Using the Address Book

Windows 98 provides an Address Book for storing contact information such as e-mail addresses and whether a contact can receive HTML messages. Once you create an entry in the Address Book for a contact, you do not need to remember their e-mail address when you send them e-mail. By simply clicking the Address Book icon on the Outlook Express toolbar or in the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: line of a message, you can access the Address Book and easily address a message to any of your contacts. The Address Book is also accessible from the Internet Explorer browsing software and from the Start menu.

In Outlook Express, even when you do not explicitly open the Address Book, you benefit from the convenience of its AutoComplete feature. When you begin typing a contact name on the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: line of a message, Outlook Express tries to complete it for you using the names in the Address Book.

Understanding the Address Book

The Address Book, provided by the Wab.exe program, locally stores contact information. When you invoke the Address Book, Wab.exe creates and searches the file named Username.wab, which is found in the Application Data directory. The full path varies depending on whether the User Profiles feature is enabled:

%windir%\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\username.wab (without User Profiles)

%windir%\Profiles\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\username.wab (with User Profiles)

Adding Names from E-mail Messages

When you receive e-mail, you can easily add the sender’s name and e-mail address to your Address Book. This can be done by opening the message, right-clicking the person’s name, and then clicking Add to Address Book. You can also set up Outlook Express to automatically add contact information to your Address Book whenever you reply to e-mail.

To automatically add the names of people you reply to

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the General tab, and then select the Automatically put people I reply to in my Address Book check box.

Of course, you can always add contact information to your Address Book manually as well.

Importing an Address Book

You can import Address Book contacts from a variety of Internet e-mail programs, such as Netscape Communicator, as well as from Windows Messaging Personal Address Book and any text (CSV) file. For example, in Microsoft Outlook, you can export your Address Book to text (CSV) file format, and then import it into Outlook Express using the Import option.

To import an Address Book

1. On the File menu, point to Import, and then click Address Book.
2. Click the Address Book or file that you want to import, and then click Import. If you select Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft Internet Mail, you are prompted for a user profile. For other formats, Outlook Express attempts to auto-detect the existing Address Book, or prompts you for a path to the file’s location.

Note

If you do not see listed the program that you want to import address book information from, you can export it to a text (CSV) file using your current mail program, and then import it to Outlook Express using the Text File option.

Creating and Importing Business Cards

The easiest way to exchange contact information with people over the Internet is by attaching an electronic business card to e-mail messages. A business card is your personal contact information from the Address Book in vCard format. The vCard format can be used with a wide variety of digital devices and operating systems.

You must have your own contact information in the Address Book before you can create a business card.

To create a business card

1. On the Tools menu, click Address Book.

   – Or –

   Click the Address Book icon on the toolbar.

2. Select your name from the list.
3. On the File menu, point to Export, and then click Business Card (vCard).
4. Select a location to store the VCF file, and then click Save.

To import a business card

1. On the Tools menu, click Address Book.

   – Or –

   Click the Address Book icon on the toolbar.

2. On the File menu, point to Import, and then click Business Card (vCard).
3. Point to the location of the VCF file, and then click Open.
4. Modify or add to the contact information in the Properties dialog box.