We have four desktop computers on a netowrk served by SBS2008 and Exchange Server. Each is running Outlook for email. However, the local address books on the desktops do not seem to be accessible to Outlook: a new email address put into the address book does not come up when the first few letters are typed in the addess box. I wonder if outlook is 'looking at' a global network address book. If so, how do I change this?

Need much more Explanation - Can you attach some Screen ShotsSatheshwaran Manoharan | Exchange 2003/2007/2010 | Blog:http://www.careexchange.in | Please mark it as an answer if it really helps you

a new email address put into the address book does not come up when the first few letters are typed in the addess box. Hi Michael, Do you mean the AutoComplete name suggesting feature? Please check whether the following setting is enabled or not. Outlook 2007: Tools->Options->E-Mail Options->Advanced E-mail Options->Suggest names while completing To,Cc,and Bcc fields.Frank Wang TechNet Community Support

Frank Thanks for this - We're using Outlook 2003 but the question is still good: the 'suggest names' box is ticked and it comes up with other addresses: it only comes up with a new one if you send an email by putting the new address in manually: after that it's fine. This suggests to me that for some reason it's not 'looking' in the address book at all but just relying on addresses in sent items. I can't find any menu item which helps you to control which dataset is consulted by this feature. I know there is a 'global address book' in MES, but by the look of it we've only populated it with a small number of addresses, and from what i've been able to glean by reading blogs etc it isn't straightforward to do so. There would be some advantage in having a comprehensive address book shared by the four users, but not if it's a pain to keep up to date. Mike Michael 2000

We've done this with contacts in a Public Folder - if you don't mind configuring that. Advantage is that the end users (given proper permissions) can update such as list while updating the GAL would require giving access to the Exchange server (or SBS in your case), even if only via the Management Tools. Please mark as helpful if you find my contribution useful or as an answer if it does answer your question. That will encourage me - and others - to take time out to help you.

Le - thanks for this, maybe an option. Presume you need to have the folder on a network drive. How do you map Outlook to the folder???? Michael 2000

What your looking for is the check names feature NOT the autocomplete. By default outlook suggest names in the order you have set your address books. The names of the emails that appear are ones that you have already entered. These names are chached locally in your outlook settings file, This is called autocomplete. If your entering the name for the first time you need to tell your outlook to perform a check name I believe the shortcut key for this is CTRL+K. You can also type partial names for example the user who is new is called John Doe. Simply type Doe and send your email. Outlook will automatically check for the user if more than one match is found you will be given a prompt for the users to choose from. There is also a check name operation performed every so often in the to, cc, and bcc fields I think its 60 seconds. So you can leave partial names in the fields while you finish the body of the email. Hope that helps clear it up.--Mike--

What your looking for is the check names feature NOT the autocomplete. By default outlook suggest names in the order you have set your address books. The names of the emails that appear are ones that you have already entered. These names are chached locally in your outlook settings file, This is called autocomplete. If your entering the name for the first time you need to tell your outlook to perform a check name I believe the shortcut key for this is CTRL+K. You can also type partial names for example the user who is new is called John Doe. Simply type Doe and send your email. Outlook will automatically check for the user if more than one match is found you will be given a prompt for the users to choose from. There is also a check name operation performed every so often in the to, cc, and bcc fields I think its 60 seconds. So you can leave partial names in the fields while you finish the body of the email. Hope that helps clear it up.--Mike--