Mac OS X includes the Address Book application, in which you can store all your contact information. The most obvious use for this information is within Mail, but other applications can access the Address Book as well. This is useful because it enables you to use a single contact database for other applications that use information about your contacts, such as iChat.
Address Book is based on virtual cards, or vcards. A vcard is an electronic information card that you can drag and drop between applications to transfer the information contained on that card. You can also share vcards with other users to exchange information. For example, you can drag someone else's vcard onto your Address Book to quickly add that person's information to your list of contacts. TIP Address Book is not the only application that can work with vcards. Many other applications can use vcards. For example, Microsoft Entourage can read vcards, so you can provide your vcard to someone who uses that application and that person can easily add your contact information to her contact database. Using the Address BookWhen you open the Address Book, you will see that its window consists of two columns and a card by default. The columns are Group and Name. The Group pane shows the groups you have created. The Name pane lists each contact individually. The Card pane shows the card that is selected in the Name pane (see Figure 12.1). Figure 12.1. The Address Book is a powerful tool you can use to manage all of your contact information.In the upper-left corner of each card, you will see an image well you can use to place an image for your contact, such as a photo of the person for whom you created the card. You can add a photo to a card by dragging a photo onto this well. The photo you use can be a JPEG, GIF, TIFF, or PDF file and should be 64x64 pixels. Working with Address Book Contact InformationAlthough Address Book provides the standard functions you expect, such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers, the information in Address Book is dynamic. For example, when a contact's card includes an e-mail address, you can click on the address to send the contact an e-mail. When you include a Home page for a contact, you can click on it to visit that Home page. When the contact has a .Mac account, you can open the contact's iDisk. You can also use the contact's card to chat with the person using iChat. To locate information in Address Book, you can browse your contacts or search for specific contacts. To browse your contacts, perform the following steps:
The information in Address Book is extremely flexible. The fields that are displayed for each contact can be configured individually. When you display a card, only the fields that contain information are displayed. For example, compare Figure 12.1 and Figure 12.2 to see how Address Book has reconfigured the card display for cards with different amounts of information. Figure 12.2. This card contains information for someone at least a little bit more real than that shown in the preceding figure.You can also search to locate a contact's information.
To view all of your contacts again, click the X button that appears in the Search field when you perform a search. When working with the Address Book, you can do the following tasks:
You can change the view of the Address Book to show only cards by clicking the View Card Only button, by choosing View, Card Only, or by pressing +2. The window will collapse down to the card only. You can add cards, edit cards, or browse cards from the collapsed window. Adding Addresses to Your Address BookObviously, before an address book is of any value, it has to have some information in it. There are several ways to get information into your Address Book:
Creating Your Own Address CardYou should create an address card for yourself, mostly so that you can easily send your contact information to other people simply by sending them your vcard. The first time you open Address Book, a card is created for you from your information in Mac OS X. For example, if you entered an e-mail address when you installed Mac OS X, that address is included in your address card automatically. Your registration information is used to add an address, phone number, and other information. Your card's icon will have a silhouette next to your name. When you select the card, the image well will be marked with the text "me." TIP You can export a vcard, by viewing it and choosing File, Export vCard. You can export your own card, or any other card for that matter, as a vcard by viewing the card, holding down the Control key, clicking the mouse button, and choosing Export vCard. Choose a location, name the vcard, and click Save. If you want to create another card for yourself for some reason, you can create a new card and enter your contact information in it. After you have created your address card, select it and choose Card, This Is My Card. Adding Addresses ManuallyAs you might expect, you can add people to your Address Book by inputting their information manually. To manually add an address, do the following:
Adding an Address from an E-Mail MessageYou can create a contact in your Address Book by adding the sender's information from an e-mail message to it. To add a contact from an e-mail that you receive in the Mail application, do the following:
NOTE If you forget that you have already added a sender to your Address Book and add her again, another address card will be created. Address Book does not check to see whether the person exists already, which can lead to having multiple address cards for the same person. Using Vcards to Add Information to Your Address BookThe benefit to using a vcard is that you can add lots of information about a contact with very little work on your part. When you receive a vcard from someone, use the following steps to add that person's address card to your Address Book.
NOTE Vcard files have the filename extension .vcf (Virtual Card File). Importing Addresses from Another ApplicationIf you have used another e-mail application in the past, you probably have an Address Book or Contact database in that application. If that application supports vcards, it is simple to export vcards from the application and then add them to Address Book. As an example of how this works, the following steps show you how to export contacts from Microsoft's Entourage e-mail application and then add those contacts to the Address Book. Because Entourage supports vcards, you can create vcards for your Entourage contacts and then import those contacts into Address Book.
NOTE Unfortunately, if the application you have used for your contact information does not support vcards, there isn't a way to import its information into Address Book. It is likely that not all the information in your current address book or contact list will make it into the Address Book application. For example, if you have added Category information for your Entourage contact list, that information will not be imported into the Address Book. After you have imported contacts into Address Book, you should check them over so that you know exactly what information made it in, and what didn't. If you lost any important information, you might have to spend some time re-creating it within Address Book. Editing Addresses in Your Address BookTo edit an address in your Address Book, use the following steps:
TIP You can use the Add Field button to add fields to the card. You can also add fields by using the Card, Add Field command. On the Add Field menu, you can choose the type of field you want to add. Many of the data fields have pop-up menus containing the data field's label. You can open these menus and select a new label for that field. The changes you make by doing this affect only the current address card; this means that you can configure the information for a specific card independent of other cards. For example, if you know someone who has three mobile phones, you can select Mobile Phone as the label for three of the fields on that person's address card. You can also choose Custom to create custom field labels for existing or new fields. You can quickly swap the last name with the first name for the card by viewing the card and choosing Card, Swap First/Last Name. You can view cards by company instead of by name. View the card you want to change and choose Card, Show as Company. To view a card by name again, choose Card, Show as Person. To remove an image from a card, view the card and choose Card, Clear Custom Image. If you don't want a field's data to appear on a card, select the data and delete it. The data will be replaced with the type of data it is, such as Email for an e-mail address. The data will not appear on the card when it is viewed. NOTE After you add a field, you can't remove it. You can only delete its data so that it doesn't appear on the card any more. To delete a card from the Address Book, select it and press Delete. Click Yes in the resulting prompt and the card will be deleted. Working with Address GroupsAddress groups enable you to e-mail multiple people using a single address. Working with an address group is just like working with any other address card in your Address Book. Creating an address group is simple, as you can see in the following steps:
TIP You can create a new group and add selected address cards to it by first selecting the cards you want to place in the new group and choosing File, New Group From Selection. A new group will be created and will include the cards you selected. You can view a group by selecting it on the Group column. The Name column will show only those cards that are included in the group. You work with the cards in a group just as you do individual cards. For example, you can edit the card, use it to send e-mail to that individual, and so on. To remove a card from a group, view the group, select the card you want to remove, and press Delete. After you confirm the action, the card will be removed from the group. However, the card will still exist in the Address Book. You can also export a group as a vcard. Select the group, hold down the Control key, click the mouse button, and choose Export Group vCard. Choose a location, name the card, and click Save. You can use the group's vcard just like vcards for individuals. If any of the cards you add to a group includes more than one e-mail address, you can edit the mailing list for the group to set the specific addresses that are used.
TIP You can back up your Address Book by choosing File, Backup Database. If you want to return to the version of the database you have backed up, choose File, Revert to Database Backup. Addressing E-MailThere are several ways in which you can address e-mail to people in your Address Book.
NOTE When you send e-mail from the Address Book, the e-mail application used is the default e-mail application that is selected in the Internet pane of the System Preferences utility. |