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Contacts and Address Book

Slipstick Systems

See Let Outlook decide the best message format to use to learn how to configure Outlook Contacts to choose the best message format for Internet addresses. In most cases, you should "Let Outlook decide".

We have instructions for adding contact photos to a large number of Contacts at Batch Import Photos into Outlook Contacts

Do you want to add more than 3 email addresses to an Outlook contact? See Contacts with more than three email addresses for one solution.

To add more contacts folders to Outlook and enable the new folders as an address book, see Create a new Contact folder and enable it as an Outlook Address Book.

Also see Business Contact Manager FAQ, Contacts Tools, and Contact Management Tools

Printing & Merging

  • Add Attachments and Set Email Fields During a Mail Merge
  • Create a Letter to a Contact using VBA
  • Create Envelopes and Letters using Word
  • How to Print an Exchange Distribution List
  • How to Print Outlook Address Books
  • Inserting Addresses into Word Documents
  • Printing Labels or Envelopes for Contacts
  • Start a Word letter from an Outlook contact

Distribution Lists

  • Add a Category to Contacts in a Contact Group
  • Create a Contact Group from a List of Addresses
  • Create a Contact Group to quickly send email to a multiple people
  • Create Individual Contacts from a Distribution List
  • Creating Distribution Lists from Address Lists
  • Find the Distribution Lists a Contact Belongs to
  • How to Forward a Contact Group
  • Import a distribution list from the PAB
  • Outlook and Exchange Distribution Lists
  • Send Messages Using Additional Office 365 Exchange Addresses
  • Use VBA to Create a List of Exchange GAL Members
  • Using Categories for Dynamic Distribution Lists
  • Using Large Distribution Lists

Address Book Display

  • Contacts are missing when you click the To button
  • Converting from a MAPI Address Book to Contacts
  • Copy GAL Addresses to Outlook and Make the GAL Portable
  • Display Public Folder and Other Contacts in the Address Book
  • Enable BCM Contacts as Outlook Address Book
  • Enabling the Contacts Folder as an Address Book
  • Hiding Global Address Book Fields
  • Imported Addresses are Missing from Address Book
  • Make the Address Book show only e-mail addresses, not fax numbers
  • Outlook Address Book Search Order
  • Outlook Contacts, Address Book, and Autocomplete
  • Outlook's Address Book is Empty
  • Quick Steps Address Book Bug (Fixed)
  • Understanding Outlook's Auto-Complete Cache (*.NK2)
  • Use VBA to Create a List of Exchange GAL Members

Name Resolution

Outlook use both auto-complete and auto-resolution to aid you in addresses messages.
See:

  • Can you control which addresses are listed in autocomplete?
  • Contact Groups aren’t listed in autocomplete
  • Could not complete the operation. One or more parameter values are not valid.
  • How to delete Autocomplete’s Other Suggestions
  • Moving Outlook's auto-complete address list to a new account
  • Suggested Contacts and Auto-Complete Lists
  • The (good) Autocomplete list is back
  • Understanding Outlook's Auto-Complete Cache (*.NK2)
  • Using Automatic name checking or Autocomplete

To remove a name from the auto-complete list in Outlook 2002 and up, press Delete when the name pops up as you type into the To box. To clean up the entire list, see: How to reset the nickname and the automatic completion caches in Outlook (MSKB)

Contact Form

  • Changing Outlook's Business Card layout
  • Show the Home Address on a Contact Form by Default

More from Outlookcode.com:

Microsoft Outlook Contact Forms -- quirks and limitations
Creating a "New Fax to Contact" Action
Changing the Display Order for Outlook Contacts
Required Categories Contact Form

Import/Export

  • Automatically Add Addresses to Outlook Contacts
  • Converting Addresses to or from Outlook
  • Converting from a MAPI Address Book to Contacts
  • Import vCards into Outlook
  • Transfer Outlook Contacts to Kindle Fire and Android tablets

Sharing

  • Shared Address Books
  • Sharing Outlook Calendar and Contacts

Other

  • Combine Duplicate Contact Items
  • How to Change the Mapping Service used by Outlook's Map Link
  • Problem: Opening a vCard Crashes Outlook
  • To Link an Outlook Item to a Contact
  • To Log a Phone Call to a Contact
Contacts and Address Book was last modified: October 10th, 2023 by Slipstick

Show the Home Address on a Contact Form by Default

How to customize Outlook Contacts so that the Home address is the default address for all new contacts.

Microsoft 365

The Clipboard is cleared when opening a Contact

When you open a Contact form, all data on the clipboard is cleared. If you look at the Office clipboard, you might see some icons in the clipboard, ahead of the text you copied. This is caused by add-ins which add icons to your toolbars. When the contact form loads, the addin pastes an icon  

Show Contact Linking fields in Outlook

Outlook has a neat feature called Contact Linking that allows you to link a contact with any appointment, task, other contacts, or even email. In Outlook 2013, you need to edit the registry to enable it.

remove preence

Using Outlook's New Contact Cards

How to customize the look and behavior of Outlook's new Contact cards. For Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013.

Contact Card does not update the user Title or Office in Outlook and OCS

When you hover over an address on an email message, the Outlook - OCS 2007 R2 integration displays incorrect user contact information. In this particular case, popup shows previous title of the user. The GAL is showing latest info.

Outlook and Exchange Distribution Lists

A distribution list is a group of e-mail addresses, usually grouped under a single e-mail address. When you send to a distribution list, you're really sending to everyone whose address is included in the list. It's much easier than picking 30 different addresses from the Address Book. Outlook 2000 and Later Distribution Lists | Global  

Save New Contacts to iCloud Contacts

Although you can't save new contacts directly in the iCloud contacts folder unless you select the iCloud Contacts folder before opening the new Contact form, there are a couple of options available to move new contacts to the iCloud.

Add as Address book

Contacts are missing when you click the To button

What to do if you have Contacts in Microsoft Outlook's Contacts folder but they are not accessible when you click on the To button.

Mail merge command in Outlook 2010/2013

Printing Labels or Envelopes for Contacts

How to use Microsoft Word to print labels and envelopes in several different ways, including mail merge. A mail merge using Outlook and Word can handle not just built-in fields, but also custom fields added to Contact items.

Change the FileAs format in Outlook's Contacts

Bulk Change File As Format for Contacts

Outlook Contacts offer a number of File As formats and this format can be used for the contact's name display in the Address Book. If you want to change the FileAs format on all of your contacts at once, you can use VBA. Complete, ready-to-use code is available.

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Recent Bugs List

Microsoft keeps a running list of issues affecting recently released updates at Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in classic Outlook (Windows).

For new Outlook for Windows:Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in new Outlook for Windows .

Outlook for Mac Recent issues: Fixes or workarounds for recent issues in Outlook for Mac

Outlook.com Recent issues: Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com

Office Update History

Update history for supported Office versions is at Update history for Office

Outlook Suggestions and Feedback

Outlook Feedback covers Outlook as an email client, including Outlook Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows clients, as well as the browser extension (PWA) and Outlook on the web.

Outlook (new) Feedback. Use this for feedback and suggestions for Outlook (new).

Use Outlook.com Feedback for suggestions or feedback about Outlook.com accounts.

Other Microsoft 365 applications and services

New Outlook Articles

Urban legend: Microsoft Deletes Old Outlook.com Messages

Buttons in the New Message Notifications

Move Deleted Items to Another Folder Automatically

Open Outlook Templates using PowerShell

Count and List Folders in Classic Outlook

Google Workspace and Outlook with POP Mail

Import EML Files into New Outlook

Opening PST files in New Outlook

New Outlook: Show To, CC, BCC in Replies

Insert Word Document into Email using VBA

Newest Code Samples

Open Outlook Templates using PowerShell

Count and List Folders in Classic Outlook

Insert Word Document into Email using VBA

Warn Before Deleting a Contact

Use PowerShell to Delete Attachments

Remove RE:, FWD:, and Other Prefixes from Subject Line

Change the Mailing Address Using PowerShell

Categorize @Mentioned Messages

Send an Email When You Open Outlook

Delete Old Calendar Events using VBA

Repair PST

Convert an OST to PST

Repair damaged PST file

Repair large PST File

Remove password from PST

Merge Two Data Files

Sync & Share Outlook Data

  • Share Calendar & Contacts
  • Synchronize two computers
  • Sync Calendar and Contacts Using Outlook.com
  • Sync Outlook & Android Devices
  • Sync Google Calendar with Outlook
  • Access Folders in Other Users Mailboxes

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