Ready for some detail?

===============
Background Info
===============
I have a client with a SBS 2K3 Standard Edition Network with OL 2003 as the
email client for each machine. They use a web based database application
that members of the public can use to sign up for thier mass mailings. This
application can save the members contact information to an Excel document
thereby allowing the user to create a CSV file to import that information
into an Outlook address book in thier Outlook. This has to be done every
Friday as the number of recipients of the email can fluctuate. Many of the
machines in this office have Office 2000 loaded on them (including the one in
question).

=============
Problem
=============
When they import the contacts from the CSV file into Outlook we can select
that address book in the main window and all the contacts are there.
However, if you view the address book from a new email, the fax application
(that comes with SBS), or go to the 'Tools' menu - Address book...- &
select the address book from the dropdown list, none of the contacts are
viewable. They are only viewable from the main OL window - Contacts - Fax
Phonebook (the address book with the imported contacts).

==================
Troubleshooting thus far
==================
I have double-checked and made sure that the address book service is
installed and that the address book in question is listed from the email
accounts, "view/change directories and address books". This was done
according to article KB 287563

I have double checked the properties of the address book in question,
outlook address book tab, and made sure that the "show this folder as an
e-mail address book" is checked. Have also confirmed that the address book
is displayed in the available address books when you create a new email, or
fax wizard -- it just displays as empty. This according to article KB 295664

I have tried importing the contacts from a different machine altogether, one
with Office 2003 and Outlook 2003 with the same results. It does not appear
to be a conflict between the OL 2003 and Office 2000 on her computer.

I have found that if, from the main OL window, I open one of the imported
contacts, click the business fax # button, click OK, and click 'Save &
Close', the contact will then display properly when creating a new email or
from the fax wizard. This suggests that there is something wrong with how
they are being imported, but I can't find what that is. If the number of
contacts were not so numerous and prone to change each week, I wouldn't care,
but doing this each week with a couple hundred contacts is not feasible.


Thank you for your patience
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP

Why do you keep saying you are importing into the Address Book in Outlook?
There is no address book in Outlook.
The import destination should be a Contacts Folder.
To what "Fax Phonebook" are you referring? Outlook has no such thing.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Ready for some detail?

===============
Background Info
===============
I have a client with a SBS 2K3 Standard Edition Network with OL 2003 as
the
email client for each machine. They use a web based database application
that members of the public can use to sign up for thier mass mailings.
This
application can save the members contact information to an Excel document
thereby allowing the user to create a CSV file to import that information
into an Outlook address book in thier Outlook. This has to be done every
Friday as the number of recipients of the email can fluctuate. Many of
the
machines in this office have Office 2000 loaded on them (including the one
in
question).

=============
Problem
=============
When they import the contacts from the CSV file into Outlook we can select
that address book in the main window and all the contacts are there.
However, if you view the address book from a new email, the fax
application
(that comes with SBS), or go to the 'Tools' menu - Address book...- &
select the address book from the dropdown list, none of the contacts are
viewable. They are only viewable from the main OL window - Contacts - Fax
Phonebook (the address book with the imported contacts).

==================
Troubleshooting thus far
==================
I have double-checked and made sure that the address book service is
installed and that the address book in question is listed from the email
accounts, "view/change directories and address books". This was done
according to article KB 287563

I have double checked the properties of the address book in question,
outlook address book tab, and made sure that the "show this folder as an
e-mail address book" is checked. Have also confirmed that the address
book
is displayed in the available address books when you create a new email,
or
fax wizard -- it just displays as empty. This according to article KB
295664

I have tried importing the contacts from a different machine altogether,
one
with Office 2003 and Outlook 2003 with the same results. It does not
appear
to be a conflict between the OL 2003 and Office 2000 on her computer.

I have found that if, from the main OL window, I open one of the imported
contacts, click the business fax # button, click OK, and click 'Save &
Close', the contact will then display properly when creating a new email
or
from the fax wizard. This suggests that there is something wrong with how
they are being imported, but I can't find what that is. If the number of
contacts were not so numerous and prone to change each week, I wouldn't
care,
but doing this each week with a couple hundred contacts is not feasible.


Thank you for your patience
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP

Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry to have caused you confusion. In the
interest of getting this resolved, I will rephrase my original post in a
longer and hopefully more clear fashion. I hope you will enjoy the challenge
of helping me figure out this problem that I'm sure has a simple solution
somewhere.

=================================================
Background - what we have, what we are doing, and what we want to do
=================================================
We have an SBS 2003 Standard edition network. We are making use of the
faxing capability of this server. We also have an online database that
members of the public can use to sign up for either a mass email newsletter
or have the newsletter recieved via fax. The web-based database allows for
the contact information, collected from the willing members of the public, to
be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet. The purpose of downloading this
information is to place the company name and business fax phone #'s into a
contact folder that we have created. The name of this contact folder is "Fax
phonebook". It is located in the user's mailbox, not a public folder. The
user in question has Office 2000 and Outlook 2003 installed on her machine.
The Outlook 2003 is supplied by the license that comes with the SBS server.

Currently, after downloading this Excel document, we open it up and save it
as "samefilename.csv". We then open Outlook 2003 (OL), go to the 'File' menu
and select 'Import and Export...'. We then proceed to import the contact
information into the 'fax phonebook' contact folder that we had created. We
are careful to map the fields so that they appear correctly after the import.
Everything appears to go well, we do not recieve any errors or any
indication that anything goes wrong. All the contacts will show up correctly
when you navigate to the "Fax phonebook" in Outlook.

We want to be able to browse to this contact folder from the "Send a fax"
wizard to do a mass fax every Friday from a user subscribed list provided by
a database and imported into a contact folder in OL.

================================================== =
Problem - This can be confusing so read carefully, I will make it as clear
as I possibly can
================================================== =
Now that the contacts are supposedly 'imported', if you do any of the
following - the imported contacts will not be visible.

1. Create a new e-mail. When the new message opens up and you click the
"To..." button, the 'Selected Names' dialog box will open. When you click
the drop down list labeled, "Show Names from the:" and select the 'Fax
Phonebook' contact folder that we imported the contact information into, not
one contact will appear. This should at least be visible even if it does not
have e-mail addresses in it. Subsequently I have tried it with e-mail
addresses and it still shows nothing.

2. Send a fax wizard. When you open any document and print it to the fax
printer on the server. You click next at the intro screen and are presented
with the recipient form in which you fill out the recipient's fax
information. There is an "Address book..." button that you can click and it
opens the Select Names dialog box again. And again if you select the "Fax
phonebook" contact folder that we created from the dropdown list labeled,
"Show Names From the:", no contacts will be visible.

3. Open the Outlook Address book (I know you don't want to call it this, but
that is what it is labeled). In Outlook, go to the "Tools" menu and select
"Address Book..." A dialog box that is clearly labeled, "Address Book" will
open. It is nearly identical to the "Select Names" dialog box that opens
when you create an e-mail. Again, there is a drop down list labeled, "Show
Names From the:" and if you select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder from
this list, nothing is visible.

It is great that we can see the contacts when we open OL, navigate to the
Contacts folder, and select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder that we
created and imported the contacts into. However, if these contacts are not
visible from any of the three places listed above, they are virtually
useless. This is the problem that must be fixed.

============================================
Troubleshooting done thus far
============================================
I have ensured that the address book service is installed not only because I
can see other contact folders, but confirmed that the "Fax phonebook" contact
folder that we created is listed in the address book. I did this by doing
the following:
1. Open OL
2. "Tools" menu, Email Accounts...
3. Under "Directory", I selected the option for "View or change existing
directories or address books".
4. Click "Next" button and then "Change" button for the only profile present
5. At the "Microsoft Office Outlook Address Book" dialog box, "Fax
phonebook: Mailbox - username mailbox" is listed.

I have also gone to the properties of the "Fax Phonebook" contact folder,
"Outlook Address Book" tab and ensured that the option for "Show this folder
as an email address book" is selected.

I have noticed that if I navigate to the "Fax Phonebook" contact folder in
OL and open one of the imported contacts and then click on the business fax #
button, click OK without making changes, and then click "Save & Close"; that
contact will then be visible utlizing any of three methods mentioned above
(in the section labeled, "Problem"). If the contacts were few in number, I
could see doing this every Friday without a problem. However, I've seen this
list be as few as 90 and as many as 1,000, so this is not a feasible solution.

I have tried another machine that has Office 2003 and Outlook 2003
(installed from the server) with the same results.

I have even tried this from my office on my SBS 2K3 network, OL 2003, and
Office 2003 with the same results on all machines. To me this seems to be a
desktop issue, Exchange shouldn't care. I could try it on other SBS networks
with similar setups but I expect the result would be the same on all of them.

I would be in heaven if I got half as complete of a picture as this for
troubleshooting from one of my clients. I'm sorry I don't know how to make
it any more clear in identifying the problem. The only other thing I can
think of doing is taking screen shots, but I need someone to email them too.

Again, I thank you for your patience and I hope that we can resolve this
quickly.

--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP


"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Why do you keep saying you are importing into the Address Book in Outlook?
There is no address book in Outlook.
The import destination should be a Contacts Folder.
To what "Fax Phonebook" are you referring? Outlook has no such thing.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Ready for some detail?

===============
Background Info
===============
I have a client with a SBS 2K3 Standard Edition Network with OL 2003 as
the
email client for each machine. They use a web based database application
that members of the public can use to sign up for thier mass mailings.
This
application can save the members contact information to an Excel document
thereby allowing the user to create a CSV file to import that information
into an Outlook address book in thier Outlook. This has to be done every
Friday as the number of recipients of the email can fluctuate. Many of
the
machines in this office have Office 2000 loaded on them (including the one
in
question).

=============
Problem
=============
When they import the contacts from the CSV file into Outlook we can select
that address book in the main window and all the contacts are there.
However, if you view the address book from a new email, the fax
application
(that comes with SBS), or go to the 'Tools' menu - Address book...- &
select the address book from the dropdown list, none of the contacts are
viewable. They are only viewable from the main OL window - Contacts - Fax
Phonebook (the address book with the imported contacts).

==================
Troubleshooting thus far
==================
I have double-checked and made sure that the address book service is
installed and that the address book in question is listed from the email
accounts, "view/change directories and address books". This was done
according to article KB 287563

I have double checked the properties of the address book in question,
outlook address book tab, and made sure that the "show this folder as an
e-mail address book" is checked. Have also confirmed that the address
book
is displayed in the available address books when you create a new email,
or
fax wizard -- it just displays as empty. This according to article KB
295664

I have tried importing the contacts from a different machine altogether,
one
with Office 2003 and Outlook 2003 with the same results. It does not
appear
to be a conflict between the OL 2003 and Office 2000 on her computer.

I have found that if, from the main OL window, I open one of the imported
contacts, click the business fax # button, click OK, and click 'Save &
Close', the contact will then display properly when creating a new email
or
from the fax wizard. This suggests that there is something wrong with how
they are being imported, but I can't find what that is. If the number of
contacts were not so numerous and prone to change each week, I wouldn't
care,
but doing this each week with a couple hundred contacts is not feasible.


Thank you for your patience
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP

Importing Contact information rarely works.
Have you verified that these imported Contacts have valid, resolved fax
addresses?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry to have caused you confusion. In the
interest of getting this resolved, I will rephrase my original post in a
longer and hopefully more clear fashion. I hope you will enjoy the
challenge
of helping me figure out this problem that I'm sure has a simple solution
somewhere.

=================================================
Background - what we have, what we are doing, and what we want to do
=================================================
We have an SBS 2003 Standard edition network. We are making use of the
faxing capability of this server. We also have an online database that
members of the public can use to sign up for either a mass email
newsletter
or have the newsletter recieved via fax. The web-based database allows
for
the contact information, collected from the willing members of the public,
to
be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet. The purpose of downloading this
information is to place the company name and business fax phone #'s into a
contact folder that we have created. The name of this contact folder is
"Fax
phonebook". It is located in the user's mailbox, not a public folder.
The
user in question has Office 2000 and Outlook 2003 installed on her
machine.
The Outlook 2003 is supplied by the license that comes with the SBS
server.

Currently, after downloading this Excel document, we open it up and save
it
as "samefilename.csv". We then open Outlook 2003 (OL), go to the 'File'
menu
and select 'Import and Export...'. We then proceed to import the contact
information into the 'fax phonebook' contact folder that we had created.
We
are careful to map the fields so that they appear correctly after the
import.
Everything appears to go well, we do not recieve any errors or any
indication that anything goes wrong. All the contacts will show up
correctly
when you navigate to the "Fax phonebook" in Outlook.

We want to be able to browse to this contact folder from the "Send a fax"
wizard to do a mass fax every Friday from a user subscribed list provided
by
a database and imported into a contact folder in OL.

================================================== =
Problem - This can be confusing so read carefully, I will make it as clear
as I possibly can
================================================== =
Now that the contacts are supposedly 'imported', if you do any of the
following - the imported contacts will not be visible.

1. Create a new e-mail. When the new message opens up and you click the
"To..." button, the 'Selected Names' dialog box will open. When you
click
the drop down list labeled, "Show Names from the:" and select the 'Fax
Phonebook' contact folder that we imported the contact information into,
not
one contact will appear. This should at least be visible even if it does
not
have e-mail addresses in it. Subsequently I have tried it with e-mail
addresses and it still shows nothing.

2. Send a fax wizard. When you open any document and print it to the fax
printer on the server. You click next at the intro screen and are
presented
with the recipient form in which you fill out the recipient's fax
information. There is an "Address book..." button that you can click and
it
opens the Select Names dialog box again. And again if you select the "Fax
phonebook" contact folder that we created from the dropdown list labeled,
"Show Names From the:", no contacts will be visible.

3. Open the Outlook Address book (I know you don't want to call it this,
but
that is what it is labeled). In Outlook, go to the "Tools" menu and
select
"Address Book..." A dialog box that is clearly labeled, "Address Book"
will
open. It is nearly identical to the "Select Names" dialog box that opens
when you create an e-mail. Again, there is a drop down list labeled,
"Show
Names From the:" and if you select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder from
this list, nothing is visible.

It is great that we can see the contacts when we open OL, navigate to the
Contacts folder, and select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder that we
created and imported the contacts into. However, if these contacts are
not
visible from any of the three places listed above, they are virtually
useless. This is the problem that must be fixed.

============================================
Troubleshooting done thus far
============================================
I have ensured that the address book service is installed not only because
I
can see other contact folders, but confirmed that the "Fax phonebook"
contact
folder that we created is listed in the address book. I did this by doing
the following:
1. Open OL
2. "Tools" menu, Email Accounts...
3. Under "Directory", I selected the option for "View or change existing
directories or address books".
4. Click "Next" button and then "Change" button for the only profile
present
5. At the "Microsoft Office Outlook Address Book" dialog box, "Fax
phonebook: Mailbox - username mailbox" is listed.

I have also gone to the properties of the "Fax Phonebook" contact folder,
"Outlook Address Book" tab and ensured that the option for "Show this
folder
as an email address book" is selected.

I have noticed that if I navigate to the "Fax Phonebook" contact folder in
OL and open one of the imported contacts and then click on the business
fax #
button, click OK without making changes, and then click "Save & Close";
that
contact will then be visible utlizing any of three methods mentioned above
(in the section labeled, "Problem"). If the contacts were few in number,
I
could see doing this every Friday without a problem. However, I've seen
this
list be as few as 90 and as many as 1,000, so this is not a feasible
solution.

I have tried another machine that has Office 2003 and Outlook 2003
(installed from the server) with the same results.

I have even tried this from my office on my SBS 2K3 network, OL 2003, and
Office 2003 with the same results on all machines. To me this seems to be
a
desktop issue, Exchange shouldn't care. I could try it on other SBS
networks
with similar setups but I expect the result would be the same on all of
them.

I would be in heaven if I got half as complete of a picture as this for
troubleshooting from one of my clients. I'm sorry I don't know how to
make
it any more clear in identifying the problem. The only other thing I can
think of doing is taking screen shots, but I need someone to email them
too.

Again, I thank you for your patience and I hope that we can resolve this
quickly.

--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP


"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Why do you keep saying you are importing into the Address Book in
Outlook?
There is no address book in Outlook.
The import destination should be a Contacts Folder.
To what "Fax Phonebook" are you referring? Outlook has no such thing.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Ready for some detail?

===============
Background Info
===============
I have a client with a SBS 2K3 Standard Edition Network with OL 2003 as
the
email client for each machine. They use a web based database
application
that members of the public can use to sign up for thier mass mailings.
This
application can save the members contact information to an Excel
document
thereby allowing the user to create a CSV file to import that
information
into an Outlook address book in thier Outlook. This has to be done
every
Friday as the number of recipients of the email can fluctuate. Many of
the
machines in this office have Office 2000 loaded on them (including the
one
in
question).

=============
Problem
=============
When they import the contacts from the CSV file into Outlook we can
select
that address book in the main window and all the contacts are there.
However, if you view the address book from a new email, the fax
application
(that comes with SBS), or go to the 'Tools' menu - Address book...- &
select the address book from the dropdown list, none of the contacts
are
viewable. They are only viewable from the main OL window - Contacts -
Fax
Phonebook (the address book with the imported contacts).

==================
Troubleshooting thus far
==================
I have double-checked and made sure that the address book service is
installed and that the address book in question is listed from the
email
accounts, "view/change directories and address books". This was done
according to article KB 287563

I have double checked the properties of the address book in question,
outlook address book tab, and made sure that the "show this folder as
an
e-mail address book" is checked. Have also confirmed that the address
book
is displayed in the available address books when you create a new
email,
or
fax wizard -- it just displays as empty. This according to article KB
295664

I have tried importing the contacts from a different machine
altogether,
one
with Office 2003 and Outlook 2003 with the same results. It does not
appear
to be a conflict between the OL 2003 and Office 2000 on her computer.

I have found that if, from the main OL window, I open one of the
imported
contacts, click the business fax # button, click OK, and click 'Save &
Close', the contact will then display properly when creating a new
email
or
from the fax wizard. This suggests that there is something wrong with
how
they are being imported, but I can't find what that is. If the number
of
contacts were not so numerous and prone to change each week, I wouldn't
care,
but doing this each week with a couple hundred contacts is not
feasible.


Thank you for your patience
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP

Unacceptable. Your so willing to write it off as, "Importing contact
information rarely works"?

First, your statement is general implying that any method of importing
contacts rarely works. You and I both know that is a farse. If it were
true, why have OL at all?

Secondly, you completely ignore the fact that the contacts make it into
Outlook via the CSV import and that they are only not visible from certain
"Address book" functions throughout the wide range of Microsoft products.

Third, you ignore the fact that I can open any of the imported contacts,
look at the business fax properties, click save & close, and the contact is
then visible from any of the "Address Book" functions. I can then send them
a fax, email, see them in the address book. So yes, the fax numbers resolve
to valid fax addresses.

Fourth, Microsoft's own KB documentation says that it is possible. Article
KB295664 entitled, "How to import contacts into outlook from excel". There
has to be a setting somewhere that is interferring with this.

Finally, in your first post you generally said, "There is no address book in
Outlook." Not only is it labeled thoughout OL 2003 and other MS programs,
but you specifically refer to it in many of your other posts! The most
recent two I saw were "I have contacts missing every day" from 4/26/2006 and
"Outlook 2003 email address book" from 4/26/2006. If specifics are so
important when presenting a problem to you guys, you must be equally so.

It would seem to me that the address book is the location within OL that
contains the contact folders, kind of like a phone book with white and yellow
pages. I shouldn't have to tell you that.

Is anyone else paying attention to these post? Mr. Tillman? Mrs. Staples?
Anyone?
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP


"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Importing Contact information rarely works.
Have you verified that these imported Contacts have valid, resolved fax
addresses?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry to have caused you confusion. In the
interest of getting this resolved, I will rephrase my original post in a
longer and hopefully more clear fashion. I hope you will enjoy the
challenge
of helping me figure out this problem that I'm sure has a simple solution
somewhere.

=================================================
Background - what we have, what we are doing, and what we want to do
=================================================
We have an SBS 2003 Standard edition network. We are making use of the
faxing capability of this server. We also have an online database that
members of the public can use to sign up for either a mass email
newsletter
or have the newsletter recieved via fax. The web-based database allows
for
the contact information, collected from the willing members of the public,
to
be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet. The purpose of downloading this
information is to place the company name and business fax phone #'s into a
contact folder that we have created. The name of this contact folder is
"Fax
phonebook". It is located in the user's mailbox, not a public folder.
The
user in question has Office 2000 and Outlook 2003 installed on her
machine.
The Outlook 2003 is supplied by the license that comes with the SBS
server.

Currently, after downloading this Excel document, we open it up and save
it
as "samefilename.csv". We then open Outlook 2003 (OL), go to the 'File'
menu
and select 'Import and Export...'. We then proceed to import the contact
information into the 'fax phonebook' contact folder that we had created.
We
are careful to map the fields so that they appear correctly after the
import.
Everything appears to go well, we do not recieve any errors or any
indication that anything goes wrong. All the contacts will show up
correctly
when you navigate to the "Fax phonebook" in Outlook.

We want to be able to browse to this contact folder from the "Send a fax"
wizard to do a mass fax every Friday from a user subscribed list provided
by
a database and imported into a contact folder in OL.

================================================== =
Problem - This can be confusing so read carefully, I will make it as clear
as I possibly can
================================================== =
Now that the contacts are supposedly 'imported', if you do any of the
following - the imported contacts will not be visible.

1. Create a new e-mail. When the new message opens up and you click the
"To..." button, the 'Selected Names' dialog box will open. When you
click
the drop down list labeled, "Show Names from the:" and select the 'Fax
Phonebook' contact folder that we imported the contact information into,
not
one contact will appear. This should at least be visible even if it does
not
have e-mail addresses in it. Subsequently I have tried it with e-mail
addresses and it still shows nothing.

2. Send a fax wizard. When you open any document and print it to the fax
printer on the server. You click next at the intro screen and are
presented
with the recipient form in which you fill out the recipient's fax
information. There is an "Address book..." button that you can click and
it
opens the Select Names dialog box again. And again if you select the "Fax
phonebook" contact folder that we created from the dropdown list labeled,
"Show Names From the:", no contacts will be visible.

3. Open the Outlook Address book (I know you don't want to call it this,
but
that is what it is labeled). In Outlook, go to the "Tools" menu and
select
"Address Book..." A dialog box that is clearly labeled, "Address Book"
will
open. It is nearly identical to the "Select Names" dialog box that opens
when you create an e-mail. Again, there is a drop down list labeled,
"Show
Names From the:" and if you select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder from
this list, nothing is visible.

It is great that we can see the contacts when we open OL, navigate to the
Contacts folder, and select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder that we
created and imported the contacts into. However, if these contacts are
not
visible from any of the three places listed above, they are virtually
useless. This is the problem that must be fixed.

============================================
Troubleshooting done thus far
============================================
I have ensured that the address book service is installed not only because
I
can see other contact folders, but confirmed that the "Fax phonebook"
contact
folder that we created is listed in the address book. I did this by doing
the following:
1. Open OL
2. "Tools" menu, Email Accounts...
3. Under "Directory", I selected the option for "View or change existing
directories or address books".
4. Click "Next" button and then "Change" button for the only profile
present
5. At the "Microsoft Office Outlook Address Book" dialog box, "Fax
phonebook: Mailbox - username mailbox" is listed.

I have also gone to the properties of the "Fax Phonebook" contact folder,
"Outlook Address Book" tab and ensured that the option for "Show this
folder
as an email address book" is selected.

I have noticed that if I navigate to the "Fax Phonebook" contact folder in
OL and open one of the imported contacts and then click on the business
fax #
button, click OK without making changes, and then click "Save & Close";
that
contact will then be visible utlizing any of three methods mentioned above
(in the section labeled, "Problem"). If the contacts were few in number,
I
could see doing this every Friday without a problem. However, I've seen
this
list be as few as 90 and as many as 1,000, so this is not a feasible
solution.

I have tried another machine that has Office 2003 and Outlook 2003
(installed from the server) with the same results.

I have even tried this from my office on my SBS 2K3 network, OL 2003, and
Office 2003 with the same results on all machines. To me this seems to be
a
desktop issue, Exchange shouldn't care. I could try it on other SBS
networks
with similar setups but I expect the result would be the same on all of
them.

I would be in heaven if I got half as complete of a picture as this for
troubleshooting from one of my clients. I'm sorry I don't know how to
make
it any more clear in identifying the problem. The only other thing I can
think of doing is taking screen shots, but I need someone to email them
too.

Again, I thank you for your patience and I hope that we can resolve this
quickly.

--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP


"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Why do you keep saying you are importing into the Address Book in
Outlook?
There is no address book in Outlook.
The import destination should be a Contacts Folder.
To what "Fax Phonebook" are you referring? Outlook has no such thing.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Ready for some detail?

===============
Background Info
===============
I have a client with a SBS 2K3 Standard Edition Network with OL 2003 as
the
email client for each machine. They use a web based database
application
that members of the public can use to sign up for thier mass mailings.
This
application can save the members contact information to an Excel
document
thereby allowing the user to create a CSV file to import that
information
into an Outlook address book in thier Outlook. This has to be done
every
Friday as the number of recipients of the email can fluctuate. Many of
the
machines in this office have Office 2000 loaded on them (including the
one
in
question).

=============
Problem
=============
When they import the contacts from the CSV file into Outlook we can
select
that address book in the main window and all the contacts are there.
However, if you view the address book from a new email, the fax
application
(that comes with SBS), or go to the 'Tools' menu - Address book...- &
select the address book from the dropdown list, none of the contacts
are
viewable. They are only viewable from the main OL window - Contacts -
Fax
Phonebook (the address book with the imported contacts).

==================
Troubleshooting thus far
==================
I have double-checked and made sure that the address book service is
installed and that the address book in question is listed from the
email
accounts, "view/change directories and address books". This was done
according to article KB 287563

I have double checked the properties of the address book in question,
outlook address book tab, and made sure that the "show this folder as
an
e-mail address book" is checked. Have also confirmed that the address
book
is displayed in the available address books when you create a new
email,
or
fax wizard -- it just displays as empty. This according to article KB
295664

I have tried importing the contacts from a different machine
altogether,
one
with Office 2003 and Outlook 2003 with the same results. It does not
appear
to be a conflict between the OL 2003 and Office 2000 on her computer.

I have found that if, from the main OL window, I open one of the
imported
contacts, click the business fax # button, click OK, and click 'Save &
Close', the contact will then display properly when creating a new
email
or
from the fax wizard. This suggests that there is something wrong with
how
they are being imported, but I can't find what that is. If the number
of
contacts were not so numerous and prone to change each week, I wouldn't
care,
but doing this each week with a couple hundred contacts is not
feasible.


Thank you for your patience
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP

To start, let me just say that for obvious reasons, I don't subscribe to
"importing contacts rarely works". The import process works just fine both
using Outlook's own import wizard or 3rd party products such as ours. There
are however times when importing OR exporting is the wrong approach for the
task at hand but your scenario isn't one of those. Having gotten that out of
the way............

To summarize your post just to make sure I'm on the same page
understanding the problem:

#1 - You are importing your contacts and all contacts appear in the "Fax
Contacts" folder
#2 - You actually see the "Fax Contacts" folder in the Outlook Address book
list - i.e. means that the "Use as an email address book" option is in
place
#3 - No contacts show in the Outlook Address book list for this folder until
"AFTER" you open a contact and then "save & close
#4 - Unless I misread your post, the issue is occuring on only one machine
which has O'2K but using data from different sources (that correct?)

Questions

1) Have you tried importing the same data into another contact folder on
another machine using O'2K3? If so, does that work correctly?
2) Is there another O'2K system available where you can try the same thing
so see if the results are the same?

If the above items work on both of the above but not your client's specific
machine - you have a config issue - most likely best to delete and re-add
the OAB.

If the above attempts didn't work on any of the machines - then I'd suggest
you take a look at the imported data itself which would appear to be causing
whatever the problem is. Importing fax numbers to a contact folder does
result in those contacts to appear in an OAB list (actually just tried it
using a few of our test files importing strictly name and fax numbers to an
empty contact folder using only Outlook's import function (using O'2K3 since
don't have an O'2K test system available at the moment) and all worked
exactly as it should with all names showing up that a phone number).

If none of the import functions worked on any of the machines then
unfortunately, the other unknowns in this a
#1) the original Excel data file created from your web app,
#2) the resulting CSV file created
The assumption so far is that this is an Outlook related issue which may not
be a correct one if the data isn't importing correctly at any point.

Karl

PS - if your data isn't importing correctly on any of the machines, would
love to get a copy of the .XLS and .CSV file for analysis just to see if the
same behavior holds true on our systems using both the Outlook import wizard
along with testing it with our own import products.

--
__________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2003"
http://www.contactgenie.com

"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Unacceptable. Your so willing to write it off as, "Importing contact
information rarely works"?

First, your statement is general implying that any method of importing
contacts rarely works. You and I both know that is a farse. If it were
true, why have OL at all?

Secondly, you completely ignore the fact that the contacts make it into
Outlook via the CSV import and that they are only not visible from certain
"Address book" functions throughout the wide range of Microsoft products.

Third, you ignore the fact that I can open any of the imported contacts,
look at the business fax properties, click save & close, and the contact
is
then visible from any of the "Address Book" functions. I can then send
them
a fax, email, see them in the address book. So yes, the fax numbers
resolve
to valid fax addresses.

Fourth, Microsoft's own KB documentation says that it is possible.
Article
KB295664 entitled, "How to import contacts into outlook from excel".
There
has to be a setting somewhere that is interferring with this.

Finally, in your first post you generally said, "There is no address book
in
Outlook." Not only is it labeled thoughout OL 2003 and other MS programs,
but you specifically refer to it in many of your other posts! The most
recent two I saw were "I have contacts missing every day" from 4/26/2006
and
"Outlook 2003 email address book" from 4/26/2006. If specifics are so
important when presenting a problem to you guys, you must be equally so.

It would seem to me that the address book is the location within OL that
contains the contact folders, kind of like a phone book with white and
yellow
pages. I shouldn't have to tell you that.

Is anyone else paying attention to these post? Mr. Tillman? Mrs. Staples?
Anyone?
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP


"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Importing Contact information rarely works.
Have you verified that these imported Contacts have valid, resolved fax
addresses?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry to have caused you confusion. In
the
interest of getting this resolved, I will rephrase my original post in
a
longer and hopefully more clear fashion. I hope you will enjoy the
challenge
of helping me figure out this problem that I'm sure has a simple
solution
somewhere.

=================================================
Background - what we have, what we are doing, and what we want to do
=================================================
We have an SBS 2003 Standard edition network. We are making use of the
faxing capability of this server. We also have an online database that
members of the public can use to sign up for either a mass email
newsletter
or have the newsletter recieved via fax. The web-based database allows
for
the contact information, collected from the willing members of the
public,
to
be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet. The purpose of downloading
this
information is to place the company name and business fax phone #'s
into a
contact folder that we have created. The name of this contact folder
is
"Fax
phonebook". It is located in the user's mailbox, not a public folder.
The
user in question has Office 2000 and Outlook 2003 installed on her
machine.
The Outlook 2003 is supplied by the license that comes with the SBS
server.

Currently, after downloading this Excel document, we open it up and
save
it
as "samefilename.csv". We then open Outlook 2003 (OL), go to the
'File'
menu
and select 'Import and Export...'. We then proceed to import the
contact
information into the 'fax phonebook' contact folder that we had
created.
We
are careful to map the fields so that they appear correctly after the
import.
Everything appears to go well, we do not recieve any errors or any
indication that anything goes wrong. All the contacts will show up
correctly
when you navigate to the "Fax phonebook" in Outlook.

We want to be able to browse to this contact folder from the "Send a
fax"
wizard to do a mass fax every Friday from a user subscribed list
provided
by
a database and imported into a contact folder in OL.

================================================== =
Problem - This can be confusing so read carefully, I will make it as
clear
as I possibly can
================================================== =
Now that the contacts are supposedly 'imported', if you do any of the
following - the imported contacts will not be visible.

1. Create a new e-mail. When the new message opens up and you click
the
"To..." button, the 'Selected Names' dialog box will open. When you
click
the drop down list labeled, "Show Names from the:" and select the 'Fax
Phonebook' contact folder that we imported the contact information
into,
not
one contact will appear. This should at least be visible even if it
does
not
have e-mail addresses in it. Subsequently I have tried it with e-mail
addresses and it still shows nothing.

2. Send a fax wizard. When you open any document and print it to the
fax
printer on the server. You click next at the intro screen and are
presented
with the recipient form in which you fill out the recipient's fax
information. There is an "Address book..." button that you can click
and
it
opens the Select Names dialog box again. And again if you select the
"Fax
phonebook" contact folder that we created from the dropdown list
labeled,
"Show Names From the:", no contacts will be visible.

3. Open the Outlook Address book (I know you don't want to call it
this,
but
that is what it is labeled). In Outlook, go to the "Tools" menu and
select
"Address Book..." A dialog box that is clearly labeled, "Address Book"
will
open. It is nearly identical to the "Select Names" dialog box that
opens
when you create an e-mail. Again, there is a drop down list labeled,
"Show
Names From the:" and if you select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder
from
this list, nothing is visible.

It is great that we can see the contacts when we open OL, navigate to
the
Contacts folder, and select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder that we
created and imported the contacts into. However, if these contacts are
not
visible from any of the three places listed above, they are virtually
useless. This is the problem that must be fixed.

============================================
Troubleshooting done thus far
============================================
I have ensured that the address book service is installed not only
because
I
can see other contact folders, but confirmed that the "Fax phonebook"
contact
folder that we created is listed in the address book. I did this by
doing
the following:
1. Open OL
2. "Tools" menu, Email Accounts...
3. Under "Directory", I selected the option for "View or change
existing
directories or address books".
4. Click "Next" button and then "Change" button for the only profile
present
5. At the "Microsoft Office Outlook Address Book" dialog box, "Fax
phonebook: Mailbox - username mailbox" is listed.

I have also gone to the properties of the "Fax Phonebook" contact
folder,
"Outlook Address Book" tab and ensured that the option for "Show this
folder
as an email address book" is selected.

I have noticed that if I navigate to the "Fax Phonebook" contact folder
in
OL and open one of the imported contacts and then click on the business
fax #
button, click OK without making changes, and then click "Save & Close";
that
contact will then be visible utlizing any of three methods mentioned
above
(in the section labeled, "Problem"). If the contacts were few in
number,
I
could see doing this every Friday without a problem. However, I've
seen
this
list be as few as 90 and as many as 1,000, so this is not a feasible
solution.

I have tried another machine that has Office 2003 and Outlook 2003
(installed from the server) with the same results.

I have even tried this from my office on my SBS 2K3 network, OL 2003,
and
Office 2003 with the same results on all machines. To me this seems to
be
a
desktop issue, Exchange shouldn't care. I could try it on other SBS
networks
with similar setups but I expect the result would be the same on all of
them.

I would be in heaven if I got half as complete of a picture as this for
troubleshooting from one of my clients. I'm sorry I don't know how to
make
it any more clear in identifying the problem. The only other thing I
can
think of doing is taking screen shots, but I need someone to email them
too.

Again, I thank you for your patience and I hope that we can resolve
this
quickly.

--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP


"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Why do you keep saying you are importing into the Address Book in
Outlook?
There is no address book in Outlook.
The import destination should be a Contacts Folder.
To what "Fax Phonebook" are you referring? Outlook has no such thing.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Ready for some detail?

===============
Background Info
===============
I have a client with a SBS 2K3 Standard Edition Network with OL 2003
as
the
email client for each machine. They use a web based database
application
that members of the public can use to sign up for thier mass
mailings.
This
application can save the members contact information to an Excel
document
thereby allowing the user to create a CSV file to import that
information
into an Outlook address book in thier Outlook. This has to be done
every
Friday as the number of recipients of the email can fluctuate. Many
of
the
machines in this office have Office 2000 loaded on them (including
the
one
in
question).

=============
Problem
=============
When they import the contacts from the CSV file into Outlook we can
select
that address book in the main window and all the contacts are there.
However, if you view the address book from a new email, the fax
application
(that comes with SBS), or go to the 'Tools' menu - Address
book...- &
select the address book from the dropdown list, none of the contacts
are
viewable. They are only viewable from the main OL window -
Contacts -
Fax
Phonebook (the address book with the imported contacts).

==================
Troubleshooting thus far
==================
I have double-checked and made sure that the address book service is
installed and that the address book in question is listed from the
email
accounts, "view/change directories and address books". This was
done
according to article KB 287563

I have double checked the properties of the address book in
question,
outlook address book tab, and made sure that the "show this folder
as
an
e-mail address book" is checked. Have also confirmed that the
address
book
is displayed in the available address books when you create a new
email,
or
fax wizard -- it just displays as empty. This according to article
KB
295664

I have tried importing the contacts from a different machine
altogether,
one
with Office 2003 and Outlook 2003 with the same results. It does
not
appear
to be a conflict between the OL 2003 and Office 2000 on her
computer.

I have found that if, from the main OL window, I open one of the
imported
contacts, click the business fax # button, click OK, and click 'Save
&
Close', the contact will then display properly when creating a new
email
or
from the fax wizard. This suggests that there is something wrong
with
how
they are being imported, but I can't find what that is. If the
number
of
contacts were not so numerous and prone to change each week, I
wouldn't
care,
but doing this each week with a couple hundred contacts is not
feasible.


Thank you for your patience
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP

Karl,

Thank you for your analysis. For the most part, we are on the same page.
Answer's to your assumptions/questions are as follows:

#1 - You are importing your contacts and all contacts appear in the "Fax
Contacts" folder - Correct.
#2 - You actually see the "Fax Contacts" folder in the Outlook Address book
list - i.e. means that the "Use as an email address book" option is in
place - Correct
#3 - No contacts show in the Outlook Address book list for this folder until
"AFTER" you open a contact and then "save & close - 1/2 right. If I open
the a contact, and click save & close, nothing changes. To get the contact
to appear, I have to open the contact, click the business fax # button, make
no changes to the data already there, click OK, then save & close. It is as
if OL just realized that data was there by doing this.
#4 - Unless I misread your post, the issue is occuring on only one machine
which has O'2K but using data from different sources (that correct?) - all
machine's that I've tried with varying versions of Office software. It is
only critical on one machine.

1) Have you tried importing the same data into another contact folder on
another machine using O'2K3? If so, does that work correctly? - yes, yes, no
2) Is there another O'2K system available where you can try the same thing
so see if the results are the same? - yes and the result are the same.

In addition, I have loaded both Office 2k and Office 2k3 on my laptop. I
use OL 2k3 on my laptop as well. I first saved the csv file using Excel 2k
and imported it into my OL. Same results. I then saved the csv file using
Excel 2k3 and imported it into my OL. Same results. This happens on nearly
every machine I try, no matter the Office software that is loaded on the
machine (let me make clear that I am using OL 2k3 in each instance).

More to come...
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP


"Karl Timmermans" wrote:

To start, let me just say that for obvious reasons, I don't subscribe to
"importing contacts rarely works". The import process works just fine both
using Outlook's own import wizard or 3rd party products such as ours. There
are however times when importing OR exporting is the wrong approach for the
task at hand but your scenario isn't one of those. Having gotten that out of
the way............

To summarize your post just to make sure I'm on the same page
understanding the problem:

#1 - You are importing your contacts and all contacts appear in the "Fax
Contacts" folder
#2 - You actually see the "Fax Contacts" folder in the Outlook Address book
list - i.e. means that the "Use as an email address book" option is in
place
#3 - No contacts show in the Outlook Address book list for this folder until
"AFTER" you open a contact and then "save & close
#4 - Unless I misread your post, the issue is occuring on only one machine
which has O'2K but using data from different sources (that correct?)

Questions

1) Have you tried importing the same data into another contact folder on
another machine using O'2K3? If so, does that work correctly?
2) Is there another O'2K system available where you can try the same thing
so see if the results are the same?

If the above items work on both of the above but not your client's specific
machine - you have a config issue - most likely best to delete and re-add
the OAB.

If the above attempts didn't work on any of the machines - then I'd suggest
you take a look at the imported data itself which would appear to be causing
whatever the problem is. Importing fax numbers to a contact folder does
result in those contacts to appear in an OAB list (actually just tried it
using a few of our test files importing strictly name and fax numbers to an
empty contact folder using only Outlook's import function (using O'2K3 since
don't have an O'2K test system available at the moment) and all worked
exactly as it should with all names showing up that a phone number).

If none of the import functions worked on any of the machines then
unfortunately, the other unknowns in this a
#1) the original Excel data file created from your web app,
#2) the resulting CSV file created
The assumption so far is that this is an Outlook related issue which may not
be a correct one if the data isn't importing correctly at any point.

Karl

PS - if your data isn't importing correctly on any of the machines, would
love to get a copy of the .XLS and .CSV file for analysis just to see if the
same behavior holds true on our systems using both the Outlook import wizard
along with testing it with our own import products.

--
__________________________________________________
Karl Timmermans - The Claxton Group
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2003"
http://www.contactgenie.com

"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Unacceptable. Your so willing to write it off as, "Importing contact
information rarely works"?

First, your statement is general implying that any method of importing
contacts rarely works. You and I both know that is a farse. If it were
true, why have OL at all?

Secondly, you completely ignore the fact that the contacts make it into
Outlook via the CSV import and that they are only not visible from certain
"Address book" functions throughout the wide range of Microsoft products.

Third, you ignore the fact that I can open any of the imported contacts,
look at the business fax properties, click save & close, and the contact
is
then visible from any of the "Address Book" functions. I can then send
them
a fax, email, see them in the address book. So yes, the fax numbers
resolve
to valid fax addresses.

Fourth, Microsoft's own KB documentation says that it is possible.
Article
KB295664 entitled, "How to import contacts into outlook from excel".
There
has to be a setting somewhere that is interferring with this.

Finally, in your first post you generally said, "There is no address book
in
Outlook." Not only is it labeled thoughout OL 2003 and other MS programs,
but you specifically refer to it in many of your other posts! The most
recent two I saw were "I have contacts missing every day" from 4/26/2006
and
"Outlook 2003 email address book" from 4/26/2006. If specifics are so
important when presenting a problem to you guys, you must be equally so.

It would seem to me that the address book is the location within OL that
contains the contact folders, kind of like a phone book with white and
yellow
pages. I shouldn't have to tell you that.

Is anyone else paying attention to these post? Mr. Tillman? Mrs. Staples?
Anyone?
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP


"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Importing Contact information rarely works.
Have you verified that these imported Contacts have valid, resolved fax
addresses?
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"SVCTech" wrote in message
...
Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry to have caused you confusion. In
the
interest of getting this resolved, I will rephrase my original post in
a
longer and hopefully more clear fashion. I hope you will enjoy the
challenge
of helping me figure out this problem that I'm sure has a simple
solution
somewhere.

=================================================
Background - what we have, what we are doing, and what we want to do
=================================================
We have an SBS 2003 Standard edition network. We are making use of the
faxing capability of this server. We also have an online database that
members of the public can use to sign up for either a mass email
newsletter
or have the newsletter recieved via fax. The web-based database allows
for
the contact information, collected from the willing members of the
public,
to
be downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet. The purpose of downloading
this
information is to place the company name and business fax phone #'s
into a
contact folder that we have created. The name of this contact folder
is
"Fax
phonebook". It is located in the user's mailbox, not a public folder.
The
user in question has Office 2000 and Outlook 2003 installed on her
machine.
The Outlook 2003 is supplied by the license that comes with the SBS
server.

Currently, after downloading this Excel document, we open it up and
save
it
as "samefilename.csv". We then open Outlook 2003 (OL), go to the
'File'
menu
and select 'Import and Export...'. We then proceed to import the
contact
information into the 'fax phonebook' contact folder that we had
created.
We
are careful to map the fields so that they appear correctly after the
import.
Everything appears to go well, we do not recieve any errors or any
indication that anything goes wrong. All the contacts will show up
correctly
when you navigate to the "Fax phonebook" in Outlook.

We want to be able to browse to this contact folder from the "Send a
fax"
wizard to do a mass fax every Friday from a user subscribed list
provided
by
a database and imported into a contact folder in OL.

================================================== =
Problem - This can be confusing so read carefully, I will make it as
clear
as I possibly can
================================================== =
Now that the contacts are supposedly 'imported', if you do any of the
following - the imported contacts will not be visible.

1. Create a new e-mail. When the new message opens up and you click
the
"To..." button, the 'Selected Names' dialog box will open. When you
click
the drop down list labeled, "Show Names from the:" and select the 'Fax
Phonebook' contact folder that we imported the contact information
into,
not
one contact will appear. This should at least be visible even if it
does
not
have e-mail addresses in it. Subsequently I have tried it with e-mail
addresses and it still shows nothing.

2. Send a fax wizard. When you open any document and print it to the
fax
printer on the server. You click next at the intro screen and are
presented
with the recipient form in which you fill out the recipient's fax
information. There is an "Address book..." button that you can click
and
it
opens the Select Names dialog box again. And again if you select the
"Fax
phonebook" contact folder that we created from the dropdown list
labeled,
"Show Names From the:", no contacts will be visible.

3. Open the Outlook Address book (I know you don't want to call it
this,
but
that is what it is labeled). In Outlook, go to the "Tools" menu and
select
"Address Book..." A dialog box that is clearly labeled, "Address Book"
will
open. It is nearly identical to the "Select Names" dialog box that
opens
when you create an e-mail. Again, there is a drop down list labeled,
"Show
Names From the:" and if you select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder
from
this list, nothing is visible.

It is great that we can see the contacts when we open OL, navigate to
the
Contacts folder, and select the "Fax phonebook" contact folder that we
created and imported the contacts into. However, if these contacts are
not
visible from any of the three places listed above, they are virtually
useless. This is the problem that must be fixed.

============================================
Troubleshooting done thus far
============================================
I have ensured that the address book service is installed not only
because
I
can see other contact folders, but confirmed that the "Fax phonebook"
contact
folder that we created is listed in the address book. I did this by
doing
the following:
1. Open OL
2. "Tools" menu, Email Accounts...
3. Under "Directory", I selected the option for "View or change
existing
directories or address books".
4. Click "Next" button and then "Change" button for the only profile
present
5. At the "Microsoft Office Outlook Address Book" dialog box, "Fax
phonebook: Mailbox - username mailbox" is listed.

I have also gone to the properties of the "Fax Phonebook" contact
folder,
"Outlook Address Book" tab and ensured that the option for "Show this
folder
as an email address book" is selected.

I have noticed that if I navigate to the "Fax Phonebook" contact folder
in
OL and open one of the imported contacts and then click on the business
fax #
button, click OK without making changes, and then click "Save & Close";
that
contact will then be visible utlizing any of three methods mentioned
above
(in the section labeled, "Problem"). If the contacts were few in
number,
I
could see doing this every Friday without a problem. However, I've
seen
this
list be as few as 90 and as many as 1,000, so this is not a feasible
solution.

I have tried another machine that has Office 2003 and Outlook 2003
(installed from the server) with the same results.

I have even tried this from my office on my SBS 2K3 network, OL 2003,
and
Office 2003 with the same results on all machines. To me this seems to
be
a
desktop issue, Exchange shouldn't care. I could try it on other SBS
networks
with similar setups but I expect the result would be the same on all of
them.

I would be in heaven if I got half as complete of a picture as this for
troubleshooting from one of my clients. I'm sorry I don't know how to

Ok. I've tried a few other things.

First, I tried importing the contacts in from a csv file with the following
fields:
Company
Business Fax
E-mail

The result of this is that the company name, business fax #, and e-mail
address are all apparently imported into Outlook. However when you go to the
address book and view that contact folder - the contacts now appear for some
strange reason except it only shows the e-mail addresses, nothing of the fax
numbers. The same is true though - if I open one of the contacts, click the
business fax #, click OK, and then click save & close, that contact will then
appear in the Address book looking at that contact folder. I had tried this
previously, but must have selected something wrong, because they didn't show
up at all previously.

I have also tried importing directly from Excel, exporting the data to a
table in Access and then into Outlook, and have tried changing the field data
types in both Excel and Access. All of this comes to the same result. The
business fax number will not display.
--
Lincoln Spencer
SVC
SBS MCP


"Karl Timmermans" wrote:

To start, let me just say that for obvious reasons, I don't subscribe to
"importing contacts rarely works". The import process works just fine both
using Outlook's own import wizard or 3rd party products such as ours. There
are however times when importing OR exporting is the wrong approach for the
task at hand but your scenario isn't one of those. Having gotten that out of
the way............

To summarize your post just to make sure I'm on the same page
understanding the problem:

#1 - You are importing your contacts and all contacts appear in the "Fax
Contacts" folder
#2 - You actually see the "Fax Contacts" folder in the Outlook Address book
list - i.e. means that the "Use as an email address book" option is in
place
#3 - No contacts show in the Outlook Address book list for this folder until
"AFTER" you open a contact and then "save & close
#4 - Unless I misread your post, the issue is occuring on only one machine
which has O'2K but using data from different sources (that correct?)

Questions

1) Have you tried importing the same data into another contact folder on
another machine using O'2K3? If so, does that work correctly?
2) Is there another O'2K system available where you can try the same thing
so see if the results are the same?

If the above items work on both of the above but not your client's specific
machine - you have a config issue - most likely best to delete and re-add
the OAB.

If the above attempts didn't work on any of the machines - then I'd suggest
you take a look at the impo