Wouldn't it be possible to introduce a 'network pattern' within the Outlook
Contacts?
With network pattern I mean that every contact can be related to one or more
parents and every parent can have one or more childs (like Bill-Of-Material
structure in a relational database). This way it is possible to:
- define non-related contacts with all sorts of detail
- define two contacts with a parent contact witch holds the adress and home
phone (family -- father, mom, child1). The child contacts contain specific
information (birth date, mobile phone etc.)
- define overlapping groups (not possible with a recursive relationship).

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That's an excellent idea, I think. With an option to print an org chart
based on a contact selection.
Certainly there are accessible fields to enter, like manager's name and
assistant's name. Plus 'Categories' could help, but I don't think it comes
together like you suggest, at least not without some coding.


"TBOttink" wrote in message
...
Wouldn't it be possible to introduce a 'network pattern' within the
Outlook
Contacts?
With network pattern I mean that every contact can be related to one or
more
parents and every parent can have one or more childs (like
Bill-Of-Material
structure in a relational database). This way it is possible to:
- define non-related contacts with all sorts of detail
- define two contacts with a parent contact witch holds the adress and
home
phone (family -- father, mom, child1). The child contacts contain specific
information (birth date, mobile phone etc.)
- define overlapping groups (not possible with a recursive relationship).

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...tlook.contacts

True, this change needs additional/other coding in Outlook (preferably also
on Windows Mobile).

This structure does not only suit organisation structures but also family
structures. It would be nice te be able to select a 'parent' and view the
parents properties and it's child properties in one view. The challenge is
how to make this work in the applications (the database is the easy part).
For example:
- How many levels deep should be shown within a parent contact? Just one and
from there navigate further down?
- How should this be dealt with in the contact list/search?

Since I am not a programmer but a more of a database architect and a Outlook
(Mobile) user I'll leave the coding details to the experts.

"William Lefkovics [MVP]" wrote:

That's an excellent idea, I think. With an option to print an org chart
based on a contact selection.
Certainly there are accessible fields to enter, like manager's name and
assistant's name. Plus 'Categories' could help, but I don't think it comes
together like you suggest, at least not without some coding.


"TBOttink" wrote in message
...
Wouldn't it be possible to introduce a 'network pattern' within the
Outlook
Contacts?
With network pattern I mean that every contact can be related to one or
more
parents and every parent can have one or more childs (like
Bill-Of-Material
structure in a relational database). This way it is possible to:
- define non-related contacts with all sorts of detail
- define two contacts with a parent contact witch holds the adress and
home
phone (family -- father, mom, child1). The child contacts contain specific
information (birth date, mobile phone etc.)
- define overlapping groups (not possible with a recursive relationship).

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...tlook.contacts