Among the varieties of software on offer from Microsoft, MS Outlook is definitely one that holds the “most popular” tag. It is a personal information management software from Microsoft, and helps users to send and receive emails from the desktop itself. It contains many useful tools and features, such as a calendar tool, note tools and a task manager. Here is some information on the Contacts feature in the MS Outlook program, and the Outlook address book.
A short definition
Although Microsoft Outlook program is a powerful program that consists of many features such as the ones mentioned above, it is primarily used as a desktop medium to send and receive emails by most users. It contains a Contacts feature and a Global Address Book, both of which are quite useful. The users can access the contact information of people that they come into contact with on a regular basis, through these features. However, there are slight differences when it comes to the storage of contact information in the Contacts feature and in the Global Address Book. In the Contacts feature, the information stored is usually that of the external contacts or personal contacts, while the contact information stored in the Global Address Book is that of the other employees in a company. The contact information is stored in such a way because the Global Address Books are stored on an Exchange Server, and as such can be shared with the other employees of the company.
Editing restrictions
Since the Contacts feature is stored physically on a computer, they can be edited by the users. Therefore, it is possible to edit the contact information, add new contacts to the Contacts, and delete contacts etc. But, in the case of Global Address Books, it can only be edited by a system administrator. This can be a very important restrictive feature, since both of these contain contact information. To home users, both the Contacts and the Global Address Book are editable.
Storing contact information can thus turn out to be an important decision, considering the different features of both the Contacts and the Outlook Address Book. Usually, it is the Global Address Book that contains information pertaining to the employees of an organization, and the Contacts that contains information of external contacts. These are only subtle changes, and it won’t be that much of a difference when the home users are considered.
