My Microsoft Outlook crisis seems to have abated but it got worse before it got better. At one point, a suggested "fix" I found on a Microsoft website caused my entire Contacts list to disappear from the computer on which I was trying it. That was bad enough…but I have iCloud set up to sync all my computers. When I lost all my phone numbers and addresses on that one computer, I thought, "Oh, well. At least I still have 'em on two other computers, my iPad and my iPhone. And as I was thinking that, iCloud "synced" everything and wiped the Contacts out on the two other computers, my iPad and my iPhone. How wonderful. Fortunately, I had a recent backup.
The backup doesn't seem to be experiencing quite as big a problem with Outlook deciding everyone is in the United States of America. It inserts that info in more places than I want it and I'm still groping for a way to turn it off. But it's no longer telling me France is in the U.S. of A. What I need to do now is find a way to delete all the bizarre birthdays I've been stuck with since I foolishly tried a utility that imported data from Facebook for anyone who was already in my Contacts list. If you are and you entered your birthday on Facebook, your birthday is now on your listing in my Contacts list except that the year has been changed to 2010. I don't know why it did that but it did that.