Link existing names in Access DB to Outlook contact

[mikejoka]

Hello,

I was trying to think if it were possible to somehow link a contact card or Outlook contact into an existing entry in an Access database. The problem stems from a distribution list issue where we send out reports to large number of people but only have last names listed in the database. If there were a way to link these names to the emails/contact cards themselves, it would save me massive amounts of time.

Ideally I would like to run a query, copy and paste the names from the query into an email or an excel sheet and be able to extract the email addresses.



Any ideas would be very helpful. My next idea would be to try and change the way we enter in the names and enter the full name that is listed in Outlook so that in the future we would be able to copy and paste the full name, then outlook would recognize the contact and pull up the email address. I am just looking to see if there was an easier way to link between Access names and Outlook names.

thanks!

[June7]

Even a full name might not be robust enough. What if you have multiple John Smith (no middle initial)?

Could you have an ID in the Outlook contact record? Maybe use one of the phone number fields? Or the Notes box? There is a FileAs combobox - don't know what that is intended for. Then have that same ID assigned to the individual in Access table. Then establish Access link to Outlook. A query could join the Outlook link with the individuals table.