Last name/First name

[MBD]

I have a contact list that displays in alphabetical order
by last name. But when I make a distribution list, the
names are listed by first name. How can I view the
distribution list in last name order?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Oliver Vukovics]

Dear Mike,

open outlook
go to tools --> email accounts --> view or change existing directories or
address book --> click on outlook address book
and click on "change"
select "file as"

press OK and come out
close outlook
open outlook and check now

or have a look on this site:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Applications/MS_Office/Outlook/Q_21074342.ht
ml

 

[Oliver Vukovics]

Dear Judy,

I have this same issue..........
I am not finding that your solution changes the DL to sort by last
name. That corrects the sort order of the contact list, etc however,
not the DL list.
Any other solutions?
Win XP/Office Pro 2003
Judy

Sorry, I misunderstood the question.

The DL can not sort by last name.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Yes it can. You might need to change the subject field for that Contact.

 

[jcg]

Can you be more explicit?

We have the same issue. What does the subject field have to do with the
sort order of the first/last name?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

It actually has nothing to do with sorting, but Outlook 97 used the Subject
field for sorting, and for some reason some DL's based on Contacts created
in earlier versions still do. It's a hidden field. Use Field chooser to show
it in a Table view and see if that's what's happening.
DL's are buggy and rarely abide by conventions. Mine, for example, do sort
by Last name when I've specified "File As" as the sort order for the Outlook
Address Book. There is no consistent behavior for how DL's sort. Much
depends on the version of Outlook and how the underlying Contact was
created.

 

[Oliver Vukovics]

Dear Russ,

I've specified "File As" as the sort order for the Outlook
Address Book.

What are you doing with 6.000 contacts in a DL? Open all contacts to change
the "File As" setting and after than you create a new DL?

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm not changing the File As... setting.
In current versions, DL's sort by the Email Display As field. So if that
field is set to Last, First, the DL will sort by Last, First.

 

[MBD]

I don't know how to go to Field Chooser why viewing a
Distribution List. No matter what I do, the list sorts
on "Name", which ends up sorting on their First Name. All
the contacts are listed with File By Last Name first. The
contacts are listed by Last Name order, but the DL is
First Name order. This is VERY annoying and almost
useless, and is the case with both our 2000 and our XP
versions.

How can we get our DL's to list people in Last Name order??

-----Original Message-----
It actually has nothing to do with sorting, but Outlook 97 used the Subject
field for sorting, and for some reason some DL's based on Contacts created
in earlier versions still do. It's a hidden field. Use Field chooser to show
it in a Table view and see if that's what's happening.
DL's are buggy and rarely abide by conventions. Mine, for example, do sort
by Last name when I've specified "File As" as the sort order for the Outlook
Address Book. There is no consistent behavior for how DL's sort. Much
depends on the version of Outlook and how the underlying Contact was
created.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Can you be more explicit?

We have the same issue. What does the subject field have to do with the
sort order of the first/last name?

.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

You use the Contacts Folder, not the DL. Add the Email Display As field to a
Table view of your Contacts (R click the Column Headers to get Field
Chooser).
See if changing the Email Display As field for the Contact will get it to
sort the way you want.

Each version of Outlook has used a different format for this field. That's
why getting DL's to sort the way you want is so difficult and one of the
reasons few of us use DL's: too buggy and too inconvenient.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I don't know how to go to Field Chooser why viewing a
Distribution List. No matter what I do, the list sorts
on "Name", which ends up sorting on their First Name. All
the contacts are listed with File By Last Name first. The
contacts are listed by Last Name order, but the DL is
First Name order. This is VERY annoying and almost
useless, and is the case with both our 2000 and our XP
versions.

How can we get our DL's to list people in Last Name order??

-----Original Message-----
It actually has nothing to do with sorting, but Outlook 97 used the Subject
field for sorting, and for some reason some DL's based on Contacts created
in earlier versions still do. It's a hidden field. Use Field chooser to show
it in a Table view and see if that's what's happening.
DL's are buggy and rarely abide by conventions. Mine, for example, do sort
by Last name when I've specified "File As" as the sort order for the Outlook
Address Book. There is no consistent behavior for how DL's sort. Much
depends on the version of Outlook and how the underlying Contact was
created.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Can you be more explicit?

We have the same issue. What does the subject field have to do with the
sort order of the first/last name?

.

 

[Guest]

I experience the same problem, MS does not seem to be aware of the problem at
all. Based on my horrible experience in synchronizing a Palm T2 and before a
PSION for the time beeing I don't want to waste more time on this.
Also a request for an FIELD list (obviously there are internatl names and
then the different languages was not ever relplied by microsoft.
Has anyone more INFO on the issue how the fields and fieldnames can be
retrieved and how they really influence the sorting according to first and
last name?
Thanks!

I'm not changing the File As... setting.
In current versions, DL's sort by the Email Display As field. So if that
field is set to Last, First, the DL will sort by Last, First.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Dear Russ,


What are you doing with 6.000 contacts in a DL? Open all contacts to
change
the "File As" setting and after than you create a new DL?

--
Oliver Vukovics
Public OutLook: Share Outlook without Exchange
Public SyncTool: Outlook PST Synchronization
www.outlookstore.com

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm not aware of any accurate documentation on this. Sorting of Contacts in
the address book view has been and remains a perpetual weakness of Outlook.
Your other issues appear to be related to synchronization, another topic
entirely not covered in these groups.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I experience the same problem, MS does not seem to be aware of the problem
at
all. Based on my horrible experience in synchronizing a Palm T2 and before
a
PSION for the time beeing I don't want to waste more time on this.
Also a request for an FIELD list (obviously there are internatl names and
then the different languages was not ever relplied by microsoft.
Has anyone more INFO on the issue how the fields and fieldnames can be
retrieved and how they really influence the sorting according to first and
last name?
Thanks!

I'm not changing the File As... setting.
In current versions, DL's sort by the Email Display As field. So if that
field is set to Last, First, the DL will sort by Last, First.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Dear Russ,

Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote:

Yes it can. You might need to change the subject field for that
I've specified "File As" as the sort order for the Outlook
Address Book.

What are you doing with 6.000 contacts in a DL? Open all contacts to
change
the "File As" setting and after than you create a new DL?

--
Oliver Vukovics
Public OutLook: Share Outlook without Exchange
Public SyncTool: Outlook PST Synchronization
www.outlookstore.com