Outlook 2k3 contact sorting

[tony]

In outlook 2k3 i am having an issue with a client where his cantact
information is not being sorted properly. I have checked to make sure
all fields have been entered coreclty however when it sorts some of
them are sorted wrong by using the first name not the last name. About
95% of his contacts are sorted correctly, however the other 5% is
sorted wrong. I have changed the sort to just the last name and to
show only the last name, however it will still use the first name to do
a sort. For example someone with the name Paul Z**** will be listed
under the "P"'s and not the "Z"'s. I hope I have given enough
information, but if i havnt please let me know.



Thank you


Tont Manzi

technician

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You provided neither the view you are trying to sort, nor the field on which
you are trying to sort. The permutations are almost endless.

 

[tony]

You provided neither the view you are trying to sort, nor the field on which
you are trying to sort. The permutations are almost endless.

Sorry I did not make that clear in my previous post, No matter what
view i am using when i try to sort by last name, about 5% of their
contacts use the First name of their contact not the last name.


Tony

 

[JC HARRIS]

Since 95% of the names are being sorted correctly, my instinct is to say
that the other 5% must have something wrong in the entry that is causing
this. I would really look inot the names of the cntacts and make sure you
have selected sort by last name, or Display as Last Name, First Name. It has
to be something different in those entries.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

So I shall assume you mean a view of the Contacts Folder, and not the
address book, right? If you use the Full Name... dialog to parse the name
elements of a Contact that isn't sorting correctly, what do you see there?
Are any of these problem Contacts ones that contain a name of 4 letters or
less?

 

[tony]

Well i checked all the data and parsed the name elements of the
contacts that were bad and all looked correctly. After just trying
different things to see if they would work, i found something, first
the obvious if i change it so the last name was the first and the first
name the last it would sort correctly. I then checked the full name
and changed it back to the propper name and it would sort correctly.
This lead me to some data corruption/issue in the name field as
suggested before...but again all looked good. I then just for giggles
just changed teh suffux of the name to "Mr." and after that it sorted
correctly. Dont know what to do from there but if anything pops into
mind please let me know.

tony

So I shall assume you mean a view of the Contacts Folder, and not the
address book, right? If you use the Full Name... dialog to parse the name
elements of a Contact that isn't sorting correctly, what do you see there?
Are any of these problem Contacts ones that contain a name of 4 letters or
less?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Sorry I did not make that clear in my previous post, No matter what
view i am using when i try to sort by last name, about 5% of their
contacts use the First name of their contact not the last name.


Tony

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

There is no pattern here to permit a definitive answer. I can only tell you
that sorting on name fields can become problematic when Contacts were
created in previous version of Outlook, when Contacts were imported, and
when Name fields are unusually short. I suspect one or more of those may
have been in play. It is not hard to confuse Outlook.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Well i checked all the data and parsed the name elements of the
contacts that were bad and all looked correctly. After just trying
different things to see if they would work, i found something, first
the obvious if i change it so the last name was the first and the first
name the last it would sort correctly. I then checked the full name
and changed it back to the propper name and it would sort correctly.
This lead me to some data corruption/issue in the name field as
suggested before...but again all looked good. I then just for giggles
just changed teh suffux of the name to "Mr." and after that it sorted
correctly. Dont know what to do from there but if anything pops into
mind please let me know.

tony

So I shall assume you mean a view of the Contacts Folder, and not the
address book, right? If you use the Full Name... dialog to parse the name
elements of a Contact that isn't sorting correctly, what do you see
there?
Are any of these problem Contacts ones that contain a name of 4 letters
or
less?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote:
You provided neither the view you are trying to sort, nor the field on
which
you are trying to sort. The permutations are almost endless.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Sorry I did not make that clear in my previous post, No matter what
view i am using when i try to sort by last name, about 5% of their
contacts use the First name of their contact not the last name.


Tony