I've used and adminsitered Outlook and Exchange a long time and have learned
of many "quirks". Many of the "features" of Outlook are the cause of
headscratching, forehead slapping and other expressing of horror and
disbelief. "What were they thinking?!?!" I suspect what I am writing
about today falls in that category. But, maybe I'm mistaken...

When viewing Contacts in Outlook 2003 via the Detailed Address Card (let's
call it "DAC") view, the grey 'header' changes arrangement and style
according to how the name and other information is formatted in the Contact
record itself. It does so in a way that defies logic that makes sense to
me.

If my Contact has a name of John Smith and his company name is Widgets, in
the File As field I have several default format choices. If I choose the
predefined "Widgets (Smith, John)" version, then the DAC shows

Widgets
Smith, John

Note: two lines, no parentheses. The appearance of the File As field
contents has no correlation to the appearance in the DAC listing.

Similarly, if I choose the File As to be "Smith, John (Widgets)" I get a DAC
that says

Smith, John
Widgets

If I choose to manually modify the File As field contents to read "Widgets
(John Smith)" the appearance of the DAC is then

Widgets (John Smith)

In this case the File As and the DAC view match AND are put on a single
line.

Conclusion: if you manuall enter the File As, your DAC will look as you
desire. But, if you choose the predefined choice, it reformats it.

What the h%$$ were they thinking?

Don

This is by design. Outlook actually stores the data with a carriage/return line feed, but uses the parentheses in views that require it to be shown in a single line.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

"Don Wilkinson" wrote in message ...
I've used and adminsitered Outlook and Exchange a long time and have learned
of many "quirks". Many of the "features" of Outlook are the cause of
headscratching, forehead slapping and other expressing of horror and
disbelief. "What were they thinking?!?!" I suspect what I am writing
about today falls in that category. But, maybe I'm mistaken...

When viewing Contacts in Outlook 2003 via the Detailed Address Card (let's
call it "DAC") view, the grey 'header' changes arrangement and style
according to how the name and other information is formatted in the Contact
record itself. It does so in a way that defies logic that makes sense to
me.

If my Contact has a name of John Smith and his company name is Widgets, in
the File As field I have several default format choices. If I choose the
predefined "Widgets (Smith, John)" version, then the DAC shows

Widgets
Smith, John

Note: two lines, no parentheses. The appearance of the File As field
contents has no correlation to the appearance in the DAC listing.

Similarly, if I choose the File As to be "Smith, John (Widgets)" I get a DAC
that says

Smith, John
Widgets

If I choose to manually modify the File As field contents to read "Widgets
(John Smith)" the appearance of the DAC is then

Widgets (John Smith)

In this case the File As and the DAC view match AND are put on a single
line.

Conclusion: if you manuall enter the File As, your DAC will look as you
desire. But, if you choose the predefined choice, it reformats it.

What the h%$$ were they thinking?

Don