I’m trying to sort my Contacts a bit more effectively but I’m a bit at a loss to determine what the best approach is. There seem to be various options such as creating additional Contacts (sub) folders, creating Contact Groups and using Categories. Which approach is the best or which one would you recommend? All the methods that you mention are viable options. It really depends on which method you like best and how you work with your contacts. As the methods aren’t mutually exclusive, using a combination of the methods could improve your efficiency as well. Especially when you have lots of contacts.

Multiple Contacts Folders Creating multiple Contacts folders is the most direct way to split your contacts but it is also the least flexible. I try to stay away from using multiple Contacts folders for several reasons: • Address selection and resolution By default, only the main Contacts folder is added to your Outlook Address Book although. Selecting an address by clicking on the To button can only display a single list at once though and changing between multiple lists or folders can be inconvenient and cumbersome to locate a contact.• Syncing Most mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) or sync software only support synching with the main or a single Outlook Contacts folder.• Less chance of duplicates or conflicting information When you split your contacts between multiple folders, you could end up creating the contact in multiple folders as well. You’d then have the risk of updating only 1 copy of that contact with the latest contact information and forget which copy that was which results in conflicting information or confusion afterwards. Of course, there are situations where you can use these limitations to your advantage as well. For instance, you can place your less frequently used contacts or “old” contacts in a separate Contacts folder to prevent them from synching to your smartphone or tablet.

Another situation is when you want to share only a limited amount of contacts. Sometimes, you have no choice but to go for this approach when you have multiple accounts configured since each Exchange and Outlook.com mailbox come with their own Contacts folder. Outlook 2010 also has an additional Suggested Contacts folder and you may still have some Contacts folders from (discontinued) Outlook Social Connector Providers such as LinkedIn. Extra Tip: If you do work with multiple folders, using the People view, available in Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016, might help with aggregating and displaying all the contact information within a singe contact contact.

Contact Groups Contact Groups, aka Distribution Lists, are a great way to easily address a single message to multiple people at once. It makes sense to create groups when you do this on a regular basis and always to the same people. Contacts within a group only exist out of a display name and an email address. They don’t hold any additional contact information themselves. When you double click on a contact within a Contact Group, Outlook will try to find and open the actual Contact item to display all the contact information.

To add group members to the calendar, click on a contact and click Group Members. Repeat for each member and click OK to finish. Alternately, type each address in the Group Members bar, separating each address with a semi-colon, and then click OK.

However, contacts which you have added to a group don’t necessarily have to be added as contacts to your Contacts folder. This method might come in handy to reduce the amount of contacts that you have when you for instance never use that contact on its own but only as part of a group. Therefor, Contact Groups are merely an additional type of Contact item and not an actual replacement or sorting method. To create a group, switch to the Contacts Navigation (CTRL+3) to see a button for it on the toolbar or Ribbon or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+L (as in List) basically from anywhere in Outlook. Powerpoint for mac free download.