Auto Complete Email addresses

[Bob]

The inconsistency of Outlook 2007 (and for that matter, all previous versions of this software that I have used) in auto-completing email addresses correctly just kills me.

Is it something I am doing wrong?

This is while composing a new email and typing the first letter of someones name or email into the "TO" field. Sometimes it recognizes and auto-completes it, sometimes it doesn't.

There does not seem to be any logical nor consistent pattern to whether it will or wont.

If I've emailed with the person before, there is a HIGHER chance that it will recognize and auto complete.

But many times, people who I have emailed back and forth with for literally *YEARS* it still doesn't "know" them. VERY frustrating!

I finally gave in, assuming the problem was that I dont have an organized "contact" list. I created one, carefully formatted EVERYONEs names, email addresses, and "Display Names" exactly how they should be.

There are people who I have emailed with for YEARs who are now actually *IN* my contacts list and still Outlook doesn't auto complete their display name or email address. Yet others? It will auto complete no problem.

Someone named Joann who i have been emailing with for nearly 5 years ... she is in my contacts also ... i have to click "TO" and find her on the list, just to send her an email. Every time. It simply wont complete her email for me when I type "J" or even the first letter of her email which is "b".

Why?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Start by familiarizing yourself with the well documented algorithm that
autocompletion uses. Then convince us the algorithm is not being followed.
http://www.ingressor.com/autocompletetips.htm

 

[Bob]

Deal. But let me just say before we get started - just bcause the way it works has been explained - that does not mean it works properly. It also does not mean that it should NOT be changed. I can tell you without even reading this article yet, that the auto complete does not work the way it SHOULD.

If your auto-complete is going to completely ignore your contacts list and everyone you've communicated with, then the person who designed it is a monumental idiot. Auto complete by definition is supposed to RECALL things youve done prveiously. Every single password & username field, and every single search engine on the internet works this way. Its basic autocompelete functionality. If its not happening like this in Outlook, then its not working right. Even if they intentionally built it to "suck".

So the first issue:

"Autocompletion searches the Autocompletion database file known as the NK2 file."

This is the premise we should work with. There is a database. The obvious question, then, is - how do things end up in the database? The article says it intentionally IGNORES the contacts list. That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. If it should be pulling it from ANYWHERE first and foremost, it should be pulling it from the contacts list. Secondly youd think it would pull from previous email correspondence. But it doesn't. Again, someone actually sat down and said "Lets put together an auto complete database, and ignore the contacts, and everyone this person has communicated with".

Brilliant.

Secondly - it claims that "AUTO COMPLETE" and "AUTO RESOLUTION" are two different functions, and the latter uses the contact list. Wrong. I have both enabled, and I just typed "P" into a new email. I have "PETER TAKAS" in my contacts. Absolutely nothing was suggested. Even typed PETER and nothing was suggested still. So maybe now we have our "bug".

My point here was that it is not consistent. One day it WILL FIND Peter when I type a "P". Another day it wont. Sometimes it will find him if I type the first letter of his email address, which is a "T" but it wont find him if I type the "P". Today it doesn't find him whether I type P or T...

IRONICALLY ... if I add him manually via the contacts, then open a new email, and type a "P" .. it instantly finds him via auto-resolution and/or auto-complete. And it has in the past suggested PETER when i have typed P. Just not today, not right now.

Make sense?

Did I miss something in the article? Does the N2K file delete itself when you close and reopen outlook?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Clearly you have not read and understood the article. Nor have you provided
any evidence that the feature is not working as designed. You can take any
issue you want with the way it is designed. No one here can change that, and
few see any need to once we understand how it works and how to use it. We
can use both autocompletion and autoresolution, depending on which suits our
needs best.
You still seem to be confused over the difference between autoresolution and
autocompletion. Perhaps you need more information:
http://home.indy.rr.com/russval/autocompletion.htm

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP (OneNote)]

The NK2 file is built as you type addresses into Outlook. If I send
e-mail to "(e-mail address removed)" then next time I type "JO" it will suggest
Joe. The .NK2 file persists across Outlook sessions unless it is
manually deleted or moved.

The AutoResolve feature checks your Outlook Address Book (which usually
includes your Contacts folder) and attempts to automatically complete
names you've typed. In your example below if you type "P" or better
"Pe" or better "Pet" it will give you a list of all the contacts in your
address book that match. Best if you can type enough to be unique -
then it will just put that address into your To field.

If names in your Contacts folder aren't being suggested by AutoResolve
then you probably don't have your Contacts folder in your Outlook
Address Book. Right-click the Contacts folder, choose Properties |
Outlook Address Book and check the box.

--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
http://www.officeforlawyers.com
Author - The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/5m3f5q

 

[Bob]

[quote title=russval wrote on Wed, 25 June 2008 20:52]Clearly you have not read and understood the article. Nor have you provided
any evidence that the feature is not working as designed. You can take any
issue you want with the way it is designed. No one here can change that, and
few see any need to once we understand how it works and how to use it. We
can use both autocompletion and autoresolution, depending on which suits our
needs best.
You still seem to be confused over the difference between autoresolution and
autocompletion. Perhaps you need more information:
http://home.indy.rr.com/russval/autocompletion.htm
--
Russ Valentine

Perhaps you should drop the attitude and tell me what it is that this CEO of a corporation is too dumb to comprehend, rather than waste my time telling me that I am too dumb to read and understand an article. If you know the answer, and you just don't feel like providing the answer, then don't comment at all. If you'd like to provide support on this "support forum" then by all means, say something helpful. Wasting a paragraph of your life and this board telling me that I am "still not getting it" is not getting me any closer to "getting it".

Got it?

One thing I am smart enough to know is that the way it was designed qualifies as "improperly" and when you finally bother to explain what I am not getting, I am willing to bet that this is going to end up being a *DESIGN* issue, verifying and confirming everything I have said. That the tool does not work logically nor consistently.

You have yet to prove that I am wrong about this as well, by the way.

 

[Bob]

bens wrote on Wed, 25 June 2008 19:55

If I send
e-mail to "(e-mail address removed)" then next time I type "JO" it will suggest Joe.

If you had read my previous messages, I covered this. I have not only typed "joe" in the box, but I have added "joe" to the box from contacts, and i have received emails from "Joe" and replied to emails from "joe" for nearly 2 years and it still *does not suggest joe* consistently. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I covered this above, but mister Russ seems to believe I'm just "not getting it".

Quote:

The .NK2 file persists across Outlook sessions unless it is manually deleted or moved.

Explain to me why, immediately above your post, I demonstrated that the tool did not suggest a name until I added it via the "TO" button, and then suggested the name, for someone I have been emailing (and added via the "TO" button) for 2 years now?

Quote:

The AutoResolve feature checks your Outlook Address Book (which usually includes your Contacts folder) and attempts to automatically complete names you've typed. In your example below if you type "P" or better "Pe" or better "Pet" it will give you a list of all the contacts in your address book that match.

What it does, which makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE is it waits for you to hit *SEND* before it suggests anything. What kind of absurd logic is that? I know this is goin to end up being a design flaw. Auto complete has some logic all over the internet and on every computer on earth and this auto complete was built by a retard. Imagine typing a URL into your browser with only one letter, then hitting "GO" and then being presented with your auto complete options for URL's ? Or typing a leter into Google and hitting search before you even finish the word, then being presented with a screen asking what you wanted to type. It makes no sense. Im going to address an email to someone with one letter then finish my email and send it out without it being addressed properly yet?

Quote:

Right-click the Contacts folder, choose Properties |
Outlook Address Book and check the box.

I dont see a contacts "folder". I see the contacts option listed on the left in outlook. Right clicking on that does not bring up any ability to set "options". I went into contacts and tried to figure out what you meant. Right clicked on everything. Finally right clicked on "Contacts" text at the top of the screen while in contacts. That showed "Options..." Went in there. You said "check the checkbox". Its already grayed out and checked.

The bottom line is this:

If I have been emailing someone for 2 years, AND have them in my contacts AND have replied to emails from them for 2 years, AND have manually typed in their email address in the to box hundreds of times AND have added them using the "TO" button hundreds of times, WHY isn't outlook suggesting them consistently? Why does it drop and forget them half the time? Why does it immediately remember them if I use the "TO" button again, for the hundredth time? These are my questions.

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP (OneNote)]

bens wrote on Wed, 25 June 2008 19:55



If you had read my previous messages, I covered this. I have not only typed "joe" in the box, but I have added "joe" to the box from contacts,
and i have received emails from "Joe" and replied to emails from "joe" for nearly 2 years and it still *does not suggest joe* consistently.
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I covered this above, but mister Russ seems to believe I'm just "not getting it".

Sorry, I have about 1700 posts a day to try and read and I don't really
have time to read back thru the entire history of a thread just to
discover that your Outlook isn't operating the way it's supposed to (and
does for almost everybody else).

Did you try running Detect & Repair? (Help menu)

Quote:


Explain to me why, immediately above your post, I demonstrated that the tool did not suggest a name until I added it via the "TO" button, and then > suggested the name, for someone I have been emailing (and added via the "TO" button) for 2 years now?

Well, you haven't demonstrated it you simply told me that it did. I'm
willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Have you tried renaming
or deleting your .NK2 file and letting Outlook recreate it just in case
your .NK2 file is somehow corrupted?

Quote:



What it does, which makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE is it waits for you to hit *SEND* before it suggests anything.

Not for me it doesn't. Tab to another field and after a few seconds it
will suggest. Or press ALT+K. Are you seeing the red squiggly line
under the text you've typed in the TO field? If so that means it can't
tell whom you mean - click the name and it will let you choose one right
then. If you type enough of the name to be unique it will fill it in
for you long before Send (unless you have a very slow machine and a very
short message).

What kind of absurd logic is that? I know this is goin to end up being a design flaw.

Well it's not because what you say you're seeing is not how the product
is designed to operate and it's not how it operates for me (or millions
of others). Sounds like something is wrong with your installation;
though what specifically is a little hard to say at the moment.

Quote:

I dont see a contacts "folder". I see the contacts option listed on the left in outlook. Right clicking on that does not bring up any ability to > set "options". I went into contacts and tried to figure out what you meant. Right clicked on everything. Finally right clicked on "Contacts"
text at the top of the screen while in contacts. That showed "Options..." Went in there. You said "check the checkbox". Its already grayed out
and checked.

Under Tools | Account Settings | Address Books what do you see listed
there?

The bottom line is this:

If I have been emailing someone for 2 years, AND have them in my contacts AND have replied to emails from them for 2 years, AND have manually typed > in their email address in the to box hundreds of times AND have added them using the "TO" button hundreds of times, WHY isn't outlook suggesting
them consistently? Why does it drop and forget them half the time? Why does it immediately remember them if I use the "TO" button again, for the >hundredth time? These are my questions.

Beats me, this is only the second time I'm seeing your questions and
I've never seen your machine. Sounds to me like your installation of
Outlook isn't working properly for some reason. Did you upgrade from
Outlook 2003 or is this a clean install? Could be a few different
reasons. What operating system are you using and how much RAM do you
have?


Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
http://www.officeforlawyers.com/outlook.htm
Author - The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/5m3f5q