First, your Outlook Address Book Service is corrupt from "restoring" from
backup. I do not trust that utility. Fix that first. Remove the invalid
reference to a Contacts Folder from your Outlook Address Book here:
Tools > E-mail accounts > View or change existing directories or address
books > Outlook Address Book > Change.
Now read this primer so you can figure out where the rest of your trouble
is:
Autoresolution has been a feature in all versions of Outlook. Its purpose is
to resolve any name typed in the To: field of a new message to a valid
e-mail address. It searches all Outlook Contacts Folders that have been
enabled as email address books for potential matches and presents any
matches as potential recipients for the message. In the past, many users
have used autoresolution as a substitute for the autocompletion feature seen
in Outlook Express and other e-mail programs.
Outlook 2002 and 2003 added a true autocompletion feature to Outlook but
have also retained this earlier autoresolution feature. The combination of
these two features is awkward and can be confusing to novice users. Users
need to understand the differences between autoresolution and
autocompletion.
Autoresolution resolves the name you are typing in the To: field by
searching through your Contacts Folders to provide you with the correct
e-mail address. It is enabled by checking the box for "Automatic Name
checking" in "Advanced e-mail options." To use this feature, follow these
steps:
1.. Open a new message.
2.. In the To: field, type the first three letters of an e-mail address
that is stored in one of your contacts.
3.. Tab or click out of the field or on the "Tools" menu, click "Check
Name." You can also use the "Check Name" toolbar button (the one that has a
red check mark and a picture of a person) or press CTRL+K.
4.. If you have more than one listing matching the name you have typed,
the name you type will have a red wavy line below it. You can now
right-click the name and select the correct name from among the
possibilities presented. That choice will then be stored so that the next
time you compose a message using that name, the name will resolve
automatically. You will notice, however, that the name will now have a
dashed green underline instead of a solid underline just to let you know
that other possible matches exist in case you want to select another of the
possible matches.
When you resolve a name in Outlook 97-2000, that information is stored in a
file with a "nick" extension so that name resolutions will be remembered
from one session to the next.
Autocompletion is a feature that is new in Outlook 2002 and 2003. As you
begin to type a name in the To: field , Outlook offers to complete the entry
based on addresses, aliases, or names from e-mail messages that you have
previously sent. Note that this feature starts functioning immediately after
you have typed the first three letters in the To: field and does not require
that you Tab out of the field or hit CTRK+K. Also note that it does not use
your Contacts Folder as its data source but rather a cache of information
Outlook creates as you actually send messages. At first, the feature may
appear not to be working since it takes a while for Outlook to build its
cache. The autocompletion feature is enabled by default when you install
Outlook 2002 or 2003, but you can disable it by clicking "Options" on the
"Tools" menu, clicking "E-mail Options" on the "Preferences" tab, and then
clicking "Advanced E-mail Options," then uncheck "Suggest names while
completing."
In Outlook 2002 and 2003, both autoresolution and autocompletion features
function side by side. Curiously, both features store their data in the same
file. The file now has an "NK2" extension. Because both features are usually
in play, it is easy to get confused as to whether you are using
autocompletion or autoresolution. Just remember that autocompletion is in
play as soon as you have typed 3 or more letters (or just 1 letter in
Outlook 2003) in the To: field and remains in play until you click out of
the field or expressly invoke autoresolution by one of the methods listed
above. As long as one of the names suggested by the autocompletion feature
remains highlighted in the To: field dropdown, tabbing or clicking out of
the field will select that name as the sending address. If autocompletion
finds no matches in its cache (and therefore suggests no names) or if your
typing restricts the list so that no entries remain, then autocompletion is
no longer in play and autoresolution will take over once you tab or click
out of the field. In Outlook 2003, you can also invoke autoresolution at any
time by hitting "Escape" while typing in the To: field. Once autocompletion
is no longer in play, then Outlook will try to resolve the name you enter
against your various Contacts Folders, but not against the autocompletion
cache.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Steve said:
This worked fine until a couple weeks ago when I did a restore from a
back up by Selecting File | Backup from the menu bar which opened the
Outlook Personal Folder Backup dialogue box and clicked on Open.. to
select my backup file.
Can you explain the difference between autocomplete and autoresolution?
When I go to the Help index for Outlook 2000, autoresolution does not
exist.
For example, if I type Dav in the "To:" field of a new message, it
replaces it by Dave Smith and underlines it meaning it found the
associated email address. For other addresses, it doesn't even complete
the name.
I noticed that If I open my Address Book and go to the "Select Names
from the:" field, that are two folders both named Contacts list with
the second one highlighted. All my contacts are shown.
However, If I select the first Contacts folder, I get the following
popup message:
" The address list could not be displayed. The Contacts folder
associated with this address list could not be opened; it may have ben
moved or deleted."
Yet, I only have one Contacts Folder in my Folder, which cannot be
deleted. I don't want to delete it anyway because it contains all my
contact anyway. So doing the backup must have mucked up the file
pointers. How do I remove the first one from the list?
This still doesn't explain why Outlook can find some contacts and not
others since they're all in one folder.
I hope this provides you with the information you need to be of
assistance.
Thanks.
Russ said:
Provide more detail on how you are selecting addresses. It is not clear from
your brief description whether you are using autocompletion or
autoresolution.
Include any changes you have made to your information store and address book
service and whether they ever worked correctly.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
When I begin a new email message and enter a name in the "To:" field,
it autocompletes the name but is not underlined. When I click on Check
Names I get a message saying Outlook does recognize the name. When I
click on Show More Names and my Address book opens with the name that I
wanted highlighted. I click on Ok and and the name
becomes underlined and I can send my email.
Before it would just underline the name automatically without having to
go to my Address Book. My Contacts folders has the property "Show
folder as an email Address Book" checked.
Why is Outlook able to find a name automatically (since it
autocompletes it), but not be able to associate it automatically to an
email address?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
