How can I set the "from" (creator) field for an existing contact?

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Sequoya - 23 Jun 2006 17:56 GMT

We're using an Exchange public folder to store contact records for prospects.
Each employee can contribute contacts to this folder but we want to keep
track of who created them. If a user creates a contact in their personal
contact folder and then drags the contact to the public folder, the "from"
field is properly set to their name.

Somehow, one employee created a large group of contacts in the public folder
that have no "From" field. When we open the contact, this field cannot be
set.

Is there any way to fix these or will they all have to be re-created?

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Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] - 23 Jun 2006 18:25 GMT

Maybe have that person move them out and then copy them back in. Copying creates new items.

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Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

> We're using an Exchange public folder to store contact records for prospects.
> Each employee can contribute contacts to this folder but we want to keep
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Is there any way to fix these or will they all have to be re-created?

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Sequoya - 23 Jun 2006 19:50 GMT

That's what I thought too. I've tried copying/moving them out and back in
several times but the "from" field doesn't get updated.

> Maybe have that person move them out and then copy them back in. Copying creates new items.
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> >
> > Is there any way to fix these or will they all have to be re-created?

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Sequoya - 11 Jul 2006 15:34 GMT

I now know that the contacts in question (without a "from" field) were
created by importing them into Outlook. I've also done some experimenting
and it appears that the only time this field is set by Outlook is when a
contact is created interactively through the New Contact dialog.

We still have a large number of contacts with a blank "from" field that we
need to correct. I have not found a way to fix this without 1) re-creating
them by hand, or 2) saving each as a vCard and "re-creating" them by opening
and saving the vCards as contacts.

Needless to say, both of these methods are cumbersome for a large number of
contacts. Since the "from" field is just another database field there has to
be a way to correct this. Since I'm a programmer, I've even looked through
my docs on the Outlook object model to see if there's a way to set this
programmatically. It appears the field is set by the Post() method but I
don't see a way to re-set it after the fact.

Any ideas out there? Thanks!

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tommy.myers@gmail.com - 27 Jul 2006 16:40 GMT

I am having the same issue with one of my users. Any idea on how to
change these entries would be greatly appreciated.

> I now know that the contacts in question (without a "from" field) were
> created by importing them into Outlook. I've also done some experimenting
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
> >
> > Is there any way to fix these or will they all have to be re-created?

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Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] - 14 Aug 2006 20:51 GMT

Two possible programmatic solutions:

1) Use the Copy method to create a copy of the item, then save it and discard the original.

2) Use Redemption or CDO to set the MAPI property that holds the informaton -- PR_SENDER_NAME (0x0C1A001E).

Signature

>I now know that the contacts in question (without a "from" field) were
> created by importing them into Outlook. I've also done some experimenting
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
>>
>> Is there any way to fix these or will they all have to be re-created?

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