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AutoComplete (of
email address) is a convenient feature of Outlook XP, 2003 and 2007 but it may not always
read your mind right. It can get confusing when a coorespondent of yours recently
changed email address and although his/her new nickname remains the same
or similar to the old one, the underlying email addresses are different.
It is especially sticky if you have two coorespondents with similar nicknames
and Outlook may try to autofill with the wrong person. With a little oversight
and fast fingers, you may accidently send an office joke to the wrong
Joe or hand your confidential report to someone else on a silver platter.
I just had a small
mishap of the first scenario where the recipient has changed her address. It was changed half a year ago but there has not been an incident communicating
with her until today when I composed a new email. With Outlook AutoComplete's good memory, it sure remembered the past and filled in the old address
when I started typing in her first name. Gullible as I was, I used it
without double checking and merrily sent the email out before the noon deadline. Lightning struck when I came back an hour later
with a returned mail from the dreaded Mail Delivery Subsystem, and it hit me that I had sent to an outdated address. This incident reminded
me that I should clean up some of the outdated addresses still being remembered
by Outlook XP's AutoComplete.
There are two ways
you can go about it, you can "delete as you go", or simply "start over".
To
Delete as You Go
Type the nickname
in the To: field as you normally would. When Outlook finds a match for
it, a small box would show up where you can scroll with your keyboard up/down keys to select the address you
want. Highlight the name(s) you want to delete and press DELETE on the keyboard.
The next time the box comes up again, you'll see the unwanted name(s) gone.
Simply
Start Over
To reset the nickname
file and start fresh, you can delete the current .nk2 file
or rename it to something else as a backup (always a better idea!). Outlook
will rebuild one at the next restart.
If you are running
2000/XP, you'll find this file in C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Outlook in the name of
<profile
name>.nk2 unless you've installed your OS onto a different drive.
<profile name> is what you name your Outlook profile, the default name is "Outlook".
If you're running
NT, try looking into C:\Winnt\Profiles\<username>\Application
Data or C:\Winnt\Profiles\<username>\Local Settings\Application
Data e.g. I only have one profile and is just called Outlook so I
will use Outlook.nk2 for AutoComplete
** If you
are performing a search for the .nk2 file and nothing turns out from the
search, or not able to go into the directory and locate these files, please
note that these are, by default, hidden files in Windows. You're blind folded
from them until you decide that you're ready to handle them. To enable,
just open up Windows Explorer, under Tools | Folder Options
| the View tab and select "Show hidden files and folders".
For me, I also like to uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types"
and "Hide protected operating system files".
While you're there,
you may notice other files of interest. Let's take a look at them while
we're in the neighborhood -- (not all versions of Outlook use the same files, you may find that you don't have some of the files mentioned here)
.fav -- which
as the extension suggests, is your Favorites file that contains the settings
for the Outlook bar as well.
.srs -- is
the file that keeps your send/receive group settings for those who use
Outlook for multiple email accounts.
.rwz -- is
where pre Outlook XP versions keep your mail filtering rules.
There are also other
files that are not based on your profile name --
Junk Senders.txt
-- is a plain text file full of email addresses of, namely, junk senders
that you have identified and put into blocking mode within Outlook XP.
Outcmd.dat
-- keeps your customized toolbar settings
OutlPrnt (no extension)
-- keeps your customized print settings.
Other files that
may be more familiar to you are --
.pst -- your
personal folder which you may choose to save at a different location.
.pab -- your
personal address book.
Did you find this
article useful? Do you want to see more of this kind or something else?
I would really appreciate your comments, feel free to email
me!
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