Can Outlook Remove Duplicates?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Talal Itani
  • Start date Start date
T

Talal Itani

I have duplicates contacts, yet the duplicates are not identical. For
example, the street address is identical, yet the name is slight different
because of misspelling. Is there an automatic way to search for such
duplicates and remove them?

Thanks
 
Talal Itani said:
I have duplicates contacts, yet the duplicates are not identical. For
example, the street address is identical, yet the name is slight
different because of misspelling. Is there an automatic way to
search for such duplicates and remove them?
Click to expand...

Not within Outlook. I don't know if any tool would do that because, in
reality, the items are NOT duplicates. You yourself say they're close but
not identical. Duplicates are identical.

Nonetheless, see if one of these tools can help:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/mail_duplicates.asp
 
Ok. I meant to say, is there a way for Outlook to automatically flag
contacts that are very similar? Thanks.
 
Talal Itani said:
Ok. I meant to say, is there a way for Outlook to automatically flag
contacts that are very similar? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Pretty tough to code a algorithm for "very similar" when it has nothing
to do with mathematics but rather in an individual's perceptions based
on unspecified criteria.

So if the address is what is nearly identical then you know what it is
that is exactly identical, like the street name, city, zipcode, or
whatever it is that you think is "very similar". So why can't you
right-click on the contact folder and use Advanced Find to search for
records that have some identical string in, say, their address fields?
Enter the string you want to search on that will appear in these very
similar records and use the drop-down list for the "In" field to specify
where to look for that string. Not automatic but free.
SperrySoftware.com has several plug-ins, one of which is their
"Duplicate Contacts Eliminator". Cost is $30. Are you going to go
through this eradication more than once? That is, can you not stop your
proclivity for misspelling from now on so you only have to do this
cleanup once so the free solution, although painful, is but a short
one-time event?

You are NOT looking for duplicates. You are looking for a common string
used in multiple records.
 
Talal Itani said:
I have duplicates contacts, yet the duplicates are not identical. For
example, the street address is identical, yet the name is slight different
because of misspelling. Is there an automatic way to search for such
duplicates and remove them?

Thanks
Click to expand...

As others have mentioned, finding "similars" is v. difficult.

Our duplicate remover (http://www.lbetoolbox.com/contactdedupe.htm) can be
set to match on on one or more of:

Full name
Category
Home Tel
Mobile Tel
Business Tel
Email
Company Name
Home Address
Business Address
Business Fax

So, you could just match on e..g Tel number.

If that still won't do it, What you could do is use our find&replace utility
(http://www.lbetoolbox.com/findreplace.htm) to "fix" your common
mis-typings, then use our duplicate remover (
http://www.lbetoolbox.com/contactdedupe.htm)

--
John Blessing

http://www.LbeHelpdesk.com - Help Desk software priced to suit all
businesses
http://www.room-booking-software.com - Schedule rooms & equipment bookings
for your meeting/class over the web.
http://www.lbetoolbox.com - Remove Duplicates from MS Outlook, find/replace,
send newsletters
 
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