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10 Minute Guide to Microsoft Exchange 5.0

- Lesson 5 -
Using Personal Address Books

 

In this lesson, you learn how to create a personal address book, so you can keep your own list of message recipients.

Creating a Personal Address Book

A personal address book (PAB) is a list of addresses that you can create, customize, and use for sending messages. This is your own personal list and is not visible to any other users. You can add and delete names as necessary to keep your PAB up-to-date and useful.

Before you can begin using your PAB, you have to create it. This is a two step process. First, you add the Personal Address Book to the list of Microsoft Exchange Client services you want to use. Then you create the Personal Address Book. The following two sections walk you through those processes.

Adding the PAB to Exchange Client Services

By default, the installation process for Microsoft Exchange Client does not give you the option of having PABs. The administrators who installed your software might have added this option for you, but if they didn't, you can easily add it yourself. To see if you have a PAB option or to add the option, choose Tools, Services to display the Services dialog box (shown in Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1 The Services dialog box.

If Personal Address Book is listed there, you're all set. If not, follow these steps to add the PAB to your Microsoft Exchange Client software and to customize some of its features:

1. In the Services dialog box, click Add to display the Add Service to Profile dialog box (see Figure 5.2).

Figure 5.2 The Add Service to Profile dialog box.

2. Select Personal Address Book.

3.
Click OK, and the Personal Address Book Properties dialog box appears.


Accessing the PAB Service If the PAB service was already listed in your Services dialog box, you can access the PAB Properties dialog box by selecting Personal Address Book from the list on the Services tab and choosing Properties.


4.
(Optional) The PAB Properties dialog box offers the following configuration options, which you can change to customize your PAB to your own tastes and habits:

  • You can use the Path box to change the name of the PAB file from Mailbox to any other name (perhaps your own name); however, make sure you keep the .PAB file extension.

  • You can change the way names are listed (and alphabetized) by choosing First Name or Last Name.

  • You can use the Notes tab to write yourself a note or to make a comment about this PAB (which is not usually necessary unless you're planning to create multiple PABs).

5.
When you finish making the desired changes (or if you're perfectly happy with the default configuration to begin with), click OK to close the PAB Properties dialog box.

If you just added the PAB service, Exchange displays a message telling you that your PAB will not be available for use until you exit and log off your current Exchange session. This is because the services available for you when you start Exchange are determined by the software as it first starts up (it reads the list in the Services dialog box). When you started this Exchange session, the PAB was not listed in the Services, so you can't use it now. However, next time you start the software, it will be listed. If you want to use the PAB right away, exit, log off and start Exchange again.

Adding Listings to Your PAB

To add listings to your PAB, copy them from the Global Address List. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools, Address Book to display the Address Book dialog box.

2.
If necessary, click the Show Names From drop-down arrow and select Global Address List from the drop-down list.

3.
Select a name from the list that appears.

4.
Click the Add to Personal Address Book toolbar button (see Figure 5.3).

Figure 5.3 Select a name in the Global Address List and copy it to your Personal Address Book.

5. To look at the PAB list, click the Show Names from the drop-down arrow and select Personal Address Book. The entries in your PAB appear.

6.
When you've added all the names you want to your PAB, click the Close button to exit the Address Book dialog box.

Note that if you opted to organize your PAB by last name, the entries (which are sorted by first name by default) are re-sorted and displayed by Last Name when you move them into your PAB.


Copying Multiple Entries You can copy several names to your Personal Address Book at one time by selecting the first name you want to add, holding down the Ctrl key, and selecting any additional names. Then click the Add to Personal Address Book button, and all the highlighted entries are copied. If you want to copy a group of names that are listed consecutively, select the first name you want to include, hold down the Shift key, and click the last name to include.

Using the Personal Address Book

Because your PAB contains addresses for only the recipients you most frequently send mail to, finding the recipient you need in the PAB will be much faster than scrolling through all the names in the Global Address List.

When you need an address, you can call up an address book in either of the following ways:

  • Choose Tools, Address Book.

  • Open the New Message window, click the To button, click the Show Names from the drop-down arrow, and choose Personal Address Book.

In this lesson, you learned how to create a personal address book and how to add names to it. In the next lesson, you'll learn how to create distribution lists so you can send messages to groups instead of to one person at a time.

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