Russ, thanks for your help. It wasn't quite that easy since my address book
had some names displayed each way for unknown reasons. I deleted the old
address book, restarted Outlook, generated a new address book from contacts
and followed your suggestions. That worked.

"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Of course. The settings you choose for your Contacts folder have nothing to
do with the settings you choose for the address book view. You must
configure the address book view settings separately, as we have posted here
countless times. Once again, just for you:
Go to Tools E-mail accounts View or change existing directories or
address books Outlook Address Book Change… Set your sort order there
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"BenA" wrote in message
...
I am frustrated by Outlook 2003 contacts & address book discrepancies. If
I
load everything into contacts name fields correctly, and all my contacts
display my selected last name, first name order, why do I see something
different when I start a new message and look for names in the address
book.
Some are last name first, and some are first name first for no obvious
reason. The only workaround I've found is to enter the entire name in the
last name contacts field as last name, first name. Am I doing something
wrong?