Outlook Help needed

[lchyi]

When I type a new message and then try to find a contact, it gives an error saying that the contact list has been moved or something. Then when I try to add a contact list it tells me that I can't do it and to use the contact module instead (?). When I click on the contacts folder however, all the old contacts are there, it's just not registering when I try to find a contact under a new message it seems like.

 

[jaykleg]

Don't know which Outlook version you are using, or whether or not what I'm going to suggest will work for you. I find the way Outlook handles this to be a bit confusing, but I always manage to fumble my way into fixing this issue.

It seems that you may be confusing Microsoft's concepts of "Contacts" and "Address Books". If I want to use the data in my Contacts list as my Address Book in Outlook I have to first right-click on the Contacts folder to get the Properties dialog, then choose the Outlook Address Book tab on that dialog, then put a check on the item that has a name something like "Use this Contacts list as an e-mail address book." Now I quit Outlook, and then restart it to make the change take place. Now I go into the Tools menu and choose E-mail accounts. In the ensuing wizard screens I change the settings for the address book -- like choosing to display last name first, etc.

I hope my attempt at providing information is helpful to you. In fact I have found this process to be a little obtuse at times. (Or, maybe I'm just the obtuse one.) But I always manage to get the Contacts list contents to display properly in the Address Book -- eventually.

The easy way to do this is to use the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" to transfer all of these sorts of settings from the previous installation to the new one. Can save me about thirty minutes of concerted effort over having to re-enter all of the e-mail accounts and preferences.