Thanks Brian for your help.

And Judy, I have already considered this, but the problem is that I
often switch between folders and need that to be done quickly. When I
use categories like you suggest, I would have to define views with a
filter for each category to achieve this. But since I use different
views for each folder (business cards, lists, etc.) and since - as far
as I know - the filters cannot be defined separately from the views, I
would end up with an unacceptably high number of views. I currently
have 10 different views that I use for EACH contact folder. I have 12
folders. So I would need 10*12=120 views ....
So I guess this is not an option.

########################
the easiest solution would still be, if I could use the search for
"all contact items"...
I just can't understand why it is not possible to enter a whitespace
or nothing at all and just hit "enter". Because when I enter for
example just the letter "a", Outlook shows about 75% of all my
contacts in one list (no matter in which folder the contact is
stored). I would like Outlook to show me 100% of my contacts in one
list.
########################

QUOTE:
------------------------------
Judy Gleeson (MVP Outlook)
From: "Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)" judy
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:02:03 +1100
Local: Mon, Jan 14 2008 3:02 am
Subject: Navigation Pane always reverts // cannot show all contact
items
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The solution is to go back through each folder and Categorise them.
Then
amalgamate the folders so you have a single Contacts Folder, but
numerous
Categories.

To Categorise every record in your existing folder, select all, right
click
and set the Category eg in the Friends Folder, make them ALL Category
Friends. Then when you amalgamate folders, you can still send email
just to
firends.

Regards

Judy Gleeson