How do I merge multiple contact identities

[Guest]

I have recently installed a new HDD on my desktop and installed Windows XP
Pro afresh and all applications, including office. I used the FAST wzard to
transfer my data.
I am now running Outlook 2003. All my contacts are there, but more that I
expected!
I now have, for some reason, contacts, contacts (2), contacts (3), main
identity's contacts, contacts backup, export and shared contacts. Seven
contact folders, in all. Some have the same number as others, but not all. I
now have nearly 4000 separate contact entries.

Obviously de-duplicating them would be quicker if I can merge all of these
into one identity. Can anyone, please, tell me how I can do this? When I
right click on one identity and try and move the contacts, no action seems to
be taken.

Help would be much appreciated as I really don't want to trawl though all
the contacts if I can help it.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

Your post is very confusing.
I doubt you are using Outlook 2003. Outlook does not even use the term
identities or shared Contacts. Are you sure you aren't talking about Outlook
Express? If so, you're in the wrong group.
This is a group to support Outlook from the Office group of programs.
Outlook Express is a part of Internet Explorer and is a quite different
program despite its similar name..

You will probably get a faster and more expert answer if you post this to an
outlook express news group.

Try posting in one of these newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie5.outlookexpress for OE 5.x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress for OE 5.5x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress for OE 6.x

A good website for information on OE is:
http://www.tomsterdam.com/


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I have recently installed a new HDD on my desktop and installed Windows XP
Pro afresh and all applications, including office. I used the FAST wzard
to
transfer my data.
I am now running Outlook 2003. All my contacts are there, but more that I
expected!
I now have, for some reason, contacts, contacts (2), contacts (3), main
identity's contacts, contacts backup, export and shared contacts. Seven
contact folders, in all. Some have the same number as others, but not
all. I
now have nearly 4000 separate contact entries.

Obviously de-duplicating them would be quicker if I can merge all of these
into one identity. Can anyone, please, tell me how I can do this? When I
right click on one identity and try and move the contacts, no action seems
to
be taken.

Help would be much appreciated as I really don't want to trawl though all
the contacts if I can help it.

Many thanks in advance.

Russ,

I am absolutely sure that I am using Microsoft Outlook 2003 SP2 ! "Part of
Microsoft Office Professional 2003". I have only just installed it!

To repeat, under contacts, when I click on the button on the left hand side,
down at the bottom (recognise Outlook 2003?) and the contact page comes up,
in the top left hand side of the page, under contacts, I have seven separate
folders. I have listed above their exact titles, one of which is called "Main
Identity's Contacts"

I didn't name any of these; they arrivee in this form after I used the FAST
wizard to transfer my Documents & Settings. One is clearly a duplicate and
actually says "Backup" but the others are all similar, but subtly different,
so I need to merge them all and then look for duplicates.

All I want to know is if anyone can tell me how to merge the folders, please.

Thank you.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Your post is very confusing.
I doubt you are using Outlook 2003. Outlook does not even use the term
identities or shared Contacts. Are you sure you aren't talking about Outlook
Express? If so, you're in the wrong group.
This is a group to support Outlook from the Office group of programs.
Outlook Express is a part of Internet Explorer and is a quite different
program despite its similar name..

You will probably get a faster and more expert answer if you post this to an
outlook express news group.

Try posting in one of these newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie5.outlookexpress for OE 5.x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress for OE 5.5x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress for OE 6.x

A good website for information on OE is:
http://www.tomsterdam.com/

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Convince me.
Post your version number (Help | About)
State how you configured your Outlook profile.
FAST would only work if you were using Outlook 2003 on your previous
version. Were you?
You appear to have Outlook Express data imported into Outlook.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Your post is very confusing.
I doubt you are using Outlook 2003. Outlook does not even use the term
identities or shared Contacts. Are you sure you aren't talking about
Outlook
Express? If so, you're in the wrong group.
This is a group to support Outlook from the Office group of programs.
Outlook Express is a part of Internet Explorer and is a quite different
program despite its similar name..

You will probably get a faster and more expert answer if you post this to
an
outlook express news group.

Try posting in one of these newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie5.outlookexpress for OE 5.x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress for OE 5.5x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress for OE 6.x

A good website for information on OE is:
http://www.tomsterdam.com/


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I have recently installed a new HDD on my desktop and installed Windows
XP
Pro afresh and all applications, including office. I used the FAST
wzard
to
transfer my data.
I am now running Outlook 2003. All my contacts are there, but more that
I
expected!
I now have, for some reason, contacts, contacts (2), contacts (3), main
identity's contacts, contacts backup, export and shared contacts. Seven
contact folders, in all. Some have the same number as others, but not
all. I
now have nearly 4000 separate contact entries.

Obviously de-duplicating them would be quicker if I can merge all of
these
into one identity. Can anyone, please, tell me how I can do this? When
I
right click on one identity and try and move the contacts, no action
seems
to
be taken.

Help would be much appreciated as I really don't want to trawl though
all
the contacts if I can help it.

Many thanks in advance.

Russ,

I am absolutely sure that I am using Microsoft Outlook 2003 SP2 ! "Part of
Microsoft Office Professional 2003". I have only just installed it!

To repeat, under contacts, when I click on the button on the left hand
side,
down at the bottom (recognise Outlook 2003?) and the contact page comes
up,
in the top left hand side of the page, under contacts, I have seven
separate
folders. I have listed above their exact titles, one of which is called
"Main
Identity's Contacts"

I didn't name any of these; they arrivee in this form after I used the
FAST
wizard to transfer my Documents & Settings. One is clearly a duplicate and
actually says "Backup" but the others are all similar, but subtly
different,
so I need to merge them all and then look for duplicates.

All I want to know is if anyone can tell me how to merge the folders,
please.

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

Russ,

OK. Version number 11.8010.6568.

Yes, on my previous HDD I was running Outlook Express as my main PIM, in the
past. I was running Office 2000. Outlook 2000 had mail and contacts from a
previous F.A.S.T. transfer from a laptop, which related to a previous job
that I had but was used only to retrieve the odd address.

I exported all Outlook Express mail and contacts to Outlook 2000 sometime
ago, though and had been running the latter only as my PIM well before the
set up of my new HDD.

Your right that the F.A.S.T. wizard did not take all the data into Outlook
2003. All other Office data transferred perfectly, but I had to save the data
file to a backup disk and import it to Outlook 2003. All mail arrived
perfectly intact, as did my contacts, but now separated into these different
folders.

I understand why the different origins of this contact data means that
Outlook may regards them as being separate, but all I want to do is put them
all into one folder so that I can review them and delete duplicates.

Thank you, in advance.

Convince me.
Post your version number (Help | About)
State how you configured your Outlook profile.
FAST would only work if you were using Outlook 2003 on your previous
version. Were you?
You appear to have Outlook Express data imported into Outlook.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Your post is very confusing.
I doubt you are using Outlook 2003. Outlook does not even use the term
identities or shared Contacts. Are you sure you aren't talking about
Outlook
Express? If so, you're in the wrong group.
This is a group to support Outlook from the Office group of programs.
Outlook Express is a part of Internet Explorer and is a quite different
program despite its similar name..

You will probably get a faster and more expert answer if you post this to
an
outlook express news group.

Try posting in one of these newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie5.outlookexpress for OE 5.x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress for OE 5.5x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress for OE 6.x

A good website for information on OE is:
http://www.tomsterdam.com/


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I have recently installed a new HDD on my desktop and installed Windows
XP
Pro afresh and all applications, including office. I used the FAST
wzard
to
transfer my data.
I am now running Outlook 2003. All my contacts are there, but more that
I
expected!
I now have, for some reason, contacts, contacts (2), contacts (3), main
identity's contacts, contacts backup, export and shared contacts. Seven
contact folders, in all. Some have the same number as others, but not
all. I
now have nearly 4000 separate contact entries.

Obviously de-duplicating them would be quicker if I can merge all of
these
into one identity. Can anyone, please, tell me how I can do this? When
I
right click on one identity and try and move the contacts, no action
seems
to
be taken.

Help would be much appreciated as I really don't want to trawl though
all
the contacts if I can help it.

Many thanks in advance.

Russ,

I am absolutely sure that I am using Microsoft Outlook 2003 SP2 ! "Part of
Microsoft Office Professional 2003". I have only just installed it!

To repeat, under contacts, when I click on the button on the left hand
side,
down at the bottom (recognise Outlook 2003?) and the contact page comes
up,
in the top left hand side of the page, under contacts, I have seven
separate
folders. I have listed above their exact titles, one of which is called
"Main
Identity's Contacts"

I didn't name any of these; they arrivee in this form after I used the
FAST
wizard to transfer my Documents & Settings. One is clearly a duplicate and
actually says "Backup" but the others are all similar, but subtly
different,
so I need to merge them all and then look for duplicates.

All I want to know is if anyone can tell me how to merge the folders,
please.

Thank you.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

That explains it. I bet you were running IMO mode of Outlook 2000, which
actually used the WAB and shared data with OE. That's why you could end up
OE's labels on your folders. We need to understand the origin of these
folders before so we can figure out how to deal with them. Did some of these
extra folders appear after your import or were they there before? Is your
root Contact Folder named "Contacts?"
If you are satisfied that these folders are valid Outlook Contact Folders
and that each contains separate data, I would just copy the contents of one
into another then run a duplicate checker:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/contacts.htm#dupes

--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ,

OK. Version number 11.8010.6568.

Yes, on my previous HDD I was running Outlook Express as my main PIM, in
the
past. I was running Office 2000. Outlook 2000 had mail and contacts from a
previous F.A.S.T. transfer from a laptop, which related to a previous job
that I had but was used only to retrieve the odd address.

I exported all Outlook Express mail and contacts to Outlook 2000 sometime
ago, though and had been running the latter only as my PIM well before the
set up of my new HDD.

Your right that the F.A.S.T. wizard did not take all the data into Outlook
2003. All other Office data transferred perfectly, but I had to save the
data
file to a backup disk and import it to Outlook 2003. All mail arrived
perfectly intact, as did my contacts, but now separated into these
different
folders.

I understand why the different origins of this contact data means that
Outlook may regards them as being separate, but all I want to do is put
them
all into one folder so that I can review them and delete duplicates.

Thank you, in advance.

Convince me.
Post your version number (Help | About)
State how you configured your Outlook profile.
FAST would only work if you were using Outlook 2003 on your previous
version. Were you?
You appear to have Outlook Express data imported into Outlook.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

:

Your post is very confusing.
I doubt you are using Outlook 2003. Outlook does not even use the term
identities or shared Contacts. Are you sure you aren't talking about
Outlook
Express? If so, you're in the wrong group.
This is a group to support Outlook from the Office group of programs.
Outlook Express is a part of Internet Explorer and is a quite
different
program despite its similar name..

You will probably get a faster and more expert answer if you post this
to
an
outlook express news group.

Try posting in one of these newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie5.outlookexpress for OE 5.x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress for OE 5.5x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress for OE 6.x

A good website for information on OE is:
http://www.tomsterdam.com/


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I have recently installed a new HDD on my desktop and installed
Windows
XP
Pro afresh and all applications, including office. I used the FAST
wzard
to
transfer my data.
I am now running Outlook 2003. All my contacts are there, but more
that
I
expected!
I now have, for some reason, contacts, contacts (2), contacts (3),
main
identity's contacts, contacts backup, export and shared contacts.
Seven
contact folders, in all. Some have the same number as others, but
not
all. I
now have nearly 4000 separate contact entries.

Obviously de-duplicating them would be quicker if I can merge all of
these
into one identity. Can anyone, please, tell me how I can do this?
When
I
right click on one identity and try and move the contacts, no action
seems
to
be taken.

Help would be much appreciated as I really don't want to trawl
though
all
the contacts if I can help it.

Many thanks in advance.

Russ,

I am absolutely sure that I am using Microsoft Outlook 2003 SP2 ! "Part
of
Microsoft Office Professional 2003". I have only just installed it!

To repeat, under contacts, when I click on the button on the left hand
side,
down at the bottom (recognise Outlook 2003?) and the contact page comes
up,
in the top left hand side of the page, under contacts, I have seven
separate
folders. I have listed above their exact titles, one of which is called
"Main
Identity's Contacts"

I didn't name any of these; they arrivee in this form after I used the
FAST
wizard to transfer my Documents & Settings. One is clearly a duplicate
and
actually says "Backup" but the others are all similar, but subtly
different,
so I need to merge them all and then look for duplicates.

All I want to know is if anyone can tell me how to merge the folders,
please.

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Russ.

Ok, to clarify:

My root folder is, as you say, Contacts. The subfolders are Contacts (2),
Contacts (3) and Export. I can see this when I right click and try to copy
the entries into the root folder (which seems to have no effect)

However, on the main Outlook screen, having clicked on the contacts button,
I now have 6 folders, in the following order:
Contacts, Contacts (2), Contacts (3), Main Identity's Contacts, Contacts
Backup and Export. I deleted the Shared Contacts folder as it had only one
entry and I confirmed that it did, indeed, appear in the root folder.

I use Plaxo Premium and this has a duplicate checker, but does not work
across folders. I have, though, checked within all the folders and got my
list down from nearly 4,000 to 1,650. I reckon that I have about half of
these as genuine single entries. I haven't yet purchased one of your
reccomended apps, though I see that some do work across folders.

So, I can delete folders OK, but don't seem to be able to merge two of them
by moving or copying them. I have never had any conflicts with Plaxo in the
past so am not sure why this action won't work.

Is the only way to de-dup with one of your reccomended apps and then simply
delete the redundant folders?

Many thanks for your help. Hopefully, this will help others too. Outlook
2003 is a vast improvement on both Outlook 2000 and Outlook Express for
running one's business, bit I guess that I am paying for having roughly
amalgamated databases over a very long period of time. Now is the time to get
it right, once and for all.

Regards

That explains it. I bet you were running IMO mode of Outlook 2000, which
actually used the WAB and shared data with OE. That's why you could end up
OE's labels on your folders. We need to understand the origin of these
folders before so we can figure out how to deal with them. Did some of these
extra folders appear after your import or were they there before? Is your
root Contact Folder named "Contacts?"
If you are satisfied that these folders are valid Outlook Contact Folders
and that each contains separate data, I would just copy the contents of one
into another then run a duplicate checker:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/contacts.htm#dupes

--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ,

OK. Version number 11.8010.6568.

Yes, on my previous HDD I was running Outlook Express as my main PIM, in
the
past. I was running Office 2000. Outlook 2000 had mail and contacts from a
previous F.A.S.T. transfer from a laptop, which related to a previous job
that I had but was used only to retrieve the odd address.

I exported all Outlook Express mail and contacts to Outlook 2000 sometime
ago, though and had been running the latter only as my PIM well before the
set up of my new HDD.

Your right that the F.A.S.T. wizard did not take all the data into Outlook
2003. All other Office data transferred perfectly, but I had to save the
data
file to a backup disk and import it to Outlook 2003. All mail arrived
perfectly intact, as did my contacts, but now separated into these
different
folders.

I understand why the different origins of this contact data means that
Outlook may regards them as being separate, but all I want to do is put
them
all into one folder so that I can review them and delete duplicates.

Thank you, in advance.

Convince me.
Post your version number (Help | About)
State how you configured your Outlook profile.
FAST would only work if you were using Outlook 2003 on your previous
version. Were you?
You appear to have Outlook Express data imported into Outlook.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]


:

Your post is very confusing.
I doubt you are using Outlook 2003. Outlook does not even use the term
identities or shared Contacts. Are you sure you aren't talking about
Outlook
Express? If so, you're in the wrong group.
This is a group to support Outlook from the Office group of programs.
Outlook Express is a part of Internet Explorer and is a quite
different
program despite its similar name..

You will probably get a faster and more expert answer if you post this
to
an
outlook express news group.

Try posting in one of these newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie5.outlookexpress for OE 5.x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress for OE 5.5x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress for OE 6.x

A good website for information on OE is:
http://www.tomsterdam.com/


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
I have recently installed a new HDD on my desktop and installed
Windows
XP
Pro afresh and all applications, including office. I used the FAST
wzard
to
transfer my data.
I am now running Outlook 2003. All my contacts are there, but more
that
I
expected!
I now have, for some reason, contacts, contacts (2), contacts (3),
main
identity's contacts, contacts backup, export and shared contacts.
Seven
contact folders, in all. Some have the same number as others, but
not
all. I
now have nearly 4000 separate contact entries.

Obviously de-duplicating them would be quicker if I can merge all of
these
into one identity. Can anyone, please, tell me how I can do this?
When
I
right click on one identity and try and move the contacts, no action
seems
to
be taken.

Help would be much appreciated as I really don't want to trawl
though
all
the contacts if I can help it.

Many thanks in advance.

Russ,

I am absolutely sure that I am using Microsoft Outlook 2003 SP2 ! "Part
of
Microsoft Office Professional 2003". I have only just installed it!

To repeat, under contacts, when I click on the button on the left hand
side,
down at the bottom (recognise Outlook 2003?) and the contact page comes
up,
in the top left hand side of the page, under contacts, I have seven
separate
folders. I have listed above their exact titles, one of which is called
"Main
Identity's Contacts"

I didn't name any of these; they arrivee in this form after I used the
FAST
wizard to transfer my Documents & Settings. One is clearly a duplicate
and
actually says "Backup" but the others are all similar, but subtly
different,
so I need to merge them all and then look for duplicates.

All I want to know is if anyone can tell me how to merge the folders,
please.

Thank you.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

It looks like you must have run multiple import processes to create all
these Contact Folders. FAST would not do this, but installing Outlook with
the option to migrate from OE sure would. So would importing manually from
OE. If these subfolders truly contain unique information that does not
appear in your root folder, then I would move the data to your roor folder
and use the third party duplicate checkers. They are far more reliable than
Outlook's native utility, especially since some of these Contacts are
probably not resolved in the Outlook Address Book Service.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Thanks, Russ.

Ok, to clarify:

My root folder is, as you say, Contacts. The subfolders are Contacts (2),
Contacts (3) and Export. I can see this when I right click and try to copy
the entries into the root folder (which seems to have no effect)

However, on the main Outlook screen, having clicked on the contacts
button,
I now have 6 folders, in the following order:
Contacts, Contacts (2), Contacts (3), Main Identity's Contacts, Contacts
Backup and Export. I deleted the Shared Contacts folder as it had only one
entry and I confirmed that it did, indeed, appear in the root folder.

I use Plaxo Premium and this has a duplicate checker, but does not work
across folders. I have, though, checked within all the folders and got my
list down from nearly 4,000 to 1,650. I reckon that I have about half of
these as genuine single entries. I haven't yet purchased one of your
reccomended apps, though I see that some do work across folders.

So, I can delete folders OK, but don't seem to be able to merge two of
them
by moving or copying them. I have never had any conflicts with Plaxo in
the
past so am not sure why this action won't work.

Is the only way to de-dup with one of your reccomended apps and then
simply
delete the redundant folders?

Many thanks for your help. Hopefully, this will help others too. Outlook
2003 is a vast improvement on both Outlook 2000 and Outlook Express for
running one's business, bit I guess that I am paying for having roughly
amalgamated databases over a very long period of time. Now is the time to
get
it right, once and for all.

Regards

That explains it. I bet you were running IMO mode of Outlook 2000, which
actually used the WAB and shared data with OE. That's why you could end
up
OE's labels on your folders. We need to understand the origin of these
folders before so we can figure out how to deal with them. Did some of
these
extra folders appear after your import or were they there before? Is your
root Contact Folder named "Contacts?"
If you are satisfied that these folders are valid Outlook Contact Folders
and that each contains separate data, I would just copy the contents of
one
into another then run a duplicate checker:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/contacts.htm#dupes

--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ,

OK. Version number 11.8010.6568.

Yes, on my previous HDD I was running Outlook Express as my main PIM,
in
the
past. I was running Office 2000. Outlook 2000 had mail and contacts
from a
previous F.A.S.T. transfer from a laptop, which related to a previous
job
that I had but was used only to retrieve the odd address.

I exported all Outlook Express mail and contacts to Outlook 2000
sometime
ago, though and had been running the latter only as my PIM well before
the
set up of my new HDD.

Your right that the F.A.S.T. wizard did not take all the data into
Outlook
2003. All other Office data transferred perfectly, but I had to save
the
data
file to a backup disk and import it to Outlook 2003. All mail arrived
perfectly intact, as did my contacts, but now separated into these
different
folders.

I understand why the different origins of this contact data means that
Outlook may regards them as being separate, but all I want to do is put
them
all into one folder so that I can review them and delete duplicates.

Thank you, in advance.

:

Convince me.
Post your version number (Help | About)
State how you configured your Outlook profile.
FAST would only work if you were using Outlook 2003 on your previous
version. Were you?
You appear to have Outlook Express data imported into Outlook.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]


:

Your post is very confusing.
I doubt you are using Outlook 2003. Outlook does not even use the
term
identities or shared Contacts. Are you sure you aren't talking
about
Outlook
Express? If so, you're in the wrong group.
This is a group to support Outlook from the Office group of
programs.
Outlook Express is a part of Internet Explorer and is a quite
different
program despite its similar name..

You will probably get a faster and more expert answer if you post
this
to
an
outlook express news group.

Try posting in one of these newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie5.outlookexpress for OE 5.x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress for OE
5.5x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress for OE 6.x

A good website for information on OE is:
http://www.tomsterdam.com/


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
message
I have recently installed a new HDD on my desktop and installed
Windows
XP
Pro afresh and all applications, including office. I used the
FAST
wzard
to
transfer my data.
I am now running Outlook 2003. All my contacts are there, but
more
that
I
expected!
I now have, for some reason, contacts, contacts (2), contacts
(3),
main
identity's contacts, contacts backup, export and shared contacts.
Seven
contact folders, in all. Some have the same number as others,
but
not
all. I
now have nearly 4000 separate contact entries.

Obviously de-duplicating them would be quicker if I can merge all
of
these
into one identity. Can anyone, please, tell me how I can do this?
When
I
right click on one identity and try and move the contacts, no
action
seems
to
be taken.

Help would be much appreciated as I really don't want to trawl
though
all
the contacts if I can help it.

Many thanks in advance.

Russ,

I am absolutely sure that I am using Microsoft Outlook 2003 SP2 !
"Part
of
Microsoft Office Professional 2003". I have only just installed it!

To repeat, under contacts, when I click on the button on the left
hand
side,
down at the bottom (recognise Outlook 2003?) and the contact page
comes
up,
in the top left hand side of the page, under contacts, I have seven
separate
folders. I have listed above their exact titles, one of which is
called
"Main
Identity's Contacts"

I didn't name any of these; they arrivee in this form after I used
the
FAST
wizard to transfer my Documents & Settings. One is clearly a
duplicate
and
actually says "Backup" but the others are all similar, but subtly
different,
so I need to merge them all and then look for duplicates.

All I want to know is if anyone can tell me how to merge the
folders,
please.

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

OK, Russ. Thanks. As I said, I seem to have a lot of baggage from different
sytems to clean up. I will check out the external dup checkers and get one
that operates over multiple folders, move the unique survivors into the root
contacts folders and delete the empty shell folders (as I can't seem to move
them to the root folder before checking for duplicates).

Thanks again for all your help and the useful links.

Best regards

It looks like you must have run multiple import processes to create all
these Contact Folders. FAST would not do this, but installing Outlook with
the option to migrate from OE sure would. So would importing manually from
OE. If these subfolders truly contain unique information that does not
appear in your root folder, then I would move the data to your roor folder
and use the third party duplicate checkers. They are far more reliable than
Outlook's native utility, especially since some of these Contacts are
probably not resolved in the Outlook Address Book Service.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Thanks, Russ.

Ok, to clarify:

My root folder is, as you say, Contacts. The subfolders are Contacts (2),
Contacts (3) and Export. I can see this when I right click and try to copy
the entries into the root folder (which seems to have no effect)

However, on the main Outlook screen, having clicked on the contacts
button,
I now have 6 folders, in the following order:
Contacts, Contacts (2), Contacts (3), Main Identity's Contacts, Contacts
Backup and Export. I deleted the Shared Contacts folder as it had only one
entry and I confirmed that it did, indeed, appear in the root folder.

I use Plaxo Premium and this has a duplicate checker, but does not work
across folders. I have, though, checked within all the folders and got my
list down from nearly 4,000 to 1,650. I reckon that I have about half of
these as genuine single entries. I haven't yet purchased one of your
reccomended apps, though I see that some do work across folders.

So, I can delete folders OK, but don't seem to be able to merge two of
them
by moving or copying them. I have never had any conflicts with Plaxo in
the
past so am not sure why this action won't work.

Is the only way to de-dup with one of your reccomended apps and then
simply
delete the redundant folders?

Many thanks for your help. Hopefully, this will help others too. Outlook
2003 is a vast improvement on both Outlook 2000 and Outlook Express for
running one's business, bit I guess that I am paying for having roughly
amalgamated databases over a very long period of time. Now is the time to
get
it right, once and for all.

Regards

That explains it. I bet you were running IMO mode of Outlook 2000, which
actually used the WAB and shared data with OE. That's why you could end
up
OE's labels on your folders. We need to understand the origin of these
folders before so we can figure out how to deal with them. Did some of
these
extra folders appear after your import or were they there before? Is your
root Contact Folder named "Contacts?"
If you are satisfied that these folders are valid Outlook Contact Folders
and that each contains separate data, I would just copy the contents of
one
into another then run a duplicate checker:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/contacts.htm#dupes

--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Russ,

OK. Version number 11.8010.6568.

Yes, on my previous HDD I was running Outlook Express as my main PIM,
in
the
past. I was running Office 2000. Outlook 2000 had mail and contacts
from a
previous F.A.S.T. transfer from a laptop, which related to a previous
job
that I had but was used only to retrieve the odd address.

I exported all Outlook Express mail and contacts to Outlook 2000
sometime
ago, though and had been running the latter only as my PIM well before
the
set up of my new HDD.

Your right that the F.A.S.T. wizard did not take all the data into
Outlook
2003. All other Office data transferred perfectly, but I had to save
the
data
file to a backup disk and import it to Outlook 2003. All mail arrived
perfectly intact, as did my contacts, but now separated into these
different
folders.

I understand why the different origins of this contact data means that
Outlook may regards them as being separate, but all I want to do is put
them
all into one folder so that I can review them and delete duplicates.

Thank you, in advance.

:

Convince me.
Post your version number (Help | About)
State how you configured your Outlook profile.
FAST would only work if you were using Outlook 2003 on your previous
version. Were you?
You appear to have Outlook Express data imported into Outlook.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]


:

Your post is very confusing.
I doubt you are using Outlook 2003. Outlook does not even use the
term
identities or shared Contacts. Are you sure you aren't talking
about
Outlook
Express? If so, you're in the wrong group.
This is a group to support Outlook from the Office group of
programs.
Outlook Express is a part of Internet Explorer and is a quite
different
program despite its similar name..

You will probably get a faster and more expert answer if you post
this
to
an
outlook express news group.

Try posting in one of these newsgroups:
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie5.outlookexpress for OE 5.x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie55.outlookexpress for OE
5.5x
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6_outlookexpress for OE 6.x

A good website for information on OE is:
http://www.tomsterdam.com/


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
message
I have recently installed a new HDD on my desktop and installed
Windows
XP
Pro afresh and all applications, including office. I used the
FAST
wzard
to
transfer my data.
I am now running Outlook 2003. All my contacts are there, but
more
that
I
expected!
I now have, for some reason, contacts, contacts (2), contacts
(3),
main
identity's contacts, contacts backup, export and shared contacts.
Seven
contact folders, in all. Some have the same number as others,
but
not
all. I
now have nearly 4000 separate contact entries.

Obviously de-duplicating them would be quicker if I can merge all
of
these
into one identity. Can anyone, please, tell me how I can do this?
When
I
right click on one identity and try and move the contacts, no
action
seems
to
be taken.

Help would be much appreciated as I really don't want to trawl
though
all
the contacts if I can help it.

Many thanks in advance.

Russ,

I am absolutely sure that I am using Microsoft Outlook 2003 SP2 !
"Part
of
Microsoft Office Professional 2003". I have only just installed it!

To repeat, under contacts, when I click on the button on the left
hand
side,
down at the bottom (recognise Outlook 2003?) and the contact page
comes
up,
in the top left hand side of the page, under contacts, I have seven
separate
folders. I have listed above their exact titles, one of which is
called
"Main
Identity's Contacts"

I didn't name any of these; they arrivee in this form after I used
the
FAST
wizard to transfer my Documents & Settings. One is clearly a
duplicate
and
actually says "Backup" but the others are all similar, but subtly
different,
so I need to merge them all and then look for duplicates.

All I want to know is if anyone can tell me how to merge the
folders,
please.

Thank you.