Suggest names while completing to: field?

[mgodinez]

Dear Greater I.T. Intellect,

I have a client on a LAN (Client: Dell Inspiron 5000 Laptop, 20Gb HDD, 192Mb RAM), that has just been upgraded from Windows 98SE to Windows 2000 Pro. The client has always had Office 2000 Installed.

After the upgrade, the user said that in Outlook 2000...the Auto Complete feature stopped working, everytime she tried to send a message to someone (i.e. when she typed in the first few letter of the receipient's email before the o.s. upgrade, outlook would suggest email addresses).

I see this feature in Outlook XP, under Suggest Names while Completing to: field, under send options. Does anyone know how to make Outlook 2000 Pro do this?

Thanks.

mgodinez

 

[dawnd3]

Go to Tools Menu, Choose Options, Choose Preferences tab, Click on email options, Click Advanced Email options, and check "automatic name checking".

Let me know if this works,

Dawn

http://www.calliopeconsulting.net

 

[mgodinez]

Dawnd3,

Thanks for you reply. I tried this option from within' Outlook previously, to no avail. I have a test client setup in the office w/ Winxp pro and Outlk2k, and the suggest names while completeing to: field option seems unavailable.

Has anyone been able to make this work in win98se w/ outlk2k? I'm wondering if the upgrade to my troubled client had anything to do w/ this error.

much obliged,

mgodinez

 

[smah]

I don't believe Outlook 2K does this. However, if you have multiple contacts with similar names you can type a portion of the name then hit send - Outlook will then ask which one you want to send to. For example, if you have 2 contacts - dave abc & dave xyz, just type dave in the 'to' field & hit send. Outlook will ask which 'dave' you mean.

 

[mgodinez]

smah,

after troubleshooting for some time, I'm starting to think that outlook2k doesn't do this as well. Thanks for the reply.

mgodinez

 

[hudey]

I do a lot of reformatting of laptop computers and restoring mail boxes in Outlook 2000 by moving the PST file off of the computer, reformatting, and moving the PST file back. I have always had a hard time getting the contacts to come back in and populate correctly, but by playing with it I have always been able to get it to work.

The place to look is under TOOLS > Services. Then click on the Addressing tab. Make sure that you have it set to "Keep personal addresses in:" and that the CONTACTS folder is selected. Check to make sure that you only have one CONTACTS folder in that drop-down. If there is more than one, you might be set to look at the wrong folder.

Also, go to TOOLS > Services and make sure that you have the Outlook Address Book installed. I believe that it must be installed for the name population to work properly. Go into the Properties of the Outlook Address Book and make sure that it shows the Contacts folder that is actually being used to enter your contacts.

I have always gotten it to work again by just playing around with the settings in these areas and installing/removing/reinstalling the Outlook Address Book. If you get more than one Contacts folder in the Outlook Address Book properties, remove the one that you're not using.

Hope this helps.

Mike

 

[mgodinez]

Hudey,

Thanks for your reply. Your tips proved very helpful, in further troubleshooting this anomaly. However, I have yet to achieve resolution.

So, you were actually able to make outlook2k suggest names in the to: field, when composing a message. I was able to make outlook give me a sqiggly red underline, when typing in the first name of a recipient w/ multiple entries in the contacts listing. Right clicking on the first name (w/ sqiggly red underline) gave me a pop up menu of other possible recipients that I could send the message to.

However, Outlook 2k won't just display the other choices in the to: field, when multiple recipients w/ the same first name are listed in the contacts folder (like outlook xp). If you were able to achieve this, then I'll continue troubleshooting. But if you just get the red sqiggly underline (forgive my technical terminology)...then it might not happen.

Much Obliged,

mgodinez

 

[hudey]

In my opinion, if you get the red squiggly line it's working!

I have always had to type in the whole name, so to send a message to John Smith I'd type:

john smith

then hit tab to move down to the CC field and the address would populate immediately.

If it's possible to get it to work by only typing the first name, then my installations are broken too. I've always typed the whole name.

Thanks for the reply!

Hudey

 

[smah]

Any portion of the name has always worked for me. The red squiggly line means that it's not sure who your sending to because there are multiple choices. As soon as you get the red squiggly line, hit send and see what happens. It usually takes a few moments for the squiggly line to appear or tab to the cc field.

As another test, start typing something that isn't in your address book - like q (assuming there's no name beginning with 'q' in your address book). No red squiggly line - because there's no match at all. Hit send - no suggestion.

Also type just s (I'm guessing you have at least 2 in your contacts). Tab to the cc field to get the red squiggly line. Hit send - choose from multiple choices.

 

[Skypper]

Have your client type in the LAST NAME of the person she is attempting to send the email to, if it is unique the proper email address will be filled in for her. If it is not unique then the red underline appears and a list of possible matches are suggested. Skypper

 

[Skypper]

I forgot to mention after you type the LAST NAME tab to the next field or enter a ";" to enter another address, if it is unique the email will be addressed properly. If you type just the first part of a name then a red underline will appear, if you click on it a dialog box will appear with suggested addresses from your address book. Skypper

 

[smah]

Yes skypper, Outlook 2000 will complete the name. But it does not suggest the name while typing like outlook express and outlook 2002.

 

[mgodinez]

Dear Greater I.T. Intellect,

Thank you for all your great responses!!! I love this list!!!

Smah is correct. Outlook 2k doesn't seem to suggest names while typing in the persons contact name in the to: field...or cc: or bcc: field. It seems that you have to hit tab, and then the name will be resolved. Has anyone gotten Outlook 2k to resolve the name, before tabbing down to the next field?

Much Mucho Obliged,

mgodinez
seattle, wa

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