Outlook Contacts should allow entries for multiple family members.

[Guest]

I think MS would be suprised by how many users would be interested in the
ability to add multiple family members to a single account. I consider
myself an average user of MS Outlook and think there are a lot more people
out there who would see this functionality as a worthwhile addition to
Outlook but just accept what's available rather than voice their opinions.
My use is mostly personal for family and friends who have children that I
would like to save info like birthdays and cell phone numbers but you also
have to consider the business sector where users who deal with an assigned
set of customers who may also want to save family information to remember for
better customer relations. With the growing popularity of family plans and
parents giving their kids cell phones, this is another sector of customers
who would be interested in the ability to store those numbers without having
to create another Contact record. If marketed properly, I think adding this
functionality would mean a big boom for the company that creates it. I work
in the IT industry and the comment made in one of the other posts about
complexity is true, but the complexity is not that tough. We're talking
about the relationship of a record in one table with multiple records in
another table and if designed smartly, could be both efficient and cost
effective.

Thanks.

----------------
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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...c701543d&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.contacts

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Family birthdays: http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2005/20050823.htm

For cell phones: I add the spouse and children's cell numbers in the notes
field, since I have them for reference and emergency use only and don't plan
to actually dial them from Outlook, if I ever dial them. I see no need to
have more number fields to a contact for them - if the person is so
important that I need to call them, they deserve their own contact form.
(Use the contact field to associate them with a family group as per the
birthdays tip.)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

 

[Kristin]

It would be much simpler to be able to link contacts easily and ascrbe a
"household" to contacts so they could be grouped together. How many people
dont' use Outlook for Christmas Card lists? And current versions allow you to
add a new contact when you have a new email address, so it's EASY in Outlook
to have individual contacts. The problem is, it's not easy to have
HOUSEHOLDS. We have to call it something else - like Company, or File As, or
write it in notes. It should be a simple thing to make those records
linkable. this IS a database after all. It would be nice if Microsoft
considered home user's functionality as much as it does business users. And,
if it considered how they overlap. Most people use Outlook at work in a
particular way. Why should they have to use it differently for personal use??
VERY FRUSTRATING. I could write this in a database relatively quickly. Why
can't Microsoft?

Family birthdays: http://www.outlook-tips.net/archives/2005/20050823.htm

For cell phones: I add the spouse and children's cell numbers in the notes
field, since I have them for reference and emergency use only and don't plan
to actually dial them from Outlook, if I ever dial them. I see no need to
have more number fields to a contact for them - if the person is so
important that I need to call them, they deserve their own contact form.
(Use the contact field to associate them with a family group as per the
birthdays tip.)

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

I think MS would be suprised by how many users would be interested in the
ability to add multiple family members to a single account. I consider
myself an average user of MS Outlook and think there are a lot more people
out there who would see this functionality as a worthwhile addition to
Outlook but just accept what's available rather than voice their opinions.
My use is mostly personal for family and friends who have children that I
would like to save info like birthdays and cell phone numbers but you also
have to consider the business sector where users who deal with an assigned
set of customers who may also want to save family information to remember
for
better customer relations. With the growing popularity of family plans
and
parents giving their kids cell phones, this is another sector of customers
who would be interested in the ability to store those numbers without
having
to create another Contact record. If marketed properly, I think adding
this
functionality would mean a big boom for the company that creates it. I
work
in the IT industry and the comment made in one of the other posts about
complexity is true, but the complexity is not that tough. We're talking
about the relationship of a record in one table with multiple records in
another table and if designed smartly, could be both efficient and cost
effective.

Thanks.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...c701543d&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.contacts