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barthalamu

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Re-index emails based on contact names

Over time, people have changed email addresses and I may have changed the display names of contacts.  This makes it extremely difficult to find an email from someone when the 'To' field in the Sent Items or the 'From' field in the Inbox has different names.  For example, emails from Bob Johnson may be displayed in several different ways:

Inbox:
Bob Johnson
Johnson, Bob
Robert Johnson
Johnson, Robert
bob.johnson@company.com

Sent Items:
Bob Johnson
Johnson, Bob
Robert Johnson
Johnson, Robert
bob.johnson@company.com

Is there a way in Outlook 2002, or even an add on product, to reindex all emails by their email address and have them display as a common name.  Thanks!
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war1
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Greetings, barthalamu !

If you only have a few old names, you can highlight the names in the To box and hit the Delete key.

You can start a new cache file and delete the old. The names are kept in a NK2 file.  With Outlook close, search for *.NK2 and rename the file.  When Outlook opens, a new one should be created.

.NK2 file is located in
C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook folder. It is a hidden file. Go to any folder and select Tools > Folders Options > View. Check "Show hidden files and folders".  Click OK.

Best wishes!
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barthalamu

ASKER

Hi war1, thank you for your help.

I did actually get rid of the cache file last week.  This is one of the reasons that I am asking this question because although emails from now going forward are displaying correctly, all previous emails are "mis-indexed" and I would like them to match.  Trying to locate old emails can be a real pain.

Thanks again!
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war1
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Thanks all.

BlueDevilFan, although it seems like a real pain, I will probably try this.  Thanks very much for your help.
You're welcome.  Let me know if you run into any problems.