Contacts in Folders mixed with other contacts when composing new m

[Cindy C.]

When creating a new message and selecting recipients, the contacts I have
arranged in Address Book folders are showing intermixed, in alphabetical
order, with my other contacts. How do I get the recipient list to reflect the
Address Book folders I set up?

 

[Dave]

You can create folders in the Contacts folder, but WM won't "see" them when
you click on the "To:" button. You can, however, use them if you open
Contacts, open your sub-folder, highlight the addresses you want, then
right-click, and select Action - Send Email

 

[Cindy C.]

But this won't work when forwarding or replying which is mainly what I
do...grrr! I think I'll rename everyone with a letter in front of their names
(like zAmy, zBrad, xJoe, xSusan) so at least they'll be grouped together when
selecting from the To:. It'll look strange, but it may solve my problem.

 

[Dave]

You can create Groups, which are mailing lists...
then send to the group.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Organize your contacts into groups as shown in this tutorial:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/69738-contact-groups-windows-mail.html

 

[Cindy C.]

I've tried groups, and that doesn't work for me. I don't want to send a
message to everyone in the group...only select people.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

If you are only sending to a few people, you can pick them out from
the composite Contacts list.
Alternatively, you can upgrade to Windows Live Mail. It has Groups like
Windows Mail, but instead of it being a fixed mailing list you can expand a
group on the To line and delete contacts from that group..
http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

 

[Cindy C.]

I'm talking about forwarding a message to maybe 50 select people out of a
composite list of 400! And the folder I've set up for those 50 has about 150
names in it.
I've got Outlook in Office 2007. Do you know if it works the same as Windows
Mail, or is it more like Outlook Express used to be when it comes to folders?

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Sorry, I don't use Outlook. Since it is a lot more fully-featured than
Microsoft's free email clients, it will probably do what you want.

You might also consider breaking up your contacts into much smaller
groups so as to make it more flexible.
--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP

I'm talking about forwarding a message to maybe 50 select people out of a
composite list of 400! And the folder I've set up for those 50 has about
150
names in it.
I've got Outlook in Office 2007. Do you know if it works the same as
Windows
Mail, or is it more like Outlook Express used to be when it comes to
folders?

 

[Cindy C.]

Thanks for trying to help, Gary. I fooled around with Outlook and it's even
worse than Windows Mail.
There's no logical breakdown of my groups into ones which would or would not
receive certain messages. So I've gone with my scheme of placing a letter for
the group (v-z) in front of the name, and that's going to work fine. If
anyone wants to do this, a simple re-name won't work. You must put the letter
in front of the 'Full Name' field for the contact.
Is there a process to request fixes with Microsoft? After I posted my
question, I saw this same issue brought up more than numerous times.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Microsoft has abandoned Windows Mail for all practical purposes.
Windows Live Mail (WLM) is the nominal replacement for WM.
About all you can do is suggest improvements for WLM:
http://feedback.live.com/eform.aspx?productkey=wlmaildesktop&page=wlfeedback_home_form

Ironically, that site seems to be down at the moment.

 

[Cindy C.]

Unbelievable. I've already gone back to XP on my old computer. I'd rather
deal with old issues than create new ones. Upgrading is certainly not
upgrading where the mail client is concerned. Shame on you Microsoft!

 

[Vyshine]

I have the same problems now once I changed Windows XP to Vista. Even I have
create different folders of contacts , when I wanted to send emails to few
contacts which is in the same folder, unfortunitely I found all email address
mixed together, It is impossible to send emails to certain contacts. So
unhappy. Don't know how to do in the future easily as Outlook express.

 

[Cindy C.]

Vyshine...if your old XP computer is still working, GO BACK! Vista and its
shoddy mail client is not ready for the real user.

 

[~Willie~]

Thank you very much Cindy, that is what I will do. Apparently Dave and Gary
get commissions for pushing WLM. MS doesn't care about our convience. For
your information Thunderbird works exactly like Outlook Express. Now I see
why more people are talking about Macs.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I assure you I don't get commissions for 'pushing' WLM.
I do care about users who are struggling with a buggy, malfunctioning
email client that is no longer supported by Microsoft.