Microsoft KB Archive/211381

Knowledge Base

WD2000: Selecting "Outlook Address Book (*.olk)" Does Not Open File

Article ID: 211381

Article Last Modified on 12/6/2000

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q211381

SYMPTOMS

In the Open dialog box (on the File menu, click Open) in Microsoft Word 2000, you can select Outlook Address Book (*.olk) in the Files of type list. However, Microsoft Outlook does not create files with that file name extension, so there are no files to open.

CAUSE

Outlook does not create a separate .olk file to store addresses.

WORKAROUND

To access an Outlook address book in Word, use either of the following methods.

Method 1: Export the Address Book from Outlook

To export the addresses from Outlook, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu, click Import and Export.
2. In the Import and Export Wizard dialog box, click to select Export to a file, and then click Next.
3. In the Create a file of type list, click to select either Comma Separated Values (Windows) or Tab Separated Values (Windows), and then click Next.
4. Click to select the folder you want to export from (for example, select the Contacts folder), and then click Next.
5. Type a name for the new file in the Save exported file as box, and click Next.
6. Click Map Custom Fields. Select the default map, and then click OK.
7. Click Finish.

After Outlook creates the .csv or .tsv file, you can open the file in Word.

Method 2: Use the Outlook Address Book as a Data Source for a Mail Merge

1. Create a new mail merge main document in Word. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. On the Tools menu, click Mail Merge.
   2. Under 1. Main document, click Create and then click Form Letters.
   3. Click Active Window.
2. Attach the Outlook Address book. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Under 2. Data Source, click Get Data, and then click Use Address Book.
   2. Select Outlook Address Book, and click OK.
   3. Click Edit main document.
   4. Insert the fields you want in your main document.
3. Perform the merge. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. On the Tools menu, click Mail Merge.
   2. Click Merge.
   3. Under Merge to, select New Document to display the merged document on the screen. Or select Printer to send the merged document directly to the printer.
   4. Click Merge.

For additional information about how to use the Outlook Address Book as a data source, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

192258 OL2000: How to Mail Merge Using Contacts

212329 WD2000: How to Start a Mail Merge

Additional query words: print merge mailmerge

Keywords: kbinterop kbprb KB211381

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