auto fill in with different contact lists

[Shades]

I have OL2k7.

My company has a "global" contact list with contacts for all employees. I
also have my personal contact list of family, friends and personal business
contacts. when i start a new mail, and in the To: field when i start typing
a name, it will auto fill an address. what i want is it for it to default to
my local contats first. i.e. i want 'Dad' to be an email to my father, not
"Dadson, John" (not a real name, but you get the point)

in my personal contacts my dad has his first/last name, but the display name
is "Dad" how do i get outlook to realize when i put "dad" in the To" field i
want my father and not a guy from a different office?

thanks

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

My company has a "global" contact list with contacts for all employees. I
also have my personal contact list of family, friends and personal business
contacts. when i start a new mail, and in the To: field when i start typing
a name, it will auto fill an address. what i want is it for it to default
to
my local contats first. i.e. i want 'Dad' to be an email to my father, not
"Dadson, John" (not a real name, but you get the point)

First, Outlook doesn't have contact "lists". It has contact folders. Second,
the suggestions that pop up when you start typing in the To field are not
connected in any way to your contacts. Those suggestions, the "autocompletion
cache", are simply a cache of the last 2,000 addresses to which you've sent
mail, whether or not they're in any Contacts folder.

in my personal contacts my dad has his first/last name, but the display name
is "Dad" how do i get outlook to realize when i put "dad" in the To" field
i
want my father and not a guy from a different office?

If you ever replied to a message sent by someone who had his display name set
as "Dad", then that display name will be added to your autocompletion cache
and the next time you start typing "D" in the contact field, it will display
in the suggestion list as one of the choices.

If you want a specific address in the To field, enter the first three
characters if the contact's File As value and press Ctrl+K or open your
Contacts folder, select the contact you want and click Actions>Create>New
Message to Contact.

 

[Shades]

Thanks for the reply.

for clarification
1) is there a way to turn off the auto completion?

2) if i do the CTRL+K i get two entried (dad, Dadson) does this relate to
the auto complete? does turning off AC change how this function will work?

thanks

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

for clarification
1) is there a way to turn off the auto completion?

Certainly. Tools>Options>E-mail Options>Advanced E-mail Options. Uncheck
"Suggest names while completing To, Cc, and Bcc fields".

2) if i do the CTRL+K i get two entried (dad, Dadson) does this relate to
the auto complete? does turning off AC change how this function will work?

If Ctrl-K detects two contacts that start with the same string, it will
present them both to you so you can choose the correct one.