Improve the Address Book

I realize that the Address Book feature is used and integrated into multiple
Office applications and as such must be rather flexible to meet each set ot
needs. But the Address Book has LOTS of problems about it that should have
been fixed several versions back. Somehow those fixes seem to stay on the
"back burner". I sincerely hope that Microsoft will see fit to rework the
Address Book application substantially in the very near future so that many
of these inconsistencies and integration problems can be resolved.

I use the Address Book with Outlook 2003 and am always running into problems
of one type or another that are very frustrating. You already have a lot of
good suggestions on your FAQ site that help tremendously. But those
suggestions provide workarounds that should simply become part of the default
way the Address Book is used and configured rather than something that has to
be searched for and manually changed within Outlook and the Address Book app.

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
you can send MS a suggestion here.
--
Paul Ballou
MVP Office
http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/templates
http://office.microsoft.com/home

Control the things you can and Don't Worry about the things you can't
control.

"Bill Molony" Bill wrote in message
...
I realize that the Address Book feature is used and integrated into
multiple
Office applications and as such must be rather flexible to meet each set
ot
needs. But the Address Book has LOTS of problems about it that should have
been fixed several versions back. Somehow those fixes seem to stay on the
"back burner". I sincerely hope that Microsoft will see fit to rework the
Address Book application substantially in the very near future so that
many
of these inconsistencies and integration problems can be resolved.

I use the Address Book with Outlook 2003 and am always running into
problems
of one type or another that are very frustrating. You already have a lot
of
good suggestions on your FAQ site that help tremendously. But those
suggestions provide workarounds that should simply become part of the
default
way the Address Book is used and configured rather than something that has
to
be searched for and manually changed within Outlook and the Address Book
app.

Hello Bill, this is a user to user forum. Perhaps you could identify
those "LOTS of problems" and post them to an appropriate location. Such as:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
or


Bill Molony wrote:

I realize that the Address Book feature is used and integrated into multiple
Office applications and as such must be rather flexible to meet each set ot
needs. But the Address Book has LOTS of problems about it that should have
been fixed several versions back. Somehow those fixes seem to stay on the
"back burner". I sincerely hope that Microsoft will see fit to rework the
Address Book application substantially in the very near future so that many
of these inconsistencies and integration problems can be resolved.

I use the Address Book with Outlook 2003 and am always running into problems
of one type or another that are very frustrating. You already have a lot of
good suggestions on your FAQ site that help tremendously. But those
suggestions provide workarounds that should simply become part of the default
way the Address Book is used and configured rather than something that has to
be searched for and manually changed within Outlook and the Address Book app.

Hi Bob,

I wish I could! But the problems are FAR too numerous for me to begin to
mention them all. It would take many pages!

The separate address book idea is great but the implementation Microsoft
used is extremely poorly planned and has been from the very beginning. There
is just not enough really intelligent thought gone into it yet. And the
integration with it into Outlook (as opposed to Outlook Express) is
particularly poor.

I know that one of the reasons they keep putting it off is because
converting the trash from the old files into a new replacement Address Book
application is going to be a terrible can of worms.

I was simply "venting" in hopes that it would encourage others to complain
to Microsoft about it as well. It is going to be tough but they need to bite
the bullet and make the changes needed.

Be well,
Bill

"Bob I" wrote:

Hello Bill, this is a user to user forum. Perhaps you could identify
those "LOTS of problems" and post them to an appropriate location. Such as:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
or


Bill Molony wrote:

I realize that the Address Book feature is used and integrated into multiple
Office applications and as such must be rather flexible to meet each set ot
needs. But the Address Book has LOTS of problems about it that should have
been fixed several versions back. Somehow those fixes seem to stay on the
"back burner". I sincerely hope that Microsoft will see fit to rework the
Address Book application substantially in the very near future so that many
of these inconsistencies and integration problems can be resolved.

I use the Address Book with Outlook 2003 and am always running into problems
of one type or another that are very frustrating. You already have a lot of
good suggestions on your FAQ site that help tremendously. But those
suggestions provide workarounds that should simply become part of the default
way the Address Book is used and configured rather than something that has to
be searched for and manually changed within Outlook and the Address Book app.

Hi Bob,

I wish I could! But the problems are FAR too numerous for me to begin to
mention them all. It would take many pages!

The separate address book idea is great but the implementation Microsoft
used is extremely poorly planned and has been from the very beginning. There
is just not enough really intelligent thought gone into it yet. And the
integration with it into Outlook (as opposed to Outlook Express) is
particularly poor.

I know that one of the reasons they keep putting it off is because
converting the trash from the old files into a new replacement Address Book
application is going to be a terrible can of worms.

I was simply "venting" in hopes that it would encourage others to complain
to Microsoft about it as well. It is going to be tough but they need to bite
the bullet and make the changes needed.

Be well,
Bill

"Bob I" wrote:

Hello Bill, this is a user to user forum. Perhaps you could identify
those "LOTS of problems" and post them to an appropriate location. Such as:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
or


Bill Molony wrote:

I realize that the Address Book feature is used and integrated into multiple
Office applications and as such must be rather flexible to meet each set ot
needs. But the Address Book has LOTS of problems about it that should have
been fixed several versions back. Somehow those fixes seem to stay on the
"back burner". I sincerely hope that Microsoft will see fit to rework the
Address Book application substantially in the very near future so that many
of these inconsistencies and integration problems can be resolved.

I use the Address Book with Outlook 2003 and am always running into problems
of one type or another that are very frustrating. You already have a lot of
good suggestions on your FAQ site that help tremendously. But those
suggestions provide workarounds that should simply become part of the default
way the Address Book is used and configured rather than something that has to
be searched for and manually changed within Outlook and the Address Book app.

Sorry about the issues you are having, I guess I don't "use it very
hard" so I haven't got any beef with it, hence my suggestion to you.

Bill Molony wrote:

Hi Bob,

I wish I could! But the problems are FAR too numerous for me to begin to
mention them all. It would take many pages!

The separate address book idea is great but the implementation Microsoft
used is extremely poorly planned and has been from the very beginning. There
is just not enough really intelligent thought gone into it yet. And the
integration with it into Outlook (as opposed to Outlook Express) is
particularly poor.

I know that one of the reasons they keep putting it off is because
converting the trash from the old files into a new replacement Address Book
application is going to be a terrible can of worms.

I was simply "venting" in hopes that it would encourage others to complain
to Microsoft about it as well. It is going to be tough but they need to bite
the bullet and make the changes needed.

Be well,
Bill

"Bob I" wrote:


Hello Bill, this is a user to user forum. Perhaps you could identify
those "LOTS of problems" and post them to an appropriate location. Such as:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
or


Bill Molony wrote:


I realize that the Address Book feature is used and integrated into multiple
Office applications and as such must be rather flexible to meet each set ot
needs. But the Address Book has LOTS of problems about it that should have
been fixed several versions back. Somehow those fixes seem to stay on the
"back burner". I sincerely hope that Microsoft will see fit to rework the
Address Book application substantially in the very near future so that many
of these inconsistencies and integration problems can be resolved.

I use the Address Book with Outlook 2003 and am always running into problems
of one type or another that are very frustrating. You already have a lot of
good suggestions on your FAQ site that help tremendously. But those
suggestions provide workarounds that should simply become part of the default
way the Address Book is used and configured rather than something that has to
be searched for and manually changed within Outlook and the Address Book app.

Hi Bob,

Oh, if you are using Outlook, I bet you do use it far more than you think.
The Address Book is so intimately tied into Outlook that you usually don't
even know they are two separate apps. For example, you are probably using it
almost every time you send an Email.

When you type in just a name into TO:, CC:, or BCC: fields, in the
background, Outlook looks up the name in the external Address Book list to
complete the actual email address. When the email address changes to an
underlined format, that is when it found the address in your Address
Book--not in Outlook.

That even happens when you type in the email address directly--it still
looks it up or adds it to your Address Book. You would think that info comes
from your Contacts but it doesn't.

When you right click on the above fields in your email, the information you
are viewing about that address also comes from the Address Book rather than
from the Outlook Contacts.

Even when you use the "Find a Contact" quick find box on the Tool Bar (as
opposed to the Advanced Find), the place it is looking is again in the
Address Book rather than in Contacts.

And this is really only the tip of the iceburg. What is really amazing is
that these features work together at all considering the problems the Address
Book app has. But quite the contrary, each of these lookups mentioned above
for the most part work extremely well and very quickly and relatively
seamlessly.

I think the primary reasoning Microsoft programmers chose this behavior is
that the Address Book app is smaller and faster so it actually saves the user
some time. But I would prefer that it went directly to the same source all
the time--Outlook Contacts--even though that might take a little longer.

It is just too much redundancy to keep two separate databases and then
attempt to keep the two lists coordinated in the background. It does amaze me
at times that the two lists are indeed kept almost perfectly coordinated. But
yet, "almost" is not quite the same as "always" is it?

That's where the problems arise. Suddenly some strange things appear when
you change a record in Contacts but the old info still keeps popping up where
the change did not get properly moved over to the Address Book. And then you
find the difference (in the Address Book) and find that it is almost
impossible to make the same change in the Address Book because you don't have
the same tools or methods to work with.

One of the most obvious examples of the difference between the two apps
(though the user might not even notice) is the subtle diffecence between
"File As" (in Outlook) vs. "Display As" (in the Address Book). You would
think these should be the same info since they really should mean the same
thing. But they aren't. And they don't even work the same way even though
they should. Changing one or the other should automatically carry over to the
other but it doesn't. And the logic used in building these auto fields is
very flawed.

But I guess my biggest problem (in a long list) with the Address Book is not
those things mentioned above which it does generally very well but rather
with how little the user can do to control what it does when somethig goes
wrong. The Address Book user interface is extremely limited and just does not
allow for much user control.

So I just hope Microsoft will do something to rework this extremely
important little app so that it can really be what it needs to be. Either
that or completely cut its integration into Outlook and let Outlook do all
the work itself so that there is more consistency and less redundancy.

Sorry this turned into such a long diatribe. I really like Outlook a lot
and I didn't mean to get so involved. But at least I got a chance to "get it
off my back". Thanks for "listening" and being interested!

Be well,
Bill

"Bob I" wrote:

Sorry about the issues you are having, I guess I don't "use it very
hard" so I haven't got any beef with it, hence my suggestion to you.

Bill Molony wrote:

Hi Bob,

I wish I could! But the problems are FAR too numerous for me to begin to
mention them all. It would take many pages!

The separate address book idea is great but the implementation Microsoft
used is extremely poorly planned and has been from the very beginning. There
is just not enough really intelligent thought gone into it yet. And the
integration with it into Outlook (as opposed to Outlook Express) is
particularly poor.

I know that one of the reasons they keep putting it off is because
converting the trash from the old files into a new replacement Address Book
application is going to be a terrible can of worms.

I was simply "venting" in hopes that it would encourage others to complain
to Microsoft about it as well. It is going to be tough but they need to bite
the bullet and make the changes needed.

Be well,
Bill

"Bob I" wrote:


Hello Bill, this is a user to user forum. Perhaps you could identify
those "LOTS of problems" and post them to an appropriate location. Such as:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
or


Bill Molony wrote:


I realize that the Address Book feature is used and integrated into multiple
Office applications and as such must be rather flexible to meet each set ot
needs. But the Address Book has LOTS of problems about it that should have
been fixed several versions back. Somehow those fixes seem to stay on the
"back burner". I sincerely hope that Microsoft will see fit to rework the
Address Book application substantially in the very near future so that many
of these inconsistencies and integration problems can be resolved.

I use the Address Book with Outlook 2003 and am always running into problems
of one type or another that are very frustrating. You already have a lot of
good suggestions on your FAQ site that help tremendously. But those
suggestions provide workarounds that should simply become part of the default
way the Address Book is used and configured rather than something that has to
be searched for and manually changed within Outlook and the Address Book app.

The Personal Address Book has been obsolete in Outlook for quite some time.
It is actually a view of your contacts folder and has no separate existence.

--�
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, Bill Molony asked:

| Hi Bob,
|
| Oh, if you are using Outlook, I bet you do use it far more than you
| think. The Address Book is so intimately tied into Outlook that you
| usually don't even know they are two separate apps. For example, you
| are probably using it almost every time you send an Email.
|
| When you type in just a name into TO:, CC:, or BCC: fields, in the
| background, Outlook looks up the name in the external Address Book
| list to complete the actual email address. When the email address
| changes to an underlined format, that is when it found the address in
| your Address Book--not in Outlook.
|
| That even happens when you type in the email address directly--it
| still looks it up or adds it to your Address Book. You would think
| that info comes from your Contacts but it doesn't.
|
| When you right click on the above fields in your email, the
| information you are viewing about that address also comes from the
| Address Book rather than from the Outlook Contacts.
|
| Even when you use the "Find a Contact" quick find box on the Tool Bar
| (as opposed to the Advanced Find), the place it is looking is again
| in the Address Book rather than in Contacts.
|
| And this is really only the tip of the iceburg. What is really
| amazing is that these features work together at all considering the
| problems the Address Book app has. But quite the contrary, each of
| these lookups mentioned above for the most part work extremely well
| and very quickly and relatively seamlessly.
|
| I think the primary reasoning Microsoft programmers chose this
| behavior is that the Address Book app is smaller and faster so it
| actually saves the user some time. But I would prefer that it went
| directly to the same source all the time--Outlook Contacts--even
| though that might take a little longer.
|
| It is just too much redundancy to keep two separate databases and then
| attempt to keep the two lists coordinated in the background. It does
| amaze me at times that the two lists are indeed kept almost perfectly
| coordinated. But yet, "almost" is not quite the same as "always" is
| it?
|
| That's where the problems arise. Suddenly some strange things appear
| when you change a record in Contacts but the old info still keeps
| popping up where the change did not get properly moved over to the
| Address Book. And then you find the difference (in the Address Book)
| and find that it is almost impossible to make the same change in the
| Address Book because you don't have the same tools or methods to work
| with.
|
| One of the most obvious examples of the difference between the two
| apps (though the user might not even notice) is the subtle diffecence
| between "File As" (in Outlook) vs. "Display As" (in the Address
| Book). You would think these should be the same info since they
| really should mean the same thing. But they aren't. And they don't
| even work the same way even though they should. Changing one or the
| other should automatically carry over to the other but it doesn't.
| And the logic used in building these auto fields is very flawed.
|
| But I guess my biggest problem (in a long list) with the Address Book
| is not those things mentioned above which it does generally very well
| but rather with how little the user can do to control what it does
| when somethig goes wrong. The Address Book user interface is
| extremely limited and just does not allow for much user control.
|
| So I just hope Microsoft will do something to rework this extremely
| important little app so that it can really be what it needs to be.
| Either that or completely cut its integration into Outlook and let
| Outlook do all the work itself so that there is more consistency and
| less redundancy.
|
| Sorry this turned into such a long diatribe. I really like Outlook
| a lot and I didn't mean to get so involved. But at least I got a
| chance to "get it off my back". Thanks for "listening" and being
| interested!
|
| Be well,
| Bill
|
| "Bob I" wrote:
|
|| Sorry about the issues you are having, I guess I don't "use it very
|| hard" so I haven't got any beef with it, hence my suggestion to you.
||
|| Bill Molony wrote:
||
||| Hi Bob,
|||
||| I wish I could! But the problems are FAR too numerous for me to
||| begin to mention them all. It would take many pages!
|||
||| The separate address book idea is great but the implementation
||| Microsoft used is extremely poorly planned and has been from the
||| very beginning. There is just not enough really intelligent thought
||| gone into it yet. And the integration with it into Outlook (as
||| opposed to Outlook Express) is particularly poor.
|||
||| I know that one of the reasons they keep putting it off is because
||| converting the trash from the old files into a new replacement
||| Address Book application is going to be a terrible can of worms.
|||
||| I was simply "venting" in hopes that it would encourage others to
||| complain to Microsoft about it as well. It is going to be tough but
||| they need to bite the bullet and make the changes needed.
|||
||| Be well,
||| Bill
|||
||| "Bob I" wrote:
|||
|||
|||| Hello Bill, this is a user to user forum. Perhaps you could
|||| identify
|||| those "LOTS of problems" and post them to an appropriate location.
|||| Such as: http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
|||| or
||||
||||
|||| Bill Molony wrote:
||||
||||
||||| I realize that the Address Book feature is used and integrated
||||| into multiple Office applications and as such must be rather
||||| flexible to meet each set ot needs. But the Address Book has LOTS
||||| of problems about it that should have been fixed several versions
||||| back. Somehow those fixes seem to stay on the "back burner". I
||||| sincerely hope that Microsoft will see fit to rework the Address
||||| Book application substantially in the very near future so that
||||| many of these inconsistencies and integration problems can be
||||| resolved.
|||||
||||| I use the Address Book with Outlook 2003 and am always running
||||| into problems of one type or another that are very frustrating.
||||| You already have a lot of good suggestions on your FAQ site that
||||| help tremendously. But those suggestions provide workarounds that
||||| should simply become part of the default way the Address Book is
||||| used and configured rather than something that has to be searched
||||| for and manually changed within Outlook and the Address Book app.

Hi Milly,

Thanks very much for your response!

I was very aware that the "Personal" Address Book has been "obselete" (more
or less) for the last couple of versions of Outlook. But to be more accurate,
while the "Personal" Address Book may be considered "obselete" and may be
even considered "not recommended", it is nonetheless still available for use
within Outlook and when implemented uses separate .PAB files external to the
..PST files. But I don't use the "Personal" Address Book feature and was not
referring to that at all.

My criticisms refer specifically to "The Address Book" currently used--I
have seen no other name used for this app. It used to be called the "Windows
Address Book" in previous incarnations and previously used (but no longer
uses) files with an extension of .WAB. I am not sure where today's Address
Book data is kept now. I guess it may be integrated into the Outlook .PST
file ???

But regardless of where the data is kept, based on what I have seen in using
the application, the data for The Address Book is definitely not integrated
directly into the Contact folder data. It is definitely not simply another
"view" of my Contact folder. I base this assumption on the fact that I can
change information in either the Contact folder or in the Address Book and
the change is not reflected in the other data file. In a huge number of cases
I have had to manually change one record or the other because they are not
totally reconciled with one another.

Furthermore, the Address Book data contains records that is are not even
present in the Contacts file and vice versa. Contact file data is not copied
into the Address Book data unless it includes an Email address. And there are
a HUGE number of Address Book records in the Address Book data that do not
have a corresponding record in the Contacts folder.

There is an attempt by the programmers in a few places to "hide" this fact.
While creating or reading an Email, you can request to view the Contact
related to a specific email address and the Contact record will suddenly
appear. But this will happen whether even when the mentioned Contact record
did not previously exist. Instead of "looking up" the non-existent Contact
record, it creates one on the fly and then presents it as if it had
previously existed.

If you then save that record, you have a new Contact in the file. The only
problem with that is that there may have indeed been a real matching contact
already in the Contacts folder but the look up did not find it because of a
very "minor" difference such as a misspelled name or a new email address.
Then the user has a bunch of almost duplicate records to reconcile manually.

Hence the two applications--Outlook and Address Book--must be cross
referencing to each others data by look-up based indexing so that Address
Book data (such as "Display As") may show up on Outlook Contact forms and
Contact data (such as "File As") may likewise show up on records in the
Address Book.

Since data is not moved between the two files unless specific criteria
exists (for example, an email address is added or changed in a new Contact
record), then it becomes extremely easy for the two files to get out of sync
with each other.

While this type of organization may be a necessity in certain cases, it is
not good database design practice for the exact reasons I have mentioned as
problems I have experienced. No matter how carefully the apps are programmed,
there are inherent problems with keeping the two data files matching each
other.

Of course, I am also aware of the downside to my criticism and suggestion:
If the two files are integrated as part of a redesign of the application, it
will be necessary that Outlook add a Contact record for each and every email
address even though no other information is really needed beyond identifying
name and email address. I am sure this has been one of the major reasons the
original data has been kept separate.

And this is where there will be some extreme consequences in deciding how to
handle a mass file conversion if a new release comes out with these
suggestions included. Combining the data from the two files is going to
either introduce a LOT of almost duplicate records or either there will be a
LOT of problems in trying to reconcile the differences between similar but
not totally exact records. This could easily be a programmer's nightmare !

But there must always be tradeoffs and I feel this one is really necessary
for the safety, accuracy, and continued improvement of the app and the data.
And again I say that I hope Microsoft will take a serious look at totally
redesigning the Address Book portion of the application or either totally
drop all related code and add the required replacement code directly to
Outlook.

And then I hope they will bite the bullet and make a decent attempt at
producing a file conversion that will at least drastically reduce the
problems users will face with reconciling the resulting data.

Again, I do sincerely appreciate your response and hope that my answer
clears up your concerns and misunderstandings.

Be well,
Bill Molony

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:

The Personal Address Book has been obsolete in Outlook for quite some time.
It is actually a view of your contacts folder and has no separate existence.

--�
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, Bill Molony asked:

| Hi Bob,
|
| Oh, if you are using Outlook, I bet you do use it far more than you
| think. The Address Book is so intimately tied into Outlook that you
| usually don't even know they are two separate apps. For example, you
| are probably using it almost every time you send an Email.
|
| When you type in just a name into TO:, CC:, or BCC: fields, in the
| background, Outlook looks up the name in the external Address Book
| list to complete the actual email address. When the email address
| changes to an underlined format, that is when it found the address in
| your Address Book--not in Outlook.
|
| That even happens when you type in the email address directly--it
| still looks it up or adds it to your Address Book. You would think
| that info comes from your Contacts but it doesn't.
|
| When you right click on the above fields in your email, the
| information you are viewing about that address also comes from the
| Address Book rather than from the Outlook Contacts.
|
| Even when you use the "Find a Contact" quick find box on the Tool Bar
| (as opposed to the Advanced Find), the place it is looking is again
| in the Address Book rather than in Contacts.
|
| And this is really only the tip of the iceburg. What is really
| amazing is that these features work together at all considering the
| problems the Address Book app has. But quite the contrary, each of
| these lookups mentioned above for the most part work extremely well
| and very quickly and relatively seamlessly.
|
| I think the primary reasoning Microsoft programmers chose this
| behavior is that the Address Book app is smaller and faster so it
| actually saves the user some time. But I would prefer that it went
| directly to the same source all the time--Outlook Contacts--even
| though that might take a little longer.
|
| It is just too much redundancy to keep two separate databases and then
| attempt to keep the two lists coordinated in the background. It does
| amaze me at times that the two lists are indeed kept almost perfectly
| coordinated. But yet, "almost" is not quite the same as "always" is
| it?
|
| That's where the problems arise. Suddenly some strange things appear
| when you change a record in Contacts but the old info still keeps
| popping up where the change did not get properly moved over to the
| Address Book. And then you find the difference (in the Address Book)
| and find that it is almost impossible to make the same change in the
| Address Book because you don't have the same tools or methods to work
| with.
|
| One of the most obvious examples of the difference between the two
| apps (though the user might not even notice) is the subtle diffecence
| between "File As" (in Outlook) vs. "Display As" (in the Address
| Book). You would think these should be the same info since they
| really should mean the same thing. But they aren't. And they don't
| even work the same way even though they should. Changing one or the
| other should automatically carry over to the other but it doesn't.
| And the logic used in building these auto fields is very flawed.
|
| But I guess my biggest problem (in a long list) with the Address Book
| is not those things mentioned above which it does generally very well
| but rather with how little the user can do to control what it does
| when somethig goes wrong. The Address Book user interface is
| extremely limited and just does not allow for much user control.
|
| So I just hope Microsoft will do something to rework this extremely
| important little app so that it can really be what it needs to be.
| Either that or completely cut its integration into Outlook and let
| Outlook do all the work itself so that there is more consistency and
| less redundancy.
|
| Sorry this turned into such a long diatribe. I really like Outlook
| a lot and I didn't mean to get so involved. But at least I got a
| chance to "get it off my back". Thanks for "listening" and being
| interested!
|
| Be well,
| Bill
|
| "Bob I" wrote:
|
|| Sorry about the issues you are having, I guess I don't "use it very
|| hard" so I haven't got any beef with it, hence my suggestion to you.
||
|| Bill Molony wrote:
||
||| Hi Bob,
|||
||| I wish I could! But the problems are FAR too numerous for me to
||| begin to mention them all. It would take many pages!
|||
||| The separate address book idea is great but the implementation
||| Microsoft used is extremely poorly planned and has been from the
||| very beginning. There is just not enough really intelligent thought
||| gone into it yet. And the integration with it into Outlook (as
||| opposed to Outlook Express) is particularly poor.
|||
||| I know that one of the reasons they keep putting it off is because
||| converting the trash from the old files into a new replacement
||| Address Book application is going to be a terrible can of worms.
|||
||| I was simply "venting" in hopes that it would encourage others to
||| complain to Microsoft about it as well. It is going to be tough but
||| they need to bite the bullet and make the changes needed.
|||
||| Be well,
||| Bill
|||
||| "Bob I" wrote:
|||
|||
|||| Hello Bill, this is a user to user forum. Perhaps you could
|||| identify
|||| those "LOTS of problems" and post them to an appropriate location.
|||| Such as: http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
|||| or
||||
||||
|||| Bill Molony wrote:
||||
||||
||||| I realize that the Address Book feature is used and integrated
||||| into multiple Office applications and as such must be rather
||||| flexible to meet each set ot needs. But the Address Book has LOTS
||||| of problems about it that should have been fixed several versions
||||| back. Somehow those fixes seem to stay on the "back burner". I
||||| sincerely hope that Microsoft will see fit to rework the Address
||||| Book application substantially in the very near future so that
||||| many of these inconsistencies and integration problems can be
||||| resolved.
|||||
||||| I use the Address Book with Outlook 2003 and am always running
||||| into problems of one type or another that are very frustrating.
||||| You already have a lot of good suggestions on your FAQ site that
||||| help tremendously. But those suggestions provide workarounds that
||||| should simply become part of the default way the Address Book is
||||| used and configured rather than something that has to be searched
||||| for and manually changed within Outlook and the Address Book app.

If you are refering to the Item found by going to Start, Programs,
Accessories, Address Book, I don't use it at all. It is empty. The
"Address Book" opened in "Outlook" by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+B, is
populated by Lists found in the pulldown on the upper right when the
applet opens.

Bill Molony wrote:

Hi Bob,

Oh, if you are using Outlook, I bet you do use it far more than you think.
The Address Book is so intimately tied into Outlook that you usually don't
even know they are two separate apps. For example, you are probably using it
almost every time you send an Email.

When you type in just a name into TO:, CC:, or BCC: fields, in the
background, Outlook looks up the name in the external Address Book list to
complete the actual email address. When the email address changes to an
underlined format, that is when it found the address in your Address
Book--not in Outlook.

That even happens when you type in the email address directly--it still
looks it up or adds it to your Address Book. You would think that info comes
from your Contacts but it doesn't.

When you right click on the above fields in your email, the information you
are viewing about that address also comes from the Address Book rather than
from the Outlook Contacts.

Even when you use the "Find a Contact" quick find box on the Tool Bar (as
opposed to the Advanced Find), the place it is looking is again in the
Address Book rather than in Contacts.

And this is really only the tip of the iceburg. What is really amazing is
that these features work together at all considering the problems the Address
Book app has. But quite the contrary, each of these lookups mentioned above
for the most part work extremely well and very quickly and relatively
seamlessly.

I think the primary reasoning Microsoft programmers chose this behavior is
that the Address Book app is smaller and faster so it actually saves the user
some time. But I would prefer that it went directly to the same source all
the time--Outlook Contacts--even though that might take a little longer.

It is just too much redundancy to keep two separate databases and then
attempt to keep the two lists coordinated in the background. It does amaze me
at times that the two lists are indeed kept almost perfectly coordinated. But
yet, "almost" is not quite the same as "always" is it?

That's where the problems arise. Suddenly some strange things appear when
you change a record in Contacts but the old info still keeps popping up where
the change did not get properly moved over to the Address Book. And then you
find the difference (in the Address Book) and find that it is almost
impossible to make the same change in the Address Book because you don't have
the same tools or methods to work with.

One of the most obvious examples of the difference between the two apps
(though the user might not even notice) is the subtle diffecence between
"File As" (in Outlook) vs. "Display As" (in the Address Book). You would
think these should be the same info since they really should mean the same
thing. But they aren't. And they don't even work the same way even though
they should. Changing one or the other should automatically carry over to the
other but it doesn't. And the logic used in building these auto fields is
very flawed.

But I guess my biggest problem (in a long list) with the Address Book is not
those things mentioned above which it does generally very well but rather
with how little the user can do to control what it does when somethig goes
wrong. The Address Book user interface is extremely limited and just does not
allow for much user control.

So I just hope Microsoft will do something to rework this extremely
important little app so that it can really be what it needs to be. Either
that or completely cut its integration into Outlook and let Outlook do all
the work itself so that there is more consistency and less redundancy.

Sorry this turned into such a long diatribe. I really like Outlook a lot
and I didn't mean to get so involved. But at least I got a chance to "get it
off my back". Thanks for "listening" and being interested!

Be well,
Bill

"Bob I" wrote:


Sorry about the issues you are having, I guess I don't "use it very
hard" so I haven't got any beef with it, hence my suggestion to you.

Bill Molony wrote:


Hi Bob,

I wish I could! But the problems are FAR too numerous for me to begin to
mention them all. It would take many pages!

The separate address book idea is great but the implementation Microsoft
used is extremely poorly planned and has been from the very beginning. There
is just not enough really intelligent thought gone into it yet. And the
integration with it into Outlook (as opposed to Outlook Express) is
particularly poor.

I know that one of the reasons they keep putting it off is because
converting the trash from the old files into a new replacement Address Book
application is going to be a terrible can of worms.

I was simply "venting" in hopes that it would encourage others to complain
to Microsoft about it as well. It is going to be tough but they need to bite
the bullet and make the changes needed.

Be well,
Bill

"Bob I" wrote:



Hello Bill, this is a user to user forum. Perhaps you could identify
those "LOTS of problems" and post them to an appropriate location. Such as:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
or


Bill Molony wrote:



I realize that the Address Book feature is used and integrated into multiple
Office applications and as such must be rather flexible to meet each set ot
needs. But the Address Book has LOTS of problems about it that should have
been fixed several versions back. Somehow those fixes seem to stay on the
"back burner". I sincerely hope that Microsoft will see fit to rework the
Address Book application substantially in the very near future so that many
of these inconsistencies and integration problems can be resolved.

I use the Address Book with Outlook 2003 and am always running into problems
of one type or another that are very frustrating. You already have a lot of
good suggestions on your FAQ site that help tremendously. But those
suggestions provide workarounds that should simply become part of the default
way the Address Book is used and configured rather than something that has to
be searched for and manually changed within Outlook and the Address Book app.