Business Fax comes up instead of email.

[Liela]

I have a user who has an issue with her contacts. Whenever
she types in the name of the person in her contacts if
that person has a buisness fax number in her contacts list
the address that comes up is the buisness fax instead of
the persons email address. this is a persistent problem
for our user and we need an answer soon. Please help if
you can!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Outlook considers fax numbers to be valid electronic addresses, since there
are many client- and server-based components that can use such addresses.

One method to hide fax numbers from the address book is to prefix the fax
number with one or more letters (maybe B for business fax, H for home, O for
other). If the fax number begins with a letter, Outlook won't show it in the
address book. This definitely works in Outlook 2000 and 2002.

There are a couple of utilities that can help you hide fax numbers from the
address book. See http://www.rsoutlook.com/us/rshifa.htm and
http://www.sperrysoftware.com/Outlook_Solutions.htm (Hide Fax Numbers).

Another way to avoid avoid having fax numbers appear in the address book is
simply not to enter data in the fax fields. Put fax numbers in some other
(non-phone) fields.

 

[Armand Eglauer]

I type the word "Fax " before each fax number and still include the
area code and number. Generally this works, but on occasion, I get
the business fax coming up as well (or at least Outlook can't decide
which to send to, the fax or email). I can't pinpoint why this
happens or any pattern to it. Any thoughts?

Armand

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Putting any string before the number prevents Outlook from making a valid
electronic address out of the number. I'd be looking for duplicate contacts
that don't have the same string in them.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers