Alphabetizing contacts

[Guest]

I have successfully imported my address book from Outlook Express to my new
machine with Vista. But the listing is alphabetized by FIRST name!! Not
exactly helpful.

How do I re-organize the contact list by last name first?

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

I have successfully imported my address book from Outlook Express to my new
machine with Vista. But the listing is alphabetized by FIRST name!! Not
exactly helpful.

How do I re-organize the contact list by last name first?

Right click one of the column names, select Last Name and OK and then click
it.

 

[Guest]

But the addresses are not in columns. When I exported from Outlook Express
with Windows XP, I used the comma separated option. Should I do it some other
way?

 

[Dave]

Sounds like your Contacts folder is displaying the incorrect template.
Open Contacts
right-click on a blank area of the right pane,
select Customize This Folder
in the pull-down box, select Contacts
ok

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Dave. This sounded great. But when I do as you suggested, it's
already formatted as Contacts. I clicked it again, but no change.

So any other suggestions? I'm happy to re-export and import as I'm still
moving stuff from my old XP PC to the new Vista PC.

 

[Dave]

Open Contacts
Click on the down arrow beside Views, and select Details.
Do you see columns in the right pane?
Do you see Name | E-mail Address | Business Phone, etc.?

Thanks, Dave. This sounded great. But when I do as you suggested, it's
already formatted as Contacts. I clicked it again, but no change.

So any other suggestions? I'm happy to re-export and import as I'm still
moving stuff from my old XP PC to the new Vista PC.

 

[Guest]

-- OK - We're getting somewhere! Yes, I can get those columns - last name,
first name, etc. I think I've got it now, though it's in backwards
alphabetized order.

I've tried right clicking and sort by ascending, but it reverts to the old
display. Any hints on correcting that?

Also, when I close the contacts box and then re-open it, it re-opens in the
old way. When I then click on name, it will display correctly (though Z
first!).

Thanks for all your help.

Nancy in Massachusetts

 

[Larry Cohen]

Wow this is quite interesting.
When you open the Contacts, you have to Right Click on one of the column
headings (such as Name or E-mail Address)
This will show you the field names in the view you see.
If you click "More" at the bottom of the list, it will show you a list of
all the fields that can be shown in the view.
Click on a field name to check it (or uncheck it)
And you can move them to arrange them anyway you want (but you cannot delete
the column marked name - which shows up with the .contact at the end).
So I chose Full name, e-mail address, business phone, last name, first name,
and then "name" (by moving it down)

After you do this, the display will have all these fields, but still
alphabetized by "name" - but now you can select the column you want, such as
Last Name. Clicking that column will re-arrange the display to sort by that
column. Clicking that same column again will re-sort the other way (z-a).

So now you have the contacts sorted by last name.
If you close the contacts and then re-open it, it will again show the fields
you selected, sorted by that "name" column, and then it will refresh itself
by your column selection (last name).

Now here is where it gets interesting.
Suppose you want to find someone who works for ABC Company.
Click in the Search box, (or do Ctrl+E to move the cursor there).
Start typing ABC and the display will change to only show matching entries.
Of course this is resorted by that "name" column again.
But if you again Right click in any column heading, and reset the parameters
to what you want to see, it will set up again for what you want, and
remember this for next time you use search.

I think I can use this feature.

Larry

 

[Larry Cohen]

Sorry for splitting this up, but I am learning as I go along.
So now we can Alphabetize the contacts using Last Name (or any other field)
When we open the Contact list again, it shows up as Alphabetized by Name
again, but if you notice, the "busy" icon is spinning and the progress bar
at the top slowly (or fast) turns green and the list is then again
alphabetized by Last Name.

Now, if we close the contact list and click on Create a message, and then
click on the To, or CC or BCC icon, it opens the old style Outlook Express
contact list. Its alphabetized by first character and you cannot change it.
It also has a find box, that works on the first name, or if you open the
find function - you can select to search by name, email address, etc. A
slow process.
So instead of using the Create a message icon - click on the contact list.
After a few seconds it is alphabetized by your selection - such as last
name.
When you place the cursor on any entry, it is highlighted in light blue for
about a second, then it turns dark blue.
At this point, you can hold down the CTRL key and select other addresses the
same way. So you will eventually have multiple contact lines in dark blue.
(If you make a mistake, keep holding down the CTRL key - put the cursor on
the wrong entry and click it).
When you have all the entries you want, click the Email icon on the top row
(it appears as soon as you highlight the first entry). This will open a new
message template with all the addresses that you selected.

Now if you use the new Search field to find contacts matching something -
like the company name in the email address domain (for example
(e-mail address removed)) If you type abc.com or even abc may be enough, it will
show all the entries in the contact list that have this anywhere in the
contact - you do not have to select what field its in.
So let's say you then have 5 entries for people at abc.com. You want to
send to 3 of them.
If you move your cursor to any entry, it shows highlighted as light blue,
but does not change to dark blue, so you cannot select multiple entries. I
think this happens because the search function is still active, waiting for
more possible characters. So, if you click in the area below the listing
(where advanced is) - it seems to end the search. Now you can rest the
cursor on one entry and it will go to dark blue, and you can use the CTRL
key to select the 2 other addresses and then click to Email icon to create
the message.
You can also right click on an entry, and choose "Action" and then send
email.

Unfortunately I cannot find a way to use more than one search to get
multiple addresses from different companies to be in the same message.
Maybe someone else can figure out how to do that.

Larry Cohen

 

[Dave]

Sorry for splitting this up, but I am learning as I go along.
So now we can Alphabetize the contacts using Last Name (or any other
field)
When we open the Contact list again, it shows up as Alphabetized by Name
again, but if you notice, the "busy" icon is spinning and the progress bar
at the top slowly (or fast) turns green and the list is then again
alphabetized by Last Name.

Now, if we close the contact list and click on Create a message, and then
click on the To, or CC or BCC icon, it opens the old style Outlook Express
contact list. Its alphabetized by first character and you cannot change
it.

If you click on the Name header, it cycles thru 4 sorts (first,last up/down;
last,first up/down)

It also has a find box, that works on the first name, or if you open the
find function - you can select to search by name, email address, etc. A
slow process.
So instead of using the Create a message icon - click on the contact list.
After a few seconds it is alphabetized by your selection - such as last
name.
When you place the cursor on any entry, it is highlighted in light blue
for about a second, then it turns dark blue.
At this point, you can hold down the CTRL key and select other addresses
the same way. So you will eventually have multiple contact lines in dark
blue. (If you make a mistake, keep holding down the CTRL key - put the
cursor on the wrong entry and click it).
When you have all the entries you want, click the Email icon on the top
row (it appears as soon as you highlight the first entry). This will open
a new message template with all the addresses that you selected.

Now if you use the new Search field to find contacts matching something -
like the company name in the email address domain (for example
(e-mail address removed)) If you type abc.com or even abc may be enough, it will
show all the entries in the contact list that have this anywhere in the
contact - you do not have to select what field its in.
So let's say you then have 5 entries for people at abc.com. You want to
send to 3 of them.
If you move your cursor to any entry, it shows highlighted as light blue,
but does not change to dark blue, so you cannot select multiple entries.
I think this happens because the search function is still active, waiting
for more possible characters. So, if you click in the area below the
listing (where advanced is) - it seems to end the search. Now you can
rest the cursor on one entry and it will go to dark blue, and you can use
the CTRL key to select the 2 other addresses and then click to Email icon
to create the message.
You can also right click on an entry, and choose "Action" and then send
email.

Unfortunately I cannot find a way to use more than one search to get
multiple addresses from different companies to be in the same message.
Maybe someone else can figure out how to do that.

Larry Cohen

 

[j john]

Very good explanation. Helped imensely--jjs

Wow this is quite interesting.
When you open the Contacts, you have to Right Click on one of the column
headings (such as Name or E-mail Address)
This will show you the field names in the view you see.
If you click "More" at the bottom of the list, it will show you a list of
all the fields that can be shown in the view.
Click on a field name to check it (or uncheck it)
And you can move them to arrange them anyway you want (but you cannot delete
the column marked name - which shows up with the .contact at the end).
So I chose Full name, e-mail address, business phone, last name, first name,
and then "name" (by moving it down)

After you do this, the display will have all these fields, but still
alphabetized by "name" - but now you can select the column you want, such as
Last Name. Clicking that column will re-arrange the display to sort by that
column. Clicking that same column again will re-sort the other way (z-a).

So now you have the contacts sorted by last name.
If you close the contacts and then re-open it, it will again show the fields
you selected, sorted by that "name" column, and then it will refresh itself
by your column selection (last name).

Now here is where it gets interesting.
Suppose you want to find someone who works for ABC Company.
Click in the Search box, (or do Ctrl+E to move the cursor there).
Start typing ABC and the display will change to only show matching entries.
Of course this is resorted by that "name" column again.
But if you again Right click in any column heading, and reset the parameters
to what you want to see, it will set up again for what you want, and
remember this for next time you use search.

I think I can use this feature.

Larry

 

[tremac7]

how do I alphabetasize?

 

[Dave]

In the Contacts folder?
Change the View to Details.
Right-click on the Name column heading, click on First Name, then click on
Last Name
Click on the Last Name heading to sort by that, or click on First Name
heading to sort by that.


Or in a Create Mail window?
Click on To:
Click on the Name column heading... it cycles thru 4 different sorts

 

[kelownapc]

In each New Contact, choose full name. There are three options. If you chose last name, first, your contacts will be properly organized when you create a new email. >>
And in a Create Mail window
Click on To:
Click on the Name column heading... it cycles thru 4 different sorts