Entering and Editing Contact Information
To begin creating a new contact from scratch, use any of the following techniques:
Outlook's form for creating a new item in the Contacts folder includes a number of smart features that help you enter properly formatted information quickly and accurately. Start in the Full Name field and use the Tab key to jump from field to field. After you've entered all the information, click the Save and Close button at the top of the dialog box to store the new item. Figure 12.2 shows a filled-in Contact form.
Figure 12.2. Outlook automatically fills in some of the blanks when you create a new item in the Contacts folder, and it checks the rest to make sure that you left nothing out.
In all, each Contact item includes more than 140 fields of information. Most Outlook users, however, work with only a small fraction of these fields—those that are visible on the General tab of the default Contact form. To see more information, click the All Fields tab. Use the drop-down list to filter the collection of fields so you see a manageable subset, such as all Address fields, all Name fields, and so on. Select All Contact fields to see (and edit) the entire list of available fields, in alphabetical order, as shown in Figure 12.3.
Figure 12.3. The last tab of the default Contact form lets you scroll through (and edit) more than 140 fields in each item.
If you're having trouble selecting or deleting a field's contents, see
"Selecting and Deleting Field Contents"
in the
"Troubleshooting"
section at the end of this chapter.
Entering and Editing Names
When you enter a new contact's name in the Full Name field (or change an existing one), Outlook slices and dices your entry into as many as nine separate fields. You will rarely see most of these fields, but knowing how Outlook parses names—that is, breaks them into their component parts—lets you control the process. This will pay off later when you use items from the Contacts folder as the source for e-mail, letters, envelopes, and mail merge projects.
Tip from 
Don't bother with the Shift key when you enter Contact names. If you enter a name in all lowercase letters, Outlook automatically capitalizes each name as soon as you Tab out of the field.
As soon as you enter the full name, in any order, Outlook attempts to break it into five subfields: First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Title (Ms. or Dr., for example) and Suffix (Jr. or M.D., for instance). To view (and edit) the contents of these fields, click the Full Name button, which opens the Check Full Name dialog box, shown in Figure 12.4. If any information is incorrect, edit it here.
Figure 12.4. When you enter a full name, Outlook automatically breaks it into these subfields; if any information is incorrect, edit it here.
How do you include a courtesy title such as Mr., Ms., or Dr. in each new Contact item? Get in the habit of entering the title at the beginning of the Full Name field. Outlook recognizes the following titles, which are also on the Title drop-down list in the Check Full Name dialog box: Dr., Prof., Mr., Mrs., Ms., and Miss. Even if a title is not available on the drop-down list, it still might work. For example, beginning a name with Sir, Herr, Fraulein, Monsieur, Madame, or Signore will correctly fill in the Title field. If you're not sure a prefix will work, try it in a new, blank Contact form.
Based on what you type in the Full Name field, Outlook also fills in two additional fields automatically:
The File As Field— Controls the order in which the Contacts folder displays items when you switch to Address Cards or Detailed Address Cards view. Although Outlook automatically fills in this field using its default format, Last Name first, you can easily change it.
The Subject Field— Does not appear on any built-in forms but is accessible on the All Fields tab. It defines how each Contact item appears when you display the Address Book. By default, Outlook fills in this field with the First Name field first.
→ To learn more about how Outlook files your Contact items, see "Changing the Way a Contact Item Is Filed".
If you don't want Outlook to automatically (and incorrectly) split company names in your Contacts Folder into first and last names, see
"Using Company Names in Your Contacts"
in the Troubleshooting section at the end of this chapter.
Working with Addresses
Just as with name fields, when you enter a mailing address in the Address field on the default Contact form, Outlook splits the address into component parts and stores the information in as many as 31 separate fields. You can store up to three addresses per contact; click the drop-down list just below the Address button to select Business, Home, or Other.
When you enter an address, Outlook parses the address into separate fields for the street, city, state, and other fields. If you enter information in a format Outlook doesn't recognize—if you omit the city or state, or if you accidentally leave a digit off the ZIP code—Outlook pops up the Check Address dialog box shown in Figure 12.5 (you can also click the Address button to display this dialog box). This display shows how Outlook proposes to divide the information into subfields. Click OK to save the record as typed, or edit the contents of any field.
Figure 12.5. This dialog box shows you how Outlook proposes to parse the address you entered into subfields.
When you check the This Is the Mailing Address box, Outlook copies this address to the fields that are used when you create letters, envelopes, or mail merge lists in Word.
→ To learn more about using Word's mail merge capabilities, see "Using Mail Merge to Personalize Form Letters".
Entering Job and Company Details
On the General tab of the default Contact form, you'll find two boxes for entering work-related information about a contact: Job Title and Company. Click the Details tab to enter other work-related information, such as Department and Manager's Name.
Although the Details tab includes a field for Assistant's Name, the field for Assistant's Phone Number is buried in the full list of fields on the last tab of the dialog box. There's a much easier way to enter this information, however: Click the drop-down arrow to the left of any of the four phone number boxes and select Assistant, and then enter the number. After you enter the number, it is visible in both Address Card views.
Managing Phone, Fax, and Other Numbers
The General page has room to enter up to four phone numbers—by default, you can fill in Business, Home, Business Fax, and Mobile numbers. You're certainly not limited to those options, however; you can actually enter as many as 19 separate phone numbers, using the drop-down lists at the left of each number to select different fields.
Note
Both default Address Card views display as many phone numbers as you've defined for a contact. These appear in an order determined by this form, with most business-related numbers at the top. Curiously, however, the Business Fax field appears at the bottom of each list, and we can't find any way to change this order.
You can enter phone numbers any way you like, with or without punctuation; when you exit the field, Outlook automatically reformats the numbers using its standard punctuation scheme—parentheses around the area or city code and a hyphen after the first three digits of the phone number. If you omit the area code, Outlook assumes the number is in your local dialing area and adds your area code to the entry. If Outlook parses this information incorrectly, or if you need to add a country code to the number, click to select the phone number field and then click the button to the right of the field. This action opens a dialog box that allows you to enter or edit this information.
If a contact's phone number includes an extension, add this information at the end of the phone number, preceded by a space and the letters x or ext. Outlook ignores this information when formatting the phone number or using the AutoDial feature. You can also add text before or after a phone number; for example, if one of your contacts is bicoastal, you might enter a number in both the Business and Business 2 fields, and then label them LA and NY.
Entering and Editing E-mail and Web Addresses
You can store up to three e-mail addresses per contact. Click the drop-arrow next to the E-mail box to select any of these three blanks, and then enter the address. Click the Address Book button at the right of this box to view e-mail addresses in the Outlook Address Book, which uses a different form to display information.
→ For an authoritative explanation of how the Outlook Address Book works, see "Configuring the Outlook Address Book".
→ To find out how Outlook uses Address Book information to fill in addresses on e-mail messages, see "Creating, Managing, and Using E-mail Addresses".
In a welcome usability improvement, Outlook 2002 lets you see and change the text displayed in the To and From fields of message windows for each address. When you enter an e-mail address in any of the three boxes on the Contact form, the Display box beneath it shows how the name will appear in messages you send to or receive from that address. By default, the Display value is set to the value of the Full Name field, followed by the e-mail address in parentheses. Edit this address to show whatever you wantmight want to replace the e-mail address with a Company name or the word Personal in parentheses, for instance.
The General tab of the default Contact form also includes input boxes where you can enter a Web page address; if you enter a recognizable URL, Outlook converts it to a hyperlink so you can jump to a contact's personal or corporate Web page.
Note
Click the Details tab to add other online information, including settings for NetMeeting calls and the server where the contact publishes his Internet Free/Busy Time.
If you use MSN Messenger, enter the Instant Messaging address for the contact in the IM Address field.
→ For more information on how Outlook integrates with MSN Messenger, see "Using MSN Messenger to Communicate with Contacts".
Entering Personal Information and Other Details
Click the Details tab to add some personal information about each contact. Fields on this tab include Nickname, Spouse's Name, Birthday, and Anniversary. You can see still more fields in this category (including one in which you can enter the names of children or specify a contact's hobbies) by clicking the All Fields tab.
As in virtually all Outlook items, the Notes area at the bottom of the Default Contact form lets you add extensive notes and comments, as well as shortcuts to other Outlook items, files, or file attachments. Click the Categories button to assign each entry to one or more categories; the long list of built-in categories includes a Holiday Cards choice that lets you quickly print a list of friends, family, and business associates to whom you'll send season's greetings.
If you click the Contacts button, Outlook pops up a dialog box that lets you link one Contact item to another. You might want to do that with business partners, for example, or to link the individual records for a married couple to a third record that contains their family details. Use that last record in your holiday cards list.
→ To learn more about categorizing Outlook items, see "Assigning Items to Categories".