Contact Phone Numbers need resetting

Hi,

I have a public contacts folder set up in outlook 2000. Unfortunately the
phone numbers were typed in the following format + 1 - 232 - 67890 (spaces
and dashes as shown). We have now upgraded to outlook 2003 and now when we
add new contacts the phone number format is set to +1 232 - 6789, even though
we type in the format originally used (BTW the contacts form is moified which
stops the numbers being underlined for some reason). The problem I have is
that the 1300+ contacts that where already there need changing to match the
new format. I have tried changing and reseting the Dialing properties to
another country and back to UK, and exporting to PST file and re-importing,
but no luck.

Does anyone know how to automatically reset the existing phone numbers to
the new format please.

Thanks

Russ
Mon Jun 16 13:44:06 PDT 2008

How Outlook masks phone numbers is hard coded and cannot be changed. You
might ask in a programming group whether Ken Slovak or any of the other ISV
programmers has developed code to do this.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"keviom" <keviom@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0AED4254-EE75-4E64-877C-9F9798DAA80D@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have a public contacts folder set up in outlook 2000. Unfortunately the
> phone numbers were typed in the following format + 1 - 232 - 67890 (spaces
> and dashes as shown). We have now upgraded to outlook 2003 and now when we
> add new contacts the phone number format is set to +1 232 - 6789, even
> though
> we type in the format originally used (BTW the contacts form is moified
> which
> stops the numbers being underlined for some reason). The problem I have is
> that the 1300+ contacts that where already there need changing to match
> the
> new format. I have tried changing and reseting the Dialing properties to
> another country and back to UK, and exporting to PST file and
> re-importing,
> but no luck.
>
> Does anyone know how to automatically reset the existing phone numbers to
> the new format please.
>
> Thanks
>

keviom
Tue Jun 17 04:59:00 PDT 2008

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I know it's hard coded for formating new numbers, I
just wondered if there was a way to get the system to reformat existing
numbers to the hardcoded standard. I don't fancy having to re-enter over 1300
entries just to get phone numbers in the same format.


Kevin

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

> How Outlook masks phone numbers is hard coded and cannot be changed. You
> might ask in a programming group whether Ken Slovak or any of the other ISV
> programmers has developed code to do this.
> --
> Russ Valentine
> [MVP-Outlook]
> "keviom" <keviom@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:0AED4254-EE75-4E64-877C-9F9798DAA80D@microsoft.com...
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have a public contacts folder set up in outlook 2000. Unfortunately the
> > phone numbers were typed in the following format + 1 - 232 - 67890 (spaces
> > and dashes as shown). We have now upgraded to outlook 2003 and now when we
> > add new contacts the phone number format is set to +1 232 - 6789, even
> > though
> > we type in the format originally used (BTW the contacts form is moified
> > which
> > stops the numbers being underlined for some reason). The problem I have is
> > that the 1300+ contacts that where already there need changing to match
> > the
> > new format. I have tried changing and reseting the Dialing properties to
> > another country and back to UK, and exporting to PST file and
> > re-importing,
> > but no luck.
> >
> > Does anyone know how to automatically reset the existing phone numbers to
> > the new format please.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
>

Brian
Tue Jun 17 06:25:42 PDT 2008

keviom <keviom@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the reply. I know it's hard coded for formating new
> numbers, I just wondered if there was a way to get the system to
> reformat existing numbers to the hardcoded standard. I don't fancy
> having to re-enter over 1300 entries just to get phone numbers in the
> same format.

There are a number of third-party tools that can do the job. Start here:
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/contacts_entry.asp
--
Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]