Can I edit multiple contacts in Business Contacts at one time?

[Guest]

In ACT! and most high end business contact managers, one can edit groups of
contacts to change addresses, categories, phone numbers, business name, user
fields. Is there a way to do this in Outlook Business Contact Manager?

Imagine an area code change for several hundred contacts. That's what
recently happened to me and it's a pain doing them one at a time.

 

[Clinton Ford [MSFT]]

Marv,

Thank you for this feature suggestion! Please reply if you agree with Marv and have additional insights.

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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
In ACT! and most high end business contact managers, one can edit groups of
contacts to change addresses, categories, phone numbers, business name, user
fields. Is there a way to do this in Outlook Business Contact Manager?

Imagine an area code change for several hundred contacts. That's what
recently happened to me and it's a pain doing them one at a time.

 

[Ed Marmon]

Well, as they say in Toronto, Hyah!

This is pretty much standard issue, guys, for most CRM's from even
several generations ago ( Act!, Goldmine, Maximizer ). If a company
changes a name ( and you have 113 records with the same company and are
not using accounts per se ) or address, or you have a user field attached
to records indicating the sales or employee count of their company, you
need an easy way to update that. BCM is really behind the times on this.
And also on 2 click mail merges to a single or more contacts. This kind
of stuff just is crucial, and would be really really good to include for
v3.1 and not wait til 4.0...

JM2c

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Be prepared everyone for some of the age old BCM defender responses about how
such changes will needlessly complicate BCM beyond the abilities of the
average "Small Business" user, etc. It is nice to see reaction and polling
for more input of this nature. It leads me to believe that someone is
starting to pay attention. More proactivity from the BCM design team however
is always welcome and very much needed.

Folks like Clinton Ford offer a breath of fresh air and hope that certain
innane things with BCM's design might actually be improved sooner than later.

-THP

 

[Guest]

Actually there might be a market for upgraded BCM products just as there are
operating systems from Home to Ultimate.

I would be happy to by add ins or third party programs to pick up such
features for larger databases. Even a very small business can have hundreds
and even thousands of business contacts. You guys helped create that
capability. You should know.

 

[Lon Orenstein]

Marv:

Until the new function is added to BCM, here's something you could try.
BACKUP YOUR DATABASE before you try this, just in case I'm wrong.

If the field you want to change is part of the business contact record, this
"should" work. I haven't tried it like this but have tried a similar
procedure and it worked great... Export your business contacts to a CSV
file. Open it in Excel and do a search and replace on the data you want to
change. Save it and then import it back into BCM. Make sure you choose No
Duplicates. BCM will change the data on each contact record because it
matches on email address.

BTW, my experience with the BCM Team is quite optimistic. Yes Tim, in the
past they've given out more "defender" responses but I've seen a much better
attitude with 2007 version. I think everyone will be pleased with some of
the updates they're working on that are a direct result of feedback from
this discussion group.

Let us know if that works, please...

Thanks,
Lon

___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
(e-mail address removed)
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104
www.pinpointtools.com

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Lon,

I am encouraged to read of your optimism over BCM's future potential. I will
seek to maintain whatever input I have to offer as constructive as possible.

-THP

Marv:

Until the new function is added to BCM, here's something you could try.
BACKUP YOUR DATABASE before you try this, just in case I'm wrong.

If the field you want to change is part of the business contact record, this
"should" work. I haven't tried it like this but have tried a similar
procedure and it worked great... Export your business contacts to a CSV
file. Open it in Excel and do a search and replace on the data you want to
change. Save it and then import it back into BCM. Make sure you choose No
Duplicates. BCM will change the data on each contact record because it
matches on email address.

BTW, my experience with the BCM Team is quite optimistic. Yes Tim, in the
past they've given out more "defender" responses but I've seen a much better
attitude with 2007 version. I think everyone will be pleased with some of
the updates they're working on that are a direct result of feedback from
this discussion group.

Let us know if that works, please...

Thanks,
Lon

___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
(e-mail address removed)
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104
www.pinpointtools.com

Actually there might be a market for upgraded BCM products just as there
are

[quoted text clipped - 41 lines]

 

[Ed Marmon]

When you think about it, the couple of guys that have been posting here
of late have been giving complete and helpful answers far surpassing what
was available here before. I think they see that although poweful, BCM is
still crippled in a few areas that prevents it from being a no-brainer
refuge for Act! and other escapees. With all its problems, Goldmine (
underdeveloped of late ) and Act! still have great features. But the
recent attantiveness and near-entrepreneurial involvement of the BCM guys
here ( and the blog ) indicate that perhaps soon we might be able to get
off our medication and start enjoying life with an actually-useful BCM.

Now if sql2005express would stop taking up 300-500 ram, that would be
bloody helpful.

Lon,

I am encouraged to read of your optimism over BCM's future potential.
I will seek to maintain whatever input I have to offer as constructive
as possible.

-THP

Marv:

Until the new function is added to BCM, here's something you could
try. BACKUP YOUR DATABASE before you try this, just in case I'm wrong.

If the field you want to change is part of the business contact
record, this "should" work. I haven't tried it like this but have
tried a similar procedure and it worked great... Export your business
contacts to a CSV file. Open it in Excel and do a search and replace
on the data you want to change. Save it and then import it back into
BCM. Make sure you choose No Duplicates. BCM will change the data on
each contact record because it matches on email address.

BTW, my experience with the BCM Team is quite optimistic. Yes Tim, in
the past they've given out more "defender" responses but I've seen a
much better attitude with 2007 version. I think everyone will be
pleased with some of the updates they're working on that are a direct
result of feedback from this discussion group.

Let us know if that works, please...

Thanks,
Lon

___________________________________________________________
Lon Orenstein
pinpointtools, llc
(e-mail address removed)
Author of Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager For Dummies
Author of the eBook: Moving from ACT! to Business Contact Manager
800.238.0560 x6104 Toll Free (U.S. only) +1 214.905.0401 x6104
www.pinpointtools.com

Actually there might be a market for upgraded BCM products just as
there are

[quoted text clipped - 41 lines]

Thank you for this feature suggestion! Please reply if you
agree with Marv and have additional insights.

 

[mrtimpeterson via OfficeKB.com]

Well stated Ed!

-THP

When you think about it, the couple of guys that have been posting here
of late have been giving complete and helpful answers far surpassing what
was available here before. I think they see that although poweful, BCM is
still crippled in a few areas that prevents it from being a no-brainer
refuge for Act! and other escapees. With all its problems, Goldmine (
underdeveloped of late ) and Act! still have great features. But the
recent attantiveness and near-entrepreneurial involvement of the BCM guys
here ( and the blog ) indicate that perhaps soon we might be able to get
off our medication and start enjoying life with an actually-useful BCM.

Now if sql2005express would stop taking up 300-500 ram, that would be
bloody helpful.

Lon,

[quoted text clipped - 42 lines]