Contact Record: 'Full Name' does not contain first and last name fields

[DW]

I have about 3200 records in my Contacts. For quite a few individuals, there
is a problem with the name field. When I open up the contact record, the
Full Name field contains the person's first and last name, for example, John
Jones. However, when I click on Full Name, opening up the Check Full Name
box, the name does not appear at all - the fields are blank. I would expect
to see John in the first name field, and Jones in the last name field, but
neither appears. In order to correct this situation, I have to manually type
the first name into the first name field, and the last name into the last
name field.

In the past, I was aware of this issue but was not concerned because it did
not seem to effect me. That is no longer the case. I just got a Blackberry
and ran into a sync issue. I sync'd by Blackberry with Outlook, no problem.
Next, I added four records to Outlook and re-sync'd. The Blackberry software
detected the four new records and wanted to sync them to my device. However,
it also wanted to add 600 email addresses to the First Name filed in
Outlook!! Of course, I cancelled the sync, and in checking around, I now
theorize that the Blackberry software thinks that the 600 first name fields
are blank, and wants to fill them with the email address.

To make a short story very long, how can I solve this problem?? One long and
tedious way would be (I think) to manually go through all 3200 records,
opening up each name field to see if it contains a first name and a last
name, and entering the first and last names when they do not appear. This
has to take me many, many hours. Is there a better way?

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

I can help a bit. You don't need to open every record to see the date in the
First_Name and Last_Name fields- you just need to add those fields to what
you are looking at..

Change to the Phone List or By Category View. Add the two fields you need
(the Field Chooser is on the Advanced Toolbar - you open it, then drag the
fields you want up into the column headers beside existing fields eg beside
Fullname)

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook

www.judygleeson.com
www.deskdoctors.com

Are you sick of bad email practice? Get a copy of my paper "Implementing
Email Policy" from the Desk Doctors website.

 

[DW]

Thanks Judy, good idea, but is there any way I can update the faulty records
without individually accessing 600 individual records? Isn't it strange that
the full name shows the full name, but the individual first name and last
name fields are blank? There must be an easier way than editing each record,
since the information is already there.