Netbook Outlook 97 Contacts/addresses

[Calbrit]

I have started to use Outlook and have Outlook 97 as part of Office 97 (I'm a solo user and not on a network).

I'm not sure what's going on here but I managed to synchronise my contacts from my Netbook and all fields look OK in Outlook. However, if I compose an e-mail in Outlook and click on the "To" tab instead of getting a list of e-mail addresses, I get an address book claiming to show fax numbers (which they are not) but start for example - joebloggs@123 45678 - . I tried clicking on the address tab on the menu bar and the same thing happens.

Is this a common problem and if so what is the solution? If this is not a common problem, any ideas on the cause and cure - reinstall Outlook?

As always, many thanks for your help.

Grant
PS What is the relationship of Exchange to MS Outlook?

[Calbrit]

Help?!

[diem]

Hi Grant,

Your question is not strictly Psion-related, its about a piece of Microsoft software, and is therefore outside the scope of these forums, but I'll overlook the fact just this once ;)

Outlook 97 is the most bug-ridden release of Outlook there ever was - so much so that for a while M$ would give you a copy of Outlook 98 for free if you asked them. My guess is that you've hit just one of its bugs.

If email sync is a must-have for you, my best advice is to upgrade to a different version of Outlook before you get accustomed to 97. If you can live without email sync (its a waste of time and PDA memory IMHO), then my advice is dump MS email software entirely - I use Opera 7 for email.

Exchange is Microsoft's email server software package - its what runs the POP3 and SMTP services that your Outlook connects to to send and receieve mail (if your ISP is using MS software of course - there's no reason to assume they are doing so, since POP3 and SMTP are vender-independent standards).

[Calbrit]

Thanks Yan! I will check out Opera for the PC. I have recently switched to a dial up ISP and as I had Office on my PC (and had used this when I worked in the UK in a large company) I thought I might as well utilise Outlook. I have no need to sync e-mails so that's a relief!

Grant

[Jim Cooke]

Grant,

It sounds like Outlook is not using the contacts section for e-mail addresses but is using the Windows Address Book. I don't recall exactly where this option is Outlook 97 but try right clicking on the contacts folder and choose properties. There should be an option there to use the Outlook contacts section as your e-mail address book so make sure that's checked. However, one of the problems with Outlook 97 was that it used the WAB by default and getting it to change to the contacts section sometimes didn't work. I always advise clients to not even spend the time trying to fix things like this but to upgrade to at least Outlook 98. As Diem said, Outlook 97 is really full of bugs and it's just not worth fooling with.

E-mail syncing with Outlook 98 and above using PsiWin 2.3.3 withe e-mail 1.15 upgrade actually works pretty well. I find it useful on those occasions where I've gotten anumber of e-mails that I want to read but I'm not at my PC. Other than that, I rarely sync my e-mail.

Exchange is a corporate server that's used as a backend to Outlook. It not only runs the e-mail system but also allows things like public folders and offline syncing. In a non-Exchange environment, you're running Outlook in the Internet Only Mode so Exchange plays no role in what you're doing now.

Regards, Jim

[netBookBabe]

Grant

I have a copy of Outlook 98 here if you're interested - it was freely distributed on magazine cover disks, so I guess it's OK to pass it on. At the time, I never installed it - I seem to be the lucky one who did not have a problem with Outlook 97, which I'm still using. Admittedly my main use for it is Agenda synching, and Contacts management for mail shots. I don't use it for e-mail.

Anyhow, I've just installed v 98 on my secondary partition and it seems fine - it's picked up the Contacts list automatically, whereas in 97, yes, you did have to tell it where to look!

Contact me off-forum if you want me to send you the file.

Julie

[Calbrit]

Thanks so much to you both. I have checked "properties" and it's ticked to set Contacts as my address book so it must be "a bug". I will contact Julie re her offer.

I downloaded Opera onto my PC (the free version) but cannot see how to generate contacts. Maybe this feature is disabled on the freebie. Still, I've only played with Opera for a few minutes and so will investigate further over the weekend.