'Check Names' does not work with GAL in Outlook 2003 as it did in Outlook XP

Guest · Apr 22, 2004

H

I have searched for information on this in this news group and the other Outlook groups. This issue has been mentioned several times but nobody has posted a resolution

An example of the problem
Suppose I have a colleague called Bill Gates who uses the same Exchange Mail Server that I do. His details are stored in the corporate Global Address List (GAL) as 'Gates,B,Bill'
I want to send him an email, so in the 'To:' box of a new email I type: 'Bill Gates'. When I do a 'Check Names' (either using the toolbar button or by pressing CTRL+K), this is resolved to 'Gates,B,Bill' successfully. It also works with 'B Gates' and 'Bil Gat'..

.... at least that was the case with Outlook XP (and previous versions of Outlook). With Outlook 2003, this does not work. The name only resolves successfully if I type it EXACTLY as it appears in the GAL
'Gates,B,Bill' resolves to 'Gates,B,Bill' just fine, as you would expect
'Gates,B' resolves to 'Gates,B,Bill' okay too
Bu
'Gates,Bill' does not (it did with Outlook XP
'Bill Gates' does not either (it did with Outlook XP)

So, it seems with earlier versions of Outlook, 'Check Names' would resolve entries of the format '<FirstName><LastName>', '<LastName><FirstName>', '<PartOfFirstName><PartOfLastName>' etc
But with Outlook 2003 I can only resolve entries of the format '<ExactGALEntry>' or '<PartOfExactGALEntry>

As I say, there have been a number of posts on this over several months. The MS professionals who read this group have remained mysteriously quiet on this issue

I would be grateful if you could post if
- You use Outlook 2003 with a GAL and do NOT have this problem. Then at least we know the problem affects only some of us
- You have found a way to sort this problem out
- You are a Microsoft employee and know something about this. If it is a known issue please tell us, so we can wait for the fix rather than wasting our time trying to sort it out in vain

Any thoughts very much appreciated

Thanks for your time.

greg mansius [MSFT] · Apr 22, 2004

Hi,

I hope you find the following information useful.

The Offline Address Book only supports name resolution indices against a few
properties:

a.. Lastname
b.. DisplayName
c.. Alias
d.. OfficeLocation
e.. Primary SMTP Address
f.. Primary X500 address
Active Directory, on the other hand, is configurable and your administrator
can set the server to resolve names against any set of properties. The
limited indices in the OAB work well for organizations that have the name
set in Active Directory as "Firstname Lastname". The following sample user
information illustrates why name resolution works in this configuration.

a.. Lastname : Mansius
b.. DisplayName : Greg Mansius
c.. Alias : gregm
d.. OfficeLocation : 18/2231
e.. Primary SMTP address : (e-mail address removed)
f.. Primary X500 address: /o=Contoso/ou=APPS/cn=recipients/cn=gregm

This allows someone to find this user by typing "greg" or "mansius" or "greg
mansius".

If the Directory had the display name set to Mansius, Greg then the
following values would be indexed for the properties listed above:

a.. Mansius
b.. Mansius, Greg
c.. gregm
d.. 18/2231
e.. (e-mail address removed)
f.. /o=Contoso/ou=APPS/cn=recipients/cn=gregm
Now, this user cannot be found if someone entered "greg". There is no
property in the second list that begins with "greg".

If the Directory is set to Lastname, Firstname in a company and there is an
absolute requirement to provide Firstname resolution, then the instructions
in the following KB can be used.

831124 How to Force Outlook to Resolve Proxy Addresses and Custom Properties
in

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=831124

Thanks

--
Greg Mansius [MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Holf said:
Hi

I have searched for information on this in this news group and the other

Outlook groups. This issue has been mentioned several times but nobody has
posted a resolution.

An example of the problem:
Suppose I have a colleague called Bill Gates who uses the same Exchange

Mail Server that I do. His details are stored in the corporate Global
Address List (GAL) as 'Gates,B,Bill'.

I want to send him an email, so in the 'To:' box of a new email I type:

'Bill Gates'. When I do a 'Check Names' (either using the toolbar button or
by pressing CTRL+K), this is resolved to 'Gates,B,Bill' successfully. It
also works with 'B Gates' and 'Bil Gat'...

... at least that was the case with Outlook XP (and previous versions of

Outlook). With Outlook 2003, this does not work. The name only resolves
successfully if I type it EXACTLY as it appears in the GAL.

'Gates,B,Bill' resolves to 'Gates,B,Bill' just fine, as you would expect.
'Gates,B' resolves to 'Gates,B,Bill' okay too.
But
'Gates,Bill' does not (it did with Outlook XP)
'Bill Gates' does not either (it did with Outlook XP).

So, it seems with earlier versions of Outlook, 'Check Names' would resolve

entries of the format ' said:
But with Outlook 2003 I can only resolve entries of the format

' said:
As I say, there have been a number of posts on this over several months.

The MS professionals who read this group have remained mysteriously quiet on
this issue.

I would be grateful if you could post if:
- You use Outlook 2003 with a GAL and do NOT have this problem. Then at

least we know the problem affects only some of us.

- You have found a way to sort this problem out.
- You are a Microsoft employee and know something about this. If it is a

known issue please tell us, so we can wait for the fix rather than wasting
our time trying to sort it out in vain.

Guest · Apr 22, 2004

Greg

Thank you very much for the quick response. I have tried this out and it works really well. The 'Cached Mode' Registry Key referred to in the KB article did not exist in my registry, so I created it
I wonder, will you make this setting accessible from the GUI in future releases

Of course, this only resolves the problem while I am 'Connected'. As soon as I choose to work Offline the problem re-appears. If I remember correctly this wasn't the case with Outlook XP. I think Outlook XP could resolve against more properties in the Offline Address Book than Outlook 2003 can (such as the 'givenName' field)

I'd be interested to know why this functionality has been reduced in Outlook 2003

Having said all this, I find Cached Exchange Mode to be excellent - it really makes everything a lot more responsive. I would recommend anyone to use Outlook 2003 for this alone

Thanks again for your quick reply with a resolution that works well

----- greg mansius [MSFT] wrote: ----

Hi

I hope you find the following information useful

The Offline Address Book only supports name resolution indices against a fe
properties

a.. Lastnam
b.. DisplayNam
c.. Alia
d.. OfficeLocatio
e.. Primary SMTP Addres
f.. Primary X500 addres
Active Directory, on the other hand, is configurable and your administrato
can set the server to resolve names against any set of properties. Th
limited indices in the OAB work well for organizations that have the nam
set in Active Directory as "Firstname Lastname". The following sample use
information illustrates why name resolution works in this configuration

a.. Lastname : Mansiu
b.. DisplayName : Greg Mansiu
c.. Alias : greg
d.. OfficeLocation : 18/223
e.. Primary SMTP address : (e-mail address removed)
f.. Primary X500 address: /o=Contoso/ou=APPS/cn=recipients/cn=greg

This allows someone to find this user by typing "greg" or "mansius" or "gre
mansius"

If the Directory had the display name set to Mansius, Greg then th
following values would be indexed for the properties listed above

a.. Mansiu
b.. Mansius, Gre
c.. greg
d.. 18/223
e.. (e-mail address removed)
f.. /o=Contoso/ou=APPS/cn=recipients/cn=greg
Now, this user cannot be found if someone entered "greg". There is n
property in the second list that begins with "greg"

If the Directory is set to Lastname, Firstname in a company and there is a
absolute requirement to provide Firstname resolution, then the instruction
in the following KB can be used

831124 How to Force Outlook to Resolve Proxy Addresses and Custom Propertie
i

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=83112

Thank

--
Greg Mansius [MSFT

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Holf said:
H

Outlook groups. This issue has been mentioned several times but nobody ha
posted a resolution

Suppose I have a colleague called Bill Gates who uses the same Exchang

Mail Server that I do. His details are stored in the corporate Globa
Address List (GAL) as 'Gates,B,Bill'

I want to send him an email, so in the 'To:' box of a new email I type

'Bill Gates'. When I do a 'Check Names' (either using the toolbar button o
by pressing CTRL+K), this is resolved to 'Gates,B,Bill' successfully. I
also works with 'B Gates' and 'Bil Gat'..Outlook). With Outlook 2003, this does not work. The name only resolve
successfully if I type it EXACTLY as it appears in the GAL.

'Gates,B,Bill' resolves to 'Gates,B,Bill' just fine, as you would expect.
'Gates,B' resolves to 'Gates,B,Bill' okay too.
But
'Gates,Bill' does not (it did with Outlook XP)
'Bill Gates' does not either (it did with Outlook XP).