Fax Numbers are not email addresses

[Tom Wood]

I don't like the way that outlook 2002 assumes that it can send a message to a Fax number. When resolving email addresses if a fax number exists, it shows as a valid destination for email

This phenomenon is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 30536

Does anyone know if Outlook 2003 has a configuration option somewhere to turn this on or off

Does anyone know if Microsoft has any intention of adding a configuration option for this in the future

Tom

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

The Outlook Address Book has always behaved this way because Fax numbers
are, in fact, valid electronic addresses. There are no plans to change this
behavior.

The only way to prevent the display of fax numbers is to store them in a
different field or to disguise them (e.g., precede them with an alpha
character) so that Outlook won't recognize them as phone numbers.
There are also a number of utilities available that can do this for you
automatically. Some are listed here:
http://www.slipstick.com/contacts/nofax.htm
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I don't like the way that outlook 2002 assumes that it can send a message

to a Fax number. When resolving email addresses if a fax number exists, it
shows as a valid destination for email.

 

[Tom Wood]

All I'm suggesting is that THE USER should get to decide what is a valid electronic address in his environment. Microsoft should simply include a configuration switch for this. In my opinion, the fact that there is aftermarket software available to get AROUND a Microsoft FEATURE indicates that it isn't really a feature for everyone. I hope Microsoft will reconsider its position on this issue and add a little bit of user control in the future

We share contact cards too often to deal with a non-standard field mapping (ie moving fax numbers to another field) or placing a letter at the beginning

To

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I quite agree. It's been on my wish list for 6 years.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

All I'm suggesting is that THE USER should get to decide what is a valid

electronic address in his environment. Microsoft should simply include a
configuration switch for this. In my opinion, the fact that there is
aftermarket software available to get AROUND a Microsoft FEATURE indicates
that it isn't really a feature for everyone. I hope Microsoft will
reconsider its position on this issue and add a little bit of user control
in the future.

We share contact cards too often to deal with a non-standard field mapping

(ie moving fax numbers to another field) or placing a letter at the
beginning.