Outlook Quick Tip

How to Use AutoComplete

Have you ever noticed that when you start to type an address into Outlook email, it suggests how to complete it? The feature that does this in Outlook is called AutoComplete.

Here's how it works: The first time you send an email to someone by clicking “To:,” “Cc:,” or “Bcc:” (hereafter referred to only as “To:”), Outlook takes you to your Address Book. The next time you start to type that same person's email address, Outlook starts to suggest it for you. What's going on here? Can you control how any of this works.

The two ways to get an email address in the “To:” line are to:

  1. Click the “To:” button and choose a name from your Contacts or the Global Address List in the Select Names dialog box, or
  2. Type the email address in the “To:” line.

After doing either, the next time you begin to enter that same email address or name (if stored in your Contacts or Global Address List), the AutoComplete list will show all possible addresses that match what you’ve typed. If more than one name and/or email address is suggested, select the one you want by clicking it with your mouse or use the up and down arrow keys to select it and press Enter.

Deleting an Outdated Email Address

Sometimes, you may want to delete a name or email address from the AutoComplete list because the person’s email address has changed. Here's how:

  1. Start a new mail message and begin typing that person's name or email address.
  2. Use the arrow keys to select the "old" address and press Delete on the keyboard.
  3. Now, you can either type the correct email address or select it from an address book (assuming it has been updated there).
  4. The next time you start to type this address, the AutoComplete list will have the updated name/address.

Purging the AutoComplete List

If you’re frustrated by too many outdated email address in your AutoComplete function, you can purge the whole list and start fresh by the following method:

  1. Open Windows Explorer (right-click Start and select Explore).
  2. Look for an “NK2” file on your C drive, as follows: (C:\ Documents and Settings \ username \ Application Data \ Microsoft\Outlook) and find a file with the NK2 extension. For example, it might be called “janicej.NK2.”
  3. Delete this file.
  4. The next time you start Outlook, it creates a new file that is empty thus allowing you to start the cache over.