There's a specific lookup wondow for Contacts.  It's on the Advanced
Toolbar.

 A window there says "type a Contact to find" do that (surname or first
name) and hit Enter.  If the Public Folder Contacts is enabled as an Outlook
Address book (right click, properties and then set as an Outlook address
book) Outlook will search your Conatcst in the Mailbox and the one in Public
Folder.

 Its takes just a few seconds (if that) to have the Contact you want open
on screen.

 Judy Gleeson [MVP Outlook]
 Acorn Training and Consulting
 www.acorntraining.com.au

 Everyone - turn on your Advanced Toolbars and learn how to use the Field
Chooser and Group by Box!!

 > Hello,
 >
 > I've seen many references to this problem, but no solutions. Could
 > someone please confirm whether this is a fixable problem?
 >
 > I am using Outlook 2003 and Exchange 2003. I have created a public
 > folder to store shared contacts.
 >
 > If I use the Find option in Outlook it returns no records, regardless
 > of what I am searching for. However using Advanced Find always works.
 >
 > After some experimentation it appears that on public folders with only
 > a few hundred contacts this problem doesn't occur. As soon as I add a
 > few thousand contacts to the folder, then the Outlook Find option
 > ceases to work.
 >
 > Even if there isn't a solution, I would appreciate it if someone would
 > just say that this is a known problem.
 >
 > Many thanks
 >
 > Nick Taylor
 >