Adding the First Contacts

Adding the First Contacts

In the following steps you'll enter 10 contacts, all from different fictitious companies. Besides the basic data, you'll also enter some keywords and other information that you can later use to examine Outlook's Contacts capability.

1. Click the New Contact button on the left end of the Standard toolbar.

2. Enter the data shown in Table 16.1, including full name , company, business address, and business phone numbers . After you enter the data for each contact, click the Save and New button on the toolbar (just to the right of the Save and Close button). That saves the current contact and displays a blank form.

   Table 16.1. Data For The India Contacts Folder

   Linda Terry Kelly Flippers 3256 South Jemison Douglas, VA 23354 (804) 555-6784 (804) 555-6701	Alana Ekatiron Sisters and Others 524 Hargis Lane St. Louis, MO 63105 (314) 555-2288 (314) 555-9881
   George Renttek Art Time 13558 Anteres Court Englewood, CO 80111 (303) 555-7415 (303) 555-7488	Joanna Toodha Paint, Inc. 12322 Main Street Hollywood, CA 90028 (213) 555-2224 (213) 555-7841
   Lois Herbert Mania Fish Company 1801 Stratford Hampton, VA 23664 (757) 555-8800 (757) 555-8701	Robert Williams Jazz Gitboxes, Inc. 6300 Iris Way Aurora, CO 80013 (303) 555-3369 (303) 555-8433
   Ali Reyas Artful Manufacturing 7314 Booth Klamath Falls, OR 97602 (503) 555-6991 (503) 555-9898	Mollye Sniktaw ArtFirst 244 Nicobar Lancaster, CA 93534 (805) 555-9898 (805) 555-7461
   Katie Nerak Soft-Serve Freezies 8654 Sleepy Hollow Road Alexandria, VA 22310 (703) 555-1122 (703) 555-1213	Robert George Felt Artist Supplies 84 North Oak Sandusky, OH 44870 (419) 555-9355 (419) 555-5000

3. When you've entered the last contact, click Save and Close on the toolbar. This returns you to the Address Cards view.

Add a Contact from the Same Company

If you're building a large contact database, you'll probably be entering several contacts from the same company. Rather than repeatedly entering the same data, you can tell Outlook to automatically enter the required data for that company. Select a contact that represents that company and choose Actions, New Contact from Same Company. You can do this from the Address Cards view or from the Opened Card view.

Understanding Categories and Items

You can add categories to any item: email, task, notes, and others. These items can then be grouped. For example, if you're entering your holiday card list, you can group all of the contacts connected with the list, any tasks you've assigned them, memos, and other related items into subfolders of a single folder.

Adding categories to contact items is only the beginning of a powerful process that allows you to quickly look at all items in a specific category.

Adding Categories to the Contacts

You can assign numerous predesignated categories to each contact. Outlook provides nearly two dozen of these categories. Also, you can create as many additional categories as you need in the Master Category dialog box.

Categories are important for grouping and filtering contacts. When you filter contacts, you tell Outlook to display only the contacts that meet specific criteria. For example, if a dozen contacts are participants in a committee you're chairing, you can tell Outlook that you want to write a memo to only those contacts.

Adding Standard Categories

Categories can be added from the Address Cards view or from any open contact. Usually, you'll find it best to add categories to an open contact because you can immediately see that the category has been added correctly. If you add a category or categories to a contact from the Address Cards view, you probably won't be able to see it unless you've modified the view to include the Category field.

To add a category to a contact from the Address Cards view, begin by clicking the contact. If you want to add the same category to multiple, nonconsecutive contacts at the same time, click the first contact and hold down Ctrl while clicking on all other contacts desired. To select multiple, consecutive contacts (for example, if you've sorted your contacts by company name ), click the first one, press Shift, and click the last one. All contacts between the first and last one are automatically selected. Right-click any selected contact and choose Categories to display the Categories dialog box, shown in Figure 16.6.

To assign categories to selected contacts, click on the check box next to each category name. Choose any categories that apply to the selected contacts. When you've finished, click OK. Each selected category is assigned to the selected contacts.

Categories can also be assigned from the open Contact view. Double-click the contact to open it. Click the Categories button at the bottom of the window ”you might need to expand the Contact window to see the buttons at the very bottom. When you select the category or categories and click OK, they're added to the text box to the right of the Categories button in the Contact window.

Adding and Deleting Custom Categories

As indicated previously, you aren't limited to the categories offered by Outlook. To create a new category, open the Categories dialog box and click the Master Category List button. The Master Category List dialog box allows you to create new categories and use them in grouping your contacts and other items.

To create a new category, simply type the name in the New Category text box and click Add. You can create as many categories as you need. When you're finished, click OK to return to the Categories dialog box, where all of the new categories are displayed. You can now select any of the new categories.

You can also individually delete any categories in the Master Category List dialog box ”including predefined categories. Select the category to be removed and click Delete.