Windows Mail using Contacts

Unlucky for me, my old XP died, and now I'm "stuck" with Vista. Trying to set up my Contacts to work as my XP address book has proved frustrating, to say the least.

In OE's address book, I could sort my contacts in folders. Then, when I wanted to send or forward a fun e-mial, or even a message, to a several people, I could click on the "to" and the address book opened allowing me to choose which folder to choose recipients from. It worked perfect for me and the way I use my address book. But the new Contacts will not allow me to do that, or I have yet to figure out how to set it up so that it DOES allow me to use it that way.

I have sorted all of my contacts into folders. Business contacts, personal contact, knitting group, etc. But when I go to send or forward an e-mail, it shows every single name in the entire file, most of which I dont want to see. It takes me twice as long to scroll through them to pick the few I want.

I tried setting up groups, but that does not serve my purpose. In the old OE I had some names in more than one folder if needed. I don't need to see every single person in the contact list with every e-mail. This is driving me nuts!!

Anyone have any ideas how to fix this problem before I pull all of my hair out? I sure would appreciate it. OE's address book worked perfect, so why Microsoft had to go and change it, I have no idea.

Thanks

 

Problem Solved

I posted this question on several forums, and apparently no one was able to give me a solution. But the annoyance was great enough, for me, that I have found my own solution. It works for me, so maybe it will work for everyone having a similar problem.

In my Contacts folder, I had sorted all of my names into subfolders. Most of them I very rarely contact. Only 1 folder contained the list of people I write to frequently. It was frustrating to want to send a message to 3 or 5 people and have to sort through 100 names to find them. I have developed a work-around.

In my User account folder I set up a sub-folder for all of my seldom used contacts. I moved all of their folders into this new folder, leaving only the folder with the list of name I contact most often in my actual Contacts folder.

I set up the folders to show "details ", so on the rare occasion I need to contact one of those other people, I simple open the folder, choose the person I need, and across the top of the folder it will then give me several options, one of them being "e-mail." Click on that and immediately that persons name is entered into the "to" line on a new e-mail. I wirte my message and send it. But I don't have to sort through all of those other contacts every time either.

 

I appreciate reading your post, and have a question of my own: "Are the folders you are talking about in Windows Mail (Vista) the same thing as Groups in the older versions of Outlook Express? "

Personally, I use MS Outlook 2003 for nearly all of my email. But I have a friend locally who is still using a Windows 98 computer, and he wants me to help him set up several Groups. Naturally, a lot of the dialogue is taking place via email!

Not having an older computer to refer to is leaving me at a loss as to how to guide him.

 

Hi there,

When I was using Outlook Express, I had several folders in my address book, and when I opened the address book, I could choose which folder to pick my recipients from. And for me, yes, they were groups, or how I grouped my recipients. But I do think that when you normally make a group, in OE, you just click on "new group" and name the group. Then you can choose the members you wish to have in that groups, by scrolling through your address book and just clicking on each name you want, and choose "add." Then, when you want to mail to every member of that group at the same time, you open your address book, scroll down to the name of the group, and then click on that group name and everyone in it is automatically sent the same e-mail.

Might I add, if you double click on the group name, it will send using the "to" and then everyone that receives the e-mail will see the e-mail address of every other recipient.

To be courteous to your recipients, and protect their privacy, it is best if you click on the group name, and then use the "bcc" line. That way the e-mail goes to every name in the group, but each individual e-mail address is hidden from everyone else. All they will see is "undisclosed recipient. "

I hope this helps.
Sandie