Add your contacts to autocomplete in Outlook

If you've ever typed a name into an Outlook message and seen the contact you want appear within the first few letters, you've enjoyed the benefits of autocomplete.

We've already discussed how to remove outdated e-mail suggestions from Outlook autocomplete (just select and Delete!). But what if you aren't seeing all of the names you use regularly in your autocomplete list?

If they're already in your Contacts, there's an easy way to add them.

In Outlook 2007, go to Contacts, select all (Ctrl-A) and then go to Actions, Create, New message to contact. Once all of the contacts have been added to the To: line of your message, you can delete it without sending.

In Outlook 2010, go to Contacts, select all (Ctrl-A) and then on the Home tab click the E-mail button:

E-mail button in Contacts section

Once all of the contacts have been added to the To: line of your message, you can delete it without sending.

If your company has a global address book, you can handpick names to add to your contacts, which automatically adds them to your autocomplete list. Just click on Address Book, select the name, right click it, choose Add to Contacts and then Save & Close the contact to add it both to your Contacts and your autocomplete cache.

If you use Outlook Social Connectors in Outlook 2010, contacts from LinkedIn and other services are available the same way! Just click on Address Book and select the address book for the service you want to plunder in the dropdown list:

Address Book selector

Then right click the entry you want, choose Add to Contacts and then Save & Close to add it both to your Contacts and autocomplete.

Copying these auxiliary address book entries directly to your Contacts or entering them manually may cause a conflict or error, so be sure to add them using the Address Book dialog box. Or, if you know the exact spelling of their name, just type it into the To: line of a message and use Ctrl-K to force a lookup. Once they're been added one of these two ways, they should be available via autocomplete.

Suzanne