An often asked question about Microsoft Outlook 2007 & 2010's Business card layout is how to change it for all contacts. While you can't globally change existing contacts directly, you can change the default which is used for new contacts by creating a custom contact form with the desired business card layout and publish it. Set it as the default Contacts form for new Contacts.
To apply the layout of the new business card to existing contacts, see Code Sample 3: Change the business card layout to match the selected contact.
Editing the Business Card
You can edit the business card on individual contacts to add images, background colors, or change the fields displayed.
Open a contact then double click on the business card image or click on the Business Card command on the ribbon (visible in screenshot above) to open the Business Card editor.
When a contact photo exists, Outlook will use it on the business card or you can add a logo or other image to the card.
Use the business card editor to re-arrange the fields, change the font attributes, add a background color, or position the image.
Create a custom form
- Open a new Contact form and edit it as desired.
Do not add names, addresses or phone numbers in this form. Change only the business card or other features you want applied to all future contacts. - Go to the Office icon, Editor Options and enable the Developer tab (File tab, Options in Outlook 2010)
- From the Developer tab, choose Publish form ashttp://www.slipstick.com.
- Publish the form to Outlook Folders
Using the custom form
Right click on the Contact folder, choose Properties and set the newly created custom form as the default form for the folder.
When you click New Contact, you'll use this form and all newly created contacts will use the new layout.
You can't change the form used by existing contacts, well, you can change the form, but the new business card layout won't be used. Use a tool listed below to change the message class to the new form.
See Using Custom Business Cards for more information on how to use a custom business card with new contacts.
More Information
Create an Electronic Business Card – watch and learn (Microsoft)
Custom Business Card Forms (Microsoft Office Online)
Customize and Share Business Cards (MSDN)
Articles that may interest you:
Last reviewed on Sep 1, 2011
That is a very bad alternative. Your developers should develop something that is more useful for your clients.
I have over 3000 contacts, I guess I should go and individually change them all!
The business card is the only thing that doesn’t change when you switch to a new contact form because they don’t want to risk replacing existing data – in this case, business cards you’ve customized to include photos or logos. It may be possible to change the card using VBA – AddBusinessCardLogoPicture(). Unfortunately, I don’t have any code samples that do this.
As an FYI – i cobbled together some code that will bulk change the business card image. The current version of the code keeps the current image size and placement.
Hi Diane,
I list my business contacts in outlook by company.
for example “Hotel – Auckland – Sunshine hotel”.
I will also produce a catergory “accomodation” and assign it.
I will then adjust the display as so that the order is the same as above.
However outlook will often revert my listing back to “-Auckland – Sunshine, Hotel” and also delete my catergory for some reason.
Do you have any advice how I can avoid this happening? I have re catergorised my 1000+ contacts on a number of occasions and am getting over it. Seems like an outlook glitch to me.
Thanks