Word 2003 Envelopes and Labels fails to insert address into envelo

[psale]

I have used the Outlook 2003 contacts and/or address book entries to address
and then print individual envelopes in Word 2003 via "Tools>Letters and
Mailings>Envelopes and Labels..." for years. Just recently this technique
fails to actually insert the desired address into an "envelope." Up until
the moment that I click on the desired address within the "Contacts" file
(while both and "Outlook Address Book" and a "Personal Address Book" appear
under Word's "Show Names from the:" dropdown, for some reason they display no
names) everything seems to be working. It’s just that the desired address is
NOT inserted into the "Delivery address:" field of the "Envelopes and Labels"
dialog.

I did disable some "unneeded" XP services via "services.msc", which may or
may not have anything to do with my problem.

Software environment includes following:
Outlook 2003
Word 2003
XP Professional w/ SP2
Current Microsoft updates (Automatic Updates up and running)
ClearContext (an Outlook Plug-in)
OfficeCalendar (software to allow sharing contacts and calendars across the
internet)
-
Peter Sale
USA

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I did disable some "unneeded" XP services via "services.msc", which may or

may not have anything to do with my problem.

I suppose the obvious thing to do is try re-enabling them, perhaps
successively until the problem is fixed, or you discover it has nothing to
do with the services. However, when I look at my list of Services I can't
see any that would obviously affect this without affecting a lot of other
stuff as well - someone in one of the Outlook groups is likely to know
better.

Can you insert address data directly into Word from the AddressBook icon?
i.e. is it just in the Envelopes dialog box that it does not work?

(while both and "Outlook Address Book" and a "Personal Address Book"
appear
under Word's "Show Names from the:" dropdown, for some reason they display
no
names)

The "Outlook Address Book" does not allow "top level" addresses, but just
contains those folders in Outlook which you specify (e.e.g in the Folder's
Properties dialog box, Outlook Address Book tab.

The "Personal Address Book" is another address book "service" that previous
versions of Outlook and/or the old Exchange client came with (I forget
exactly when these services came and went). It's probably empty because it's
a separate "book" and you haven't put anything in it It doesn't
actually have to be installed for either Outlook or Word to work properly. I
suppose there could be some reason why it needs to be there on your system,
and it probably isn't doing any harm, but if you really want to get rid of
it I'd create a Windows Restore point, then go into Outlook Tools|Email
Accounts, view or change existing directories or address books, select it,
click "Change..." just to see if there's any info. there that might make you
keep it, then remove it.

Peter Jamieson

 

[psale]

Can you insert address data directly into Word from the AddressBook icon?
i.e. is it just in the Envelopes dialog box that it does not work?

I am unable to locate such an icon, except for the one that appears within
Word's "Tools>Letters and Mailings>Envelopes and Labels..." Might you know
which "Toolbar" I need to activate in Word to cause that icon to appear?

The "Outlook Address Book" does not allow "top level" addresses, but just
contains those folders in Outlook which you specify (e.g in the Folder's
Properties dialog box, Outlook Address Book tab.

The "Personal Address Book" is another address book "service" that previous
versions of Outlook and/or the old Exchange client came with (I forget
exactly when these services came and went). It's probably empty because it's
a separate "book" and you haven't put anything in it It doesn't
actually have to be installed for either Outlook or Word to work properly. I
suppose there could be some reason why it needs to be there on your system,
and it probably isn't doing any harm, but if you really want to get rid of
it I'd create a Windows Restore point, then go into Outlook Tools|Email
Accounts, view or change existing directories or address books, select it,
click "Change..." just to see if there's any info. there that might make you
keep it, then remove it.

I only today added those two address books to Outlook 2003 in the vain hope
that they would become populated with the contents of my Outlook Contacts,
and I could then insert an address from one of them into an envelope. Sounds
like I can safely delete (remove) both of them via Outlook and/or the XP
Control Panel?
-
Peter Sale
USA

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I am unable to locate such an icon, except for the one that appears within

Word's "Tools>Letters and Mailings>Envelopes and Labels..." Might you
know
which "Toolbar" I need to activate in Word to cause that icon to appear?

Go to Tools|Customize|Commands, select Category "All Commands", locate
InsertAddress in the "Commands" column (it's in alpha sequence) and drag it
to a menu or toolbar.

I only today added those two address books to Outlook 2003 in the vain
hope
that they would become populated with the contents of my Outlook Contacts,

Well, I don't think you will be able to do without the Outlook Address Book,
because I don't think there's another way to get at your contact data via
the address insertion function. I'm wondering whether adding the address
book later (when you already had contacts) may have contributed to the
problem. Have you added any addresses since you set up the Outlook Address
Book?

Peter Jamieson

 

[psale]

I finally tried to insert text directly for Word 2003's "Insert Address"
icon. Although I found a valid address within Contacts, nothing whatever
appears in the otherwise blank Word document.

I added a brand new entery to my Outlook 2003 Contacts, then attempted to
"insert" the address for that brand new entry into an otherwise blank
document. Still no joy.

Any other hints or suggestions are appreciated?
-
Peter Sale
USA