By Diane Poremsky July 29, 2011
You’ll find some debate over which method is better for managing different types of contacts — have more than one Contacts folder (Personal, Business, etc.) or use one Contacts folder with categories. There are pluses and minuses for both.
Personally, I use a combination. I have a couple of separate Contacts folders that use special forms, plus I make extensive use of categories in my main Contacts folder.
Multiple Contacts Folders
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| Pluses | Minuses
|
- Group different types of contacts separately in the Outlook Address Book
- Use different forms for different types of contacts, each form specific to its folder
- Easily export a set of contacts for use on another machine
| - Automatic journaling takes place only for the main Contacts folder
- If a contact fits into two types (such as both Business and Personal), you may need to create duplicate entries.
|
One Contacts Folder, Multiple Categories |
| Pluses | Minuses
|
- Combine multiple categories into custom views for innumerable ways of looking at your Contacts
- Automatic journaling for all Contacts
| - Cannot use Categories to select items for a Word mail merge, except in Outlook 2000
- Cannot directly export a particular category; must copy to a separate folder first
- Cannot use Categories to filter when using the Outlook Address Book
|
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Last reviewed on Sep 10, 2011
Posted in Contacts | Tagged categories, color categories, dl |
A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999 and involved in IT support since 1985, Diane is the author of several books and video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in
Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.
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