Storing international telephone numbers starting +

  • Thread starter Thread starter Al
  • Start date Start date
A

Al

I have just upgrade from outlook 2000 to 2002. I have set all the
telephone number fields in international form of:
+<country code> <number>
So that a UK number will be entered as:
+44 20 6060 xxxx

For some reason my outlook 2002 does not like the + symbol and always
removes it. Whatever I've tried I cannot get it to start any telephone
number with +. I had no problem whatsoever with outlook 2000. How do
In get over this problem in outlook 2002?
 
Nothing changed in Outlook 2002. How did you configure Outlook's dialing
options? Did you set it to automatically add the country code?
 
Nothing changed in Outlook 2002. How did you configure Outlook's dialing
options? Did you set it to automatically add the country code?
Click to expand...

I don't know anything about dialling options - I have never previously
used them. I'm not using outlook for dialling. My outlook personal
folders are purely for calendar, contacts and tasks. Outlook has
options in telephone numbers for country code and area code but I've
never used them.I've previously only ever put the whole number
(starting +) in "Local number". Now it's started to remove the + that
I have previously entered in outlook 2000.

When I search for "dialling options" in outlook help it tells me to go
to
tools -> email accounts. As I don't have any email accounts (nor do I
want any) this doesn't solve my problem. I just want my telephone
numbers to all start with + as they did on outlook 2000.
 
Al said:
I don't know anything about dialling options - I have never previously
used them. I'm not using outlook for dialling.
Click to expand...

That doesn't matter. Outlook used the Windows dialing options values to
format the phone number cirrectly.
 
That doesn't matter. Outlook used the Windows dialing options values to
format the phone number cirrectly.
Click to expand...

So where or how do I set these options in Outlook for formatting the
displayed contact telephone numbers? I want to display the
international telephone numbers in my contacts in a format starting
with a + and without display of any parentheses, eg
+<country code> nnnn nnnnnn
where <country code> is the international country code and
n represents only digits of a local number.
 
As I said, in Outlook's dialing options, which you invoke from the New
call... dialog box. (Actions > Call Contact > New Call...)
 
As I said, in Outlook's dialing options, which you invoke from the New
call... dialog box. (Actions > Call Contact > New Call...)
Click to expand...

I have been looking at that, but can find nowhere to specify the
format of the way I want international phone numbers to be displayed
in my contacts. After I go to Actions > Call Contact > New Call,,,
where is the dialogue that enables me to specify the telephone number
display format when I enter a new contact record?
 
It lets you set the option to automatically add the country code to your
numbers. That includes the +
 
It lets you set the option to automatically add the country code to your
numbers. That includes the +
Click to expand...

But where - I can't see it. Please tell me which dialogue I need to
enter to specify this.
 
It's right in front of you:
Dialing Options... >
Check the box called "Automatically add country/region code to local phone
numbers"
 
Wonder why? What have you not set up correctly? Does your operating system
know your default dialing location?
 
Wonder why? What have you not set up correctly? Does your operating system
know your default dialing location?
Click to expand...

I never use the system for dialling out. Because of that I wasn't sure
what to put in "dialling location" and as it's a portable PC it could
be located anywhere. Since I'm not planning to use it for dialling out
in future either I just put some arbitrary digits in there hoping this
fussy system would be happy.

All I use Outlook for is to store data (including phone numbers)
without any intention of actually dialling anything.
 
put in your home area code information - it won't matter if you never dial
with it.
 
But Outlook has to know your dialing location in order to know how to add
the country code. You can set your default dialing location even if you have
no intention of making calls from your computer.
 
put in your home area code information - it won't matter if you never dial
with it.
Click to expand...

I have a couple of problems with that:

1 The concept of "home area code" doesn't mean a lot to me. For normal
calls from home, I either use one of several VoIPs or mobiles. The
"area codes" associated with these are not related to where I am
geographically located.
2 What format of characters does Outlook require in order that it may
happily accept my fake "area code"?

In view of the above, I have just set up a dummy dialling location
"Home" and put in some arbitrary digits. Since I'm not sure as to what
format of digits or characters Outlook requires, I don't know what
effect this will have on my original problem.

Following on from this, it would be helpful if Microsoft Outlook
developers would recognise that the proliferation of VoIP, mobile and
other telecoms initiatives mean that the concept of "area code" is,
for many people like myself, no longer relevant. As far as I am
concerned, all the entries in my address book comprise a +<country
code> followed by a string of digits. For me there is no distinction
between "local" and "long distance" calls: the method of dialling
within my country is the same regardless of whether I'm calling my
neighbour or someone far far away.
 
Aloha Al,
On Sat, 23 Sep 2006 15:05:28 -0400, Diane Poremsky [MVP] wrote:
Following on from this, it would be helpful if Microsoft Outlook
developers would recognise that the proliferation of VoIP, mobile and
other telecoms initiatives mean that the concept of "area code" is,
for many people like myself, no longer relevant. As far as I am
concerned, all the entries in my address book comprise a +<country
Click to expand...

To be fair you're in the extreme minority on this one and I'm sure you can
forgive them for not dedicating development resources to an issue that will
likely impact far less than 1% of the userbase.



-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr - MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
Microsoft OneNote FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/onenotefaq.htm
 
you are really making it more confusing that you need to. Just pick a valid
area code and type it in - if you are in the US, use 202. Outlook needs this
to determine what is local, long distance, or international. It won't matter
for local calls since you don't dial using outlook. or windows.
 
you are really making it more confusing that you need to. Just pick a valid
area code and type it in - if you are in the US, use 202. Outlook needs this
to determine what is local, long distance, or international. It won't matter
for local calls since you don't dial using outlook. or windows.
Click to expand...

I'm un the UK. One of the reasons I stopped using Outlook for dialling
is because of it's insistence on having an "area code". The problem
with it was that ALL my numbers have to be dialled with full national
number regardless of the recipient. Irritatingly Outlook removed part
of my dialled number if it happened to coincide what I put in "area
code". the result was that my call didn't get through.

Anyway I've put my dummy area code as 911 as that is a code never used
here.
 
To be fair you're in the extreme minority on this one and I'm sure you can
forgive them for not dedicating development resources to an issue that will
likely impact far less than 1% of the userbase.
Click to expand...

I think the Outlook developers ought to get out a bit more. In
particular, let them venture outside the USA and see what happens in
the rest of the world. Here in the UK, 100% of people using mobile
phones have to dial the full national number when calling otherwise
the call will not get through. So splitting out "area code" is
meaningless. A very large number (possibly the majority) of fixed line
users similarly have to call the full national number for most (if not
all) their calls again making concepts like "local", ";long distance"
and "area code" irrelevant.

A couple of years ago BT changed it's tariff structure so that now for
all but a tiny minority of customers there is no such thing any more
as a "local" or "long distance" call - they're all treated the same.
It would be helpful if Outlook recognised that in many countries a
similar situation prevails. So perhaps Outlook could move with the
times and make all the dialogues referring to "local", "area code" and
"long distance" optional?
 
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