[Lindsay Graham]

I have OE6 on 2 computers, a Win98SE desktop and a WinXP laptop. To keep
the OE Address Book up-to-date (and identical) on both computers, I have
been in the habit of exporting, say, the Win98 address book to a temporary
location and then importing it to the WinXP address book. But this seems to
create duplicate entries and double entries (eg, where a change has been
made to Joe's address on the Win98, I end up with both old and new entries
on the WinXP).

I'd prefer to simply copy the .wab file from one computer to the other, but
I vaguely remember being told not to do that (can't remember when or by
whom). Questions:
* is it OK to simply copy the .wab file from one computer to the other to
keep the address books in synch? and
* will address groups be maintained using that method?

I've had a quick look through the InsideOE web site, but could not see this
specific matter mentioned. Would appreciate any guidance.

Lindsay Graham
Canberra, Australia

[Jim Pickering]

If you wish to just copy one from another computer (and assuming both are
the same version of WAB file), then copy it to an easily remembered location
and modify this key in the registry with Outlook Express closed:

Close OE and the address book. Run regedit.exe and navigate to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name

Right-click on (Default) in the right-hand pane and enter your new path to
the *.wab file. Close Regedit and open OE to use the new *.wab immediately.
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.



"Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
news:%232zvg3UcFHA.2936@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>I have OE6 on 2 computers, a Win98SE desktop and a WinXP laptop. To keep
>the OE Address Book up-to-date (and identical) on both computers, I have
>been in the habit of exporting, say, the Win98 address book to a temporary
>location and then importing it to the WinXP address book. But this seems
>to create duplicate entries and double entries (eg, where a change has been
>made to Joe's address on the Win98, I end up with both old and new entries
>on the WinXP).
>
> I'd prefer to simply copy the .wab file from one computer to the other,
> but I vaguely remember being told not to do that (can't remember when or
> by whom). Questions:
> * is it OK to simply copy the .wab file from one computer to the other to
> keep the address books in synch? and
> * will address groups be maintained using that method?
>
> I've had a quick look through the InsideOE web site, but could not see
> this specific matter mentioned. Would appreciate any guidance.
>
> Lindsay Graham
> Canberra, Australia
>

[Lindsay Graham]

Thanks for your reply, Jim.

I already have my OE Address Book in the same (easily remembered) location
on both computers. Does this mean that I can simply copy the more recent
WAB file from one computer to the other (overwriting the existing WAB file
in the target location), and then use it immediately without needing to do
the Registry edit?

Lindsay Graham

"Jim Pickering" <jim.pickering@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:Okzsq6UcFHA.3032@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> If you wish to just copy one from another computer (and assuming both are
> the same version of WAB file), then copy it to an easily remembered
> location and modify this key in the registry with Outlook Express closed:
>
> Close OE and the address book. Run regedit.exe and navigate to this key:
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name
>
> Right-click on (Default) in the right-hand pane and enter your new path to
> the *.wab file. Close Regedit and open OE to use the new *.wab
> immediately.
> --
> Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
> https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
> Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
> Thanks.
>
>
>
> "Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
> news:%232zvg3UcFHA.2936@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>>I have OE6 on 2 computers, a Win98SE desktop and a WinXP laptop. To keep
>>the OE Address Book up-to-date (and identical) on both computers, I have
>>been in the habit of exporting, say, the Win98 address book to a temporary
>>location and then importing it to the WinXP address book. But this seems
>>to create duplicate entries and double entries (eg, where a change has
>>been made to Joe's address on the Win98, I end up with both old and new
>>entries on the WinXP).
>>
>> I'd prefer to simply copy the .wab file from one computer to the other,
>> but I vaguely remember being told not to do that (can't remember when or
>> by whom). Questions:
>> * is it OK to simply copy the .wab file from one computer to the other
>> to keep the address books in synch? and
>> * will address groups be maintained using that method?
>>
>> I've had a quick look through the InsideOE web site, but could not see
>> this specific matter mentioned. Would appreciate any guidance.
>>
>> Lindsay Graham
>> Canberra, Australia
>>
>

[Jim Pickering]

It would have to have the same name and location as the path indicated in
the registry, but if that is the case, the new one should also work. See
this link for more info about the Windows Address Book:
http://www.insideoe.com/files/wab.htm
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.


"Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
news:uKFKH7ZcFHA.3912@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Thanks for your reply, Jim.
>
> I already have my OE Address Book in the same (easily remembered) location
> on both computers. Does this mean that I can simply copy the more recent
> WAB file from one computer to the other (overwriting the existing WAB file
> in the target location), and then use it immediately without needing to do
> the Registry edit?
>
> Lindsay Graham

[Lindsay Graham]

Thank you again for your helpful replies, Jim Pickering. I have
successfully arranged things so that my OE Address Book is in the same place
on both computers, and can be easily copied from one computer to another as
required.

However, there is a third computer in the equation (my wife's) and her files
are mirrored from her computer to the D: drive of the laptop (she has a
separate identity on the latter). She has a separate (not shared) address
book on her computer, and I would like to be able to copy it to a specified
location on the laptop D: drive, so that it is accessible from her identity
in OE. But after I modified the Registry as per your suggestion, both
identities in OE of the WinXP laptop point to my address book. How can I
modify the Registry so that her OE identity points to the location of her
address book?

Lindsay Graham




"Jim Pickering" <jim.pickering@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:uVFRLSccFHA.3280@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> It would have to have the same name and location as the path indicated in
> the registry, but if that is the case, the new one should also work. See
> this link for more info about the Windows Address Book:
> http://www.insideoe.com/files/wab.htm
> --
> Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
> https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
> Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
> Thanks.
>
>
> "Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
> news:uKFKH7ZcFHA.3912@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>> Thanks for your reply, Jim.
>>
>> I already have my OE Address Book in the same (easily remembered)
>> location on both computers. Does this mean that I can simply copy the
>> more recent WAB file from one computer to the other (overwriting the
>> existing WAB file in the target location), and then use it immediately
>> without needing to do the Registry edit?
>>
>> Lindsay Graham
>

[Jim Pickering]

"Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
news:ufcaee$dFHA.3184@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>
> However, there is a third computer in the equation (my wife's) and her
> files are mirrored from her computer to the D: drive of the laptop (she
> has a separate identity on the latter). She has a separate (not shared)
> address book on her computer, and I would like to be able to copy it to a
> specified location on the laptop D: drive, so that it is accessible from
> her identity in OE. But after I modified the Registry as per your
> suggestion, both identities in OE of the WinXP laptop point to my address
> book. How can I modify the Registry so that her OE identity points to the
> location of her address book?
>

You can set the file path in the registry to point to any address book file
you wish to use. If you need to have multiple WAB files, I'd suggest
putting them all in a folder on your Desktop where they can be opened when
needed by double clicking the appropriate WAB file, without any need to
changing values in the registry. See the info at this link for more info
about the Windows Address Book: http://www.insideoe.com/files/wab.htm
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.

[Lindsay Graham]

Rather than putting the two WAB files in the same folder on the Desktop, I'd
prefer to have them in different (specified) folders, one on the C: drive
and one on the D: drive. But I see in the www.insideoe.com site the
statement "each Profile has its own WAB, which is used by all Identities
within that Profile". In my case I would like the 2 WABs to be attached to
2 different identities within the same profile -- does the InsideOE
statement mean that I can't do that?

Lindsay Graham


"Jim Pickering" <jim.pickering@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:%23NphRyCeFHA.640@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> "Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
> news:ufcaee$dFHA.3184@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>>
>> However, there is a third computer in the equation (my wife's) and her
>> files are mirrored from her computer to the D: drive of the laptop (she
>> has a separate identity on the latter). She has a separate (not shared)
>> address book on her computer, and I would like to be able to copy it to a
>> specified location on the laptop D: drive, so that it is accessible from
>> her identity in OE. But after I modified the Registry as per your
>> suggestion, both identities in OE of the WinXP laptop point to my address
>> book. How can I modify the Registry so that her OE identity points to
>> the location of her address book?
>>
>
> You can set the file path in the registry to point to any address book
> file you wish to use. If you need to have multiple WAB files, I'd suggest
> putting them all in a folder on your Desktop where they can be opened when
> needed by double clicking the appropriate WAB file, without any need to
> changing values in the registry. See the info at this link for more info
> about the Windows Address Book: http://www.insideoe.com/files/wab.htm
> --
> Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
> https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
> Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
> Thanks.
>
>
>

[Jim Pickering]

"Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
news:O$hnIOMeFHA.3836@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Rather than putting the two WAB files in the same folder on the Desktop,
> I'd prefer to have them in different (specified) folders, one on the C:
> drive and one on the D: drive. But I see in the www.insideoe.com site the
> statement "each Profile has its own WAB, which is used by all Identities
> within that Profile". In my case I would like the 2 WABs to be attached
> to 2 different identities within the same profile -- does the InsideOE
> statement mean that I can't do that?
>
That's just what it means. Each identity can only have one WAB file that
the identity points to in the registry. To use another one, it must open
the folder containing it, then double click the desired WAB file. It's
really quite simple to do so I can't really understand what the reluctance
is to doing it that way.
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
Thanks.


> "Jim Pickering" <jim.pickering@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:%23NphRyCeFHA.640@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> "Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
>> news:ufcaee$dFHA.3184@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...

[Lindsay Graham]

I really do appreciate the help I've been getting, and I'd like to confirm
my understanding of just how the OE Address Book works. I've re-read
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm and I've opened up all WAB
files on our computers to see what's in them. My apologies for such a long
post, but I'd be very grateful for comments on the specific questions below.

As an aside, my reason for preferring two WAB files (one for each identity)
in different (specified) folders on 2 drives of the laptop is for ease of
copying the address books (and all other relevant user-created files)
to/from the laptop from/to the 2 desktop computers. Files on my desktop are
mirrored to C: drive on the laptop, and files on my wife's desktop are
mirrored to D: drive on the laptop. We do this copying regularly, as we
travel (with laptop only) quite a lot.

From InsideOE and Jim Pickering's contributions, I deduce that:
1. Within a single Profile, only one WAB file (I'll call it the default WAB
file) can be accessed. The default WAB file is used by all identities
within that Profile, and is located in the folder specified in Help>About
Address Book.
2. Accessing the Address Book from within an identity means that only the
Shared Contacts and that identity's contacts can be seen. However, all
identities' contacts folders can be seen at the same time by opening the
default WAB file outside Outlook Express.
3. These constraints appear to mean that I cannot do what I want to do as
explained in para 2 above. As a workaround, I could have my (desktop) WAB
as the default on the laptop, and my wife, when in her identity, could
access her separate WAB file from outside OE. A bit messy, but doable.

In case there are other methods (eg, Registry hacks) of doing what I'd like
to do, I'd be grateful for comments on 3 questions:
A. Are my deductions above correct, or is there something I've missed?
B. The data for my wife's identity in the default WAB file are older than
those in her own separate WAB file -- is there any way of importing the
later data from her separate WAB file to the default WAB file?
C. If that can done, will there then be any way of exporting my wife's data
from her identity in the default WAB file to a separate WAB file to be
copied to her desktop computer?

I've just realised (why didn't I think of it before?!!) that the default WAB
(with 2 identities) could presumably be set up on both the laptop and, say,
my desktop computer. My and my wife's desktops are networked, so that OE on
her desktop computer would access the default WAB file across the network,
but with the consequent disadvantages that are spelt out in InsideOE. That
might not be a problem provided that both computers are logged on to the
network before my wife opens up OE and her Address Book. Would that work?

Thanks a heap to anyone who has the perseverance to get this far and feels
able to comment.

Lindsay Graham
Canberra, Australia

"Jim Pickering" <jim.pickering@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:OU1AsAPeFHA.3712@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> "Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
> news:O$hnIOMeFHA.3836@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Rather than putting the two WAB files in the same folder on the Desktop,
>> I'd prefer to have them in different (specified) folders, one on the C:
>> drive and one on the D: drive. But I see in the www.insideoe.com site
>> the statement "each Profile has its own WAB, which is used by all
>> Identities within that Profile". In my case I would like the 2 WABs to
>> be attached to 2 different identities within the same profile -- does the
>> InsideOE statement mean that I can't do that?
>>
> That's just what it means. Each identity can only have one WAB file that
> the identity points to in the registry. To use another one, it must open
> the folder containing it, then double click the desired WAB file. It's
> really quite simple to do so I can't really understand what the reluctance
> is to doing it that way.
> --
> Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express
> https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=F9F51EF1-4AE3-4D23-B2D8-1171988A62D6
> Please deliver feedback to the newsgroup, so that others can be helped.
> Thanks.
>
>
>> "Jim Pickering" <jim.pickering@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:%23NphRyCeFHA.640@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>>> "Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
>>> news:ufcaee$dFHA.3184@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>

[Jim Pickering]

Sharing over a network is only asking for trouble. But, it's your choice if
you want to try and I suspect you'll find the results somewhat less than
stellar. Good luck.
--
Jim Pickering, MVP, Outlook Express


"Lindsay Graham" <LDGraham@cyberone.com.au> wrote in message
news:uYOR$m%23eFHA.1680@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>I really do appreciate the help I've been getting, and I'd like to confirm
> my understanding of just how the OE Address Book works. I've re-read
> http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm and I've opened up all WAB
> files on our computers to see what's in them. My apologies for such a
> long
> post, but I'd be very grateful for comments on the specific questions
> below.
>
> As an aside, my reason for preferring two WAB files (one for each
> identity)
> in different (specified) folders on 2 drives of the laptop is for ease of
> copying the address books (and all other relevant user-created files)
> to/from the laptop from/to the 2 desktop computers. Files on my desktop
> are
> mirrored to C: drive on the laptop, and files on my wife's desktop are
> mirrored to D: drive on the laptop. We do this copying regularly, as we
> travel (with laptop only) quite a lot.
>
> From InsideOE and Jim Pickering's contributions, I deduce that:
> 1. Within a single Profile, only one WAB file (I'll call it the default
> WAB
> file) can be accessed. The default WAB file is used by all identities
> within that Profile, and is located in the folder specified in Help>About
> Address Book.
> 2. Accessing the Address Book from within an identity means that only the
> Shared Contacts and that identity's contacts can be seen. However, all
> identities' contacts folders can be seen at the same time by opening the
> default WAB file outside Outlook Express.
> 3. These constraints appear to mean that I cannot do what I want to do as
> explained in para 2 above. As a workaround, I could have my (desktop) WAB
> as the default on the laptop, and my wife, when in her identity, could
> access her separate WAB file from outside OE. A bit messy, but doable.
>
> In case there are other methods (eg, Registry hacks) of doing what I'd
> like
> to do, I'd be grateful for comments on 3 questions:
> A. Are my deductions above correct, or is there something I've missed?
> B. The data for my wife's identity in the default WAB file are older than
> those in her own separate WAB file -- is there any way of importing the
> later data from her separate WAB file to the default WAB file?
> C. If that can done, will there then be any way of exporting my wife's
> data
> from her identity in the default WAB file to a separate WAB file to be
> copied to her desktop computer?
>
> I've just realised (why didn't I think of it before?!!) that the default
> WAB
> (with 2 identities) could presumably be set up on both the laptop and,
> say,
> my desktop computer. My and my wife's desktops are networked, so that OE
> on
> her desktop computer would access the default WAB file across the network,
> but with the consequent disadvantages that are spelt out in InsideOE.
> That
> might not be a problem provided that both computers are logged on to the
> network before my wife opens up OE and her Address Book. Would that work?
>
> Thanks a heap to anyone who has the perseverance to get this far and feels
> able to comment.
>
> Lindsay Graham
> Canberra, Australia