Can anyone explain where Outlook gets addresses? 1

[jsteph]

Hi
I'm trying to remove an address from what I believe is somewhere in outlook. So I'm a bit confused over the difference between "Contacts" and "Address Book".

Why are email addresses in both, what is the relationship, and why have seperate entities, when it actually seems as if they're the same or should be the same? For example, when I click on the record in Address Book--it brings me to a "Contact" record. Are they different or the same?

But the most frustrating is this situation:
I have a contact, we'll call him Joe Smith. He changed his email from, say JoeSmith@Hotmail.com to JoeSmith@Comcast.net. I changed it in Contacts, and I assume Address book, though I'm still foggy on the connection there. Anyway, when I start typing Joe...into the TO line, JoeSmith@Hotmail.com comes up!! I've purged that address and I never want to see it again, but Outlook insists that is a valid address even though it is NOT in contacts, or, when I scroll through Address book it's not there.

Where is this old address coming from?? I guess I thought that by physically changing the email in Contacts that Outlook would use the actual new email, but somehow it feels it's smarter and decides to use the old address.
Thanks for any help on this...
--Jim

 

[smah]

Contacts is the name of a folder that stores information - in this case, contact informaton. Address book is not really a folder for storing things specifically, it's more like a concept - where to look for address information. Therefore, in your case the 'where to look' happens to be a folder named 'contacts'. For a different example - in a large corporate environment, the 'where to look' might be some remote mail server. Depending on the version of outlook you're using, if you right-click on contacts & select properties, you will probably find an option for 'use this folder [contacts] as an outlook address book' which is what you're doing.

The 'old' address is in outlook's nickname cache. To delete this entry, just press the delete key when it's highlighted. For more info about this concept & how to entirely delete the cache (depends on outlook version), search this forum for nickname cache.

 

[tf1]

Just to add to the excellent answer by smah: if you have more than one name in the nickname cache starting with 'J', use the down arrow key to select the name you don't want and then press delete.

Regards: tf1

 

[jsteph]

Thanks, that was what I needed.

In following a thread on the nickname cache, it seems that it's not possible to force outlook to regenerate/refill the cache? Is this true, or is there a hack to get this done?

It seems pretty much a no-brainer, and something that I would think would be the default anyway--after all, you've got a saved Contact record with a 'display name', so why wait until you actually send something to that person to put that in the cache?
Thanks for any help on that,
--Jim

 

[tf1]

Yes you can. Close Outlook and open Windows Explorer. Search from *.nk2 making sure that you are searching with Hidden Files enabled. When you find the file, rename it as .bad or delete it.


Regards: tf1

 

[jsteph]

tf1,
I did that, and it just recreates an empty .nk2 file. I even went through the MSKB thing that said to reinstall/repair Outlook 2002, and it still left the .nk2 file empty.
--Jim

 

[smah]

I don't know of any way to populate the nickname cache other then sending out e-mail. Concievibly, you could do it with only 1 message that contains all the required contacts. But frankly, why bother? - they'll be added automatically when used anyway.

 

[jsteph]

But frankly, why bother...

Mainly because, while I know they'll be populated *after* I use them, I'd like the autocomplete to work the first time. This is especially important because I'm used to it (the autocomplete on nickname), and now if I start to type a name and it doesn't autocomplete--I then think the person isn't in my Contacts (or Address Book).

Th case with many of my contacts is that I just don't know their actual email--for example, is it j.m.smith or j.m.smythe or jmsmith...etc. etc.

In addition, some domains (such as the one I use--wideopenwest.com) are long and difficult to type--I feel like I'll have carpal-tunnel by the time I've typed the address.

Anyway, if that's the way it is then I can live with it, but I'll still try your suggestion and do a send to everyone (and of course delete it from the outbox prior to actual send) and see how that works.
Thanks,
--Jim

 

[smah]

Outlook will still do automatic name checking, even without autocompleting. For example: Let's assume that you have several contacts with the first name of John entered into your contacts (let's also assume that they have different last names ). Now, start a new e-mail message and type John in the To: field. Add a subject & message body. Click the Send button & watch what happens - Outlook asks you to specify which John you're referring to. And for what it's worth, previous versions of Outlook did not 'autocomplete' before sending but still did automatic name checking when sending.