Applies ToOutlook for Microsoft 365 Outlook 2024 Outlook 2021 Outlook 2019 Outlook 2016 Outlook 2013

When you’re sending an email, you usually want your most common contacts to come up when you select recipients. To ensure this, you might want to change your default address book.

  1. On the Home tab, in the Find group, click Address Book.

    The address book is on the right side of the ribbon, on the Home tab.
  2. In the Address Book dialog box that opens, click Tools > Options.

    The Tools menu
  3. Under When opening the address book, show this address list first, choose the name of the address book you want to use by default.

    You can choose the name of the address book you want to access first.
  4. Click OK, and close the dialog box.

Change the order in which Outlook checks your address lists

If you’re using multiple address books, for example, one for personal use and another for just a hobby-related group, you can change the order in which Outlook checks these address books. This way, when you start writing the name of a contact to the address field of an email, Outlook suggests the most relevant contacts first.

  1. On the Home tab, in the Find group, click Address Book.

  2. Click Tools > Options, and select Custom.

  3. Click the up Up arrow and down Down arrow arrows next to the list to move your address books.

    You can define the order Outlook accesses your address books by using the arrows.
  4. Click OK.

Create an address book

Set the default calendar

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