In the news from a favorite source, Office Watch – “Presidential Passport Details Leaked – Outlook Is Blamed” citing a story in The Guardian, Personal details of world leaders accidentally revealed by G20 organisers. Has the time has come to shed this email crutch (pardon, feature) and (at least) reduce the risks of sending email messages to the wrong person. For instructions, see the Office Watch article.

First, before we get to what happens in the address fields, great advice from the legacy of my late colleague, Gerard Haubrich. Write the message first, check it (twice), then add addressees. That prevents the embarrassment of sending an incomplete message by a slip of the finger.  Adopt and master this good habit on any and all devices. If the content of address field helps focus writing the message, try starting “Hi [Bob].” Formality may occasionally demand “Dear [Mr. Blacksberg],” that would be a rare emails. I am fond of “Good morning, [Bob]” (it’s always morning somewhere, no?).

Now what?

Start typing in the address field and nothing happens. Where are all the names that used to appear? Do you have to open Contacts and find a name? Do you need to remember how to type a long email address correctly? In Outlook, there is another shortcut solution. Start typing the name or email address, and press CTRL K. If there is only one match in your contacts, that will autocomplete. If there are many, you are supposed to see a list of all of them. That’s better. You only need part of the name, so long names should not be a challenge. If you must pick the name from a list, you are more likely to make a correct selection than Autocomplete, since the act of choosing requires more detailed focus and care. That’s what we sought, even if there is a bit of a price in time.

BUT…

CTRL K lookup has a different matching pattern than Autocomplete. Autocomplete matches first names, but lookup does not. So far, last name matching seems much more successful.

Stay tuned for further developments.