In outlook if I go to message options, contacts it shows my whole address book but if I create a new mail and click on send to, there's no addresses. Even if I start to type the recipient's name it won't bring addresses that I know are there?

Forgot to mention it's Outlook 2007.

Click New Mail Message, then click the To button. Under where it says Address Book, there is a drop down. Click on it and tell me what is currently selected and what is listed.

Outlook address book Contacts

The drop down names are not from your Contacts. As per the AutoComplete Help files: To, Cc, and Bcc boxes in an e-mail message. E-mail field in a contact card. When you type the first letter of a name in one of these boxes, AutoComplete begins to suggest possible matches based on names you have typed before. The more letters you type, the greater the possibility of AutoComplete finding a match. See the Help files...there's more info there.

You need to make your Contacts display as an Outlook Address Book. See my instructions in the HowTo section of this website. As for the problem with starting to type and addy that you've already used, you need to enable the "Auto-suggest" feature under Tools, Options, E-mail Options, Advanced, and check "Suggest names when completing.....etc." LIR