OL2K: adressing contacts with several email aliases- how to explain/workaround apparent "autoreolving" errors

Hello,
I'm using Outlook 2000 on a Windows ME system. The problem that has
recently come to my attention (but has probably always existed) is that
OL seems to be somewhat idiosyncratic when filling in email addresses
depending how you enter it in the "To:" box.

Example: My contact has 3 email addresses. One is set as "default" in
the addressbook, and hence appears as email address (1) in the Contact
in OL.

His email provider for the default address has some temporary problems,
so I start emailing him at his alternative address. (I can't remember
exactly how I did this, but I'm pretty sure I changed the "default" in
the address book, and I probably also used the "right click the name
after it has been resolved, and choose the desired address from the
drop down menu" method.

Subsequently, his problems with the original email provider are solved,
I change back the "default" and hope all will be back to normal.

However, I find that some of the time my email is still being sent to
the alternative one (which causes some hassles) and on further
investigation, it seems that ones I have just hit "reply" from a mail
from him are OK, but new email originated from me may not be.

My preferred (and ususal) method of creating an address for a new email
is to type his first name in the "To:" box, which then turns into his
full name (I understand this process is called autoresolving (?)) and
my guess is that this is the process that is causing the difficulty.

Is it somehow remembering the previous email, so if I type "john" and
it is resolved to the contact "John B. Smith", and then I right click
and choose one of the alternative emails (even if it is not the current
default one) - will OL always remember this email as the one to use for
"john" until I manually resolve it to be something else???


On a more general note, can someone clarify the "rules" for resolving
names/contacts, and on an even more general note, what exactly is the
difference or relationship between the "Contacts" and the "Address
book" (by addressbook I mean the app started by CTRL-SHFT-B or the
small book icon in OL) they both sem to have the same entries, and are
updated with each other, but I have a feeling they're not the same....


Apologies for long post, but I'm trying to explain the problem I had
clearly for y'all :-)

regards,
Alan.

You forgot to post your version.
Outlook 2000 comes in 2 completely different mail support modes which use 2
completely different address book engines.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello,
I'm using Outlook 2000 on a Windows ME system. The problem that has
recently come to my attention (but has probably always existed) is that
OL seems to be somewhat idiosyncratic when filling in email addresses
depending how you enter it in the "To:" box.

Example: My contact has 3 email addresses. One is set as "default" in
the addressbook, and hence appears as email address (1) in the Contact
in OL.

His email provider for the default address has some temporary problems,
so I start emailing him at his alternative address. (I can't remember
exactly how I did this, but I'm pretty sure I changed the "default" in
the address book, and I probably also used the "right click the name
after it has been resolved, and choose the desired address from the
drop down menu" method.

Subsequently, his problems with the original email provider are solved,
I change back the "default" and hope all will be back to normal.

However, I find that some of the time my email is still being sent to
the alternative one (which causes some hassles) and on further
investigation, it seems that ones I have just hit "reply" from a mail
from him are OK, but new email originated from me may not be.

My preferred (and ususal) method of creating an address for a new email
is to type his first name in the "To:" box, which then turns into his
full name (I understand this process is called autoresolving (?)) and
my guess is that this is the process that is causing the difficulty.

Is it somehow remembering the previous email, so if I type "john" and
it is resolved to the contact "John B. Smith", and then I right click
and choose one of the alternative emails (even if it is not the current
default one) - will OL always remember this email as the one to use for
"john" until I manually resolve it to be something else???


On a more general note, can someone clarify the "rules" for resolving
names/contacts, and on an even more general note, what exactly is the
difference or relationship between the "Contacts" and the "Address
book" (by addressbook I mean the app started by CTRL-SHFT-B or the
small book icon in OL) they both sem to have the same entries, and are
updated with each other, but I have a feeling they're not the same....


Apologies for long post, but I'm trying to explain the problem I had
clearly for y'all :-)

regards,
Alan.

Sorry about that. It's Outlook 2000 SP3 (9.0.0.6627) using Internet
Mail Only (Security Update) mode.

Thanks

That makes it tough. IMO is a downsized, simplified version of Outlook that
is not even capable of using the Outlook Address Book. It was abandoned long
ago and is no longer even supported. You are overdue for an upgrade.

In the full version of Outlook, here is how autoresolution works:
If you enter part of a name or a nickname then tab out of the field (or hit
Alt-K [Check Names]), Outlook will attempt to resolve the name against your
address book. If it can't, it'll red underline it and you can right click on
the name to manually resolve it. Outlook will save any manual resolution you
specify for future use.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"achookang" wrote in message
ups.com...
Sorry about that. It's Outlook 2000 SP3 (9.0.0.6627) using Internet
Mail Only (Security Update) mode.

Thanks