Importing Outlook Contacts

[Leo the Builder]

I have been experimenting with importing/linking Outlook Contacts.
No matter what I try I seem to get a lot of duplicate entries with linking.
What can or must I do to prevent duplicating contacts.

Thanks

Leo

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

It will only import duplicates that exist. The best solution is to clean up
the Outlook Contacts list first. You could also import the Outlook Contact
to a new file in Outlook, telling Outlook not to import the duplicates. Or
it is possible to clean up the duplicates after the import into Access by
using the Find Duplicates Query Wizard when you start a new query.

 

[Leo the Builder]

I'll check out your suggestions.
When I look in the Outlook Contact list I don't see any duplicates.
When I look at the same list when creating a new email I see many
duplicates.
I wonder how these duplicates get into Outlook.
Driving me crazy....

Leo

 

[Leo the Builder]

Arvin,
I have just done a test.
I created a new folder in Outlook 2003 for contacts.
I entered two new contacts and linked this to an Access table.
It created duplicate entries for both contacts.
It seems to create duplicates for fax and email.
E.G.

I get one entry for myname @hotmail.com and anther for "myname@+1(000)
000-0000 ----that's my fax number.
The other difference in the etries is for email type.....one entry displays
"SMTP" the other displays "FAX".
Another difference is in the Send Rich Text column where one field displays
"0" and the other field displays "-1".
These duplicate entries also appear when I use the "To" button in a new
email and select from the contact list
that holds just these two new entries.

Thanks for any advice.

Leo

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

I can't reproduce that error. Try asking in an Outlook newsgroup, and see if
someone there knows what the problem may be.

 

[Leo the Builder]

Arvin,

I did ask in Outlook group.
Because you can send faxes from Outlook when you enter a fax number and an
eamil
in Contacts it will create separate addresses for each.
That's why the "SMTP" and "FAX" differences in the columns.

You can avoid this by not entering a fax number at all, or you can use a
prefix
such as F for the fax number.

Leo