This does not address tha fact that it is a STUPID design.  Number 1 it
requests the information and number 2 it hangs up in a loop that only a
user with some Windows OS understanding can exit - using the Task
Manager (Ctl-Alt-Delete) to cancel Outlook!

I regularly have to enter phone numbers for clients in up to 21
countries, some with phone numbers in 3 or 4 countries on at least 2
continents each with its own dialing conventions.  Even better when I
have to enter Compuserve and foreign service contact numbers for
multi-national corporate clients - I have, for example, Microsoft in 16
countries in North America, South America, UK, Eastern Europe, Western
Europe, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Phillipines, Japan, China,
Australia, and New Zealand.  EACH of these has a different dialing
convention and numbering scheme.

This WINDOWS design trying to guess the correct phone number format
based on some national scheme(s) is ludicrous.

It's even worse that the OS has it embedded AND that it gets it WRONG.
I finally just entered a string of 1's for the field length, the stupid
message took it, and now it messes up all the phone number formats a
bit but I can enter them at least. (Why didn't you answer the question
with REAL advice?)

And we're about to be asked to shell out good money for another spin of
this kind of design.

Hang in there, I may be a MS Windows/Office/Server "expert", but I'm on
the users' side.

Regards,
Henry O. Hanson  Phd CCP