Vista - Mail Issues

I'm just switching to Vista and have some of the same concerns that others
have expressed:
1. I imported my OE address book, but the entries are all listed
alphabetically by first name. I can find a way to sort by last name.
2. Doesn't interface with Plaxo.
3. Doing away with Identifies is very confusing and makes it difficult for
two of us to have individual mail accounts; security is not the issue, it
just a matter of figuring out how to separate the mail. I guess the only
way to do it is create a separate inbox folder for the 2nd identify, and
subfolders for storing mail by category.

Why is this an improvement over OE (which obviously had issues)? Is there
any way to download OE and use it with Vista? Or is it time to revisit
Eudora?

For #1:

If you're talking about the 'Select Recipients' dialog that is shown when
you click 'To:' in a new e-mail, click on the sort arrow that appears when
you mouseover the 'Name' header. It toggles through FOUR display states:

FullName ascending
FullName descending
Last, First ascending
Last, First descending

If you're talking about viewing the Contacts folder, the name of the contact
is based on the 'Full Name' field. It has a drop list that allows you to
select 'First Last', 'Last, First' or 'Last First'. You can also type any
text you like as the Full Name -- it won't change the First and Last fields.

Don't have answers for your other issues, sorry.


--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]

"BobInSF" <boboaks@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:WMiDh.226$BE2.9@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net...
> I'm just switching to Vista and have some of the same concerns that others
> have expressed:
> 1. I imported my OE address book, but the entries are all listed
> alphabetically by first name. I can find a way to sort by last name.
> 2. Doesn't interface with Plaxo.
> 3. Doing away with Identifies is very confusing and makes it difficult for
> two of us to have individual mail accounts; security is not the issue, it
> just a matter of figuring out how to separate the mail. I guess the only
> way to do it is create a separate inbox folder for the 2nd identify, and
> subfolders for storing mail by category.
>
> Why is this an improvement over OE (which obviously had issues)? Is there
> any way to download OE and use it with Vista? Or is it time to revisit
> Eudora?
>

"Keith Miller MVP" <k.miller79@no.spam.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:OefPfnrVHHA.4076@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> For #1:
>
>>
> If you're talking about viewing the Contacts folder, the name of the
> contact
> is based on the 'Full Name' field. It has a drop list that allows you to
> select 'First Last', 'Last, First' or 'Last First'. You can also type any
> text you like as the Full Name -- it won't change the First and Last
> fields.
>
> Don't have answers for your other issues, sorry.
>
Yes, I'm talking about the Contacts folder, the equivalent of the address
book in OE. My contacts folder is sorted by first name, last name. If I
right click on the name field, all I get is a long list of information to
display. I don't see anything that allows me to specify to sort last,first.
There is a down arrow to the right of the name header, but all it does is
sort and stack. Is there more than one version of Mail? The only way I can
find to sort by last name is to go into each individual record, and from the
full name field, choose the option that shows last, first. But I hope I
don't have to do this with every listing in the contacts list.

"Bob" <bobinsfo@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:%ToDh.135$MV7.93@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net...
>
> "Keith Miller MVP" <k.miller79@no.spam.verizon.net> wrote in message
> news:OefPfnrVHHA.4076@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> For #1:
>>
>>>
>> If you're talking about viewing the Contacts folder, the name of the
>> contact
>> is based on the 'Full Name' field. It has a drop list that allows you to
>> select 'First Last', 'Last, First' or 'Last First'. You can also type
>> any
>> text you like as the Full Name -- it won't change the First and Last
>> fields.
>>
>> Don't have answers for your other issues, sorry.
>>
> Yes, I'm talking about the Contacts folder, the equivalent of the address
> book in OE. My contacts folder is sorted by first name, last name. If I
> right click on the name field, all I get is a long list of information to
> display. I don't see anything that allows me to specify to sort
> last,first. There is a down arrow to the right of the name header, but all
> it does is sort and stack. Is there more than one version of Mail? The
> only way I can find to sort by last name is to go into each individual
> record, and from the full name field, choose the option that shows last,
> first. But I hope I don't have to do this with every listing in the
> contacts list.

Yes, unfortunately, it is an individual record thing. If you have access to
a spreadsheet program & are handy with it, you can export the contacts to a
..csv file, open that in the spreadsheet, then manipulate it to create a
LastName, FirstName column to take the place of the existing name column,
then reimport the contacts (after deleting the existing ones to avoid
duplicates).

Yes, it's a pain. Yes, MS should give you an option when importing O.E.
contacts. But it's the best thing I can think of at the moment.

--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]

Have you thought of setting up a message rule that checks who the email is to
and having it automatically moved to the 2nd person's seperate inbox? That is
how I do it.

"BobInSF" wrote:

> I'm just switching to Vista and have some of the same concerns that others
> have expressed:
> 1. I imported my OE address book, but the entries are all listed
> alphabetically by first name. I can find a way to sort by last name.
> 2. Doesn't interface with Plaxo.
> 3. Doing away with Identifies is very confusing and makes it difficult for
> two of us to have individual mail accounts; security is not the issue, it
> just a matter of figuring out how to separate the mail. I guess the only
> way to do it is create a separate inbox folder for the 2nd identify, and
> subfolders for storing mail by category.
>
> Why is this an improvement over OE (which obviously had issues)? Is there
> any way to download OE and use it with Vista? Or is it time to revisit
> Eudora?
>
>

"Bob" <bobinsfo@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:%ToDh.135$MV7.93@newssvr23.news.prodigy.net...
>
> "Keith Miller MVP" <k.miller79@no.spam.verizon.net> wrote in message
> news:OefPfnrVHHA.4076@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> For #1:
>>
>>>
>> If you're talking about viewing the Contacts folder, the name of the
>> contact
>> is based on the 'Full Name' field. It has a drop list that allows you to
>> select 'First Last', 'Last, First' or 'Last First'. You can also type
>> any
>> text you like as the Full Name -- it won't change the First and Last
>> fields.
>>
>> Don't have answers for your other issues, sorry.
>>
> Yes, I'm talking about the Contacts folder, the equivalent of the address
> book in OE. My contacts folder is sorted by first name, last name. If I
> right click on the name field, all I get is a long list of information to
> display. I don't see anything that allows me to specify to sort
> last,first. There is a down arrow to the right of the name header, but all
> it does is sort and stack. Is there more than one version of Mail? The
> only way I can find to sort by last name is to go into each individual
> record, and from the full name field, choose the option that shows last,
> first. But I hope I don't have to do this with every listing in the
> contacts list.

The contacts are sorted by the "Name" field.
You can display other fields to sort by.
Right-click on the "names" header, click on "More..", check the "Last name"
box to display this field.
Now you can sort by last name by clicking on the "Last name" header.