Tip of the Month - Outlook's Auto Complete

For those who are using Outlook, ever wonder how it know what name I am typing? Outlook's auto complete feature attempts to be helpful by suggesting email names that are similar to what you're typing, by providing a list of possible names. A couple of keystrokes, an auto complete suggestion, and you don't have to type the entire email name every time. Seems both simple, and handy.

Unfortunately it's not quite simple, and it can be both convenient, and frustrating, because email names you expect to be present are not, and those that you never want to look at again keep popping up.

Disable E-Mail Address Auto complete
When you compose mail with Outlook 2003, whenever you start typing names in the To, CC, or Bcc fields, Outlook 2003 will try to automatically complete the name based off of names or e-mail addresses to whom you have previously sent e-mail. While some people like this feature in that it can theoretically save typing, others find it an annoyance. If desired, you can disable this auto complete feature:
1. Click "Tools", selecting "Options".
2. When the "Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "Preferences" tab.
3. Click "E-Mail Options".
4. When the "Advanced E-Mail Options" dialog appears, uncheck "Suggest names while completing To, CC, and Bcc fields".
5. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.


Deleting an E-Mail Address
Deleting an address from the nickname list is also very easy: use the up or down arrow keys to highlight it, and then press delete.