Imported Outlook contacts not showing all entries in address book

[ericg]

We are using Outlook 2003 at my company and I've imported our customer
contacts from Access into a shared contact list, that I've moved to the
public folders. The problem is when bringing up the address book and
switching to this new contact list, it's only showing entries with an
email address. I also need to to show them for fax numbers. We are
using a third party Unified Messaging program to send faxes to
customers from Outlook where it would make this processs easier if we
could pull this info rather than manually entering the numbers every
time. I'm wondering if there is a way to show entries in the address
book for both email and fax. When you enter a new contact manually it
does this, but not with imports. I would greatly appreciate any help
provided or to just let me know it cannot be done. Thanks

 

[Brian Tillman]

We are using Outlook 2003 at my company and I've imported our customer
contacts from Access into a shared contact list, that I've moved to
the public folders. The problem is when bringing up the address book
and switching to this new contact list, it's only showing entries
with an email address. I also need to to show them for fax numbers.

If the FAX number is properly entered into Outlook, it will show the FAX
numbers in the address book.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Have you examined the fax number fields created by the import? If they are
valid and resolved they will appear in the Outlook Address Book. If they are
not, then you need to be posting a question about your import process so
that those experienced in importing from Access can help you figure out what
you're doing wrong.

As an editorial aside, it is interesting to hear from someone who wants and
needs fax numbers to appear in the Outlook Address Book when so many people
posting here are trying to figure out how to remove that feature.
And the Outlook developers are supposed to accommodate both groups?

 

[ericg]

Thank you for responding. I checked the table I am importing from in
the Access database and it is a 10-digit fax number; no spaces,
paranthesis or hyphens. I also made sure the number is mapped to the
business fax field. After I ran the import, I checked the address book
and they weren't showing. However, when I re-typed the fax number with
no extra characters and saved the contact, they showed up. So I don't
know if it is something with the import process or is there a setting
to control this?

 

[ericg]

I apologize if this topic is in the wrong area or the wrong question.
This is my first time posting and was just looking for some advice. I
used the import wizard in Outlook to pull from the Access database and
map to the fax number, so I didn't think that it was an import
question. I'll re-post as a different question if you think that might
help.

In the table it comes from, the fax number is in the format 6161234567.
When it is imported, the contacts show the fax as (616) 123-4567. I'm
not expecting the developers to necessarily accomodate both, but I
would think that it would handle imports the same way it handles a
manual entry. If this isn't possible without an update to the program,
I'll accept that, but I'm just trying to find out if there's an option
to handle this or if I have to put the incoming fax number in a
different format.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You posted in the right place. I wasn't sure it was an import issue either.
That's what I was investigating. However, if the phone number was not
resolved (i.e., underlined) after the import, then it is an import issue.

 

[ericg]

Russ,

All phone, fax and email entries are underlined(resolved) in the
correct fields. I've re-typed one digit of the fax number, hit enter
and save and closed and the entry then shows up in the address book. I
don't know if it's a bug or fluke with the import process that treats
it differently than a new entry like other import/File As topics I've
read in these groups. Thanks.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

It's quite possible that these imported numbers aren't resolved until you
open the Contact Record or manually modify the field. Imported Contacts
rarely behave as expected.

 

[ericg]

Yeah, that's what it looks like. We have over 2600 contacts, so I was
hoping we wouldn't have to do that for each one and everytime we want
to update this contact list. Thanks for the time spent looking into
this.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Well Karl Timmermans or one of the other importing experts may know of a
workaround. So keep watching the post.