Introduction

The Address Book in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 is really a collection of address books that you can use to store and manage the e-mail addresses of the people with whom you communicate electronically . You can use the Address Book to look up and select names , e-mail addresses, and distribution lists when you address messages.

When you address an e-mail message, Microsoft Outlook checks to see if the name you typed matches a name in the Address Book. If Outlook finds a match, it resolves the name by completing the display name and e-mail and allowing you to send the message. If Outlook does not find a match, you can provide more information or you create a contact.

You will probably use your Contacts list for storing most of your e-mail addresses. However, as that list becomes longer, you might want to move some of the entries to another address book to organize them.

The Outlook Address Book is the default address book, which Outlook creates automatically, and uses it to store the contacts in your Contacts folder that include an e-mail address or fax number. You can enter the e-mail addresses of your family and friends in the Personal Address Book. You can also store distribution lists in the Personal Address Book.

If you are using Outlook on a network, your default address book is the Global Address List. This list contains all the people on your network and is maintained by the system administrator, so you can't add to it.