The fastest way to add a contact

Open Outlook and go to the People tab at the bottom of the left sidebar. Click the New Contact button near the top left. Type the person's name in the Full Name field, then add their email address in the Email field. Click Save and you're done — the contact is now in your address book and will appear in autocomplete when you start typing their name in a new email.

If you want to add more details like a phone number, physical address, or notes, you can do that in the same form before you save. But the name and email are all you need to get your free guide.

Key Takeaways

  • The People tab at the bottom of the left sidebar is where all your contacts live in Outlook.
  • You only need a name and email address to save a contact — everything else is optional.
  • Once saved, Outlook will suggest the contact's name and email when you start typing it in a new message.
  • You can add phone numbers, addresses, and notes to a contact after you create it by opening the contact and clicking Edit.

Adding a contact from an email you received

If someone has already sent you an email, you don't have to type their information manually. Open the email, then right-click on their name at the top of the message. Select Add to Contacts from the menu that appears. Outlook will create a new contact with their name and email address already filled in.

This is faster than typing it yourself and reduces the chance of spelling mistakes. You can still edit the contact afterward to add a phone number or other details.

Adding more information to a contact

After you create a contact with just a name and email, you can add more details whenever you want. Go to the People tab, find the contact in the list, and click on it to open it. Click the Edit button (or double-click the contact name), and you'll see fields for phone number, job title, company, physical address, and notes.

Fill in whatever information you want to keep. You can add a work phone, mobile phone, or home phone — Outlook lets you label each one. When you're done, click Save again. The contact now has all the details you entered.

Organizing contacts into groups

If you have many contacts, you can organize them into groups so you can email multiple people at once. In the People tab, click New Group near the top. Give the group a name like "Team" or "Family" and click Add Members. Search for each person you want to add and click their name to include them.

Once the group is saved, you can type the group name in the To field of a new email and it will send to everyone in that group. This is much faster than typing individual names when you need to reach the same set of people regularly.

Syncing contacts across devices

If you use Outlook on your phone or tablet as well as your computer, your contacts sync automatically if you're signed into the same Microsoft account on all devices. When you add a contact on your computer, it appears on your phone within a few minutes. The same works in reverse — contacts you add on your phone show up on your computer.

This sync only works if you're using a Microsoft account (like outlook.com or a work account through Microsoft 365). If you're using Outlook with a Gmail account or another email provider, contacts may not sync across devices, and you'll need to check your email provider's settings.

Importing contacts from another email program

If you're switching to Outlook from Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or another email program, you can bring your existing contacts with you. In Outlook, go to File at the top left, then Open & Export, then Import/Export. Choose Import from another program or file and follow the steps to select the file that contains your old contacts.

Most email programs let you read your contacts as a file (usually a .csv or .vcf file). Once you have that file, Outlook's import tool will read it and add all those contacts to your address book. This saves you from typing hundreds of names and emails by hand.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add a contact without an email address?

Yes. You can create a contact with just a name and add a phone number or physical address instead of an email. However, if you want to email that person from Outlook, you'll need to add their email address at some point.

What happens if I delete a contact by accident?

Open the Deleted Items folder in Outlook (usually at the bottom of the left sidebar), find the contact, right-click it, and select Move to put it back in your People folder. If you've already emptied the Deleted Items folder, the contact is gone and you'll need to add it again.

Can I share a contact with someone else?

You can forward a contact's details by opening the contact, clicking the three dots menu, and selecting Forward Contact. This sends the person's information as an attachment that the recipient can add to their own address book.

Why isn't my contact showing up when I type their name?

Make sure you clicked Save after creating the contact — if you closed the form without saving, the contact wasn't added. Also check that you're typing in the To field of an email, not somewhere else in Outlook. If the contact exists but still doesn't appear, try closing and reopening Outlook.