Sharing info across Outlook & Outlook Express in Windows XP

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hscampbell - 05 Jan 2005 22:49 GMT

Hi,
I am running:
- Windows XP Home Edition
- Microsoft Office Outlook 98 (set for Internet Mail only) for my mail
- Outlook Express 6 for my husband's mail.

A couple of questions about Contacts, Address Books, and "Shared Contacts"
please:

1. When I select Address Book from Outlook, it brings up a window with 3
folders: "Shared Contacts", "Jeff Andrew's contacts" (my husbands OE list)
and "Main Identity's contacts". (The latter is empty). It does NOT bring up
a folder choice for MY address book. How can I resolve this?

2. Many, but not all Contacts I enter end up in my Address Book. I have
never taken a concious action to add to the Address Book, and yet most of my
Contacts are listed there. How can I synchronize the two?

3. I realize that the only way to add my Contacts to the "Shared Contacts"
folder is to export them as a .csv file and then import that file. Is there
any way to identify which Contacts are already in the Shared Contacts folder
-- or which Contacts haven't yet been exported -- so that I don't have to
export and import a list which is 95% duplicative?

Thanks VERY MUCH for any insight you can provide.

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Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] - 05 Jan 2005 23:19 GMT

You left out the most important detail.
Have you or have you not enabled sharing between Outlook and OE?
None of the points you listed could be accurate. For example, invoking the
address book from Outlook could never show "Main Identity's Contacts." That
could only happen in OE.
Re-examine your settings and the behavior you see.

Signature

Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

> Hi,
> I am running:
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
>
> Thanks VERY MUCH for any insight you can provide.

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hscampbell - 06 Jan 2005 00:14 GMT

Hi Russ,

You are correct; as I was going between both OE and Outlook I must have been
mistaken about seeing "Main Identity" in Outlook. It was in OE. However, it
was empty so I deleted it.

As far as "enabling sharing" between Outlook and OE, I have tried both
through OE and Outlook (and "run wab") to enable sharing (under Address Book,
Tools, Options), but in all cases I get a window titled "data sharing" where
the "Do not share information..." choice is selected and the "share contact
information..." option is greyed out. I cannot deselect the former nor
select the latter.

Is there some reason why my ability to share data using this option is
greyed out?

Again, any advice appreciated.

hsc

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Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] - 06 Jan 2005 00:20 GMT

Not that I can think of, but are you aware that the version of Outlook you
are using has not been supported for 5 years and to my knowledge has not
been used on Window XP? All bets are off here, and no one can repro your
situation.

Signature

Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

> Hi Russ,
>
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> hsc

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hscampbell - 06 Jan 2005 13:43 GMT

Hi Russ,
Actually no, I wasn't aware that Outlook 98 was no longer supported; I
upgraded to XP (from Win 98) only a few months ago, based on the
recommendation of a MS customer support person who pointed out that support
for Win 98 was ending soon -- and who assured me all my current software
would run just as well on XP.

Oh well. Guess I need to do more due diligence next time.

If you know of any other sources outside of MS that might help with my
problem, it would be appreciated; otherwise, thanks for your input.

Reply to this Message

Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] - 06 Jan 2005 19:52 GMT

Explain again exactly what you see when you go to the Address Book in OE and
click on Tools > Options.

Signature

Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

> Hi Russ,
> Actually no, I wasn't aware that Outlook 98 was no longer supported; I
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> If you know of any other sources outside of MS that might help with my
> problem, it would be appreciated; otherwise, thanks for your input.

Reply to this Message

hscampbell - 07 Jan 2005 18:55 GMT

Hi again,
First, thanks for taking the time to try and help even though Win 98 isn't
supported. I appreciate it.

When I go to the Address Book in OE and click on Tools > Options, I get a
pop-up window titled "Data Sharing" with two choices with radio buttons:

(1) Share contact information among Microsoft Outlook and other
applications. Address book data will be stored in the Microsoft Outlook
Contact Store.

(2) Do not share information among Microsoft Outlook and other applications.
Address book data will be stored in an Address Book (.wab) file.

The option (1) is greyed out, and option (2) is selected (and will not let
me unselect it.) The same thing happens when I choose address book > Tools >
Options from my Outlook 98. Both offer "shared contacts" and "Jeffs
contacts" (the OE account) in the folders list.

The only noticeable difference is that when I select Address Book from OE,
the title bar says "Address Book - Jeff Andrews" and when I open the Address
Book from Outlook, the title bar simply says "Address Book".

I do have the ability to update to Office 2000, which I gather is still
supported. Would you recommend this as the best approach? I am a bit
nervous about upgrading things given how much information and specific
set-ups (e.g., palm pilot synch) on my machine.

Again, thanks for your time and thoughts.

hsc

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Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] - 07 Jan 2005 20:12 GMT

Upgrading to Outlook 2000 probably won't help because you'll still be using
this same Outlook profile. IMO does not let you change profiles.
The problem is that you have been unable to establish the connection between
the Windows Address Book engine and your Outlook Contacts. This is actually
a problem in OE, not Outlook, and I suspect arises from the fact that
current versions of OE may no longer recognize Outlook 98's Contacts
Folders.
One thing you can try is to rename any files named WAB32.DLL, then reinstall
Outlook Express.

Signature

Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

> Hi again,
> First, thanks for taking the time to try and help even though Win 98 isn't
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
>
> hsc

Reply to this Message

hscampbell - 10 Jan 2005 20:41 GMT

Hi,
Just thought you would be interested to know that upgrading to Office 2000
did actually fix the problem -- the option to "Share contact information
among Microsoft Outlook and other applications...." is no longer greyed out,
and in fact was made the default selection as part of the upgrade.

Thanks for your help.

hsc

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Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] - 10 Jan 2005 20:46 GMT

Probably because it also reinstalled the WAB.

Signature

Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

> Hi,
> Just thought you would be interested to know that upgrading to Office 2000
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> hsc

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hscampbell - 06 Jan 2005 00:17 GMT

Hi again Russ,
As an FYI, the second two points I do believe are accurate, and specific to
my Outlook account vs. OE.

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