I appreciate your help. I'll just create a work around.
I like exporting Outlook Contacts to Excel because you can see all the
fields at once and can use the Excel file to more easily create complex
custom mail merges. I also find that mail merges with Excel files work
more
predictably than merges with Outlook Contacts.
As mentioned, the address book sort is correct. No problems with the
"File
As" in this case. The problem is when adding an address via "To" to a new
message. It seems that Outlook is "concatenating" Address Book fields
"Title," " First Name" and "Last Name" into the "Name" column (field)
displayed.
Wouldn't you agree, it's frustrationg. I mean if Microsoft can't get the
import/export functionality right, why include it? When I re-import the
Excel to Outlook, I am careful to ensure that all fields are mapped
corectly.
That's all that should be required. Why should it require more than that?
I know programming is complex and testing software under real world
conditions is even harder. But, Outlook performed as I described, and
it's
repeataqble, as described. You may not want too try the procedures
yourself,
because you know import/export is quirky but someone on the Outlook
development team should. All programers must ensure that the
functionality
they provide performs according to design and more importanly is in-line
with
the users mental model. (Heck, the team can contact me, I be happy to
participate in their user experience/ interaction design tests.)
Stay well,
Russ Valentine said:
No. I would never run those steps. Exporting and importing Outlook data
always loses and/or mangles data. I try never to do so.
The question I was asking was what sort order you had set for your
Outlook
Address Book.
Here's my best guess, without having all the information: Whenever you
import data into Outlook, your File As... field will be set incorrectly
and
will not obey the preferences you set for it. So if your Outlook Address
Book is set to sort by the File As... field, it will be sorted
incorrectly.
You may need to run some code to reset those File As... fields:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291144&Product=ol2002
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Rob G. said:
Thanks Russ for your patience...
Under Tools--> Options --> Contact Options.
Default "Full Name" order: First (Middle) Last
Default "File As" order: Last, First
There is not an option to display or remove "title" from the pull down
list.
Did I look in the wrong place?
Did you run my steps to see what I am seeing?
:
As I said, this is end user error. Outlook is only doing what you have
told
it to.
I cannot help if you do not answer my questions.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Sadly, Outlook does do this... NOT in the contact records (when one
selects
"contacts from the left-side menu, these populate fine) but in the
list
when
one selects "To" for a new message.
Here's how to repeat it...
(1) Export contacts to an Excel file.
(2) In the first (column) field (which is "title") Add titles....
Mr.,
Ms.
etc.
(3) Delete your contacts in Outlook or you will get duplicates,
Outlook
thinks "Mr." Somebody is different than Somebody.
(4) Import the Excel list into Outlook... you may need to use a
comma
delimitated file created from the Excel because Outlook sometimes
"chokes"
when importing an Excel
(5) Open a new email... and select "To". You now have a "Name"
column
that
lists all the emails, several for an individual with multiple
addresses,
but
now Mr. or Ms. or whatever the "title" is is infrom of all the
names,
requiring that one enters the title befor searching the list.
Let me know how you make out with the steps above or if you need
clarification.
Best,
