Try turning off the Outlook Today view of your root folder.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
wrote in message
...
This is a weird one...

I installed a fresh copy Outlook 2003 (via Office Professional 2003) on my
new PC. Using the default folders that were created, added a few new
contacts (ie. John Smith, Steve Jones, Bill Baker)

I am able to click into Contacts folder and then type "J" to go to "Steve
Jones", then "B" to move to "Bill Baker". If I switch to my Inbox folder
and back again to Contacts folder, the ability to type the first letter of
the last name works fine.

Here is where it gets weird:

I now, from within Outlook, open my original PST file from old PC, and
copy
all contacts from the old PST to my new Contacts folder. Now, I can no
longer type letters to go to last names when I switch between folders. It
appears that the focus of the cursor is no longer in the Contact list, but
is now on the Contact folder frame. Once I click into the first name in
my
Contacts, the ability to type letters to move through the Contact list
works.

It seems that once I imported all my old Contacts, the focus behavior of
my
cursor when switching between other folders and Contacts has changed.

I have tried to reinstall Outlook, yet it still doesn't fix the problem.
Any ideas?!

Thank you,

Erok