Users of all versions of Microsoft Outlook except Outlook 98 and 2000 in Internet Mail Only mode can create more than one profile containing different email accounts and data stores. For example, a couple sharing a home computer might want his and hers profiles. (See Sharing Microsoft Outlook on One PC for more ideas about this scenario.) Outlook provides automatic setting to display the name of the profile currently in use, but it’s not difficult to use one of several profile-specific sets of settings to accomplish this.

Outlook Bar | Favorite Folders | Send/Receive Groups | More Information

Outlook Bar

In Microsoft Outlook 2002 and earlier versions, an easy way to show the profile name is to right-click the name of the top group in the Outlook Bar, choose Rename, and change the name of that group from Outlook Shortcuts to the profile name. This works because the Outlook Bar shortcuts are specific to each profile.

Outlook 2003, however, makes the Outlook Bar almost obsolete. You can still view it as a collection of shortcuts, but not as a bar, by clicking the Shortcuts icon at the bottom of the navigation pane. But, unless you plan to use the Shortcuts list as your main Outlook 2003 navigation tool, you should consider using one of the other two methods to display the current profile name.

Favorite Folders

In Outlook 2003, but not previous versions, the Outlook navigation pane displays a Favorite Folders section at the top. A new profile’s Favorite Folders area always includes the Unread Mail and For Follow Up search folders. You can rename one of those folders to reflect the profile name. For example, if your primary Outlook profile is named Main, you could rename the Unread Folders search folder to Main – Unread Folders.

Send/Receive Groups

If have Outlook 2002 or 2003 and do not ‘t need to see the profile name constantly, you could rename the primary send/receive group. Choose Tools | Send/Receive Settings | Define Send/Receive Groups. Select the All Accounts group, and then click Rename and give it a new name, such as Main Accounts to match a profile named Main. With this change, you can check the profile name by choosing Tools | Send/Receive to see the list of send/receive groups. This technique also works in Outlook 2002, which has profile-specific send/receive groups.

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Last reviewed on Sep 10, 2011