Outlook 2002 Contacts Problem

[TechInNeed]

Please,
I need urgent help.
I am running an Exchange 2000 server with Outlook 2002 clients.
The needs and wants are simple, but achieving them seemed to be more difficult than I assumed. All help would be greatly appreciated.

This is in regards to creating and filing contacts. Basically, users want to be able to file contacts in the "Contacts" folder in the following format:

"CompanyName - ContactName"
ex. "Microsoft - Bill Gates"

This can be achieved fairly easy by filling in the "File As" field in the "New contact window" as "Microsoft - Bill Gates". All this is good cause when the user clicks on the "Contacts" folder the contact name appears as "Microsoft - Bill Gates". However, when you try to add that same contact via the "To" field when composing a new message, it is filed as "Bill Gates" (because this is how it appears in the "Full Name" field).
I can fix this by changing the "Full Name" field to have the "First" name be "Microsoft - Bill Gates", and it will work fine. But when it comes to mail merging, then this becomes a more serious problem.

My needs are to have both places display the contact as "Microsoft - Bill Gates". That is, when you click on the "Contacts" folder you will see "Microsoft - Bill Gates", and also when you go to CHOOSE that same contact via the compose a new message window for the "To"/"CC"/"BCC" field, it shows up as "Microsoft - Bill Gates" as well.

I hope that I was clear, please do not hesitate to ask for clarification if needed.

Thanks in advance.

 

[phingers]

I use a shared public folder in Exchange to keep the contacts all in one place. The users just need to be educated on how to get to it and then check the box in the folder properties that says - 'show this as an address book'
These are filed as Full Name: Microsoft - Bill Gates, Company: Microsoft
File As: Microsoft - Bill Gates

The contacts show as 'Microsoft - Bill Gates' in the contacts folder and also in any fields when selected as a recipient.

I think the difference is that your users are using their own contacts folder rather than a central, shared one, and therefore they all have the client settings for storing them.


Destined for Greatness or Madness

 

[TechInNeed]

This is what I was trying to do.

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Changing the Display Order for Contacts in the Address Book
Even though you can change the display of names in the Contacts folder with the File As field, this doesn’t affect how Outlook lists Contacts names in the Address Book. It always shows them with first name first.

There is a rather inconvenient and tedious way to work around this — by changing the Subject field, a field not normally visible, for each contact. To do this,


Open the contact.


Switch to the All Fields tab.


Under “Select from,” choose “All Contact fields.”


In the field list, scroll down to Subject.


In the Value box for Subject, type whatever you want — the last name, followed by the first name; or perhaps the company name, followed by the individual’s name. This is how the contact will appear in the Address Book dialog box.


Click Save and Close.
The only problem with this procedure is that any time you change the contact, the Subject field reverts to displaying the first name followed by the last name.

Another way to address this issue is with the Reorder Contacts Form from

http://www.slipstick.com/exchange/olforms/ordcont.htm

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Taken from

http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/191/15/4.html

Thanks anyways