Where does Outlook store names used in suggest names?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kathy
  • Start date Start date
K

Kathy

If you select suggest names while completing To, Cc, and
Bcc fields in tools/options/email options/advanced email
options; where does it store those names? More
importantly, how can you edit them? If you get one in
there that is incorrect, how do you get rid of it?
 
hi russ

your reply is helpful. however, there are other questions as to this
suggest names feature.

How do you edit this Suggest Names list? In particular,

A. Suppose you want to stop Outlook from suggesting a particular name
because it is not current anymore. Worse, you might inadvertantly
click on it and send msg to somebody you don't want to receive it. Is
there a way to delete Suggest Names you no longer want to appear in the
list? [answered by you, thank you]

B. What is the logic for names suggested? Why does Outlook sometimes
suggest a name not utilized for 2 years while passing over a name to
whom an email was sent 5 minutes ago. Is there any way to fine tune
this by, say, making rules as to how suggested names are chosen?

C. By the way, this feature was better under Outlook 2000 where the
names were underlined in red or green and you had a choice to select
Check (Additional) Names. The underlines and such selection is not
available under Outlook 2002, near as I can determine, and that is
unfortunate since if you don't like the 2-3 names Suggested, you have
to (I believe) just put 2+ letters to confuse Outlook, delete the
remaining blue highlighted letters so you are just left with 2+ letters
not matching a particular name, then click send, and only upon being
confused will Outlook give you the Check Names dialog to work with.
(that is, unless you are unfortunate to pick 2+ letters which Outlook
is sure exactly matches a name, in which case it will immediately send
your email out, whether you like it or not!) Any tips on how to bring
up Additional Names less cumbersomely in Outlook 2002?

D. BTW, when I click the Check Names icon, nothing happens, so this is
of no help.

E. Is there any add-on or patch or freeware which will correct this
problem with 2002, which was handled much better in 2000? Or perhaps
there is something I am doing wrong which you can suggest a fix for.
Is there a utility akin to scan.pst which magically manages these
mysterious files which Microsoft gives no civilized way of managing?

A prompt reply will be appreciated. Just this morning and email flew
to the wrong person because of these problems. Tx and brgds.
 
outlook 2002. this is the suggest names feature you have advised many
others about. i have read all your other posts on this subject for the
past 6 months so i'm well aware of what features were dropped/added in
2002 vs. 2000.

another question, under outlook 2000, the suggested name Tom Jones also
had his email address in paren Tom Jones ([email protected])

this was handy if there are 5 Tom Jones suggested.

any way to make the parenthetical info appear in the Suggest Names
list?

pls. answer my other questions below which are hopefully
self-explanatory. tx and brgds.
 
You are confusing automatic completion with autoresolution. Outlook 2000 had
only the latter. Outlook 2002 and above have both.
If you want things the way they were in Outlook 2000, turn off
autocompletion (Suggest Names) and enable only autoresolution (Automatic
Name checking).
 
hi russ

i've been away and just returned.

may i respectfully request that, rather than trying to blow me away
with a curt reply that i am confused, you answer my detailed questions,
which i took quite a bit of time in composing. i'm not as confused as
you think. i realize you're a volunteer, but you could be more helpful
as an mvp by answering the following:

1. you say "If you want things the way they were in Outlook 2000, turn
off
autocompletion (Suggest Names) and enable only autoresolution
(Automatic
Name checking)." i don't think this is accurate. if you uncheck
suggest names, you still don't get back to outlook 2000 which
automatically checked names, gave you a few (with full email address in
parenthesis) and invited you to go to another dialog box if you wanted
more names. also, under outlook 2000, the names had red or green
underlines (i know what these underlines meant so no need to lecture
me) and, again, unchecking Autocompletion does not revert Outlook 2002
to Outlook 2000-style in this respect. in short, reverting to Outlook
2000-stlye does not happen when you do as you suggest by merely
unchecking.

therefore the question again, is: is there any way under
Autocompletion (suggest names) to require the program to give the full
email address in parenthesis so there is no confusion as to duplicative
nicknames, and is there any way to require the program at the end of
the suggest names list to have an option to bring on the Autoresolution
dialog box if the desired name is not shown by Autocomplete? is there
any way to go back to the red and green underlines as in Outlook 2000
which does NOT happen merely by unchecking Autocompletion as you
suggest. pls. just answer the questions rather than an attempted
blowoff. thank you.

2. under Autocompletion (suggest names), what is the logic for names
suggested? Why does Outlook sometimes suggest a name not utilized for 2
years while passing over a name to whom an email was sent 5 minutes
ago. Is there any way to fine tune this by, say, making rules as to how
suggested names are chosen?

don't mean any disrespect and appreciate your help. tx and brgds.
 
It is not possible to answer your question more accurately or in more detail
than I did because you have left out too many details as to exactly how you
are entering addresses (autoresolution VS autocompletion) and exactly how
your Display Names are configured (which was changed in Outlook 2002).
Moreover, you are asking to change several different behaviors at the same
time. The format of the email address, for example, is controlled by the
Display Name field, which you would have to change manually. Finally, the
hierarchy and logic of how the autocompletion cache is searched is not
documented.

However, autoresolution does work the same in Outlook 2002 as it did in
previous versions, and it sounded to me as if that were the feature you
preferred to use, hence my suggestion. The only difference I have found is
that early builds of Outlook 2002 failed to store manual autoresolutions
consistently in the autocompletion cache.

I'll post the primer on how the two features differ and how to use each.
You'll have to experiment with your own settings and with modifying your own
name cache and Contacts data to try to get the results you want. For most
users these are not critical issues since autocompletion largely replaces
the need for autoresolution once you have built up a good autocompletion
cache.

Here is your primer. Just remember, your mileage may vary:

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.
 
Are you sure you have the Outlook Address Book Service installed and
configured in your profile?
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;287563&Product=ol2002

If so, are you either tabbing out of the To: field or invoking the Check
Names feature from the Toolbar? Autoresolution won't start until you do one
of those two things.

Autocompletion is a different feature that tries to complete the name while
you are still typing in the To: field. It doesn't use your Contacts, so you
won't see it working until you have sent enough messages to have populated
your autocompletion cache.

--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Julia W said:
I have read the email threads about autocheck and autocompletion. I am
Click to expand...
relatively a novice, and we just upgraded to 2002. My emails are not
finding email addresses from my mutiple address folders. I have checked
autocheck because I know where that is - tools, options, preferences,
advanced email options, etc. This is not helping. Do I need to do that
autocompletion you suggest, and if so, how?
I just want to type part of a name, and have it give me options, or
Click to expand...
underline it to tell me there are several, or even give a pull down list,
but right now it is not doing anything.
 
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