No fax numbers in fax console address book

[RichT]

Hello,

If I try to send a fax using the "address book" button in Fax Console, a
window opens showing only part of my address book. How can I make it show
all the contacts?

I have Outlook 2003 as my address book.

 

[Russ Valentine]

There is no address book in Outlook. Clarify your post. What isn't appearing
that you think should? When you configure your Outlook Address Book Service
correctly, the Fax Console will display all the electronic addresses in your
Outlook Contacts Folder.
State how you configured your Outlook Address Book Service.

 

[RichT]

There is no address book in Outlook. Clarify your post. What isn't
appearing that you think should? When you configure your Outlook Address
Book Service correctly, the Fax Console will display all the electronic
addresses in your Outlook Contacts Folder.
State how you configured your Outlook Address Book Service.

I discovered after a lot of head-scratching that the reason that I had no
fax numbers (just email addresses) in fax console is that all the fax
numbers in Outlook were associated with a company, rather than a person. I
doscovered that Microsoft Fax address book only reads contacts that have a
first or last name. I have worked around this issue by copying all the
company names into the lastname field in Outlook.

 

[Russ Valentine]

Incorrect. The address book service will display every valid, resolved,
electronic address. That was your problem. There is no such requirement that
the Contact be a person or have a First and Last Name.
When you edited those Contacts, you then resolved their fax numbers. How you
created Contacts without resolved addresses only you could know. It happens
all the time if you imported those Contacts.

 

[RichT]

Incorrect. The address book service will display every valid, resolved,
electronic address. That was your problem. There is no such requirement
that the Contact be a person or have a First and Last Name.
When you edited those Contacts, you then resolved their fax numbers. How
you created Contacts without resolved addresses only you could know. It
happens all the time if you imported those Contacts.

All the fax numbers in my Outlook contacts are properly inserted using
correct terminology for country, area code etc.

It remains the case that an Outlook Contact will only show up in Fax Console
Address book if I insert the Company name into the Name field in Outlook
contacts. If the name field is empty, and company name is in the company
name field, then the contact does not show up in Fax Console address book.

 

[Russ Valentine]

Nope. Not here. Behavior cannot be reproduced and has never been reported.
There's more at play here that you haven't figured out.
Contacts with nothing in the Name fields and only the Company field
populated show up just fine.

 

[RichT]

Nope. Not here. Behavior cannot be reproduced and has never been reported.
There's more at play here that you haven't figured out.
Contacts with nothing in the Name fields and only the Company field
populated show up just fine.

Any suggestions then?

 

[Russ Valentine]

Only if you provide more information. I've told you how things work. You
haven't provided the steps that can reproduce the behavior you're seeing.
Include such things as:
1. How you created the Contacts in your current Outlook profile. Were they
ever imported? Were they ever synched?
2. How you configured the Outlook Address Book Service in your current
Outlook profile.
3. Are your fax addresses resolved? I'm not asking about their format, I'm
asking if they're resolved.
4. If you create a new Contact from scratch with only a fax address and the
Company field populated, does it appear in the address book view? It does
here, every time. Make sure you restart Outlook and the Fax Console after
making any change to a Contact Record.

 

[RichT]

"> 1. How you created the Contacts in your current Outlook profile. Were
they

ever imported? Were they ever synched?

All my Contacts were created in my Outlook profile. They are synched
regularly with a PocketPC via ActiveSync. There are a few contacts that have
been created on the PPC and synched, but not fax contacts.

2. How you configured the Outlook Address Book Service in your current
Outlook profile.

I have configured it to sort lastname/firstname

3. Are your fax addresses resolved? I'm not asking about their format, I'm
asking if they're resolved.

What does "resolved" mean in this context?

4. If you create a new Contact from scratch with only a fax address and
the Company field populated, does it appear in the address book view? It
does here, every time. Make sure you restart Outlook and the Fax Console
after making any change to a Contact Record.

Yes, a new contact does work as you say.

 

[Russ Valentine]

Then my initial answer stands. If a new Contact works, the problem is with
your existing Contacts, not with the address book service configuration.
Something has corrupted the entries so that the fax addresses have not been
resolved. Syncing is a common culprit. Since you synchronize, I assume you
keep good valid backups of your data, right?
If not, simply opening and saving a Contact record will usually resolve the
addresses again.

 

[RichT]

If not, simply opening and saving a Contact record will usually resolve
the addresses again.
--

This doesn't work in my case.

What do you mean by "resolve" in this context?

 

[Russ Valentine]

Resolved means that the address book service has recognized the electronic
address as valid. A resolved address will be underlined. Importing Contacts
and syncing Contacts often fails to resolve the addresses, so they won't
appear in the address book view.