2. Communicating with Contacts
Saving contact information for people in a physical or
electronic address book is useful because it centralizes the
information in one place so that you no longer have to remember the
information or where to find it. The added benefit of saving contact
information in an Outlook address book is that it makes the process of
initiating communication with a contact much more efficient.
2.1 Initiating Communication from Contact Records
Contact records aren't useful only for storing information; you can also initiate a number of
actions that are specific to a selected contact. Commands for initiating
communication are available in the Communicate group on the Contact
tab of an open contact record.
You can perform many actions from within a contact record by using the commands in the
Communicate group on the Contact tab, including the
following:
-
Create an e-mail message addressed to the contact by
clicking the E-mail button. -
Create a meeting request that includes the contact by
clicking the Meeting button. -
Initiate a chat session with the contact by clicking the
Reply With IM button. (Requires Office Communicator.) -
Place a call to the contact by clicking the Call arrow and
then, in the list, clicking the telephone number you would like
Outlook to dial. (Requires Internet telephone
capabilities.) -
Display the contact's Web site by clicking the Web Page button. -
Create a task assigned to the contact by clicking the
Assign Task button. -
Create a journal entry assigned to the contact by clicking
the Journal Entry button. -
Display a map of the contact's address by clicking the Map
It button in the Addresses area.
If Microsoft OneNote 2010 is installed on your computer, you
can create a OneNote notebook entry linked to the contact record by
clicking the OneNote button in the Actions group on the Contact
tab.
2.2 Selecting Message Recipients from Address Books
When you send an e-mail message to a person whose contact information is stored in one
of your address books, you can quickly address the message to that
person by entering his or her name exactly as it appears in the
address book and letting Outlook validate the address. If you don't
know the exact spelling of the name, follow these steps:
-
In the message composition window, click the Address Book button in the Names group on the
Message tab.
The Select Names dialog box opens.
-
In the Address Book list, click the arrow, and then click
the address book you want to search. -
Scroll through the Name list, and locate the person's
name.
Tip
You can enter the first few letters of the person's name
to scroll to entries beginning with those letters.
-
To add the person in the To box as a primary message
recipient, double-click the name, or click it and then press
Enter. To add the person as a secondary or private recipient,
click in the Cc or Bcc box at the bottom of the dialog box and then
double-click the name, or click it and press Enter.
Tip
If you click the To, Cc, or Bcc box in the message
header before clicking the Address Book button, double-clicking the name
adds the person to that box. You can also click the Cc or Bcc
box and then click the adjacent button to open the Select
Names dialog box with that box active.
-
After selecting all message recipients from the address
book, click OK to close the Select Names dialog box and return
to the message composition window.
2.3 Displaying Different Views of Contact Records
You can view all your address books in the Contacts module. You
can also display a list of the contacts in an address book in one of
these ways:
-
Click the Address Book button in the Find group on the Home
tab of the program window in any module to open the Address Book
window. -
Click the Address Book button in the Names group on the
Contact tab of a contact record window to open the Select Name
dialog box.
In either case, you can expand the Address Book list and then
click the name of the address book you want to display.
You can view an address book in many different formats. You can choose any standard view from the
Current View gallery on the Home tab of the Contacts
module.
Each view presents information from your contact records either
as cards or in a list:
-
Business Card
This view displays the business card associated
with each contact record—either the default card created by
Outlook or a custom card if you have one. Business cards are
displayed in alphabetical order by first or last name, depending
on the File As selection. -
Card This view displays
contact information as truncated business cards that include
limited information, such as job title and company name. -
Phone
This view displays a columnar list including each
contact's name, company, and contact numbers. -
List This view displays a
columnar list with contact records arranged in groups. You can
choose the grouping you want from the Arrangements gallery on the
View tab.
In any list view, you can expand and collapse the groups
or select and take action on an entire group of contacts. You can also
enter information directly into any contact record field displayed in
the list.
You can search and filter your contact records in any view by using the Instant Search feature. You can sort contact records by
any displayed column in a list view by clicking the column
header.
You can change the fields displayed in each view; the way
records are grouped, sorted, and filtered; the display font; the size
of business cards; and other settings to suit your
preferences. You can personalize a view from the Advanced View Settings dialog box, which you open by
clicking View Settings in the Current View group on the View
tab.
In this exercise, you'll look at different views of contact records within the Contacts pane, add
and remove columns in a list view, and reset a customized view.
-
On the Home
tab, in the Current View gallery, click the Business Card button if that view isn't
already selected.
In Outlook 2010, this default Contacts module view displays
standard business cards for each contact, as well as any
personalized business cards you have saved. The cards are
organized by File As name, which by default is alphabetically by
last name. -
On the alphabet bar located on the right side of the Contacts pane, click the letter r.
The Contacts pane scrolls as necessary to display the
business card for Idan Rubin (or the first contact record in
your Contacts module that is filed under R).
Tip
You can display an additional alphabet in the
alphabet bar. Options include Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Thai, and
Vietnamese—other alphabets might be available depending on the
version of Outlook and any language packs you have installed. To
get started, click the Language Settings button at the bottom of
the alphabet bar.
-
In the Current
View gallery, click the Card button. -
If the card columns are not wide enough to
display the information saved with the contact records, click the Zoom In
button at the right end of the status bar until the
information is visible.
Outlook displays your contact records in a card-like format
that includes only text and no additional graphic elements.
-
In the Current
View gallery, click the Phone button.
Outlook displays your contact records in a grid of columns and rows
organized in ascending order based on the File As column. -
Click the Full Name column
heading.
Outlook sorts the contact records in ascending order based
on the Full Name field, as indicated by the upward-pointing sort
arrow to the right of the column heading. You can reverse the sort
order by clicking the active heading again.
-
Click the Company column
heading.
Outlook sorts the contact records in ascending order based
on the Company field.
Tip
You can add a contact to your address book in any list view by clicking
the box under the Full Name header (labeled Click Here To Add A
New Contact) and entering the contact's information.
-
Right-click the Company
column header, and then click Field
Chooser.
The Field Chooser window opens. -
Scroll down the Field Chooser
list until the Job Title field is
visible. Drag the Job Title field
from the Field Chooser dialog box
to the column heading area, and when the red arrows indicate that
it will be inserted between the Company and File
As fields, release the mouse button.
The list view now includes a column displaying the Job Title
for each contact.
-
Point to the column separator between Job Title and File
As. When the cursor changes to a double-headed arrow,
double-click.
The column width changes to accommodate its
contents. -
Drag the Country/Region
column header down from the column heading row until a black X
appears. Then release the mouse button.
The Country/Region column is removed from the list
view. -
On the View
tab, in the Current View group,
click the Reset View button. Then
in the Microsoft Outlook
dialog box that asks whether you want to reset the
view to its original settings, click Yes.
The view returns to its original settings.
Note
CLEAN UP Return the Contacts
module to the default Business Card view. Retain the Nancy Anderson,
Andrew Davis, Sara Davis, Andrea Dunker, and Idan Rubin contact
records for use in later exercises.
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