Using Outlook contacts for Word's Envelopes and Labels in Office 2003

  • Thread starter Thread starter WJ
  • Start date Start date
W

WJ

I have my pst file password protected. When I click on the address book in
Word 2003, it gives me an error saying that it cannot open the address book.

However, if I open Outlook first, supplying my password, it works. In
previous versions of Office (XP and 2000), if I did this, it presented me
with the same password dialog box Outlook presents when opening Outlook.

Did I misconfigure something or is this a known issue?
 
It's not an issue I've seen so far. What is the exact error message? How did
you configure the Outlook Address Book in your default profile? How many
profiles do you have?
 
Running Win 2003 Server with Office 2003. I open Word (only) and click
Tools -> Letters and Mailings -> Envelopes and Labels.

This prompts me for the Envelopes and Labels dialog box. When I click the
address book icon at the top, I get prompted with "The address list could
not be displayed. the Contacts folder associated with the address list
could not be opened; it may have been moved or deleted, or you do not have
permissions. For information on how to remove this folder from the Outlook
Address Book, see Microsoft Office Outlook Help"

I only have the original Outlook profile set. I copied over my pst file
from before and set it in outlook. When I go to Control Panel -> Mail and
look at the profile, it sees the pst file (under data files button) and
everything else works fine (in Outlook).

When I get the prompt in Word, above, after I click the OK button, it still
shows the "Select Name" dialog box for the address book. What's more, in
the "Show Names from the:" dropdown list for address books, it shows all my
contacts and subdirs I created and shared as e-mail lists (Outlook -> right
click contacts or subfolder -> properties -> Outlook Address Book tab ->
Show this folder as an e-mail address book checkbox). This tells me it sees
the correct pst file (or else how could it know my Contacts subdirs?).

I was wondering if copying the pst file over from Office 2000 instead of
importing it could have been the issue. The "Format" setting in the Control
Panel -> Mail icon says the format is Office 97-2002.

Now, with the above scenario, after I have the blank address book after
clicking the address book button, if I open Outlook and supply my pst
password, my contact info pops up in the address book as it should.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
 
Your Outlook Address Book is configured incorrectly. Most likely you have a
duplicate or corrupt reference to your Outlook Contacts Folder in your
Outlook Address Book Service. To check to see if you do
Go to Tools > E-mail accounts > View or change existing directories or
address books > Outlook Address Book > Change.
Remove any duplicate or incorrect references to Contacts Folders you see
there.
 
It shows my root "Contacts" folder and one of my sub dirs as valid e-mail
address books, which is how I configured it in Outlook (right click Contacts
(and the sub folder) -> properties -> Outlook Address Book tab, check "Show
this folder as an e-mail Address Book"

It appears to be set up correctly, from what I can see.
 
But if you get the error message "The address list could not be displayed.
The Contacts folder associated with the address list could not be opened..."
then one of those references is corrupt.

Remove the Outlook Address Book entirely from your profile. Restart Outlook.
Add it back and configure it again. Restart Outlook.
 
I went to control panel and removed the MAPI reference to my will.pst file.
Closed everything down. When I opened Outlook the option to make a contacts
folder part of the address book was not available.

I went back in and added will.pst as an Outlook Address Book (not a Personal
Address Book, right?). Restarted Outlook, and added my root "Contacts" as
part of the Address Book. Also added "Family" under Contacts as part of my
Outlook address book.

Everything still works fine under Outlook, as before. But still can't open
the address book from Word. But it sees that I have two folder shared as
address books: Contacts and Family. I see those in the right dropdown. So
it must be reading the correct file.

Here's what I think the culprit is:


I went to Outlook, File -> Data File Management -> Settings button -> Change
password button. I reset the password to blank. Tried everything from Word
and it worked! With Outlook closed, I went to Envelopes and Labels, on the
pop-up, clicked the address book, and it showed up.

I went back in and put my password back on my pst file and it failed again.
This suggests to me that when Word is making the external call to the
Outlook address book, it's not attempting to determine if the pst file is
password protected. When it asks for the list of addresses, it is not
validated and the call fails.

If you put a password on your pst file, does this work for you? That seems
to be the breakdown and I can repeat the steps to duplicate this.

By the way, thanks, Russ, for being so prompt in answering my questions. I
appreciate your time in this!

-Will
 
Can't repro that, nor is that what I told you to do.
What happens if you do what I suggested?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
WJ said:
I went to control panel and removed the MAPI reference to my will.pst file.
Closed everything down. When I opened Outlook the option to make a contacts
folder part of the address book was not available.

I went back in and added will.pst as an Outlook Address Book (not a Personal
Address Book, right?). Restarted Outlook, and added my root "Contacts" as
part of the Address Book. Also added "Family" under Contacts as part of my
Outlook address book.

Everything still works fine under Outlook, as before. But still can't open
the address book from Word. But it sees that I have two folder shared as
address books: Contacts and Family. I see those in the right dropdown. So
it must be reading the correct file.

Here's what I think the culprit is:


I went to Outlook, File -> Data File Management -> Settings button -> Change
password button. I reset the password to blank. Tried everything from Word
and it worked! With Outlook closed, I went to Envelopes and Labels, on the
pop-up, clicked the address book, and it showed up.

I went back in and put my password back on my pst file and it failed again.
This suggests to me that when Word is making the external call to the
Outlook address book, it's not attempting to determine if the pst file is
password protected. When it asks for the list of addresses, it is not
validated and the call fails.

If you put a password on your pst file, does this work for you? That seems
to be the breakdown and I can repeat the steps to duplicate this.

By the way, thanks, Russ, for being so prompt in answering my questions. I
appreciate your time in this!

-Will
Click to expand...
 
I thought I did what you asked. Let me echo this back and see if I got it
right.

I went to Control Panel -> Mail -> Show Profiles Button. I removed
"Outlook" from the list (it's the only thing listed). When I went to
Outlook I had to set everything back up. It defaulted to the Outlook.pst
file. I added "Will.pst" under File -> File Management. I went to Tools ->
E-mail settings to point my e-mail account delivery to Will.pst. I had to
add my pop3 accounts back. Now, before, I went ahead and removed my
"Outlook.pst" file. I do this because 1. I don't use it and 2. When I am
prompted for things like where to deliver my e-mail and such, it lists
"personal folder" twice. I presume once for each pst file.

Did I do this correctly?



Russ Valentine said:
Can't repro that, nor is that what I told you to do.
What happens if you do what I suggested?
Click to expand...
 
No, I told you to remove the Outlook Address Book Service from the profile
and add it back to reset the connection to your Contacts Folder.
You created a new profile, which should achieve the same thing, except now
you've provided yet another clue as to what the problem might be. If you've
had two PST files referenced in the same profile, your Outlook Address Book
Service is still probably pointing to the wrong Contacts Folder. That's why
you get that error message.
If you want to go the new profile route, _only_ add the one PST file you
intend to use. Do not let Outlook create a new default PST. That's when the
Outlook Address Book gets confused because it is still looking for the first
default PST.
 
I think I'm not following you.

1. I told you to remove the Outlook Address Book Service - Where do I do
this?

2. If you've had two PST files referenced in the same profile, your Outlook
Address
Book Service is still probably pointing to the wrong Contacts Folder. -
Before, I only
had the one, Will.pst. With the original install, I removed Outlook.pst
under "Data
File Management". With what I tried this morning, I left the default
"Outlook.pst" file there.

3. If you want to go the new profile route, _only_ add the one PST file you
intend to use -
I intend to use Will.pst. How do I set the "profile route"?





Russ Valentine said:
No, I told you to remove the Outlook Address Book Service from the profile
and add it back to reset the connection to your Contacts Folder.
You created a new profile, which should achieve the same thing, except now
you've provided yet another clue as to what the problem might be. If you've
had two PST files referenced in the same profile, your Outlook Address Book
Service is still probably pointing to the wrong Contacts Folder. That's why
you get that error message.
If you want to go the new profile route, _only_ add the one PST file you
intend to use. Do not let Outlook create a new default PST. That's when the
Outlook Address Book gets confused because it is still looking for the first
default PST.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
WJ said:
I thought I did what you asked. Let me echo this back and see if I got it
right.

I went to Control Panel -> Mail -> Show Profiles Button. I removed
"Outlook" from the list (it's the only thing listed). When I went to
Outlook I had to set everything back up. It defaulted to the Outlook.pst
file. I added "Will.pst" under File -> File Management. I went to Tools ->
E-mail settings to point my e-mail account delivery to Will.pst. I had to
add my pop3 accounts back. Now, before, I went ahead and removed my
"Outlook.pst" file. I do this because 1. I don't use it and 2. When I am
prompted for things like where to deliver my e-mail and such, it lists
"personal folder" twice. I presume once for each pst file.

Did I do this correctly?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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