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April 11, 2006
MS Outlook 2003 Autocomplete
I despise Outlook for a variety of reasons. The thing that's bothered me lately about it is the "autocomplete" functionality. When you're typing in a name in the "To:" field, it offers a few names. This has always concerned me. Like, it doesn't show you all the names, just some of them. This is because autocomplete doesn't really use the Outlook contacts per se. What it does is suggest email addresses that you've emailed before.
Why does it matter? Let's say you add someone to your Contacts. Their name is "John Doe". Email address is "Homie@aol.com". But, in Outlook contacts, underneath the email address, it says "Display as: Homie@aol.com". Then, you send them an email. Sending him an email adds him to your Autocomplete file. The wrinkle is this. It adds them to the autocomplete file using whatever is in the "Display as:" field. So, he's added as "Homie@aol.com", and if you type in "John Doe", his name will never come up in the autocomplete list.
It's kind of confusing because, if you click on the little 'Check Names" button on the toolbar, he shows up surrounded by all the other John's that showed up in the autocomplete list before. The solution is to delete the name in the "Display as:" field, and tab out of the field. The field should then repopulate with "John Doe(Homie@aol.com)". Click on "Save and Close" to save the updated contact information. This deleted the old autocomplete entry ("Homie@aol.com"). Once you send him another email, he will then be added into the autocomplete file as "John Doe(Homie@aol.com)", and then the next time you type in "John Doe", it will suggest him in the autocomplete list. :)
If you want to delete invididual entries from the autocomplete list, reset your autocomplete cache, or disable autocomplete altogether, this site has you covered.
(The autocomplete file ends in .nk2. Mine is named "Microsoft Outlook Internet Settings.NK2").
Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 11, 2006 at 3:14 PM
Comments
I despise Outlook for a variety of reasons.
Posted by: Robert R. on April 11, 2006 at 4:13 PM