how can I get Outlook to recognize a DL with a short name like 'miker'?

Question

I set up distribution lists in Outlook so I can give people nicknames. That way I don't have to type their full name (there are thousands of people in my address list). Plus there's one guy that I email regularly who's got a doppelganger in the company. So I have lists like 'mikev' and 'juanr'. They all work fine.

But once in a while I run into one that just won't work. The two that Outlook refuses to recognize are 'grege' and 'miker'. Is there something special about these names that I'm not seeing? I've restarted Outlook and the computer a few times since creating the 'miker' list and still it won't recognize. Right clicking on 'miker' doesn't bring up the DL, it just brings up names of people in the org with names like that.

Is there a better way to do this nickname thing? I'm used to gmail -- it seems to be a heckuva lot smarter about figuring out who I'm likely to mean when I type 'greg'.

Answer 1

Microsoft Outlook has a feature called AutoComplete which I think would be a better solution.

It stores a cache of all of the email addresses that you send emails to. This autocomplete list is then used to display matching email addresses of contacts when you begin typing in the To, Cc or Bcc fields.

To add an email address to the cache, simply type the first few letters of the contact you want to send an email to and hit CTRL+K. This will autocomplete to the nearest matching contact and store it in the cache. This is a one-off task.

Next time you begin typing, it will recognise the name instantly and display it in a dropdown box while you are typing.