Outlook 2013 Contacts

ashippen · 31 Jan 2017

One of my clients would like to arrange his contacts by last name, first name. For example, Smith, John instead of John Smith. I did the following steps: File> Account Settings>Account Settings> Address Books> Double Click> Under Show names by, select the radio button File As (Smith, John)

Also, I tried, selecting the View tab in the ribbon, current view group, view settings> Sort...> Last Name (ascending), First name
(ascending)

Finally, I tried, File>Options>People> Names and filing
Default "Full Name" order: Last First
Default "File As" order: Last, First

None of these methods has works. The contacts are still listed by their first name and last name. Please help!

Ranger4 · 31 Jan 2017

Instead of trying to change the actual Address Book, use the People Tab at the bottom LH edge of the Main Outlook window. People should show a list of Contacts under the appropriate email account. Once you have list of all the contacts, select Card from the Ribbon at the top. Right Click on the word Card & select View Settings. This provides a lot of alternatives you can try.

I have not tested this to see if it will work, so you will be on your own. The other method would be to change each email entry manually using the Edit feature.

As a last resort you could export the the Address Book as a csv file into Excel, use Excel to rearrange the order, delete all current names in the Address Book & then import the edited names back into the Address Book, but as I have experienced a lot of trouble setting up the Address Book & getting it list all the names properly, this should only be done as a last resort.