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The File As Field is not shared correctly when using Outlook 2000

Symptoms

The File As field for one or more contacts is not synchronized correctly or is displayed differently for different clients.

Cause

This is a well document issue for Outlook where the File As field is created incorrectly from the name, especially when the name contains more than two parts, parenthesis, commas or other punctuation. Different versions of Outlook create the File As field differently for a given name, causing some concern. When a copy of a shared contact is re-created on a remote computer the File As field is created dynamically from the name, and the structure of this may vary for different versions of Outlook.

WorkgroupShare v1 synchronizes the name field as a single entity and when shared contact items are re-created on a remote computer, the name components may be incorrectly placed. This can also lead to the the File As field being created incorrectly.

Resolution

WorkgroupShare v2.0 now synchronizes the name components separately so that the name is faithfully reproduced at remote clients. Any differences between the File As on different clients will then be a result of different Outlook configurations and versions and is not under our control. To resolve this issue make sure that you are running the latest release of WorkgroupShare v2 and preferably Outlook 2003.

Alternatively, choose Name values that can be easily shared, avoiding hyphens “-”, Brackets “[]{}()” commas and other similar punctuation and, where possible, only using letters, numbers and spaces.

It is also important to ensure that all copies of Outlook are configured to use the same Name order and File As order. This is set in each copy of Outlook under Tools, Options, Contact Options.

More Info

Our testing has revealed that brackets “( )” and hyphens “-” and commas “,” may cause problems. For example “Softalk (Contracts)” may be filed as simply “Contracts”.

We believe Outlook 2002/XP/2003 are not affected by this problem except where the data they receive came from an Outlook 2000 client. In this case the File As field may be displayed incorrectly.

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