Creating multiple address books in Outlook 2010

QUESTION:
tanda says: August 23, 2010 at 3:31 pm

I have four e-mail accounts and would like to have separate Address Books in Outlook for each account, with different addresses listed in each. I don’t seem to be able to do it. Each time I try to establish a second address book (following the instructions “How to create a second address book in MS Outlook 2010″ on the Web), I receive a message “This account or directory type already exists and cannot be specified twice”. I recall that in Outlook Express I had no such problem; unfortunately OE is not compatible with Windows 7 that I now have. Any suggestions? Thank you.

ANSWER:

First, Address books do not attach to email accounts.  They are simply seperate address books.  Here’s how to create multiple address books in Outlook 2010 step by step:

1. While viewing your Inbox, scroll to the top of the folders (Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Deleted, etc.).  Above the Inbox folder it says “Outlook” or something else which the Inbox is indented from.  Right click on that and select “New folder”.  If you don’t see it, just right click on any folder for now and select new folder.
2. Type in the name of your address book.
3. Under “Folder Contains”, click that drop down menu and choose “Contact Items”.
4. Under that you see all your folders, calendar, contacts, etc.  Click on the name of the icon (Most likely “Outlook”) above the Inbox, if you haven’t done so in step 1.  This ensures the address book will be located properly in your folder structure.  If you’re still confused, it doesn’t matter where it goes, it will still work.  It’s just more organized if you do this properly.
5. Click OK and you’re done.  If you switch to contacts view, you will see you have two address books now.  The new one will be empty.  Enjoy!

If you want multiple address books, simply follow the above steps over and over choosing a different name every time until you have as many address books as you like.  Note: You should name the address book something meaningful so you know what it’s for.  Also, if you name the folders in a way like one starts with the letter A and one starts with the letter J, etc. the one with the A will appear at the top of your list of folders and the one with the J will appear after the Inbox, alpabetically.  Ofcourse when you view in contacts only view, you will only see contact type folders, but they will still be alphabetical.  If you view in Folder List view, you will see your contact folders all over the place.  Maybe name the address books similiar to the following:

Contacts-First group name
Contacts-Second group name
Contacts-Third group name
etc.  This ensure’s they all appear next to the main Contacts folder in alphabetical order, and they are all together.

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