Finally here we are, at the end of the tutorial. So far we had step one where we exported our contacts out of Outlook. Then we had step two where we imported our contacts into Hotmail. Now at this point we need to clean up our contacts. You may need to go through this especially if you have Facebook as one of the services Connected to Windows Live Hotmail. The reason why is pretty understandable. You certainly will have a friend as a contact in email that you are also friends with on Facebook. So when you add both of them into Windows Live Hotmail of course they will show up twice. Thankfully Microsoft provided a mechanism to clean this up and that is what I am walking you through in part 3.
Clean Up Your Contacts
When we finished part 2 there was an option to look for duplicate contacts if you click on this link, a search will begin.
When the search is complete possible duplicate contacts will be displayed. Look over the contacts carefully. To begin cleaning up the contact hit show details
If you are like me, you store Husband and Wives separately. Rod likes to store them on the same contact but this is for another argument. However since the contacts may have the same last name they possibly will show up as a duplicate.
To clean up the duplicate simply hit the drop down and select the singular information that is correct between both contacts. In this case I am choosing the proper name of the two contacts. This page is the “Combine contact details “ page.
Once you finish entering the info repeat these steps for each duplicate that needs to be fixed. Uncheck any contact that came up as a duplicate but is NOT. It is also good to note that you can have a contact that has three or 4 matches. The process is the same. Hit show details and edit the information so that it is correct. When you are done hit the save button at the bottom of the screen.
When you hit save the screen sill begin to reload. When it is done you will be on the Manage your Account Screen. From here you can search for more contacts that need to be merged by clicking the option to Clean up duplicate contacts. As you add more services you may need to do these steps again.
If you click contacts on the left hand side of the screen you can view all your existing contacts. One of my favorite bonus of the contact merger are the pictures. I tried to get pictures for all my Outlook contacts but it has been a slow process. Now with me merging my contacts in Hotmail with Facebook I get the pictures for free. Hotmail will automatically pull the contacts picture from Facebook.
One last thing to note is that you can initiate a merge of contacts manually. Just check the box next to each contact that you need to merge. With all the boxes checked, click “Manage at the top of the screen. When the drop down menu appears simple click “Combine contacts”.
When you click “Combine contacts, you will be presented with the “Combined contact details” page. This info is derived from the content of all the contacts you chose to merge together. Take this time to adjust the new contact as you see fit. Click the drop downs just like you did earlier. When you are done hit the save button.
When it is done you will have completed the merge.
Hopefully you are now one step closer to being ready for your new Windows Phone 7 device.