Most people that have used Outlook know that it will remember addresses you have sent E-mails to, but it only relies on E-mails already sent for this functionality to work. This is done with Outlook’s Auto-Complete function, which is a list that Outlook uses to store E-mail addresses that have been used in the past when sending E-mails. Ideally Outlook would simply use the address book(s) to do this, but unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. More unfortunate is that there is no way to edit the Auto-Complete list.
While there are 3rd party apps that can be used to import E-mail addresses into the Auto-Complete list, some do not work well. Other’s can cause corruption which leads to other issues. But, there is a simple way to get E-mail addresses into the Auto-Complete list right from within Outlook if you don’t have thousands of contacts. The procedure can be tedious if you have a large number of contacts in Outlook, but it lets Outlook populate the list and since Outlook knows how to deal with its various lists it’s probably the better method.
To accomplish this procedure it will be necessary to take your machine off the network or in some other way prevent it from being able to connect to your mail server so that Outlook cannot send emails. Once you do this, start a new email and click on the ‘To’ button. Choose the address book you want to use for your source list. Highlight a group of the contacts you want in the Auto-Complete list and click the ‘To’ button in the Select Names dialog. This will populate the ‘To’ field with all the names you have selected. Click ‘Ok’ and you should see your new E-mail with all the names in the ‘To’ box. Click Send. Outlook can take a very long time or crash if you select too many contacts in one shot, so some experimentation may be necessary to get the optimum number of contacts it can handle.
Since you’ve disconnected your machine (VERY IMPORTANT) from the network, Outlook will be unable to send the E-mail and you will find it in the Outbox. Simply go to the Outbox and delete the E-mail. Repeat the process until you’ve selected all the contacts you want in the Auto-Complete list.
You should now find that when sending an E-mail any contact you selected in the above process will automatically be suggested when you start typing in the ‘To’ field of a new email.
Since most of First Direct’s customers have GoldMine and have integrated GoldMine with their Outlook, you may wish to use the GoldMine Contacts as an address book option for when you select a address “TO” send to.
If you’re unsure of the benefits and advantages of using the GoldMine Email client there is a Sharpen Your Knowledge Webinar I encourage you attend our class “Using the GoldMine Email Center.”
