Outlook 2003 Tips

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Outlook 2003

Contacts

The first place most people think of storing contact information such as e-mail addresses is Contacts. Items in Contacts include much more than just an e-mail address or fax number, however. A contact card can include a name, physical address, several phone numbers, multiple e-mail addresses, fax numbers, and lots of other information about the contact, such as birthday, anniversary, and so on. Outlook stores your Contacts with the rest of your Outlook data in a Personal Folders file that has a PST file extension. [Outlook.pst – this file is usually found in C:/Documents and settings/USER/Local settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook.pst-- USER= your account]
If you use an Exchange Server account, Contacts are stored on the Exchange server with the rest of your information (Mail folders, Tasks, and so on). Regardless of the type of account you use, you can use Contacts to store all of your contacts and their addresses, if you prefer.
Bottom line: Contacts is the best place to store contacts because it offers more contact information fields.

Addressing messages and managing address lists

Now that you have a better understanding of what the Outlook Address Book is all about and the other places you can find addresses, let's take a look at how to accomplish some specific tasks in addition to those explained above:

• Address a message: Click the To, Cc, or Bcc button on the message form to open the Address Book, choose an address list from the Show Names from the drop-down list, and, under Message Recipients, click To, Cc, or Bcc.
• Use AutoComplete to address a message: On the Tools menu, click Options. On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options. Click Advanced E-mail Options. Select the Suggest names while completing To, Cc, and Bcc fields check box. Click OK three times. Open a new message, click in one of the three address fields, and start typing the address. Outlook can use AutoComplete only after you have used an address at least once.
• Send a message from Contacts: Right-click a contact and choose New Message to Contact.
• Specify which address list is shown by default in the Outlook Address Book: Open the Address Book from the toolbar and in the address book, on the Tools menu, click Options. Use the Show this address list first drop-down list to specify which address list gets displayed by default.
• Copy contacts from a Personal Address Book to Contacts Open the Address Book, right-click the contact, and choose Add to Contacts.
• Change the way names appear in the Address Book In Outlook, on the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts. Select View or change existing directories or address books, and then click Next. Click Outlook Address Book, click Change, and choose the desired options. Click Close, and then click Finish.
• Include or exclude a Contacts folder from the Outlook Address Book In Outlook 2003, in the Navigation Pane, click the Contacts folder. In the Contacts pane, right-click the Contacts folder (under My Contacts) and click Properties. (For earlier versions of Outlook, right-click the Contacts folder in the Folder List and click Properties.) On the Outlook Address Book tab, select the Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book check box to include the folder in the Outlook Address Book list. Clear this check box to exclude the folder.
• Move contacts from one Contacts folder to another Make sure the target folder is configured for Contact items (you specify this when you create the folder), and then select the contacts and drag them to the other folder.
• Copy contacts from a Contacts folder to a Personal Address Book Open the Outlook Address Book, and on the Tools menu, click Options. In the Keep personal addresses in drop-down list, choose the Personal Address Book and click OK. Close Outlook and restart it. Open Contacts, select the contacts you want to copy, right-click the contacts, and choose Add to Contacts. Optional: Open the Address Book and set the default location back to Contacts.
• Set a Personal Address Book as the place to store addresses Open the Outlook Address Book, and on the Tools menu, click Options. Select the Personal Address Book from the Keep personal addresses in drop-down list.
• Import contacts from a Personal Address Book to Contacts Open Outlook and on the File menu, click Import and Export. Choose Import from another program or file and click Next. Choose Personal Address Book, click Next, and follow the wizard's prompts to add the contacts.
• Use Bcc (send to multiple recipients without the recipients seeing the recipient list) If Outlook is the default e-mail editor, start a new message and on the View menu, click Bcc Field. Enter the addresses in the Bcc field. If Word is the e-mail editor and the Bcc field is not shown, on the Tools menu, click Options, and click the Mail Format tab. Clear the Use Microsoft Office Word 2003 to edit e-mail messages check box, and click OK. Follow the steps above to display the Bcc field, close the new message form without sending it, and then on the Tools menu, click Options, and select the option to use Word as the e-mail editor.
• Create a distribution list to send mail to multiple recipients:  In Outlook, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Distribution List.