Question about contact list(s) and address book(s)

[39N95W]

Outlook 2002
Windows XP


I am having some problems with getting my contacts to sort the way I want
them to. When I say "contacts" I am referring to the window that opens
should one click on the "To..." button when composing an email. I profess
that I find many of Outlooks features confusing, so I don't know if Contacts
and Address Book are different things or are the same thing.

In any event, I have quite a large contacts list for email purposes. Many
of them are fellow employees where I work, but most aren't. What I would
like to do is have all of the people I work with appear at the top of the
list, with those people sorted alphabetically, and then have everybody else
in my contact list sorted alphabetically below the group mentioned above.

I've had limited success by entering one of my fellow employees to my
contact list by prefacing their last name with a numeric code. For example,
if I needed to add a new employee John Smith to my list, I would enter his
name as

aaa_Smith, John

Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. So, is there something obvious
I'm not seeing? Any help on how to best accomplish this is greatly
appreciated.

On a side note, can I create a new, distinct contact list and be able to
then access multiple contact lists at will? Would this be a solution to my
problem?

Lastly, I am pretty good with VBA but I've never used it with Outlook. Any
script or Macro would be appreciated as well.

Thank you.

-gk-

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Inline -

39N95W wrote:

I am having some problems with getting my contacts to sort the way I
want them to. When I say "contacts" I am referring to the window
that opens should one click on the "To..." button when composing an
email.

Actually, that's your address book.

I profess that I find many of Outlooks features confusing, so

I don't know if Contacts and Address Book are different things or are
the same thing.

Your address book is a view of your contacts folder(s), global address list
in exchange server (if you use that), PAB file (if you use that). It isn't
an entity unto itself.

In any event, I have quite a large contacts list for email purposes.
Many of them are fellow employees where I work, but most aren't.
What I would like to do is have all of the people I work with appear
at the top of the list, with those people sorted alphabetically, and
then have everybody else in my contact list sorted alphabetically
below the group mentioned above.

You could set up multiple contacts folders/subfolders for different
"categories" of recipients, and define each as an address book view by
right-clicking on the contacts folder, properties, outlook address book
tab - tick the box & name the "view name" whatever you like or leave it as
the name of the contacts folder/subfolder.

I've had limited success by entering one of my fellow employees to my
contact list by prefacing their last name with a numeric code. For
example, if I needed to add a new employee John Smith to my list, I
would enter his name as

aaa_Smith, John

Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. So, is there something
obvious I'm not seeing? Any help on how to best accomplish this is
greatly appreciated.

That sounds like a pain to me!

On a side note, can I create a new, distinct contact list and be able
to then access multiple contact lists at will? Would this be a
solution to my problem?

Yes, as above.

Lastly, I am pretty good with VBA but I've never used it with
Outlook. Any script or Macro would be appreciated as well.

I personally don't use the To: button all that much - I like to leave
everyone in one or two contacts folders (business & personal) and I just let
autocomplete take care of the addressing. But that's just how I like to
work.