MS Outlook – Can the Contacts Folder and Email storage files be moved to an easily ba

[410]

I’ve used Outlook Express for some years now, but would like to use Outlook because of some of the extra ‘toys’ it offers, particularly the calendar. However, a number of issues have stopped me making the change and I’d appreciate anyone out there who could give me a pointer to get around these.

The first is minor: Outlook Express has a very handy feature that the full Outlook doesn’t seem to offer – (or I can’t find the switch to active the feature if it’s available). OE will automatically complete an address as you type. I’ve grown used to this and would love to have it in the full Outlook without going through the “CTL/K” business.

Can this ‘address auto-complete’ be activated as it is in OE?

The second and third problems are more important: I found a very handy set of instructions in a magazine some years ago that showed how to change the storage folder for all email directories and the OE address book. I’ve put both in a sub directory in my ‘My Documents’ folder so they can be easily backed up daily. (I use ‘File Synch’ to do a daily backup of my ‘My Documents’ folder to a backup hard drive so all my data can be recovered in case of a hardware failure or a particularly damaging virus attack. This has paid off after a virus attack that got past Nortons messed up my C drive some time ago.) If anyone using OE would like me to post these instructions here, I’d be happy to do so. Changing the email storage file is a very simple matter. Changing the OE address book location is slightly more involved, (a registry change), but it should present no real problem to anyone with even a minimum of computer skills.)

So, is there a way to move the Contacts folder to somewhere other than wherever it hides now? Or failing that, can the Personal Address Book be moved to (preferably) the ‘My Documents’ folder?

I know Auto Archive can be set to every day in Outlook, but I’m not particularly au fait with Outlook, and I’m not sure if that is achieving exactly what I’m after – an as current as possible backup for both my emails and my email address book.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

410,

Personally I do not use OLE or OL but several of my employees do. I was helping my Groundschool HOT yesterday with OL. When we entered the email address it did offer autocomplete options. As we typed in the address, it showed all the email addresses that matched what we had typed in so far and narrowed down as we continued to type.

As for moving the DB locations, OL will allow you to store the DBs in any location you specify. I have even setup the OL DBs on the network server drive so the person would not have to worry about backing up their workstation.

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. The version I was using was from Office XP.

[Dan Kelly]

I'm using Outlook 2002, running on XP-Pro.

For auto namer completion go to:

Tools >>Options>>Preferences TAB>>EMAIL Options>>Advanced Email Options>> In the bottom pane titled, "When sending a message". ensure the "Suggest names while competing To, Cc and Bcc fields" is checked, to use the American vernacular.

I don't know if the contacts can be moved. Backingup to a file name of your choice in your My Documents folder is relatively easy tjough.

Click on the File Menu>>Import and Export>>Select "Export to a File">>Click Next>>Select "Personal Folder File (.pst)">> Your contacts should be in the Personal Folders, navigate to and select the contact list you wish to backup>>Click Next>> Use the Browse button to navigate to the desired location to save to, then hey presto.

As I understand it, almost all info Outlook uses is stored in the one pst file. To restore contacts if needed, one imports from the backed up file.

[gofer]

The feature in Outlook 2000 is that if you abreviate the name there is a resolve key which will resolve the unique addresses and will bring up the options on a multi name resolve if you want - this will also occur automatically on sending if you so set-up.

We autobackup the Mail files on shutdown to get round any back-up problems - but if you want the cats whiskers - swap to Notes.

Watching what express can do - unless youre running a company with a 100's of staff - don't waste your time changing - the big version also has limitations and whith a lot of data - it stalls easily and plays up quite a lot. 2002 should be better but... its still MS as opposed to GOOD.

Just a personal opinion of course. Have fun 410 (is that AKA from a late Eastern airframe no. ?) - a 1011 if memory serves.:zzz:

[ratsarrse]

I'm not a big fan of Outlook myself. It's an email client with far too many pretensions and a fairly hefty overhead. I particularly dislike the 'Please wait while Outlook exits' message that insists on being in the foreground no matter what. It's also slow, has a huge raft of unnecessary features, and if you use Word as your email editor the memory overhead is huge (about 28Mb) for something that just sits there and checks for email every few minutes. It's also the most likely piece of software to crash on your PC. Did I mention that I don't like it?;)