One of the most convenient things I find in Outlook is that when I start to type an email address in the To, CC, or BCC line, Outlook suggests email addresses of people I’ve emailed before whose names or addresses start with those letters.  I can arrow down to the one I want to use, press Enter, and they will be inserted in the field.  The more people you email, the more names pop up in the list.  I’ve found that many people would like to control who shows up in the list and who doesn’t.

Let’s say I want to email my friend Isaac.  I’m used to just typing the letter i, and then pressing Enter on my keyboard, because Isaac is the only person I ever email whose address starts with the letter i.  However, the other day I had to email Info@somefakecompany.imadeup, for information.  When I tried to send an email to Isaac later that day, I wasn’t paying attention and accidentally sent my email to Info@somefakecompany.imadeup.*  I will not need to email Info@somefakecompany.imadeup again, and would like for Outlook to stop suggesting the address when I type the letter i in the To line.

Here’s how to delete individual suggested entries:

  1. In the To line, type the first letter or first few letters of the entry you would like to delete.
  2. Use the down arrow on your keyboard to arrow to the entry you would like to delete.
  3. Press the Delete key on your keyboard.

This works in both Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007.

*By the way, I advocate always double checking the To line and other address fields before you click Send on an email.