The Address Book is a collection of address books or address lists. You can use the Address Book to look up and select names, e-mail addresses, and distribution lists when you address messages. When you type a name in the To, Cc, or Bcc box of an e-mail message, Microsoft Outlook automatically checks to see if the name you typed matches a name in the Address Book. If there is a match, the name is resolved
In addition to using the Address Book to address messages, you can look up names and other information, such as office locations and telephone numbers, by typing the name in the Find a contact box on the Standard toolbar.
When you first open the Address Book, the default address book (usually your Global Address List) is displayed. You can change the default address book and also set other Address Book preferences, such as which address book to check first when sending a message and the location to store personal addresses.
Several types of address books can be displayed in the Address Book:
This feature requires you to be using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account.
The Global Address List contains the names and e-mail addresses of everyone in your organization. The Microsoft Exchange Server administrator creates and maintains this address book. It can also contain global distribution lists and public folder e-mail addresses. Subsets of the Global Address List are displayed in the Address Book when you choose an entry under All Address Lists on the Show names from the list. You can download the Global Address List for use offline.
The Outlook Address Book is created automatically and contains the contacts in your Contacts folder that have a contact entry in the E-mail or Fax boxes. These contacts display in the Address Book dialog box when you click Contacts in the Show names from the list. If you have a Personal Address Book, it is recommended that you convert your Personal Address Book to Outlook contacts, because Outlook contacts provide flexibility and customization unavailable in the Personal Address Book. For example, you can associate birthdays, several types of phone numbers, anniversaries, Web site addresses, and other custom information with your contacts. The Outlook Address Book is available offline.
If you create additional contact folders, you can set the properties on each folder to include the contacts as part of the Outlook Address Book.
Personal Address Books can no longer be created using Outlook. The Personal Address Book is a list of names and distribution lists that you create and maintain. Personal Address Book entries are stored in a file and can be copied to a disk. You can keep the e-mail addresses of your personal contacts in either the Contacts folder, which is recommended, or the Personal Address Book.
Internet directory services (LDAP)
Internet directory services are used to find e-mail addresses that are not in a local address book or a corporate-wide directory such as the Global Address List. An Internet connection is required to view an LDAP address book unless the LDAP directory is part of your organization's network.
Third-party address books can be added to Outlook by using the third-party provider's Setup program. Outlook displays third-party address books in the Additional Address Book Types list.