Contacts in Outlook and SharePoint

By default the contact content type in SharePoint does not have all the fields that the contact item in Outlook has, however the site columns by default have the majority of columns in existence. I have made the assumption that they did not include them all as this would have made the contacts page massive for entry, but as I am using a contacts list on SharePoint as a family contact list (So I and my wife can share contacts) I needed to beef it up. This article will walk you through the addition of the contact items to a new contact content type called Outlook Contact.

1. On your site go to Site Actions -> Site Settings
2. Under Galleries select Site content types
3. Under List Content Types you will see the Contact content type. Have a look at this now so you can see what columns are there by default.
4. We are not going to modify the existing Contact item as it may be in use by other Content types of people on the site. So to create a new content type do the following.
5. Select Create.
6. Name it Outlook Contact
7. Put this in the description This is a complete outlook contact type with all columns.
8. Select parent content type from List Content Types
9. Select Parent Content Type as Contact
10. Place it into a existing group List Content Types
11. Now you have a new Site Content Type and it has the same list of columns as the Contact content type.
12. Add the following existing site columns to this new content type. * Middle Name * Suffix * E-mail 2 * E-mail 3 * IM Address * Assistant’s Phone * Business Phone 2 * Callback Number * Car Phone * Company Main Phone * Home Phone 2 * Home Fax * ISDN * Other Phone * Other Fax * Pager * Primary Phone * Radio Phone * Telex * TTY-TDD Phone * Home Address City * Home Address Country * Home Address Postal Code * Home Address State Or Province * Home Address Street * Other Address City * Other Address Country * Other Address Postal Code * Other Address State Or Province * Other Address Street * Contact Photo * Department * Office * Profession * Nickname * Anniversary * Assistant’s Name * Birthday * Manager’s Name * Spouse
13. Click on OK and the added columns will be saved to the content type.
14. You can play with the order if you so wish but as you will be using this with outlook the web interface is not that important.
15. Now create a new list with this content type.
16. Site Actions -> Create
17. Communications -> Contacts
18. Give it a Name and description, for this example I used Family Contacts
19. Once created you need to edit the properties of the list, open Settings and select List Settings.
20. Under General Settings select Advanced settings and changeAllow management of content types? to Yes then click on OK
21. You should now see a new section called Content Types with the default Contact content type in it, we will now add in the Outlook Contact content type and remove the Contact content type.
22. Select Add from existing site content types, select the List Content Type and click on Outlook Contact and Add, then click on OK.
23. In the Content Type list click on Contact and under Settings select Delete this content type. This will remove it from the list not from the site.
24. Nearly done now, go back to the list and under Actions select Connect to Outlook
25. Once the contact list is linked (Outlook 2007 required) you can add a contact and it will sync with the SharePoint list with all details. Done!

Default Contact Columns