The Outlook contact forms are poorly designed. Why not have a tab for
personal information, a tab for family information, a tab for employment
information, a tab for hobbies and interests? Then let the GENERAL tab
simply summarize key elements of the other tabs as an overview. This would
be so much more intuitive because it helps users organize contact information
into logical areas of interest. For example, the current contact form mixes
business and personal information on the DETAILS tab for a contact and
doesn’t even have a way to list a person’s children for reference. Children,
for example, are not only helpful for personal use, but professionals, like
doctors and dentists, use this reference information for cultivating
meaningful public relations with clients. We also like the approach of
different forms for different types of contacts. For example, WordPerfect
used to provide different types of forms depending on whether the contact was
a person, organization, relationship, or other type of contact or link. It
was very logical and had customizable fields tailored on the form for each
type of contact or relationship. Outlook 2007 also seems to have hidden the
ability to link contacts together. Again using WordPerfect as an
illustration, there was a many-to-many linking feature that allowed the user
to easily link children to parents, parents to children, people to
businesses, etcetera. Even information such as birth dates, death dates, and
christening dates, with the ability to link families together, would be
useful to genealogists maintaining family directories. Not to mention that
genealogy is allegedly renowned as one of the largest volume uses on the
internet. Finally, as always, the user should have the option of customizing
all aspects of the forms and tabs, but better default form design might
minimize the need for customization.

----------------
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

Why not design one yourself? Tools-Forms-Design a Form. See
http://www.outlookcode.com for starters.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, The Blue Max asked:

| The Outlook contact forms are poorly designed. Why not have a tab for
| personal information, a tab for family information, a tab for
| employment information, a tab for hobbies and interests? Then let
| the GENERAL tab
| simply summarize key elements of the other tabs as an overview. This
| would
| be so much more intuitive because it helps users organize contact
| information into logical areas of interest. For example, the current
| contact form mixes business and personal information on the DETAILS
| tab for a contact and
| doesn’t even have a way to list a person’s children for
| reference. Children, for example, are not only helpful for personal
| use, but professionals, like doctors and dentists, use this reference
| information for cultivating
| meaningful public relations with clients. We also like the approach
| of different forms for different types of contacts. For example,
| WordPerfect
| used to provide different types of forms depending on whether the
| contact was
| a person, organization, relationship, or other type of contact or
| link. It
| was very logical and had customizable fields tailored on the form for
| each
| type of contact or relationship. Outlook 2007 also seems to have
| hidden the ability to link contacts together. Again using
| WordPerfect as an
| illustration, there was a many-to-many linking feature that allowed
| the user
| to easily link children to parents, parents to children, people to
| businesses, etcetera. Even information such as birth dates, death
| dates, and christening dates, with the ability to link families
| together, would be
| useful to genealogists maintaining family directories. Not to
| mention that genealogy is allegedly renowned as one of the largest
| volume uses on the internet. Finally, as always, the user should
| have the option of customizing all aspects of the forms and tabs, but
| better default form design might
| minimize the need for customization.
|
| ----------------
| 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

Thanks, Milly. I also appreciated the link to Sue Mosher's site. I will
eventually do exactly as you suggest, simply because Microsoft has not
organized the form very well. However, part of the purpose is to hope that
Microsoft would design a better form and minimize the work required for a
user to design a custom form, not to mention overcoming the learning curve to
accomplish the task.