Wring contacts being used.

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Dups - 01 Mar 2007 13:40 GMT

I have a user with a Windows 2000, Outlook 2003 laptop.

She has two accounts setup for her email. One is on the Exchange server and
she has a PST file on the local harddrive. She has a "contacts" option for
both the server and her local pst.

These were both called Contacts so for the sake of my sanity I renamed the
one on the exchange server as Contacts - Good and the one in her pst as
Contacts - Bad. The contacts listed in her pst are older groups that she had
created and have since been updated.

I am unable to delete Contacts - Bad. The option is there and it is greyed
out.

So in the end here are my questions.

1. Is the address book the area that I should be indicating which Contacts
to use when using personal groups that she created? If not where should I
define this?

2. Why am I unable to simply delete the Contacts from the PST?

3. How do I get rid of her old contacts and tell Outlook to simply use the
company global contacts and the Contacts - Good?

I have "Notify me of replies" enabled so I will be answering any questions
quickly enough.

TIA :)

The issue that she is having is that when she type i/o, which is the name of
a group she created, outlook will take the emails from the old group. So the
Contacts - Bad. She has the same group with the same name but different
emails in her Contacts - Good.

I figured I would simply tell Outlook which Contacts to use and eliminate
the Contacts - Bad from the list. So I went to Tools - Address Book - Tools -
Options. In the option of "Show this address list first:" I choose Contacts -
Good. In the "Keep personal addresses in:" I selected Contacts - Good. The
option "When sending mail, check names using these address lists in the
following order:" I have the company contacts and then Contacts - Good.

The contacts - bad used to be in that list but I removed it. I figured I had
it at this point but the same problem occurs.

I decided to do a little experiment. I actually deleted the i/o group from
the Contacts - Bad and tested the i/o group. It STILL used the old emails
from that group. Now where on earth is it getting that information?!

Reply to this Message

Brian Tillman - 01 Mar 2007 15:04 GMT

> She has two accounts setup for her email. One is on the Exchange
> server and she has a PST file on the local harddrive. She has a
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> renamed the one on the exchange server as Contacts - Good and the one
> in her pst as Contacts - Bad.

This is not a good idea. In fact, I don't know how you were able to rename
the PST's Contacts folder, based on things you say subsequently.

> The contacts listed in her pst are
> older groups that she had created and have since been updated.

Older "groups"? Do you mean Distribution Lists?

> I am unable to delete Contacts - Bad. The option is there and it is
> greyed out.

And the Rename option should have been grayed out as well.

> 1. Is the address book the area that I should be indicating which
> Contacts to use when using personal groups that she created? If not
> where should I define this?

The Outlook Address Book service will show any Contacts folder (that is, any
folder created to hold Contacts items no matter what you've named it) that
has been enabled on its Properties dialogue as an address book. IN the
Address Book interface, you can control the order Outlook will search the
folders with the Tools>Options dialogue.

> 2. Why am I unable to simply delete the Contacts from the PST?

Depends on your it was created. If Outlook created it, then it cannot be
deleted. It has a property embedded in it that won't allow deletion or
renaming.

> 3. How do I get rid of her old contacts and tell Outlook to simply
> use the company global contacts and the Contacts - Good?

You can disable the "Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book" option of
the old contacts folder. Right-click the folder, choose Properties, select
the Outlook Address Book tab, and disable the option. Click OK. Stop and
restart Outlook.

Signature

Brian Tillman

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Dups - 01 Mar 2007 15:49 GMT

> > She has two accounts setup for her email. One is on the Exchange
> > server and she has a PST file on the local harddrive. She has a
[quoted text clipped - 40 lines]
> the Outlook Address Book tab, and disable the option. Click OK. Stop and
> restart Outlook.

By older groups, yes, I meant Distribution List. As far as renaming
contacts I did not really "rename" it on the menu on the left. What I did was
I went into the Contacts Properties - Outlook Address Book tab - in the "Name
of the address book:" I am able to rename it there so that when I go into the
Address Book I am able to diffirenciate the difference between the two
entries of "Contacts".

I will go and test out the "Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book"
option. I am pretty certain I tried this but I am not certain if I restarted
Outlook.

Thanks for the help. I'll keep you updated on the results :)

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