Working with contacts in outlook

When you’re working with Outlook and have stored any reasonable number of contacts in the system, you’ll quickly find that the list can get overwhelming. Getting around the contact list efficiently can mean the difference between finding the person with whom you need to communicate right off the bat, and sitting there scrolling through potentially hundreds of contacts.

Here are some quick tips when working with the contact list:

Sort the list. Right click in the contact area, select Sort. You’ll be able to select exactly how you want to sort the listing, and then use the tabs on the right to move through the list, based on your sort values. You’ll be able to jump to the C’s, T’s or other contact groups quickly. Note that you can even sort by company name – so, if you know you’re looking for a particular company, this can get you there quickly. If you sort by a field that is not in the current view, Outlook will prompt you about adding it.

Start typing the first part of the name. By doing this, Outlook will start to look up the contact for the values you enter. For example, if you are searching for Wynkoop, enter “wynk” and you’ll be taken to the first contacts matching this. Note that when you do search, it’s dependent on the sort value. So, if you’re sorted on first name, you’ll want to enter “step” in this case – to get Stephen Wynkoop.

Change the view. Go to View, Arrange by, Current View and you’ll be presented with a number of different options that control the presentation of the information. One that could be useful for working down through the when you need to see as much information as possible is the Phone List. This gives you a data grid-type view and it can make it a bit easier to scan the list looking for specific information.

Thanks for the tip OfficeUsers.org

wizTEQ Staff