Contact sub-folders in Personal Folder view no longer possible with Outlook 2003?

Hi,

Through daily, extensive use of Outlook 2000 for the last years, my
personal folder has grown to contain a complex tree of sub folders
(several hundred), where I organize and store emails from customers.

For the contacts, I have done a similar thing. Under the folder for
each customer account, I have created a sub-folder called
"_contacts" (Create New folder, Folder contains "Contact items")
which holds all the names and detailed addresses of people in that
customer account.

This technique has proven to be very effective. The folder structure
for every customer looks like this:

+ACME Inc.
-- _contacts
-- ProjectA
-- ProjectB
-- ProjectZ

After my upgrade from Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2003, all contact
folders have been separated from the emails in the Mail view and
moved to the My Contacts view, where I now have a long list of
identical folders (all called _contacts).

Is there a way to display those contact folders at the location where
they have been created? (as it was the case in Outlook 2000)?
Having to flip back and forth between the mail and the contacts
window is very inconvenient.

Any suggestions welcome...

Regards,
Wolfgang

Either use the folder view or rename the folders so they are more
meaningful - the contacts pane displays the folders in a flat list.

Have you considered using categories instead of folders to separate
accounts?

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)

Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com
Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

Vote for your favorite Outlook and Exchange utilities in the
Slipstick Ratings Raffle at http://www.slipstick.com/contest/

"Wolfgang Schulze" wrote in message
...
Hi,

Through daily, extensive use of Outlook 2000 for the last years, my
personal folder has grown to contain a complex tree of sub folders
(several hundred), where I organize and store emails from customers.

For the contacts, I have done a similar thing. Under the folder for
each customer account, I have created a sub-folder called
"_contacts" (Create New folder, Folder contains "Contact items")
which holds all the names and detailed addresses of people in that
customer account.

This technique has proven to be very effective. The folder structure
for every customer looks like this:

+ACME Inc.
-- _contacts
-- ProjectA
-- ProjectB
-- ProjectZ

After my upgrade from Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2003, all contact
folders have been separated from the emails in the Mail view and
moved to the My Contacts view, where I now have a long list of
identical folders (all called _contacts).

Is there a way to display those contact folders at the location where
they have been created? (as it was the case in Outlook 2000)?
Having to flip back and forth between the mail and the contacts
window is very inconvenient.

Any suggestions welcome...

Regards,
Wolfgang

Hi Diane,

Thank you very much for your helpful reply! You wrote:

Either use the folder view or rename the folders so they are more
meaningful - the contacts pane displays the folders in a flat list.

Well, renaming is an option, but the result is still by far not as
convenient as the folder view, because I still have to switch back
and forth between two windows.

The folder view is actually what I really want. I only wish I could
select the "folder view" setting permanently so that the mail view
is always shown this way (as it used to be the case in Outlook 2000).

Have you considered using categories instead of folders to separate
accounts?

No. What would be the advantage?

Regards,
Wolfgang

the folder list should stick if it's the last folder used when you close
outlook... if you upgraded from an older version delete *.FAV from the
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
folder. The reg keys that control the folder list are he
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/ol2...ce.htm#classic

if you use categories instead of folders, all the contacts are in one folder
and you can use custom views to see them. if some contacts can be put into
two or more folders, you won't need duplicates as you can assign more than
one category to a contact. http://www.slipstick.com/contacts/oloabcat.htm


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)

Outlook Tips: http://www.outlook-tips.net/
Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center: http://www.slipstick.com
Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

Vote for your favorite Outlook and Exchange utilities in the
Slipstick Ratings Raffle at http://www.slipstick.com/contest/

"Wolfgang Schulze" wrote in message
...
Hi Diane,

Thank you very much for your helpful reply! You wrote:

Either use the folder view or rename the folders so they are more
meaningful - the contacts pane displays the folders in a flat list.

Well, renaming is an option, but the result is still by far not as
convenient as the folder view, because I still have to switch back
and forth between two windows.

The folder view is actually what I really want. I only wish I could
select the "folder view" setting permanently so that the mail view
is always shown this way (as it used to be the case in Outlook 2000).

Have you considered using categories instead of folders to separate
accounts?

No. What would be the advantage?

Regards,
Wolfgang