"Display Names" in Outlook

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I want the default Display Name in Outlook 2003 (and thus in emails) to be
just the Contact name, and not the Contact name plus email address.
I know I can change individual Contacts, but this is a long, boring job to
do all Contacts one by one.
Is there no means of changing the default format and thus changing all
Contacts in one action?
 
Also, if you're talking about people within your mail server (ie: peopl
in your company), it will depend on how they are set up by the networ
administrator, or whoever manages your mail server


-
lowdr
 
Russ-
Thanks for responding to Mike. I was similarly driving myself crazy trying
to change the default display name so just the contact name (and not the
e-mail address) is shown. I can't believe MS didn't make that easier than
editing each contact name one by one.
Dave

Russ Valentine said:
Nope. Not unless someone has written code that can do it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Mike Wheal said:
I want the default Display Name in Outlook 2003 (and thus in emails) to be
just the Contact name, and not the Contact name plus email address.
I know I can change individual Contacts, but this is a long, boring job to
do all Contacts one by one.
Is there no means of changing the default format and thus changing all
Contacts in one action?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
MS made the Display Name what it is in response to user requests. In current
versions it contains both the familiar name and the actual email address.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Dave O said:
Russ-
Thanks for responding to Mike. I was similarly driving myself crazy
trying
to change the default display name so just the contact name (and not the
e-mail address) is shown. I can't believe MS didn't make that easier than
editing each contact name one by one.
Dave

Russ Valentine said:
Nope. Not unless someone has written code that can do it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Mike Wheal said:
I want the default Display Name in Outlook 2003 (and thus in emails) to
be
just the Contact name, and not the Contact name plus email address.
I know I can change individual Contacts, but this is a long, boring job
to
do all Contacts one by one.
Is there no means of changing the default format and thus changing all
Contacts in one action?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
It is surprising to me how these major components of Contact management fail
to work together properly. There NEEDS to be a better way to customize and
edit the "Display as" field, and Distribution Lists need to be much more easy
to manage.

My first question is: Is it possible to add a Contact to a Distribution List
when you create the Contact?

My 2nd request is, Can anyone out there write a Macro that enables me to
remove all of the e-mails from the "Display as" fields in my Contacts list?
This would bandage my issue for the time being, otherwise I'm going to be
wasting a lot of time doing this manually.

The reason I'm writing began while I was creating and editing my
Distribution Lists. I create a lot of new contacts and add them to D. Lists,
and remove them frequently as well. Currently, the only way I've found to add
contacts to a List is by entering the List and Selecting Members, which is
very inconvenient, especially because the "Select Members" search tool does
not allow you to Sort by anything other than the way you entered the
Contacts' First/Last name. At least removal isn't such a pain.

Frustration #1:
I SHOULD be able to add a Contact to a D. List while creating the Contact.

So I surfed the web and found a sort of nice little workaround: you can add
a Contact to a Category upon creation, sort the entire Contacts list by
Categories, fake Send a Message to all the Contacts in the Category, and then
copy and paste those names into your Distribtion List. And this brings me to
the 2nd major issue.

Frustration #2:
VCards don't get recognized when creating a distribution list in this
fashion.

What I mean is that if you add contacts to D. List as I've done, since the
"Display as" field is used to recognize contacts, and since the default
format is [First name Last name (email address)], that is how those names get
imported into your D. List. BUT, they come up as unrecognized e-mail
addresses instead of editable VCards. If VCards isn't the proper word, you
get the idea?
If not... I can't double click a contact in a D. List and manage that
contact using this method. I can't change Categories from a D. List, so a
major portion of why I've done it like this in the first place is Null and
Void. etc....

Solutions:
IF I could easily edit all of the "Display as" fields this wouldn't be a
problem. I tried just removing the (e-mail address) field and then adding
them to a D List, and the VCards were recognized perfectly. Easily, BULK
editable "Display as" fields, as in a Find and Replace function, would solve
a lot of issues, honestly. (Such as poor recognition when importing from
older versions of Outlook.... Frustration #3...)

IF D. Lists were easier to manage, this also wouldn't be an issue. I need to
be able to easily go through a D List and change what D Lists each person
belongs to. You know the Sort by Categories thing? Implement that with D
Lists! As it stands, every time I create a new Contact I have to first create
the contact, and then Find and add it using the burdensome "Select Members"
tool, which I'll repeat, you can't custom sort.

That's it.
My issues: D. List management is Extremely burdensome.
Solutions: Editable "Display as" fields, allow us to View by (Current View)
Distribution List as with Contacts, or overall improve Distribution list
management.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions which might help me between now and
when this issue is fixed...
 
My issues: D. List management is Extremely burdensome.
Solutions: Editable "Display as" fields, allow us to View by (Current View)
Distribution List as with Contacts, or overall improve Distribution list
management.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions which might help me between now and
when this issue is fixed...
Click to expand...

"Editable "Display as" fields", I mean "Bulk editable" ... as in, Find and
Replace.

You can't even Export Contacts to a CSV file and edit it, because the
"Display as" field doesn't export.

Also, "Distribution List as with Contacts" should be "...as with Categories"
by the way. I like how you can sort by Category
 
It's comforting to know we are not the only ones going mental trying to
change back to the useage we are used to. We will laboriously continue to
alter each individual contact and then microsoft will issue a code ...
 
Come on Microsoft. This is outrageous. If I'd known that 2003 was going to
arbitrarily add email addresses to all my display as names I would not have
upgraded. Please do something about it!
 
I don't know where to post this but maybe someone here knows the answer. When
I enter a new contact I usually hit the tab key and the entry is shown in
"display as" as follows. Lastname, Firstname. That doesn't happen now. The
name appears as Lastname Firstname with the comma. This appears to cause a
problem in updating my files on my Palm Tungsten E. The only area that won't
update is contacts. I am stumped.
--
Chet in Carson City


Russ Valentine said:
Nope. Not unless someone has written code that can do it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Mike Wheal said:
I want the default Display Name in Outlook 2003 (and thus in emails) to be
just the Contact name, and not the Contact name plus email address.
I know I can change individual Contacts, but this is a long, boring job to
do all Contacts one by one.
Is there no means of changing the default format and thus changing all
Contacts in one action?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Explain your problem more clearly. What problem is the comma creating?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Chet said:
I don't know where to post this but maybe someone here knows the answer.
When
I enter a new contact I usually hit the tab key and the entry is shown in
"display as" as follows. Lastname, Firstname. That doesn't happen now. The
name appears as Lastname Firstname with the comma. This appears to cause a
problem in updating my files on my Palm Tungsten E. The only area that
won't
update is contacts. I am stumped.
--
Chet in Carson City


Russ Valentine said:
Nope. Not unless someone has written code that can do it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Mike Wheal said:
I want the default Display Name in Outlook 2003 (and thus in emails) to
be
just the Contact name, and not the Contact name plus email address.
I know I can change individual Contacts, but this is a long, boring job
to
do all Contacts one by one.
Is there no means of changing the default format and thus changing all
Contacts in one action?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Seems silly but this is the only reason I can see that prevents my Palm
softward updating my handheld. THe problem began when the comma disappeared.
Palm punts the problem to Outlook. I have used up all my free visits but I
may have to spend 35 bucks and see if someone can help there. I know I am not
making myuch sense. Thaks for helping.
--
Chet in Carson City


Chet said:
I don't know where to post this but maybe someone here knows the answer. When
I enter a new contact I usually hit the tab key and the entry is shown in
"display as" as follows. Lastname, Firstname. That doesn't happen now. The
name appears as Lastname Firstname with the comma. This appears to cause a
problem in updating my files on my Palm Tungsten E. The only area that won't
update is contacts. I am stumped.
--
Chet in Carson City


Russ Valentine said:
Nope. Not unless someone has written code that can do it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Mike Wheal said:
I want the default Display Name in Outlook 2003 (and thus in emails) to be
just the Contact name, and not the Contact name plus email address.
I know I can change individual Contacts, but this is a long, boring job to
do all Contacts one by one.
Is there no means of changing the default format and thus changing all
Contacts in one action?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Highly unlikely. Synchronization issues are not Outlook issues. All Outlook
does is provide a consistent database interface. It is up to the writers of
the synchronization software to interact with it correctly.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Chet said:
Seems silly but this is the only reason I can see that prevents my Palm
softward updating my handheld. THe problem began when the comma
disappeared.
Palm punts the problem to Outlook. I have used up all my free visits but I
may have to spend 35 bucks and see if someone can help there. I know I am
not
making myuch sense. Thaks for helping.
--
Chet in Carson City


Chet said:
I don't know where to post this but maybe someone here knows the answer.
When
I enter a new contact I usually hit the tab key and the entry is shown in
"display as" as follows. Lastname, Firstname. That doesn't happen now.
The
name appears as Lastname Firstname with the comma. This appears to cause
a
problem in updating my files on my Palm Tungsten E. The only area that
won't
update is contacts. I am stumped.
--
Chet in Carson City


Russ Valentine said:
Nope. Not unless someone has written code that can do it.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I want the default Display Name in Outlook 2003 (and thus in emails)
to be
just the Contact name, and not the Contact name plus email address.
I know I can change individual Contacts, but this is a long, boring
job to
do all Contacts one by one.
Is there no means of changing the default format and thus changing
all
Contacts in one action?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
It gets worse. I Outlook 2007, when I import contacts from Excel the
"Display as:" field omits the "Full Name..." field and contains only the
"Email..." field. This makes it incredibly awkward when attempting to create
and manage Distribution lists. The email address appears in both the Name
and Email fields of the distribution list. Arrgh!! Russ, is there any help
here?
 
Not natively, I'm sad to say. Outlook's native import process is very
dysfunctional and always has been. I avoid it at all costs. Outlook's
derived fields such as "Email Display As" and "File As" are never populated
correctly. Fortunately, there are some third party apps that address many of
Outlook's deficiencies. I would check out what Karl Timmermans and the
developers at ContactGenie might have to solve this problem:
http://www.contactgenie.com/
 
Actually, this behaviour in '2007 can be easily overcome with a simple
work-around in your input data file (not applicable to O'2000 since Email
DisplayAs (EDA) is a read only field in that version).

If your file is XLS (or a CSV file opened in Excel etc)

#1 - Add a new column
#2 - Make the value of that column the result of a formula
#3 - Map that column to the EDA field

(i.e. for example - assume columns A1 = First Name, B1=LastName,
C1=EmailAddress - new column = D1 then the formula should be constructed as
follows to exactly match the way the EDA is constructed via the Outlook UI:

=A1 & " " & B1 & " (" & C1 & ")"

- assuming you want the FirstName, LastName & Email Address to be included
in the EDA otherwise use whatever columns are appropriate for individual
preferences. Email address does not have to be included in the EDA if you've
mapped a value to it but that doesn't mean the email address isn't shown in
the header as per a question in another posted message by someone else.

Notes:

#1 - Default structure for EDA when created via the Outlook UI is "Firstname
MiddleName LastName Suffix (emailaddress)" so if you have all fields in your
input data source - construct Excel formula accordingly to replicate Outlook
exactly
#2 - As soon as the email address is changed via the Outlook UI - the EDA
will be populated with the default structure as noted above so it would have
to be manually changed again if the desired value is not the default

If you're using an MS Access data source - apply the same concept by adding
a field to the table to be imported and set the value to be the sum of other
fields as required.

In terms of ContactGenie products - the EDA will be populated using
Outlook's default structure if no field is mapped to the EDA by default.
Primarily mentioning that since CG products are very often used to import
data files on a automated pre-scheduled basis so no intervention is required
to manually create the full EDA as suggested at the beginning of this
message.

Karl

___________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2007"
http://www.contactgenie.com
 
I went to my email properties and changed the display name; however, it did
not take effect. Please advise, as we DO NOT want our names to
display....maybe just our email name only ....

:
 
Post more clearly.
Display where?
What "properties" did you change?
What are you trying to achieve?
 
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