How to sort contacts by category?

[stevebacs]

On my desktop workstation, I have my Outlook contacts sorted by the "Category" header field. This is essential for grouping contacts associated with different projects (I have 1400+ business contacts, and couldn't possibly remember all their names). On my old Blackberry, my synced contacts were organized the same way (by "Category"). On my new Nokia Lumia 920, it seems I can only sort my synced contacts by either last name or first name. Hopefully I'm missing something, as this seems like an enormous failure for business use. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Ali Babba]

Not that I'm aware of.. You can use a 3rd party "phone" app like Rap Dialer (free trial available) and type in the 'category' you would have them in as long as it's in a field associated with the contact. It should display all of them.

 

[tk-093]

In the list of users when you do a search you can type by company name and filter it down that way, but I don't think you can do it by category... at least not that I have found. It doesn't even look like category is getting sync'ed to the phone, though it's possible it's just hidden from view.

 

[stevebacs]

Yes, the category info does get synced to the phone, and I can filter my contacts by category with a keyword search if I type it in. The problem is that it's an unacceptably cumbersome and tedious process for frequent use. I should have one-touch sorting by any header field in my desktop Outlook. The reason I chose Windows Phone 8 was because I expected the best possible integration with Microsoft Office, and I'm just flabbergasted that my old Blackberry was more useful with Outlook than Microsoft's own OS is.

 

[gapost]

Just curious how you would use categories on your phone. I use them in outlook and in fact, I have it set up to sync to google and it syncs my categories too, as groups. However, outlook.com does not sync categories. I used to think that the categories were pretty important, but don't really see a need for them on my phone.

 

[stevebacs]

Firstly, I'm talking about the desktop Outlook program, not the re-named Hotmail Outlook.com. As a project manager, I have business contacts affiliated with different entities, for example a certain township or airport, which I group into categories in Outlook. Often I will need to contact someone from a particular location, and have to refer to my categories to know who my contacts are out there, as I have 1400+ contacts and can't possibly remember all their names. This was possible with my Blackberry, but now apparently I can only sort by last/first name, and have to manually type keywords to filter contacts from the relevant categories.

 

[gapost]

The bottom line is there are no categories in contacts in windows phone. It does a very good job of searching by partial name or business name. How are you syncing your contacts to your phone?

 

[Reflexx]

I'd love this ability as well. For now, I'm just putting people in GROUPS, but it would have been nice if it was automatic based on what company they worked for.

 

[fwaits]

Yeah like Winning Guy says, probably creating groups for the different categories is your only viable alternative right now to get similar sorting.

 

[gapost]

Didn't I read somewhere that there is a limit on the number on contacts in a Group? Something like 25?

If you are going to send a mass text or email, groups are good. But I still ask, why do you need categories on a phone? I mean, say you have a category for business. If you sort your contacts by the business category, what are you going to do with it? Sure if you have a lot of contacts, it may be hard to remember names, but I would think that a search by business would pull them up.

I checked on an iphone, and you can only sort by first/last or last/first name. And I couldn't get it to search by the business name, which at least WP does a very good job of. I'm curious if android sorts by categories.

 

[stevebacs]

How are you syncing your contacts to your phone?

Via corporate Outlook Exchange mailserver

But I still ask, why do you need categories on a phone? I mean, say you have a category for business. If you sort your contacts by the business category, what are you going to do with it?

I don't have a "business" category, all my contacts are business contacts. My categories consist of the various projects I'm involved in, and I have many different contacts for each project. I often know the location I need to connect with, but not the name of the individual I need to contact.

Sure if you have a lot of contacts, it may be hard to remember names, but I would think that a search by business would pull them up.

As I stated earlier, it's not that I can't get the task done, it's just a lot more rigamarole than what I expect from the integration of flagship Microsoft products. This should be a one-touch procedure.

 

[stevebacs]

I'd love this ability as well. For now, I'm just putting people in GROUPS, but it would have been nice if it was automatic based on what company they worked for.

So how do we pass this on to the Outlook Mobile development team?

 

[philxor]

The issue is having contacts from sources which do not contain a field like category in the same contact list. Name is the lowest common denominator. Like it or not WP8 is a consumer OS and they are more likely to sort via a Facebook field than something in Exchange. It's not really outlook mobile its just WP8, but you can make a feature suggestion Feature Suggestions: Hot (19497 ideas) there.

 

[Alain_A]

Didn't I read somewhere that there is a limit on the number on contacts in a Group? Something like 25?

If you are going to send a mass text or email, groups are good. But I still ask, why do you need categories on a phone? I mean, say you have a category for business. If you sort your contacts by the business category, what are you going to do with it? Sure if you have a lot of contacts, it may be hard to remember names, but I would think that a search by business would pull them up.

I checked on an iphone, and you can only sort by first/last or last/first name. And I couldn't get it to search by the business name, which at least WP does a very good job of. I'm curious if android sorts by categories.

yes android on htc has group that you can create as many as you want..now I am on iphone 4s and it doesn't have that

 

[Alain_A]

i wanted a wp8 few weeks back but didn't get one yet...now I will wait for bb10 to see if it would be better for business and group contact option..don't want to go back to htc android but if it's become the best well then so be it

 

[stevebacs]

The issue is having contacts from sources which do not contain a field like category in the same contact list. Name is the lowest common denominator.

I don't see why this should be a problem. If the contact source doesn't contain the Category field, then the option to sort by Category gets dimmed (unavailable). That's how all my desktop programs work, why should this be any different?

Like it or not WP8 is a consumer OS and they are more likely to sort via a Facebook field than something in Exchange.

Are you suggesting Microsoft isn't (or shouldn't be) interested in taking over Blackberry's crown as the mobile device of choice for business? Seems shortsighted to me.

It's not really outlook mobile its just WP8

I don't understand this at all. What makes you say the issue is with the OS rather than the app?

you can make a feature suggestion Feature Suggestions: Hot (19497 ideas) there.

Thanks!