You can't turn it off and while outlook supports 'free text fields' they
will not sync with phones. The fields were designed back in the old days
when computers were hooked to phone lines and people wanted to dial from the
computer - the dialer knows to skip the area code when it dials.


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
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"DX`" wrote in message
...
Ok, you have obviously taken me the wrong way.

At no time did i blame you for outlooks behaviour I wasnt happy with your
reply of "There is no need to". Making me believe that Outlooks behaviour
is
the be-all and end-all of number format conventions and if i dont like it,
lump it. If i want numbers in my phone appearing a certain way i should be
able to make it work.

All i want is a solution (or even a workaround) to turn OFF the automatic
numbering format change. Basiclly operating like a free text field. Which
is
what i understood from Mary's post is what she would also like.