How do I force lower case letters in Outlook contacts middle name.

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Guest

In the contacts of Outlook, the first letters of words in the "middle" field
that are typed in are automatically converted to capitals. So John van Horn
becomes John Van Horn.

This is not to European standard. Is there a way to switch off this fearture?

Regards,

Hert
 
How Outlook treats the way you type in a name also depends on the version of
Outlook you're using which wasn't mentioned.

In very general terms, there is no setting that affects this. You will also
find that how Outlook derives the last name and FileAs fields depends on how
you typed it in along with some general words like "van" and "von" etc which
may be included.

Here are some of the scenarios:

If you type in "john van horn" or "john von horn" - each word will get all
capped and you'll find that the First name = John and the last name = Van
Horn. If you type in "john ray horn" - the detail info for this will be
FirstName= John, Middle=Ray, Last= Horn. Mind you, if you type in "John van
Horn" - the "van" will not get capitilized (in O'2K3 - O'2002 and O'2003 are
very similar but not identical).

Now if you don't want Outlook to cap the "v" in "van" - then enter each part
of the name via the FullName detail display - screen i.e. First Name = John
& Last Name = "van Horn" and you'll find that the "van" part of the last
name does not get capitalized if you enter "Horn" with a capitilized "H". On
the other hand if you enter "van horn" in that field, both words will get
the first letter capitalized.

In both of those scenarios mentioned above, this can be corrected after
Outlook displays the name by simply changing the "v' to a lowercase. But
here is a side-effect when the word "van" is not capitlized.

If you happen to have your FileAs set to "Last, First" - you will find that
if "van" is in all lower case, Outlook will initially generate the FileAs
field as "Horn, John van" which is not the case if all three words have the
first letter capitalized in which case it becomes "Van Horn, John". This too
can be changed manually before saving the contact or any time afterwards.

There are a few other quirks with how Outlook deals with the various "name"
components depending on Outlook version (i.e. O'2K2 includes the "title"
such as Mr. or Mrs. in the FullName display whereas O'2K3 doesn't but the
inidividual components are set correctly in both). The data you see on
screen is also what will get exported so if you need full control over what
is used in a mailmerge when using the "FullName" field, use the individual
components or else pay attention to what version of Outlook created the
data.

Karl
 
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