"Contacts" button & field on Contacts dialog

[jurena]

When opening up a Contact, at the bottom right, there is a button labeled
"Contacts", and a corresponding empty field. What are those, and for what
purpose are they supposed to be used? I can´t find an explanation anywhere...

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You assume that we know your Outlook version. We don't. I assume you are
referring to the field that permits you to link one Contact to another.

 

[jurena]

It´s Outlook 2007. I sort of thought that it might be linking Contacts, but
where is this functionality described? If I do a search on Help for "Linking
contacts" I get a lot of hits for the Business Mgr. (which I don´t have), but
nothing ele even close. This field is not even mentioned on Help´s "Entering
New Contacts". What is the idea, to link, say, people from the same Company?
Thanks.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

By default, that field doesn't even appear in Outlook 2007 unless you added
it. There can be any number of reasons you might want to link Contacts
without creating a permanent grouping of them like you would with a Category
of Distribution List.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

Here's an example of how I use it. I do business with a company where the
representative assigned to my account changes frequently. I can't remember
the current person's name or the name of the last person, but I can remember
the rep from last year. So, each time the rep changes, I use the Contacts
field to link to the previous rep, in addition to making a note in the body
of the contact. Because links are reciprocal -- adding a link from A to B
also adds one automatically from B to A -- that makes it possible for me to
trace the chain of rep replacements until I find the current one.