Alphabetizing in Entourage Address Book

[lmplot]

I have just made the switch to MAC from Windows, and migrated everything. I must use Entourage for its Mail Merge as I handle a large list for my high school class reunions and need to send personalized e-mails. I prefer to keep these names separate from the other names in my address book. To do so, I have these surnames all begin with "ZZ-" so as to be separate from my regular contacts. This is clunky, as Entourage now shows the name with this entered along with their e-mail address when i send out.
I am looking for a way around this. Way back, our first computer was a MAC, system 7.6. In there, you could paste a blank space, it would not show, and it would alphabetize before a letter (so if I could do this i would instead have a blank space begin the names of all my regular contacts and drop the "ZZ-" from my 400 classmates, an easy fix). This does not work. All I can come up with so far is to begin my friends' surnames with a "`" (back-tic), this is the least visual, but I would like to do better if I can. Or, if there is a way, then to have two separate folders in the book, but I do not see any way to do that either.
So--has this wheel been invented? If it has and it is already here, i apologize for not being able to figure out the necessary search terms to find it.
Thanks.

 

[nadyne]

Here's one option: use categories.

In your shoes, I would create a category named "reunion". To do so, in Entourage, go to Edit -> Edit Categories. In there, you can either add a new category, or you could rename one of the default categories. Then switch to the contacts view. Select one of the contacts that you want to apply this category to, open it up, click on the Category button in the toolbar, and then apply your new category.

After you've got your contacts categorised, you can then sort your contact list via category.

Personally, I love categories for helping me keep everything in order. All of my contacts have categories associated with them, and my categories are colour-coded. That way, when I get mail from someone who's in my contact list, their incoming mail is also colour-coded with that category colour. Everything on my calendar is also categorised, and so are my tasks, which means I can tell at-a-glance what I'm spending most of my time on this week.

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Nadyne.

 

[lmplot]

That is great idea--but with one problem.
I made a quick trial, and it appears that the order thenWITHIN the category is alphabetical based on the e-mail address, which is not what I would like to see.
Am i missing away around that?