Somehow you are missing the point. Yes, "contacts" have a lot of nice
features, but it would be naive to suggest that all of my email work
should
start in the contacts folder by selecting recipients first, then starting
the
email. Actually, for many of us, I always type the email first, to make
sure
I don't accidently send a draft email to someone by mistake, plus it makes
me
think twice before sending to make sure I have sent any attachments that I
promise in the email. Sometimes I reply to an email, then need to click
the
"To" button to add more recipients. But those reasons alone are not the
biggest reason of all.
The issue is when you want to create a rule, such as, all emails from
people
associated with a particular activity should be moved to folder dedicated
to
that activity, you only have the address book to look through. Which is
kiling me since I just finished updating all of the contacts with a
category
label for that activity. Now, I have to remember the 25 names of people
that
will be sending me email, because I can't look by anything other than
name.
In fact, the "more columns" feature does nothing at all.
If "Address Book" is an orphaned feature, then why is is relied upon by
Outlook so much? If I hadn't spent several hundred dollars on Office
2007,
then I might overlook it.
Surely there is an easier way.
Russ Valentine said:
Outlook is hardly an orphan program. It is constantly undergoing
development. What you missed is that the address book interface has been
completely deprecated and is not where Outlook's developers intended for
you
to manage your Contacts. Learn to use Outlook as it was designed. Use
your
Contacts Folders, not the address book view of your Contacts Folders.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
nantucketbob said:
I'm confused. When I start a new email there is a "To:" icon to click.
It
brings up the address book. It would be nice to be able to sort the
email
addresses.
On a tangent, it appears that Outlook is an "orphan" program, not given
much
attention by Microsoft. Although web-based email is fine, I would be
lost
without the robust contact features of Outlook.
:
Here's a clue you seem to have missed: Outlook abandoned the address
book
interface years ago. It has never allowed robust searching or sorting.
Those
features have always been in the Contacts Folders where they will
remain.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
message
I hope Outlook 2007 allows one to SORT the address book by email
address
and
display name.
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