dialing phone numbers with extension (x)

Question

dialing phone numbers with extension (x)

Hi,

I manage my contacts in Outlook and for telephone numbers with extensions I use the Outlook standard format +countrycode (areacode) phonenumber x ext

e.g. +49 (911) 12345 x 123

By using the Outlook "Check Phone number" dialog this is the only allowed format. You get this dialog by pressing for instance the "Business..." button in the phone numbers section of a contact. So far so good - it even syncs perfectly with the iPhone.

But if I want to dial that number it simply tells me the number is invalid (because the iPhone DOES NOT dial the extension!). Theoretically it should dial the number, pause at the x and then dial the extension.

So I could of course save ALL my phone numbers without the extension (which would be an annoying job) but then I would loose the information about the extension and furthermore I could not use the standard dialog in Outlook. Even more worse: because I sync with the business directory in my company they would override my local settings. I simply cannot tell them to store the phone numbers without extensions company wide only because my iPhone...

Blackberry and Windows Mobile systems dial those numbers without problems.

Any hints?

Regards

Dirk

Windows PC, Windows Vista

Posted on Jul 28, 2008 11:42 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 23, 2008 1:50 AM in response to cranfordio

The problem is that in Outlook the standard dialog will put an x before the extension. I cannot change this dialog. I'm really wondering that obviously nobody is using this wizard dialog... Otherwise everyone would have that "x"!

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Answer 2

Aug 25, 2008 3:23 PM in response to cranfordio

Sure. That would be super if you could add a "," in the edit phone screen. I have only found a way to add a "+" "*" or a "#". How do I add a "," without editing in Outlook and then re-syncing?

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Answer 3

JaneiR36

Level 1

58 points

Aug 25, 2008 11:57 PM in response to CnDnMax

Comma = pause. It's below the * key when you go to edit the number. I tried the holding down the * key to get a comma and for some reason it didn't work. it just typed a star. Am I missing something?

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Answer 4

Aug 8, 2008 10:20 AM in response to Dirk Schiffner

I don't know if this will work for you, but if I put a pause in the number (which is a comma) then it seems to work fine. I have had no problems with this in Outlook either. So in your example it would look like this: +49 (911) 12345 ,123

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Answer 5

JaneiR36

Level 1

58 points

Aug 23, 2008 6:52 AM in response to Dirk Schiffner

You can change the format once it's synced into iPhone by changing the x to a comma. How many numbers are we talking about here? You should also write feedback to the iPhone feedback guys (do a search on this forum for the feedbck URL) asking them to recognize other imported formats for pauses and do some sort of auto-conversion during the syncing process.

Indeed I do not use Outlook, so I can't help you from that end.

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Answer 6

Oct 6, 2008 9:29 AM in response to Dirk Schiffner

Did you ever get a good resolution to this issue? I sync my iPhone to a corporate Exchange server and cannot change the phone number format, like you. The iPhone fails to complete the call with any person who has an extension. How are you getting the iPhone to sync with the corporate Exchange server and translate the extension to a pause without editing the each one individually? I have over 1000+ names so that approach is completely impractical.

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