Coordinating Outlook Contacts and the Personal Address Book
A Slipstick
Systems Exchange Center visitor writes:
How do I get my Personal Address Book and my Contact
information to work together? When I add an e-mail
address to one, the information does not automatically
appear in the other. I have to add the same information
twice whenever I put someone new in the database.
The Personal Address Book (PAB) is a service available
in Outlook 97 and 2002 and in Outlook 98 or 2000 running in Corporate/Workgroup
mode. (If you're using Outlook 98 or 2000 in Internet
Mail Only, this discussion does not apply to you.) In Outlook
97 and 98 (CW mode), it was the only way to have distribution lists.
However, in Outlook 2000 and 2002, the PAB is essentially obsolete.
There isn't anything you can do in the PAB that you can't do in an
Outlook contacts folder, so Outlook will offer to import your PAB
for you, so that you don't have the confusion of two different
places to store addresses.
You don't need to keep every e-mail address in both
places. It's best to choose one or the other location for
adding new recipients. So what should you do? It's really
up to you. There are three different possibilities:
Plan #1: Ignore the Contacts
folder and stick to the Personal Address Book -- not recommended Plan #2: Add new contacts to the
Contacts folder and eventually migrate most of the PAB Plan #3: Migrate the entire PAB --
recommended for Outlook 2000 and 2002
Ignore the Contacts folder and stick to the Personal
Address Book
I can't recommend this plan, because it misses a lot of
the point of upgrading to Microsoft Outlook. You won't be
able to create Journal entries from contacts, drag a
message to Contacts to create a new entry, or use many of
Outlook's other features involving Contacts.
If you insist, though, the way to implement this is to
remove the Outlook Address Book from your profile. You
will not be able to remove the Contacts folder. That's
required as part of Outlook.
To add new contacts to the PAB, right-click names on
incoming messages and choose Add to Personal
Address Book. Starting in Outlook 2002, there is no
explicit Add to Personal Address Book command, however.
Instead, you'll see an Add to Contacts command.
Plan #2
Add new contacts to the Contacts folder and eventually
migrate most of the PAB
If you're not in a hurry, this is a fine way to get
started. Follow these steps:
Add the Outlook Address Book to your profile, if it
isn't there already.
Choose Tools | Services and switch
to the Addressing tab. (In Outlook 2002, choose
Tools | Address Book, then in the Address Book dialog,
choose Tools | Options.)
Under Show this address list first,
you can choose either Contacts or Personal Address
Book. This setting governs which list you see first
when you open the Address Book. I'd recommend that you
use Contacts.
Under When sending mail, check names...,
add Contacts. The address list that you use the most
should be the one at the top, whether that's Contacts,
your PAB, or a global or postoffice list.
To add new names from e-mail
messages to the Contacts folder, use either of these
techniques:
Drag an incoming message to the Contacts icon. A new
item will be created with the name and e-mail address
of the person in the From field.
In an open message, right-click a name in any of the
address fields and choose Add to Contacts.
When you've used Contacts for a while and feel ready to
migrate the PAB, follow the steps in Plan #3.
Plan #3
Migrate the entire PAB
You're ready to take the plunge and start using
Microsoft Outlook Contacts to the fullest. First, you need
to follow Steps 1-5 under Plan #2,
using Contacts in Steps 4 and 5 for the Show the
address first and top When sending mail,
check names... setting.
Next, it's time to import the
PAB into the Contacts folder (thanks to Robert Kniffin for
steps 10-14, which enable you to see the actual e-mail
addresses in the Contacts records):
In Tools | Services, bring up the
properties for the Personal Address Book service and
make a note of the location and file name. The PAB
that you want to import from must be part of your
profile.
Use File | Exit and Log Out to
completely quit Microsoft Outlook.
In Windows Explorer, make a copy of the PAB file.
(It might be called "Copy of Mailbox.pab.")
Start Outlook again.
Bring up the Address Book and open it to the
Personal Address Book.
If you are using Outlook 97 or Outlook 98, delete
any distribution lists. (This is to prevent a problem
with duplicate
addresses in Contacts.)
In the Outlook Viewer, choose File | Import
and Export, then Import from
Schedule+ or another program or file (obvious,
huh?), then click Next..
In the Import a File dialog box,
select Personal Address Book, then
click Next.
Select Contacts as the destination folder, then
click Next.
Click Map Custom Fields.
On the Map Custom Fields dialog
box, click Default Map.
On the left (From:) side, click the
+ sign next to E-mail to expand it. Do the same thing
for the E-mail field on the right (To:)
side.
Drag E-mail Address from the left (From:)
side, and drop it on E-mail Displa...
on the right (To:) side.
Click OK to close the Map
Custom Fields dialog box.
Click Finish to perform the import.
In Outlook 97 and 98, in Tools | Services,
bring up the properties for the Personal Address Book
service and change the file name to the copy of the
PAB file you made in Step 3. In Outlook 2000, you can
remove the PAB service. In Outlook 2002, you'll have Tools |
E-mail Accounts instead of Tools | Services.
If you've followed the above procedures, your Address
Book is now set up to work like this:
When you type a name in the To box,
the Contacts folder will be checked first for matching
names, then the Personal Address Book.
When you open the Address Book, Contacts is the
first address list displayed.
In Outlook 97 and 98, the PAB contains duplicates of
the e-mail addresses you've now imported into
Contacts, but this doesn't really matter, since
Outlook will check Contacts first. As you find the
time, you can go through the PAB and delete the old
e-mail addresses for individuals, leaving only those
for personal distribution lists.
Contacts Issues
