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Add your contacts to autocomplete in Outlook

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If you've ever typed a name into an Outlook message and seen the contact you want appear within the first few letters, you've enjoyed the benefits of autocomplete.

We've already discussed how to remove outdated e-mail suggestions from Outlook autocomplete (just select and Delete!). But what if you aren't seeing all of the names you use regularly in your autocomplete list?

If they're already in your Contacts, there's an easy way to add them.

In Outlook 2007, go to Contacts, select all (Ctrl-A) and then go to Actions, Create, New message to contact. Once all of the contacts have been added to the To: line of your message, you can delete it without sending.

In Outlook 2010, go to Contacts, select all (Ctrl-A) and then on the Home tab click the E-mail button:

E-mail button in Contacts section

Once all of the contacts have been added to the To: line of your message, you can delete it without sending.

If your company has a global address book, you can handpick names to add to your contacts, which automatically adds them to your autocomplete list. Just click on Address Book, select the name, right click it, choose Add to Contacts and then Save & Close the contact to add it both to your Contacts and your autocomplete cache.

If you use Outlook Social Connectors in Outlook 2010, contacts from LinkedIn and other services are available the same way! Just click on Address Book and select the address book for the service you want to plunder in the dropdown list:

Address Book selector

Then right click the entry you want, choose Add to Contacts and then Save & Close to add it both to your Contacts and autocomplete.

Copying these auxiliary address book entries directly to your Contacts or entering them manually may cause a conflict or error, so be sure to add them using the Address Book dialog box. Or, if you know the exact spelling of their name, just type it into the To: line of a message and use Ctrl-K to force a lookup. Once they're been added one of these two ways, they should be available via autocomplete.

Suzanne

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Sorry for the same post twice.  It didn't show up for quite some time and technet was acting wierd when I logged in, so I thought it was lost somewhere in digital limbo.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Using outlook 2007. I am fix autocomplete for email addresses but how do get NAME autocompleted instead of Email? And what do I have to do if I want to see only names instead every email in 'To' field and everywhere else. Please help!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The solution suggested of creating an email to all of your contacts is almost there.  The problem is that the email must actually be sent in order for the contacts to be added to the auto-complete list.  In order to make that happen without actually sending an email to all of your contacts, just change the password stored for your email account in Outlook to something that is incorrect so that the email won't go through.  You can then send the email and delete it from the outbox once it doesn't go through and all of your contacts will be added to the auto-complete list. As a precaution, I would send a test email to yourself first to make certain it doesn't go through and then BCC all of your contacts as another layer of protection. It's a little round-about, but well worth the 10 minutes to make it happen.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 08, 2011
    The tip to add contacts to your autocomplete for Outlook 2007 did not work.

  • Anonymous
    October 26, 2011
    This does not neccessarily work they way you might think; my contacts are in there as their email addresses  (Instead of 'Jim Smith' it will appear if I start typing his email address, 'js2743@yahoo.com'). Some people's  email addresses don't even have their name in them.

  • Anonymous
    October 28, 2011
    Hi I think this will only work if you actually send the email, by just adding them to the to field does not store the autocomplete - tested. Sending an email to 800 + contacts is not a suggested answer to this.

  • Anonymous
    June 29, 2012
    Did not work for Outlook 2010.  Any other ideas?

  • Anonymous
    August 05, 2012
    This doesn't work for me.  After I follow these steps, I can auto-complete by e-mail, but not by first name, which is first in the display names in my contacts.

  • Anonymous
    September 25, 2012
    You don't have to send the email, just save it as a draft, that worked for me with Outlook 2013

  • Anonymous
    December 13, 2012
    Outlook 2012, I coul not populate the Autocomplete using Global Address listing, but if Iclicked on Address Book and selected everyone in the GAB then chose File->Add to contacts. The Autocomplete worked!

  • Anonymous
    December 31, 2012
    It's works on Outlook 2007, what you've to do it's the following:

  1. Go to contacts section (it's right at the left bottom of the screen) or press CTRL+3.
  2. Select all contacts or just select one and then press CTRL+A to select all contacs.
  3. Then go to ACTION > CREATE > NEW MESSAGE TO CONTACT.
  4. Check in the "To" field if all the contacts appears.
  5. This step its the more important: Disconnect from Internet (turning off the modem or router) OR change your outlook e-mail password (just set a wrong password), you can even try disabling your network adapter. Then send the e-mail, it will appear on the "outbox" section, go there and delete the e-mail and delete it from the "deleted items" section too.
  6. Try creating a new e-mail and typing a contact name or e-mail address. And there you go!
  7. Turn on your modem/router or restore your correct e-mail account password or enable the network adapter. Enjoy!

  • Anonymous
    January 04, 2013
    I send emails to the same two people all the time, but their names still don't come up on my auto complete. I can't have too many people on the auto-complete list, as when I email new people they then start coming up on auto-complete. No idea why these particular two don't seem to work - quite annoying as they're the two contacts I email the most, and I have to type out their entire email address every time I message them!

  • Anonymous
    May 31, 2013
    It simply works with Outlook 2010. What you have to do is :

  1. Select all contacts and select EMAIL option on home menu bar. Now all the contacts will be in TO category, now select any random contacts and paste to CC category.
  2. Now turn OFF your Internet Connection, or simply disable it.
  3. Now send the Mail.(It will not be send practically, as Internet is OFF)
  4. the mail will be in Outbox only.
  5. Now, Close the Outlook.
  6. Now, open the outlook
  7. Drag the mail from OUTBOX to DELETED ITEMS.
  8. Turn ON he Internet Connection. ....now check trying new Email....All the Contacts will be shown in AUTO COMPLETE list.... now it should work

  • Anonymous
    June 04, 2013
    Joenathan's advice (see above) worked for me - simply follow the advice in this article, and then select "save draft" when closing message. Using Outlok 2010.

  • Anonymous
    June 04, 2013
    Thank you!  More helpful than the Outlook "help" content.  Can never figure out the heads and tails from their content...

  • Anonymous
    June 26, 2013
    this was of great help, I am a FAN amazing stuff took 10 seconds to get sorted. just add them all and cancel the email and job done.