Outlook 2003 contacts button not working

I have a user running windows xp professional, and recently installed Office
2003. the user was running Office XP, and uninstalled that, then installed
Office 2003. Everything went well, except that the contacts button doesn't
work. When I click on it, nothing happens. I can right click on the
contacts button, and then click on open in a new window, and it works
perfectly, all contacts are there. I can also access his contacts through
the address book just fine. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Help us out here.
"Contacts button?"
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...
I have a user running windows xp professional, and recently installed
Office
2003. the user was running Office XP, and uninstalled that, then
installed
Office 2003. Everything went well, except that the contacts button
doesn't
work. When I click on it, nothing happens. I can right click on the
contacts button, and then click on open in a new window, and it works
perfectly, all contacts are there. I can also access his contacts through
the address book just fine. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Contacts Button = (shortcut?) On the lower left side of the screen you have
shortcuts or (buttons)..... inbox, calendar, notes, contacts....etc... to
reiterate the problem, when clicking on any of the shortcuts, it brings up
the appropriate view in the main window, except for contacts. It does
absolutely nothing. I have installed Office 2003 SP1, however that did not
help at all. If you right click on the shortcut and click on "open in new
window" it works just fine, albeit in a new window. Any other questions
please let me know.

Thanks
Mike D


"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Help us out here.
"Contacts button?"
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...
I have a user running windows xp professional, and recently installed
Office
2003. the user was running Office XP, and uninstalled that, then
installed
Office 2003. Everything went well, except that the contacts button
doesn't
work. When I click on it, nothing happens. I can right click on the
contacts button, and then click on open in a new window, and it works
perfectly, all contacts are there. I can also access his contacts through
the address book just fine. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Never seen this reported. See if you have a corrupt view. Try starting
Outlook once with the /cleanviews command line switch. This switch (and a
few other really helpful ones) are discussed he
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../q156/9/82.asp


--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...

Contacts Button = (shortcut?) On the lower left side of the screen you
have
shortcuts or (buttons)..... inbox, calendar, notes, contacts....etc... to
reiterate the problem, when clicking on any of the shortcuts, it brings
up
the appropriate view in the main window, except for contacts. It does
absolutely nothing. I have installed Office 2003 SP1, however that did
not
help at all. If you right click on the shortcut and click on "open in new
window" it works just fine, albeit in a new window. Any other questions
please let me know.

Thanks
Mike D


"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Help us out here.
"Contacts button?"
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...
I have a user running windows xp professional, and recently installed
Office
2003. the user was running Office XP, and uninstalled that, then
installed
Office 2003. Everything went well, except that the contacts button
doesn't
work. When I click on it, nothing happens. I can right click on the
contacts button, and then click on open in a new window, and it works
perfectly, all contacts are there. I can also access his contacts
through
the address book just fine. Any suggestions would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks.

My user is currently on vacation, so I will not be able to try your
suggestion for a few days. I do appreciate your help, and will let you know
what happens when I get the chance to try it.

thanks again,

Mike D

Do keep me posted. This is an odd one.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...

My user is currently on vacation, so I will not be able to try your
suggestion for a few days. I do appreciate your help, and will let you
know
what happens when I get the chance to try it.

thanks again,

Mike D

Alrighty,

I have tried using the /cleanviews and the /resetoutlookbar switches.
neither changed anything. When using the /resetoutlookbar switch, Outlook
doesn't open, I just get a quick hourglass, and a "ding" sound. When taking
the switch off of the shortcut, nothing had changed. The /cleanviews switch
did open outlook, but didn't change anything either. I have looked through
all the settings in outlook, but can't seem to find anything that would
affect this.

NOTE: It's looks like XP Pro doesn't like utilizing switches when the path
contains a space (c:\program files...etc) whenever i tried to place the
switch on the original .exe file, it would tell me "cannot open "c:\program".
When I copied the .exe straight to the c: then it would allow the switches
to be used.

Don't know if i'm really offering any informative information to help you
help me, but unless you have another suggestion, it looks like I am going to
have to try uninstalling and reinstalling office.

Thanks for your help!

Mike D

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Do keep me posted. This is an odd one.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...

My user is currently on vacation, so I will not be able to try your
suggestion for a few days. I do appreciate your help, and will let you
know
what happens when I get the chance to try it.

thanks again,

Mike D

2 other things to try since reinstalling rarely if ever solves anything:
1. Close Outlook, rename "outcmd.dat" with Outlook closed and restart
Outlook. This will clear any toolbar customizations you have made and reset
Outlook to its default
2. Create a new profile from scratch.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...
Alrighty,

I have tried using the /cleanviews and the /resetoutlookbar switches.
neither changed anything. When using the /resetoutlookbar switch, Outlook
doesn't open, I just get a quick hourglass, and a "ding" sound. When
taking
the switch off of the shortcut, nothing had changed. The /cleanviews
switch
did open outlook, but didn't change anything either. I have looked
through
all the settings in outlook, but can't seem to find anything that would
affect this.

NOTE: It's looks like XP Pro doesn't like utilizing switches when the
path
contains a space (c:\program files...etc) whenever i tried to place the
switch on the original .exe file, it would tell me "cannot open
"c:\program".
When I copied the .exe straight to the c: then it would allow the switches
to be used.

Don't know if i'm really offering any informative information to help you
help me, but unless you have another suggestion, it looks like I am going
to
have to try uninstalling and reinstalling office.

Thanks for your help!

Mike D

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Do keep me posted. This is an odd one.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...

My user is currently on vacation, so I will not be able to try your
suggestion for a few days. I do appreciate your help, and will let you
know
what happens when I get the chance to try it.

thanks again,

Mike D

I have tried both suggestions, and neither works. After a little more
fumbling around, i figured a couple of things out. My user had personal
folders setup that he wasn't using at all. I believe that the button in the
navigation pane is trying to open the contacts folder from his personal
folders, the only problem with this theory is that when you right click and
select open in new window, you get the contacts from the server.

I successfully made a shortcut in the shortcut pane to open his contacts,
however the shortcut will disappear if you switch views (i.e. click on mail,
and then click on shortcuts again.)

Is there a way to change the focus of the contacts shortcut in the
navigation pane? My user isn't too concerned about this problem since he can
get to his contacts by opening them in a new window, however, this is
something that is just floating on my to-do list and i would like to get it
taken care of.

Thanks for the support, and hopefully we can figure this out somehow.

Mike D

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

2 other things to try since reinstalling rarely if ever solves anything:
1. Close Outlook, rename "outcmd.dat" with Outlook closed and restart
Outlook. This will clear any toolbar customizations you have made and reset
Outlook to its default
2. Create a new profile from scratch.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...
Alrighty,

I have tried using the /cleanviews and the /resetoutlookbar switches.
neither changed anything. When using the /resetoutlookbar switch, Outlook
doesn't open, I just get a quick hourglass, and a "ding" sound. When
taking
the switch off of the shortcut, nothing had changed. The /cleanviews
switch
did open outlook, but didn't change anything either. I have looked
through
all the settings in outlook, but can't seem to find anything that would
affect this.

NOTE: It's looks like XP Pro doesn't like utilizing switches when the
path
contains a space (c:\program files...etc) whenever i tried to place the
switch on the original .exe file, it would tell me "cannot open
"c:\program".
When I copied the .exe straight to the c: then it would allow the switches
to be used.

Don't know if i'm really offering any informative information to help you
help me, but unless you have another suggestion, it looks like I am going
to
have to try uninstalling and reinstalling office.

Thanks for your help!

Mike D

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Do keep me posted. This is an odd one.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...

My user is currently on vacation, so I will not be able to try your
suggestion for a few days. I do appreciate your help, and will let you
know
what happens when I get the chance to try it.

thanks again,

Mike D

What happens when you tried creating a new profile, as Russ suggested?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx


"mdellinger" wrote in message
...
I have tried both suggestions, and neither works. After a little more
fumbling around, i figured a couple of things out. My user had personal
folders setup that he wasn't using at all. I believe that the button in
the
navigation pane is trying to open the contacts folder from his personal
folders, the only problem with this theory is that when you right click
and
select open in new window, you get the contacts from the server.

I successfully made a shortcut in the shortcut pane to open his contacts,
however the shortcut will disappear if you switch views (i.e. click on
mail,
and then click on shortcuts again.)

Is there a way to change the focus of the contacts shortcut in the
navigation pane? My user isn't too concerned about this problem since he
can
get to his contacts by opening them in a new window, however, this is
something that is just floating on my to-do list and i would like to get
it
taken care of.

Thanks for the support, and hopefully we can figure this out somehow.

Mike D

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

2 other things to try since reinstalling rarely if ever solves anything:
1. Close Outlook, rename "outcmd.dat" with Outlook closed and restart
Outlook. This will clear any toolbar customizations you have made and
reset
Outlook to its default
2. Create a new profile from scratch.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...
Alrighty,

I have tried using the /cleanviews and the /resetoutlookbar switches.
neither changed anything. When using the /resetoutlookbar switch,
Outlook
doesn't open, I just get a quick hourglass, and a "ding" sound. When
taking
the switch off of the shortcut, nothing had changed. The /cleanviews
switch
did open outlook, but didn't change anything either. I have looked
through
all the settings in outlook, but can't seem to find anything that would
affect this.

NOTE: It's looks like XP Pro doesn't like utilizing switches when the
path
contains a space (c:\program files...etc) whenever i tried to place
the
switch on the original .exe file, it would tell me "cannot open
"c:\program".
When I copied the .exe straight to the c: then it would allow the
switches
to be used.

Don't know if i'm really offering any informative information to help
you
help me, but unless you have another suggestion, it looks like I am
going
to
have to try uninstalling and reinstalling office.

Thanks for your help!

Mike D

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Do keep me posted. This is an odd one.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"mdellinger" wrote in message
...

My user is currently on vacation, so I will not be able to try your
suggestion for a few days. I do appreciate your help, and will let
you
know
what happens when I get the chance to try it.

thanks again,

Mike D