IT Werkz Sometimes

Outlook’s Contacts are still mangled in that what I see in the Contacts folder is not what is displayed when clicking on the To field when writing an email.

I did a search for .pst files and found several and two were being used. They both had the same time-stamp. That didn’t make sense. All of the .pst files, apart from one which was in the correct folder, I renamed, closed Outlook and restarted. The effect? Squat.

Copied the .pst file somewhere safe and uninstalled Outlook. Using Windows Explorer I checked to see what was left. The Outlook folder was still there. Reinstalled Outlook. The effect? Squat. The Contacts problem is still there.

There is obviously a corrupt registry setting pointing at two Contacts folders and this was caused when I had to do a messy reinstall of XP about 6 months ago. After that install a new user was created and I have a feeling this has got something to do with it. The old user still exists in Documents & Settings but is not useable in XP.

There is one test I can try, but I’m not sure what it’ll prove. If I write the .pst file to a CD and load it onto the Veeesta PC and point Outlook at that .pst file then I have a feeling that the Contacts problem is not going to surface as there is only one user name on that PC. Suppose it will prove that it’s a user name problem. 

Well I made the changes to Outlook to try and get the Contact addresses usable in email that I previously mentioned.

And did it worked? Did it hell. Amended the default address book to Contacts which was set to being an address book and no joy. No doubt if I ran System File Check, a couple of registry cleaners, defragmented the drive, made a nice cup of tea and rebooted three times a registry setting would mysteriously be amended and the next time Outlook is run the address book would be full of the Contacts addresses. Back to the drawing board.

Done most of the edits I need to do on the video using Sony Vegas and have even managed to find out how to do slow motion. Rediculously obvious after the event. Where some camera work has gone awry but we have some great sound then I’ m going to try and delete the video and keep the audio and replace the video with some stills.

Used DVD Architect for writing the DVD’s and that worked well too. How it works is that you use Vegas for editing the film and adding additional sound etc and then use that application to render an .avi file. This file you then fling through DVD Architect and that application writes the DVD. Architect also gives you lots of additional functionality that you can add to the .avi file prior to authoring. Haven’t checked any of that yet.

Tried to setup the PS3 to connect to the wireless network again and this time it couldn’t see our network only one of the neighbours. Also the selection screen the PS3 displays is no longer mauve but black.

I’ve been having an ongoing problem with both Outlook’s Address Book and a new problem with photo’s taken on the Treo not being sync’d with the PC.

Thought if I tried to describe them as an entry here then by the very act of trying to explain the problem I might understand the problems better myself. I’ve even resorted to reading my own back entries on Outlook to see if they shed any light, to no avail. Firstly, for several months, I’ve been having problems with Outlook’s Address Book. If I write a new email and click on the To control to select an address from the address book then the Outlook Address Book is empty, as is the Personal Address Book. If I select Contacts then some addresses are displayed. These are a subset of the original complete address book that I have keyed in recently.

On the other hand if I select Contacts in the left hand pane of Outlook then I can see all of my original addresses. Duh!

The problem with the Treo is that I have suddenly found that photo’s taken with it are not being uploaded to the PC. A couple of months ago they were. Can’t even remember how these were sync’d.

Changing the default address book

Just read some docs on how the address book is setup and there are a couple of things I can try. Firstly I can try and change the default Address Book. This is currently set to the Outlook Address Book and has only a few entries in it. As Contacts has all of my addresses in it then it makes sense to use this as an address book.

From the Tools menu, select Address Book (Ctrl Shift B) to open the address book dialog box. From the Tools menu select Options to display the Addressing dialog box. If my scatter brain thinking is correct in the ‘Show this address list first’ section will be displayed Outlook Address Book. This needs amending to Contacts. Click Apply and OK.  This will work provided Contacts has a setting that it is an address book and that it can be displayed as an address book. If not carry on below.

Why are my contacts not appearing in the address book?

This is normally because the setting that defines the Contacts folder as being an email address book has been changed.

From the navigation pain right click on the Contacts folder, select Properties and then select the Outlook Address Book tab. Hopefully Contacts will be displayed. The ‘Show this folder as an email address book’ checkbox should also be displayed and checked. If it’s not checked then check it.

If the ‘Show this folder as an email address book’ option is not visible, that means that an Outlook Address Book has not been defined. Lord knows what I do then.