Outlook creates a default Contacts folder during installation. For the purposes of this article, call this folder the primary Contacts folder. You can create additional contacts folders. You can use these additional contacts folders (for the purposes of this article, call these folders secondary contacts folders) to store specific contact information.
Creating a New Contact
The following are three methods you can use to add a new contact:
- In the Inbox, open a received e-mail message, and in either the From, To, or Cc box, right-click one of the addresses, and then click Add to Contacts.
- Create a contact by clicking New Contact on the File menu (or pressing CTRL+SHIFT+C).
- On the Tools menu, click Address Book (or press CTRL+SHIFT+B). On the File menu, click New Entry, click New Contact, and then click OK.
Changing the Default Personal Address Location
You can configure Outlook so that when you create a new contact, that contact is added to a contacts folder that you specify, which can be the primary Contacts folder or one of the secondary contacts folders.
To specify a default contacts folder for new contacts, on the
Tools menu, click
Services, click
Addressing, and then in the
Keep Personal Addresses in list, click the contacts folder that you want to be the default location for new contacts.
NOTE: There may be several secondary contacts folders, but they are only visible in the
Keep Personal Addresses in list if they are configured to be displayed as an e-mail Address Book. To configure a secondary contact folder to be displayed as an e-mail Address Book,
right-click the secondary contacts folder, click
Properties, click the
Outlook Address Book tab, click to select the
Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book check box, and then click
OK.
How New Contact Creation Method Affects the Folder to Which a New Contact is Added
When a new contact item is added by right-clicking one of the addresses in either the
From,
To, or
Cc box of a received message, that contact is always added to the primary Contacts folder, irrespective of the default personal address location setting.
When a new contact is added by clicking
New Contact on the
File menu (or pressing CTRL+SHIFT+C), the new contact location varies depending on which of the following conditions existed during the creation of the contact:
- If any folder other than the secondary contacts folder that is the default personal address location is selected when the new contact is created, then the new contact is created in the primary Contacts folder.
- If the secondary contacts folder that is the default personal address location is selected when the new contact is created, then the new contact is created in that secondary contacts folder.
If a new contact is added by clicking
Address Book on the
Tools menu (or pressing CTRL+SHIFT+B), clicking
New Entry on the
File menu, and then clicking
New Contact, the new contact is added to the contacts folder that you designated as the default personal address location.