Autocompleted Email Addresses

[TKS_Mark]

Email addresses automatically complete when typing the 1st letter(s) in the
"to", or "cc" fields of an Outlook email message. That's great. But why do
the autocomplete entries resemble those from other people's address books
instead of mine? For instance, the first time I send an email it is to
"Firstname Lastname ([email protected])", so I can see their full name, in
addition to their email address.

That works fine until I receive an email from somebody else who cc's that
same person but doesn't have as clean of a definition for their name. Once I
click "reply-to-all", Outlooks decides to redefine my autocomplete for that
contact. So now I have the truncated (e-mail address removed), which might not have
any relationship to the person's name.

How can I prevent Outlook from replacing my definition of a contact in the
autocomplete function with other users' cc definitions?

Thanks!

 

[Brian Tillman]

Email addresses automatically complete when typing the 1st letter(s)
in the "to", or "cc" fields of an Outlook email message. That's
great. But why do the autocomplete entries resemble those from other
people's address books instead of mine? For instance, the first time
I send an email it is to "Firstname Lastname ([email protected])", so
I can see their full name, in addition to their email address.

That works fine until I receive an email from somebody else who cc's
that same person but doesn't have as clean of a definition for their
name. Once I click "reply-to-all", Outlooks decides to redefine my
autocomplete for that contact. So now I have the truncated
(e-mail address removed), which might not have any relationship to the
person's name.

How can I prevent Outlook from replacing my definition of a contact
in the autocomplete function with other users' cc definitions?

The autocompletion cache has nothing whatsoever to do with your Contacts.
It simply remembers the addresses to which you've sent mail. It may be you
have two entries given your example. Start typing the original and see it
if appears as well.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

You don't as you didn't define it anywhere. It's just a cache of addresses
that have recently (up to a 1000 unique addresses) been used. It doesn't
reflect your Contacts folder in any way.

 

[TKS_Mark]

I understand that these entries have nothing to do with my contacts. But I'd
like to control them so they're defined by my inputs, and not other people's.
I guess this is a Microsoft request. In future, I wish Outlook would
preserve my entry for an autocomplete and ignore reply-to-all entries that
share the same email addresses.

Definition: My entry = an autocomplete based on my having either typed it
in completely, or selected it using the "to" button.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

No, your entry is what you used in an address field. You accepted the entry
field when your pressed the Send button when it was showing a certain entry.
There is no difference in whether you typed it, copied it, selected it, did
it programmatically or sneezed it in there in some other way; an entry is an
entry.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I understand that these entries have nothing to do with my contacts.
But I'd like to control them so they're defined by my inputs, and not
other people's.

They're defined by whatever you include in the recipient fields when you
send mail. If you don't like what someone else has included when you click
Reply, then delete it and add your own.

 

[Brian Tillman]

No, your entry is what you used in an address field. You accepted the
entry field when your pressed the Send button when it was showing a
certain entry. There is no difference in whether you typed it, copied
it, selected it, did it programmatically or sneezed it in there in
some other way; an entry is an entry.

Achoo!

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Hitting a letter, the down arrow key and the enter key in one sneeze with
enough force is not the issue. Hitting them in the correct order makes the
challenge ;-)

 

[Shelly]

How do you clear the cache of an incorrect address? This is the problem that
I am having. I had sent an email to an incorrect address and now everytime I
want to send a new message to the same contact it autofills with the
incorrect one first. I can scroll down to the correct one but this is a
pain. I have tried to highlight and delete when the list propugates but it
shows up again the next time. I am using Vista and windows mail but I also
have windows office installed. How do you clear the cache of an incorrect
autofill address?

Thanks,

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You don't scroll down to remove the bad address. Use your arrow key instead,
then hit your Delete key when the address is highlighted.

 

[Shelly]

Russ,

Excuse the inappropriate use of the word scroll, I actually meant to say
that I used the arrow key. I used the arrow key to highlight the one that I
wanted to delete. Nothing happened. I searched the web and found several
references to situations where the person had this same problem but no real
fix. I did find one statement that claimed that a Windows mail remembers the
last 20 addresses that you sent email to and I just have to wait it out.
This is what I am doing now but I have no idea if it will work.

You don't scroll down to remove the bad address. Use your arrow key instead,
then hit your Delete key when the address is highlighted.

--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

How do you clear the cache of an incorrect address? This is the problem
that
I am having. I had sent an email to an incorrect address and now
everytime I
want to send a new message to the same contact it autofills with the
incorrect one first. I can scroll down to the correct one but this is a
pain. I have tried to highlight and delete when the list propugates but
it
shows up again the next time. I am using Vista and windows mail but I
also
have windows office installed. How do you clear the cache of an incorrect
autofill address?

Thanks,

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

If you are actually using Outlook's autocompletion feature, then using the
arrow key and hitting delete works fine unless you have a corrupt Outlook
profile.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ,

Excuse the inappropriate use of the word scroll, I actually meant to say
that I used the arrow key. I used the arrow key to highlight the one that
I
wanted to delete. Nothing happened. I searched the web and found several
references to situations where the person had this same problem but no
real
fix. I did find one statement that claimed that a Windows mail remembers
the
last 20 addresses that you sent email to and I just have to wait it out.
This is what I am doing now but I have no idea if it will work.

You don't scroll down to remove the bad address. Use your arrow key
instead,
then hit your Delete key when the address is highlighted.

--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

How do you clear the cache of an incorrect address? This is the
problem
that
I am having. I had sent an email to an incorrect address and now
everytime I
want to send a new message to the same contact it autofills with the
incorrect one first. I can scroll down to the correct one but this is
a
pain. I have tried to highlight and delete when the list propugates
but
it
shows up again the next time. I am using Vista and windows mail but I
also
have windows office installed. How do you clear the cache of an
incorrect
autofill address?

Thanks,

:

You don't as you didn't define it anywhere. It's just a cache of
addresses
that have recently (up to a 1000 unique addresses) been used. It
doesn't
reflect your Contacts folder in any way.



-----

Email addresses automatically complete when typing the 1st letter(s)
in
the
"to", or "cc" fields of an Outlook email message. That's great.
But
why
do
the autocomplete entries resemble those from other people's address
books
instead of mine? For instance, the first time I send an email it is
to
"Firstname Lastname ([email protected])", so I can see their full
name,
in
addition to their email address.

That works fine until I receive an email from somebody else who cc's
that
same person but doesn't have as clean of a definition for their
name.
Once I
click "reply-to-all", Outlooks decides to redefine my autocomplete
for
that
contact. So now I have the truncated (e-mail address removed), which might
not
have
any relationship to the person's name.

How can I prevent Outlook from replacing my definition of a contact
in
the
autocomplete function with other users' cc definitions?

Thanks!