Outlook Tip of the Moment Archive

Reminders From the Subfolders

Reminders in Outlook CAN fire out of the subfolders.  To do that you either need to have Outlook 2007 or you need to get Ken Slovak's Reminder Manager tool.

Edit the File As Field

You can edit the File As field in Outlook Contacts to read anything you want.  The default choices are "First Name, Last Name" or "Last Name, First Name".  If you enter a company name Outlook will add three more choices: "Company Name", "Company Name (Person's Name)" and "Person's Name (Company Name)" 

I generally choose one of the last two of those options because it shows me the most information - person AND company rather than just one or the other.  And I generally select which one based upon how I approach that person - in otherwords I set up Rick Borstein from Adobe by using this test: Do I think of it as "I need to contact Adobe?" or do I think "I need to contact Rick Borstein?"  Well, in that case I usually think of Rick first instead of Adobe so I file his record as "Borstein, Rick (Adobe)".

BUT...the File As field is deceptively more powerful than that.  If you click in that field you can type anything you like.  This is handy if you want to add a nickname to somebody's File As field or file them by something totally else.  You might choose to file "Mark Valencia" as "My Lawyer" for example.  I have my grandparents filed not as "Keith and Helen Amstutz" but rather as "Grandpa and Grandma Amstutz."

Click in the File As field and take a go at renaming, or enhancing, the information displayed there.

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Last Updated: 03/10/2010