associating a contact with an appointment

[B J W]

I see the Contacts button on the appointment entry form, and I assume
the idea is to use that to associate an appointment with a contact.

However, when I click on Contacts, I get a Select Contacts dialog box,
which shows as a first column, "File As" which I am not using in my
Contacts folder. For most of my Contacts, "File As" is blank. In
Contacts, I am sorting by Full Name.

Is there a way to make "Full Name" show up in Select Contacts? Or, is
there another way to associate Contacts with Appointments? Do I have to
initiate all appointments from the Contacts folder?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

No, you can't change the dialog. You can, however, just type in the person's
name.

 

[B J W]

No, you can't change the dialog. You can, however, just type in the person's
name.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

What is the point of having such a dialog box, if I have to type in the
person's name?

Basically, I have to use "File As"

As things happen, another bug makes it impossible to use "File As"

The consequence of all of this for me is that I will spend upwards of
six hours creating a new Windows/Office installation.

I am feeling powerless, and right this moment, I hate Microsoft and PCs
more than you can know.

When I get done reinstalling, it had better work, or when I return this
Pocket PC to Fry's, some poor manager is going to have listen to me
scream at the top of my lungs. Then again, maybe that poor sucker is
deaf already.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Why can't you use File As? Why are you rebuilding your machine?

FWIW, in terms of clicks and scrolls, in many cases it's faster to type a
name than select it.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[B J W]

Why can't you use File As? Why are you rebuilding your machine?

[All of this arises because I recently bought a Pocket PC 2003 (a
Viewsonic V36), and upgraded (prior to installing the V36 and ActiveSync
3.7.1) to Outlook 2003 from Outlook 2000.]

I cannot use "File As" because everytime I sync, "File As" breaks, and
thereafter, for all newly created contacts, Outlook and the Pocket PC
see "File As" as blank for purposes of display and sorting. On the
Contact form, where one enters data, "File As" is as it should be, and I
can enter data and Outlook remembers it. But, in Address Card views,
"File As" is blank, which is what makes the unalterable browse window
difficult to use in its default and apparently only configuration.

I thought I could use "Full Name" in Outlook instead of "File As", so
that Address Cards would sort properly and display a name, but there is
no way to substitute "Full Name" in the browse window used to associate
appointments to Contacts. Logically, the browse window ought to display
as a column, whatever one has used to sort Contacts; anything else, as
far as I judge the matter, is a defect in the program (bug), since it
renders the supposed customizability in the Contacts folder pretty much
useless.

I cannot believe, or I don't want to believe, that the Pocket PC, at
this stage in its development is intended to break "File As" or any
aspect of a .pst file. I have read several knowledge base articles,
which hint that Office upgrades frequently go terribly wrong; I know
that I have a persistent problem centered on evidently having the wrong
Mapi32.dll file unalterably stuck on my system. I speculate that there
are other problems of a similar nature at the bottom of the strange
behavior I have seen.

Doing "detect and repair" in Outlook, deleting Mapi32.dll to force its
reinstallation, doing a hard reset on the Pocket PC 2003, etc.
apparently are not enough.

Driven by a faith that a default factory settings installation of Office
2003 SR1, and ActiveSync 3.7.1 and Windows XP SP1+ all critical updates,
cannot possibly conspire to produce such buggy behavior, I am willing to
try.

But, woe betide that hapless Fry's executive if I fail. Merchantability
may not apply to software, thanks to the lobbying of Microsoft and its
colleagues, but it does to hardware, and I can at least have the dubious
consolation of accusing the fool of marketing a defective product.

Really, I don't know which is worse in these circumstances: the
unconscienable waste of time, or the rage, which follows from near total
powerlessness.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The form and the address card view use the same data for File As. What do
other views show? Have you tried creating a new view?

Are you setting File As manually for each contact? What format do you have
for the automatic File As in Tools | Options | Contact Options? What are the
symptoms of File As breaking when you sync?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

Why can't you use File As? Why are you rebuilding your machine?

[All of this arises because I recently bought a Pocket PC 2003 (a
Viewsonic V36), and upgraded (prior to installing the V36 and ActiveSync
3.7.1) to Outlook 2003 from Outlook 2000.]

I cannot use "File As" because everytime I sync, "File As" breaks, and
thereafter, for all newly created contacts, Outlook and the Pocket PC
see "File As" as blank for purposes of display and sorting. On the
Contact form, where one enters data, "File As" is as it should be, and I
can enter data and Outlook remembers it. But, in Address Card views,
"File As" is blank, which is what makes the unalterable browse window
difficult to use in its default and apparently only configuration.