Driven mad by auto-complete?

If you use Microsoft Outlook you’ve probably been frustrated more than once by the auto-complete address function. As soon as you start typing an email address it cleverly tries to anticipate who you are emailing. Sometimes the electronic anticipation is not so clever or you hit enter in a hurry on the wrong address. This can result in the wrong person getting a bizarre email from you on a subject that’s of no relevance to them, or worse that contains personal information meant for someone else.

There is a way to get rid of these email addresses and it’s quite simple once you know how.

When in a new email message, in the TO: prompt, start typing the name of the person that you have an incorrect (or old) email address for.  When you start to see this email address use the arrow up or down keys to select the address then simply press the [Delete] key. It’s that easy!  If the [Delete] key doesn’t work in your version, Right Mouse button on the address then select Delete.

You can also turn the auto-complete option off if you wish. It could be tempting to save mistakes, but leaving it on as long as you are careful, saves a lot of time typing email addresses or selecting contacts.

To turn it off in Outlook, (depending up on your version) go to Tools > Options > Preferences > Email Options > Advanced Email Options, then towards the bottom of the list, uncheck the box “Suggest names while completing To, CC, and BCC fields” and selecting OK. It’s a simple matter to turn it back on again by checking the same box.