Properties of contacts folder. Default changes.

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Guest

I have a user who creates new folders under the contact folder for different
organizations she deals with. She uses Outlook 2002 and these folders
sometimes contain several contacts. When she creates a new email, these
contacts would not come as options to choose from as an address. I found
that the properties of the folder were the issue. I needed to go to the
properties dialog window and check the “Show this folder as an e-mail address
book.†option and now they do appear.

My questions are these:

1. Is there a way to change all the folders at once? I can do each one
individually, but she has over 100 and I would prefer to change them globally
if I can.

2. Can I set the default of these folders so when she creates a new one, it
will automatically be listed as an e-mail book?

Thanks in advance.

Frank
 
1) You could write a script that iterates the folder hierarchy and set the ShowAsOutlookAB property for each contacts folder to True.

How she'll manage to navigate through 100 folders in the address book is beyond me, though. I think she'd be better off consolidating the items into a smaller number of folders

2) No.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
According to the users, she never had to do this before, set the properties
herself. So forgive me but I am skeptical of your answer to number 2.
Nothing personal, but I have had replies before from these newsgroups that
were incorrect.

Thanks anyway.
 
I learn new things all the time here, too. YMMV, as they say. If she creates a new folder and it automatically appears in the AB (as I suspect it will, as long as the Outlook Address Book service is present), then that's all well and good, right?. But I know of no option to turn such behavior on and off, which is what I thought you were asking.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Sue,

While I don't have 100+ folders, I do have 8-10. I keep seperate Contact
folders for immediate family, extended family, work, volunteer work,
hometown, etc. Perhaps my thinking is wrong but this seems logical to me as
a way of organizing rather than having 1 contact folder with hundreds of
unorganized entries.

You are correct in stating that when creating a new Contact folder, the
folder properties are inherited from the parent folder. I.e., if the parent
folder is set up with "last name, first name", as an email address book,
etc., the new folder will be the same.

However, it is laborious to 1 by 1 change any that weren't set correctly
when created. This seems to be because I imported them from a pst file that
had been created from another profile. The Contact folder properties do not
seem to be maintained and are set to default properties.

As a result, I have several questions,

- Can you post an example script that could be used to change the
properties on each folder?
- Am I approaching this wrong? Should I not be using multiple contact
folders?
- Why do the defaults seem to be opposite of what would be expected? For
example, why would I want to have a contact folder that is not set as an
email address book? If not set this way, I can't use the entries when
sending mail.

Thanks for any clarification you can provide.
 
Bump....can anyone provide some help here?


sulmar said:
Sue,

While I don't have 100+ folders, I do have 8-10. I keep seperate Contact
folders for immediate family, extended family, work, volunteer work,
hometown, etc. Perhaps my thinking is wrong but this seems logical to me as
a way of organizing rather than having 1 contact folder with hundreds of
unorganized entries.

You are correct in stating that when creating a new Contact folder, the
folder properties are inherited from the parent folder. I.e., if the parent
folder is set up with "last name, first name", as an email address book,
etc., the new folder will be the same.

However, it is laborious to 1 by 1 change any that weren't set correctly
when created. This seems to be because I imported them from a pst file that
had been created from another profile. The Contact folder properties do not
seem to be maintained and are set to default properties.

As a result, I have several questions,

- Can you post an example script that could be used to change the
properties on each folder?
- Am I approaching this wrong? Should I not be using multiple contact
folders?
- Why do the defaults seem to be opposite of what would be expected? For
example, why would I want to have a contact folder that is not set as an
email address book? If not set this way, I can't use the entries when
sending mail.

Thanks for any clarification you can provide.
Click to expand...
 
Bump.... anyone able to help here?

sulmar said:
Sue,

While I don't have 100+ folders, I do have 8-10. I keep seperate Contact
folders for immediate family, extended family, work, volunteer work,
hometown, etc. Perhaps my thinking is wrong but this seems logical to me as
a way of organizing rather than having 1 contact folder with hundreds of
unorganized entries.

You are correct in stating that when creating a new Contact folder, the
folder properties are inherited from the parent folder. I.e., if the parent
folder is set up with "last name, first name", as an email address book,
etc., the new folder will be the same.

However, it is laborious to 1 by 1 change any that weren't set correctly
when created. This seems to be because I imported them from a pst file that
had been created from another profile. The Contact folder properties do not
seem to be maintained and are set to default properties.

As a result, I have several questions,

- Can you post an example script that could be used to change the
properties on each folder?
- Am I approaching this wrong? Should I not be using multiple contact
folders?
- Why do the defaults seem to be opposite of what would be expected? For
example, why would I want to have a contact folder that is not set as an
email address book? If not set this way, I can't use the entries when
sending mail.

Thanks for any clarification you can provide.
Click to expand...
 
While I don't have 100+ folders, I do have 8-10. I keep seperate Contact
folders for immediate family, extended family, work, volunteer work,
hometown, etc. Perhaps my thinking is wrong but this seems logical to me as
a way of organizing rather than having 1 contact folder with hundreds of
unorganized entries.
Click to expand...

I organize my entries in one Contacts folder with cateagories.
- Can you post an example script that could be used to change the
properties on each folder?
Click to expand...

Not knowing where the folders are, no. But you can take a look at the ShowAsOutlookAB topic in Outlook VBA Help to get the basic gist of how that property is used.
- Am I approaching this wrong? Should I not be using multiple contact
folders?
Click to expand...

That's up to you. There are advantages and disadvantages both ways.
- Why do the defaults seem to be opposite of what would be expected?
Click to expand...

What are you seeing as the defaults, i.e. the settings on a new contacts folder you create in your mailbox?
For
example, why would I want to have a contact folder that is not set as an
email address book? If not set this way, I can't use the entries when
sending mail.
Click to expand...

I use such folders for scenarios that involve mail merge to printed output.


--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
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