the following:

    In an e-mail item, on the View menu, click Options, and then in the Contacts box, delete the contact you want to remove the link to.

    In all other items, in the Contacts box, delete the contact you want to remove the links to.