Can someone explain to me the difference between a contact and an email address?

I have a list of contacts. I wanted to update some of them. Mainly the people's
email addresses. I click on the email dropdown list. A list of email addresses
is displayed. I click on one of them. Outlook then tells me that I can't use
them in a Contact.

The exact message that I get is:

"An Outlook Address Book entry cannot be used as an e-mail address in a
contact".

This makes no sense to me whatsoever.

It gives me the option to open a list (from an icon that looks like an open
book), then it displays the list of addresses, I can click on any of them but
when I click on OK it tells me that above.

Sort of like placing a chocolate bar on the table in front of a child and then
saying that he's not allowed to eat it.

"Snapper" y7mail.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:m2n8649gloi9kqh3l6tql3dfb65lvaoa92@yarwho.com...

What "dropdown list"? Just open the Contact in the Contact view, click in
the Email address field and change it.....

You edit them in Contacts, not the address book, which is simply a view of
your contacts

"Snapper" y7mail.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:m2n8649gloi9kqh3l6tql3dfb65lvaoa92@yarwho.com...

...

Gordon wrote...

This one:

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/snapper_001/outlookcontacts.jpg

See the "page" icon that I circled. You click on that and a window titled
"Select Name" with a list email addresses opens. I cannot select any of them for
the Contact, yet with the contact example given there is one there in the email
field.

You never use the address book view of your Contacts to enter or edit data.
You use the Contacts Folder. That's where they reside.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Snapper" y7mail.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:66lb64pao7gpbim944a4vi9il445j38fn3@yarwho.com...

Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote...

What's the difference or purposes between the Contacts and the Address book?

Sorry, but I am having difficulty in comprehending the way that this is supposed
to work and why the data is available to me to view but when I tried to use it
it generates those error messages.

Already answered. Explain what you do not understand.

Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] wrote...

The concept of "contacts" versus email addresses. Why the two have to be
separate, why there's a long list of email addresses in that drop down list that
I pointed to which can't be used in contacts info, even though the option to
view the list is there.

Maybe I'm not smart enough to use Outlook, having been used to using Eudora Lite
then Eudora Pro since 1996. I've only been using Outlook since last year when at
work we migrated from Lotus Notes to Outlook and as I had it here I thought that
I'd start using it, particularly as I also went from a PalmOS PDA to a Windows
Mobile PDA.

Sometimes I wish I stuck with Eudora and Palm Desktop for all this stuff...

When you want to send a message Outlook assumes you will be using an
electronic address (because you will). It therefore assembles all the
electronic addresses in your Contacts Folder into one view to make recipient
selection easier. It calls that view the address book. There is no data in
the address book view and that is why you would never use it to enter or
edit Contacts data.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Snapper" y7mail.com.invalid> wrote in message
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