address book column problems

Two problems with list view of address book contacts.

1. I changed the name of a custom field by double-clicking a contact,
opening its window, choosing the "work" tab, clicking on the "custom
5" field label and changing its name in the window that opened up.
Since then, the new field label shows up in every contact card I open,
but NOT in the list view column label, and not in the View/columns
menu choice, and not in the contextual menu that allows for column
field choice. In all these places it is still labeled as "custom 5."

2. In a perhaps related issue, when I click on a column in the list
view in order to sort the list with it, the sort is very speedy on
most of the columns, but takes an unacceptable 7-8 seconds on the
mis-named "custom 5" column.

Any suggestions why this happened and what could be done about it?

Entourage 10.1.4 OSX 10.2.8 Database size 76.5MB, recently rebuilt,
650 contacts. Powerbook G4/400/768

Dave
Tue Sep 23 20:00:02 CDT 2003

On 9/23/03 1:52 PM, in article
690d67db.0309231252.3c05839b@posting.google.com, "fbill" <wfiglozzi@mac.com>
wrote:

> Two problems with list view of address book contacts.
>
> 1. I changed the name of a custom field by double-clicking a contact,
> opening its window, choosing the "work" tab, clicking on the "custom
> 5" field label and changing its name in the window that opened up.
> Since then, the new field label shows up in every contact card I open,
> but NOT in the list view column label, and not in the View/columns
> menu choice, and not in the contextual menu that allows for column
> field choice. In all these places it is still labeled as "custom 5."

Yep, this is a known issue. There's no workaround as far as I know. Sorry!
(I suppose you could hack the app if you open it in a Resource editor and
replace the "Custom 5" strings you find with the actual label you want. Not
pretty and not recommended.)

> 2. In a perhaps related issue, when I click on a column in the list
> view in order to sort the list with it, the sort is very speedy on
> most of the columns, but takes an unacceptable 7-8 seconds on the
> mis-named "custom 5" column.

Entourage indexes the commonly used fields for searching and sorting. Custom
5 is not indexed and thus takes longer to sort.

wfiglozzi
Wed Sep 24 09:34:47 CDT 2003

Dave Cortright <dc@dev.null> wrote in message news:<BB963AA2.26CA%dc@dev.null>...
> On 9/23/03 1:52 PM, in article
> 690d67db.0309231252.3c05839b@posting.google.com, "fbill" <wfiglozzi@mac.com>
> wrote:
>
> Yep, this is a known issue. There's no workaround as far as I know. Sorry!
> (I suppose you could hack the app if you open it in a Resource editor and
> replace the "Custom 5" strings you find with the actual label you want. Not
> pretty and not recommended.)

Thanks for the information, I hadn't heard about it. Perhaps this
will be fixed in a future update.
>
> > 2. In a perhaps related issue, when I click on a column in the list
> > view in order to sort the list with it, the sort is very speedy on
> > most of the columns, but takes an unacceptable 7-8 seconds on the
> > mis-named "custom 5" column.
>
> Entourage indexes the commonly used fields for searching and sorting. Custom
> 5 is not indexed and thus takes longer to sort.

This is really disappointing. Palm desktop will sort instantly on all
columns. I use this like a rolodex in my office. With Palm desktop,
when I need a quick phone number or need to find all the contacts in a
particular subgroup, I just click on the appropriate column and type a
few letters to instantly find the contacts I need. With entourage the
7-8 second delay is enough to make it unusable for me, since there's a
better alternative.

Entourage in general has a sluggish feel about it. Switching from one
mode to another takes longer than switching to another program, such
as from Palm Desktop to Mail app. or iCal.

Thanks again for the quick and speedy information.