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:
- In the To line, type the first letter or first few letters of the entry you would like to delete.
- Use the down arrow on your keyboard to arrow to the entry you would like to delete.
- 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.
8 responses so far
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1 Francis // May 14, 2009 at 6:10 am
This has been frustrating me for years and I could never find how to do it - yet it was so simple. Now I can delete all those out-of-date suggestions that have refused to die! Many thanks
2 Murray Samson // May 14, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Woo Hoo! Now a certain Ms. Baker will never have to hear from me again. Thanks. A very clear and concise explanation in easy to read language. A rarity in technical circles, I find.
3 Holly Green // May 29, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I’m glad you found this helpful. Thank you for your comments!
4 Scott // Jun 11, 2009 at 10:11 am
Superb, But! Is there a way to see the complete list and delete things there? Rather than typing every letter of the alphabet to find outdated/incorrect email addresses. There must be a mster list somewhere we can access….
5 Holly Green // Jun 11, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Hi Scott,
The full list is stored in a file with the NK2 extension, but this is not a file that you can just open and edit. There are some utilities that you can download that will allow you to edit the list in the NK2 file, but I haven’t used one and can’t make any recommendations. I hope this helps you!
6 Narasimha Rao // Jun 24, 2009 at 2:27 am
Thanks for the information posted.
7 bob // Jul 28, 2009 at 3:18 am
a great program is:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/outlook_nk2_autocomplete.html
and it’s free
8 Holly Green // Jul 29, 2009 at 9:47 am
Thanks, Bob!
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