Ok. I've tried a few other things.
First, I tried importing the contacts in from a csv file with the
following
fields:
Company
Business Fax
E-mail
The result of this is that the company name, business fax #, and e-mail
address are all apparently imported into Outlook. However when you go
to the
address book and view that contact folder - the contacts now appear for
some
strange reason except it only shows the e-mail addresses, nothing of the
fax
numbers. The same is true though - if I open one of the contacts, click
the
business fax #, click OK, and then click save & close, that contact will
then
appear in the Address book looking at that contact folder. I had tried
this
previously, but must have selected something wrong, because they didn't
show
up at all previously.
I have also tried importing directly from Excel, exporting the data to a
table in Access and then into Outlook, and have tried changing the field
data
types in both Excel and Access. All of this comes to the same result.
The
business fax number will not display.
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP
:
To start, let me just say that for obvious reasons, I don't subscribe
to
"importing contacts rarely works". The import process works just fine
both
using Outlook's own import wizard or 3rd party products such as ours.
There
are however times when importing OR exporting is the wrong approach for
the
task at hand but your scenario isn't one of those. Having gotten that
out of
the way............
To summarize your post just to make sure I'm on the same page re:
understanding the problem:
#1 - You are importing your contacts and all contacts appear in the
"Fax
Contacts" folder
#2 - You actually see the "Fax Contacts" folder in the Outlook Address
book
list - i.e. means that the "Use as an email address book" option is in
place
#3 - No contacts show in the Outlook Address book list for this folder
until
"AFTER" you open a contact and then "save & close
#4 - Unless I misread your post, the issue is occuring on only one
machine
which has O'2K but using data from different sources (that correct?)
Questions
1) Have you tried importing the same data into another contact folder
on
another machine using O'2K3? If so, does that work correctly?
2) Is there another O'2K system available where you can try the same
thing
so see if the results are the same?
If the above items work on both of the above but not your client's
specific
machine - you have a config issue - most likely best to delete and
re-add
the OAB.
If the above attempts didn't work on any of the machines - then I'd
suggest
you take a look at the imported data itself which would appear to be
causing
whatever the problem is. Importing fax numbers to a contact folder does
result in those contacts to appear in an OAB list (actually just tried
it
using a few of our test files importing strictly name and fax numbers
to an
empty contact folder using only Outlook's import function (using O'2K3
since
don't have an O'2K test system available at the moment) and all worked
exactly as it should with all names showing up that a phone number).
If none of the import functions worked on any of the machines then
unfortunately, the other unknowns in this are:
#1) the original Excel data file created from your web app,
#2) the resulting CSV file created
The assumption so far is that this is an Outlook related issue which
may not
be a correct one if the data isn't importing correctly at any point.
Karl
PS - if your data isn't importing correctly on any of the machines,
would
love to get a copy of the .XLS and .CSV file for analysis just to see
if the
same behavior holds true on our systems using both the Outlook import
wizard
along with testing it with our own import products.
--
__________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2003"
http://www.contactgenie.com
Unacceptable. Your so willing to write it off as, "Importing contact
information rarely works"?
First, your statement is general implying that any method of
importing
contacts rarely works. You and I both know that is a farse. If it
were
true, why have OL at all?
Secondly, you completely ignore the fact that the contacts make it
into
Outlook via the CSV import and that they are only not visible from
certain
"Address book" functions throughout the wide range of Microsoft
products.
Third, you ignore the fact that I can open any of the imported
contacts,
look at the business fax properties, click save & close, and the
contact
is
then visible from any of the "Address Book" functions. I can then
send
them
a fax, email, see them in the address book. So yes, the fax numbers
resolve
to valid fax addresses.
Fourth, Microsoft's own KB documentation says that it is possible.
Article
KB295664 entitled, "How to import contacts into outlook from excel".
There
has to be a setting somewhere that is interferring with this.
Finally, in your first post you generally said, "There is no address
book
in
Outlook." Not only is it labeled thoughout OL 2003 and other MS
programs,
but you specifically refer to it in many of your other posts! The
most
recent two I saw were "I have contacts missing every day" from
4/26/2006
and
"Outlook 2003 email address book" from 4/26/2006. If specifics are
so
important when presenting a problem to you guys, you must be equally
so.
It would seem to me that the address book is the location within OL
that
contains the contact folders, kind of like a phone book with white
and
yellow
pages. I shouldn't have to tell you that.
Is anyone else paying attention to these post? Mr. Tillman? Mrs.
Staples?
Anyone?
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP
:
Importing Contact information rarely works.
Have you verified that these imported Contacts have valid, resolved
fax
addresses?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry to have caused you confusion.
In
the
interest of getting this resolved, I will rephrase my original
post in
a
longer and hopefully more clear fashion. I hope you will enjoy
the
challenge
of helping me figure out this problem that I'm sure has a simple
solution
somewhere.
=================================================
Background - what we have, what we are doing, and what we want to
do
=================================================
We have an SBS 2003 Standard edition network. We are making use
of the
faxing capability of this server. We also have an online database
that
members of the public can use to sign up for either a mass email
newsletter
or have the newsletter recieved via fax. The web-based database
allows
for
the contact information, collected from the willing members of the
public,
to
be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet. The purpose of
downloading
this
information is to place the company name and business fax phone
#'s
into a
contact folder that we have created. The name of this contact
folder
is
"Fax
phonebook". It is located in the user's mailbox, not a public
folder.
The
user in question has Office 2000 and Outlook 2003 installed on her
machine.
The Outlook 2003 is supplied by the license that comes with the
SBS
server.
Currently, after downloading this Excel document, we open it up
and
save
it
as "samefilename.csv". We then open Outlook 2003 (OL), go to the
'File'
menu
and select 'Import and Export...'. We then proceed to import the
contact
information into the 'fax phonebook' contact folder that we had
created.
We
are careful to map the fields so that they appear correctly after
the
import.
Everything appears to go well, we do not recieve any errors or any
indication that anything goes wrong. All the contacts will show
up
correctly
when you navigate to the "Fax phonebook" in Outlook.
We want to be able to browse to this contact folder from the "Send
a
fax"
wizard to do a mass fax every Friday from a user subscribed list
provided
by
a database and imported into a contact folder in OL.
===================================================
Problem - This can be confusing so read carefully, I will make it
as
clear
as I possibly can
===================================================
Now that the contacts are supposedly 'imported', if you do any of
the
following - the imported contacts will not be visible.
1. Create a new e-mail. When the new message opens up and you
click
the
"To..." button, the 'Selected Names' dialog box will open. When
you
click
the drop down list labeled, "Show Names from the:" and select the
'Fax
Phonebook' contact folder that we imported the contact information
into,
not
one contact will appear. This should at least be visible even if
it
does
not
have e-mail addresses in it. Subsequently I have tried it with
e-mail
addresses and it still shows nothing.
2. Send a fax wizard. When you open any document and print it to
the
fax
printer on the server. You click next at the intro screen and are
presented
with the recipient form in which you fill out the recipient's fax
information. There is an "Address book..." button that you can
click
and
it
opens the Select Names dialog box again. And again if you select
the
"Fax
phonebook" contact folder that we created from the dropdown list
labeled,
"Show Names From the:", no contacts will be visible.
3. Open the Outlook Address book (I know you don't want to call it
this,
but
that is what it is labeled). In Outlook, go to the "Tools" menu
and
select
"Address Book..." A dialog box that is clearly labeled, "Address
Book"
will
open. It is nearly identical to the "Select Names" dialog box
that
opens
when you create an e-mail. Again, there is a drop down list
labeled,
"Show
Names From the:" and if you select the "Fax phonebook" contact
folder
from
this list, nothing is visible.
It is great that we can see the contacts when we open OL, navigate
to
the
Contacts folder, and select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder
that we
created and imported the contacts into. However, if these
contacts are
not
visible from any of the three places listed above, they are
virtually
useless. This is the problem that must be fixed.
============================================
Troubleshooting done thus far
============================================
I have ensured that the address book service is installed not only
because
I
can see other contact folders, but confirmed that the "Fax
phonebook"
contact
folder that we created is listed in the address book. I did this
by
doing
the following:
1. Open OL
2. "Tools" menu, Email Accounts...
3. Under "Directory", I selected the option for "View or change
existing
directories or address books".
4. Click "Next" button and then "Change" button for the only
profile
present
5. At the "Microsoft Office Outlook Address Book" dialog box, "Fax
phonebook: Mailbox - username mailbox" is listed.
I have also gone to the properties of the "Fax Phonebook" contact
folder,
"Outlook Address Book" tab and ensured that the option for "Show
this
folder
as an email address book" is selected.
I have noticed that if I navigate to the "Fax Phonebook" contact
folder
in
OL and open one of the imported contacts and then click on the
business
fax #
button, click OK without making changes, and then click "Save &
Close";
that
contact will then be visible utlizing any of three methods
mentioned
above
(in the section labeled, "Problem"). If the contacts were few in
number,
I
could see doing this every Friday without a problem. However,
I've
seen
this
list be as few as 90 and as many as 1,000, so this is not a
feasible
solution.
I have tried another machine that has Office 2003 and Outlook 2003
(installed from the server) with the same results.
I have even tried this from my office on my SBS 2K3 network, OL
2003,
and
Office 2003 with the same results on all machines. To me this
seems to
be
a
desktop issue, Exchange shouldn't care. I could try it on other
SBS
networks
with similar setups but I expect the result would be the same on
all of
them.
I would be in heaven if I got half as complete of a picture as
this for
troubleshooting from one of my clients. I'm sorry I don't know
how to
.