Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours

I need to update the area code field on many of my contacts. I tried using the Group By method to change it and changed the entire phone number. Is there a way to change the area code for a large number of contacts without editing each contact?

No, you aren't doing it wrong; Outlook doesn't support changing the area code this way. As you've discovered , it works when you need to change the entire phone number for a company, but not when only the area code changes.

There are several methods you can use to change the area code. If you only have a few phone numbers to change, use in- cell editing and change the number without opening the contact form. You can also export to Excel and use Replace to change the area codes, or write a VBA procedure to change the area code.

When I do a mail merge to email, I get a security dialog and need to allow access for up to 10 minutes, and then I wait and click Yes for each message. What can I do to get rid of the dialogs?

My crystal ball tells me that you're merging to a plain text “formatted message. If you merge to HTML format, you won't get the dialogs. You can use a script called ClickYes to press the buttons for you, if you really want to use plain text. Look for a link to it at www.slipstick.com.