Address book and Mail help needed

Question

Greetings. I recently switched from Entourage to Mail. I'm having some troubles with Address Book and Mail. I hope that someone can help.
1. I can't seem to find an easy way to determine if an email address is already in the Address Book. In Entourage, if the email address is not in the address book, it gives me the option to add it with a link at the top of the mail window. How can I tell if an email address from an incoming mail is in the Address Book or not?
2. In Mail, when I right-click on a mail address that I am sure is in the Address Book, it often gives me the option to "Add to Address Book". Other times, it will give me the option to "Open in Address Book". There doesn't seem to be a pattern. Is there something that I can do to fix this inconsistency?
3. In Entourage, when adding a new email address to the address book, I can just click on the button in the mail window to do that, which automatically opens the new address, and then I can edit information and add a category. In Mail, the same functionality requires several separate steps (Add to Address Book, open Address Book, find new email address, click on edit to make changes, drag to Group). Is there some way to streamline the process in Mail?
Thanks much.

Answer 1

I have the same problem as #2.
I have a contact who sends me email from two addresses. However, in mail, the two address return different sender names - one is his initial "j" and the other is his full name.
This makes it annoying to sort threads by the "from" field, or search for that sender.
I added both to the address book, opened address book, and selected "merge contacts."
They merged. But in mail, they still return different sender names! Merge failed!
After merge, all the "j" emails still offer "add to address book" when i click them. When I do this, it creates a new address card, and if I merge this with the old merged card, then the email goes back to offering "add to address book" instead of updating all those emails with the sender's full name. Basically Mail is ignoring the address book just for that sender!
I tried "add to address book" -> quit mail -> open address book
There was the entry.
Then open mail,
There was the email, "open in address book" appeared and so I did.
I edited the name to match the full name.
Go back to mail. Still listed in mailbox as "j" instead of full name.
Now "add to address book" has returned to the choices!
Seems like a bug!!!