<!-- <!DOCTYPE Chapter PUBLIC "-//GNOME//DTD DocBook PNG Variant V1.1//EN"> --> <chapter id="usage-contact"> <title>Working with Your Contacts</title> <para> This chapter will show you how to use the <application>Evolution</application> addressbook to organize any amount of contact information, share addresses over a network, and several ways to save time with everyday tasks. To learn about configuring the addressbook, see <xref linkend="config-prefs-contact">. You can import contacts from other contact management tools with the Import tool by selecting <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Import</guimenuitem></menuchoice>, or by mailing them to yourself as vCard attachments. </para> <para> The toolbar for the addressbook is quite simple. <itemizedlist> <listitem><para> Click <guibutton>New Contact</guibutton> to create a new card, or double-click in a blank space in the contact list. </para></listitem> <listitem><para> Click <guibutton>New List</guibutton> to create a new card, or double-click in a blank space in the contact list. </para></listitem> <listitem><para> The <guiicon>printer</guiicon> icon sends one or more of your cards to the printer. </para></listitem> <listitem><para> The <guiicon>stop sign</guiicon> icon stops loading contact data from the network. This button is only relevant if you are looking at contact information on a network. </para></listitem> </itemizedlist> </para> <para> Your contact information fills the rest of the display. Move through the cards alphabetically with the buttons and the scrollbar to the right of the window. Of course, if you have more than a few people listed, you'll want some way of finding them more quickly, which is why there's a search feature. </para> <sect1 id="usage-contact-cards"> <title>The Contact Editor</title> <para> To delete a contact: <orderedlist numeration="arabic"> <listitem> <para> Click once on the contact. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Press the <guibutton>Delete</guibutton> button. </para> </listitem> </orderedlist> </para> <para> If you want to add or change cards, you'll use the contact editor. To change a card that already exists, double click on it to open the contact editor window. If you want to create a new card, clicking the <guibutton>New</guibutton> button in the toolbar will open the same window, with blank entry boxes for you to fill in. </para> <para> The contact editor window has two tabs, <guilabel>General</guilabel>, for basic contact information, and <guilabel>Details</guilabel>, for a more specific description of the person. In addition, it contains a <guimenu>File</guimenu> menu and a toolbar with three items: <guilabel>Save and Close</guilabel>, <guilabel>Print</guilabel>, and <guilabel>Delete</guilabel>. </para> <figure id="usage-contact-editor-fig"> <title>Evolution Contact Editor</title> <screenshot> <screeninfo>Evolution Contact Editor</screeninfo> <mediaobject><imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/contact-editor" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber"> </imageobject></mediaobject> </screenshot> </figure> <para> The <guilabel>General</guilabel> tab has seven sections, each with an icon: a face, for name and company; a telephone for phone numbers; an envelope for email address; a globe for web page address; a house for postal address; a file folder for contacts, and a briefcase for categories. </para> <para> <variablelist> <varlistentry> <term>Full Name</term> <listitem> <para> The <guilabel>Full Name</guilabel> field has two major features: <itemizedlist> <listitem> <para> You can enter a name into the <guibutton>Full Name</guibutton> field, but you can also click the <guibutton>Full Name</guibutton> button to bring up a small dialog box with a few text boxes <variablelist> <varlistentry> <term><guilabel>Title: </guilabel></term> <listitem> <para> Enter an honorific or select one from the menu. </para></listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><guilabel>First: </guilabel></term> <listitem> <para> Enter the first, or given, name. </para></listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><guilabel>Middle: </guilabel></term> <listitem> <para> Enter the middle name or initial, if any. </para></listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><guilabel>Last: </guilabel></term> <listitem> <para> Enter the last name (surname). </para></listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><guilabel>Suffix: </guilabel></term> <listitem> <para> Enter suffixes such as "Jr." or "III." </para></listitem> </varlistentry> </variablelist> </para> </listitem> </itemizedlist> </para> <para> The <guilabel>Full Name</guilabel> field also interacts with the <guilabel>File As</guilabel> box to help you organize your contacts. </para> <para> To see how it works, type a name in the <guilabel>Full Name</guilabel> field. As an example, we'll use the Ximian mascot, <userinput>Rupert T. Monkey</userinput>. You'll notice that the <guilabel>File As</guilabel> field also fills in, but in reverse: <computeroutput>Monkey, Rupert</computeroutput>. You can pick <computeroutput>Rupert Monkey </computeroutput> from the drop-down, or type in your own, such as <userinput> T. Rupert Monkey </userinput>. </para> <tip> <title>Filing Suggestion</title> <para> Don't enter something entirely different from the actual name, since you might forget that you've filed Rupert's information under "F" for "Fictitious Ximian Employee." </para> </tip> </listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term>Multiple Values for Fields:</term> <listitem> <para> If you click on the downward pointing triangle buttons next to the <guilabel>Primary Email</guilabel> field, you can also choose <guilabel>Email 2</guilabel> and <guilabel>Email 3</guilabel>. Although the contact editor will only display one of those at any given time, <application>Evolution</application> will store them all. Entries that have information in them have a check mark next to them. The buttons next to the telephone and postal address fields work in the same way. </para> </listitem> </varlistentry> </variablelist> </para> <para> The last item in the <guilabel>General</guilabel> tab is the <guilabel>Categories</guilabel> organization tool; for information on that, read <xref linkend="usage-contact-organize">. </para> <para> The <guilabel>Details</guilabel> tab is much simpler: <itemizedlist> <listitem> <para> The briefcase - Describes the person's professional life </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> The face - Describes the person's personal life </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> The globe - Miscellanious notes </para> </listitem> </itemizedlist> <tip> <title>Contact Shortcuts</title> <para> You can add cards from within an email message or calendar appointment. While looking at an email, right-click on any email address or message, and choose <guimenuitem>Create Card for this Address</guimenuitem> or <guimenuitem>Create Card for this Sender</guimenuitem> from the menu. </para> </tip> </para> </sect1> <sect1 id="contact-search"> <title>Searching for Contacts</title> <para> <application>Evolution</application> allows searching through contacts quickly and easily. </para> <para> To search through contacts: <orderedlist numeration="arabic"> <listitem> <para> Select your search focus in the search bar. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Enter your query. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Press return to search. </para> </listitem> </orderedlist> </para> <para> You can refine searches by doing several in succession, or start over by pressing the <guibutton>Show All</guibutton> button. </para> <para> If there are no matches, the card display will be blank. When you'd like to see all the cards again, press <guilabel>Show All</guilabel>. </para> <example id="contact-quicksearch-ex"> <title>Refining a Quick Search</title> <para> Tom comes back from lunch and finds a note on his keyboard: "Curtis in sales called for you, but he didn't leave a number, and I forgot to write down the name of the company he works for. He said it was important, though." Tom is not at all annoyed. </para> <para> He opens his contacts folder, and runs a quick search for "Curtis." There are eighteen different people with that name in the file. He then enters "Sales," and <application>Evolution</application> narrows it down to the right Curtis. He only becomes annoyed when he discovers that the call was not actually important. </para> </example> <para> To perform a complex search through your contacts: <orderedlist numeration="arabic"> <listitem> <para> Open <menuchoice> <guimenu>Tools</guimenu> <guimenuitem>Search for contacts</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Name the rule in the <guilabel>Rule Name</guilabel> field. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Setup your criteria information in the <guilabel>If</guilabel> section. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> If you want to add more critera, click the <guibutton>Add Criterion</guibutton> button. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Click <guibutton>Search</guibutton>. </para> </listitem> </orderedlist> </para> <para> To show all your contacts, select <guibutton>Show All</guibutton> in the <guilabel>Search Bar</guilabel> or search with an empty query. </para> </sect1> <sect1 id="usage-contact-organize"> <title>Organizing your Addressbook</title> <para> Organizing your addressbook is a lot like organizing your mail. You can have folders and searches the same way you can with mail, but the addressbook does not allow Virtual Folders. It does, however, allow each card to fall under several categories, and allow you to create your own categories. To learn about categories, read <xref linkend="usage-contact-organize-group-category">. </para> <!-- UNIMPLEMENTED FEATURE <para> Another useful <application>Evolution</application> feature is its ability to recognize when people live or work together. If several people in your addressbook share an address, and you change the address for one of them, <application>Evolution</application> will ask you if you wish to change the address for all of them, or just for one. </para> --> <sect2 id="usage-contact-organize-group"> <title>Groups of contacts</title> <para> <application>Evolution</application> offers two ways for you to organize your cards. The first way is to use folders; this works the same way mail folders do. For more flexibility, you can also mark contacts as elements of different categories. To better integrate with email tools, you can also create lists of contacts that you can send mail to as a single person. </para> <sect3 id="usage-contact-organize-group-folder"> <title>Grouping with Folders</title> <para> The simplest way to group address cards is to use folders. By default, cards start in the <guilabel>Contacts</guilabel> folder. If you've read <xref linkend="usage-mainwindow"> then you already know that you can create a new folder by selecting <menuchoice> <guimenu>File</guimenu> <guisubmenu>New</guisubmenu> <guimenuitem>Folder</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> and that you can put new folders anywhere you like. Just like with mail, cards must be in a card folder, and no card can be in two places at once. If you want more flexibility, try <xref linkend="usage-contact-organize-group-category">. </para> <para> To put a card into a folder, just drag it there from the folder view. Remember that contact cards can only go in contact folders, just like mail can only go in mail folders, and calendars in calendar folders. </para> </sect3> <sect3 id="usage-contact-organize-group-category"> <title>Grouping with Categories</title> <para> The other way to group cards is to mark them as belonging to different categories. That means that you can mark a card as being in several categories or no category at all. For example, I put my friend Matthew's card in the "Business" category, because he works with me, the "Friends" category, because he's also my friend, and the "Frequent" category, because I call him all the time and can never remember his phone number. </para> <para> To mark a card as belonging to a category, click the <guibutton>Categories</guibutton> button at the lower right. From the dialog box that appears, you can check as many or as few categories as you like. </para> <!-- Feature Not Implemented <para> If the master list of categories doesn't suit you, you can add your own. Just enter the new category's name in the text box, then click <guibutton>Categories</guibutton> and choose <guilabel>Add to Master List</guilabel> in the window that appears. </para> --> </sect3> <sect3 id="usage-contact-organize-group-list"> <title>Creating a List of Contacts</title> <para> To create a list of contacts: <orderedlist numeration="arabic"> <listitem> <para> Open the list creation dialog box by clicking the <guibutton>New List</guibutton> button or selecting <menuchoice> <guimenu> File </guimenu> <guisubmenu> New </guisubmenu> <guimenuitem> Contact List </guimenuitem> </menuchoice>. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Enter a name for the list. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Enter names or email addresses of contacts, or just drag contacts from the main window into the list. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Choose whether you would like to hide the email addresses when you send a message to the list. Unless it is a very small list, it is recommended that you leave the addresses hidden. This is the same thing as using the "Bcc:" feature discussed in <xref linkend="usage-mail-getnsend-send-to-types">. </para> </listitem> </orderedlist> </para> <para> When you are done, click <guibutton>OK</guibutton>. The list will appear as a contact card, which you can use as you would any other. That includes emailing the list to another person, and, of course, sending email to the list. </para> <para> To mail the list, open a new email and type the name you chose for the list. Ximian Evolution will address the message to the entire list when you send it. You can also right-click on the list's address card in the Addressbook and select <guimenuitem>Send Message to List</guimenuitem>. </para> </sect3> </sect2> </sect1> <!-- we need a LDAP server up for me to test this --> <sect1 id="usage-contact-sharing"> <title>Sharing your Cards</title> <para> If you keep your cards on a network using an <glossterm linkend="ldap">LDAP</glossterm> server, you can share access to them, browse other peoples addressbooks, or maintain a shared set of contact information for your company or your department. This is the sort of feature you'll want to use if your company has a list of vendors and clients that needs constant updating. If you share calendars as well as addressbooks, people can avoid duplicating work and keep up to date on developments within their workgroup or across the entire company. </para> <example id="usage-contact-sharing-ex"> <title>Sharing Address Cards and Calendar Data</title> <para> Ray wants to schedule a meeting with Company X, so he checks the network for the Company X address card so he knows whom to call there. Since his company also shares calendars, he then learns that his co-worker Deanna has already scheduled a meeting with Company X next Thursday. He can either go to the meeting himself or ask Deanna to discuss his concerns for him. Either way, he avoids scheduling an extra meeting with Company X. </para> </example> <para> Of course, you don't want to share all of your cards— why overload the network with a list of babysitters or tell everyone in the office you're talking to new job prospects? If you keep cards on your own computer, you can decide which items you want to make accessible to others. </para> <para> To learn how to add a remote directory to your available contact folders, see <xref linkend="config-prefs-contact">. Once you have a connection, the network contacts folder or folders will appear inside the <guilabel>External Directories</guilabel> folder in the folder bar. It will work exactly like a local folder of cards, with the following exceptions: <itemizedlist> <listitem> <para> Network folders are only available when you are connected to the network. If you use a laptop or have a modem connection, you may wish to copy or cache the network directory. You do this by dragging and dropping your desired contacts into the local contacts list. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> To prevent excess network traffic, <application>Evolution</application> will not normally load the contents of LDAP folders immediately upon opening. You must click <guilabel>Display All</guilabel> before LDAP folder cards will be loaded from the network. You can change this behavior in the <interface>Contact Preferences</interface> window. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para> Your ability to view, change, add, and delete contacts depends on the settings of the LDAP server. </para> </listitem> </itemizedlist> </para> </sect1> <sect1 id="contact-automation-basic"> <title>Send me a Card: Adding New Cards Quickly</title> <para> As noted before, when you get information about a person in the mail or in a calendar entry, you can add it to an address card. To do so, right click on any email address or email message, and select <guimenuitem>Add Address Card</guimenuitem> from the menu that appears. Of course, <application> Evolution</application> can also add cards from a hand-held device during HotSync operation. For more information about that, see <xref linkend="usage-sync">. </para> </sect1> <!-- Unimplemented features: <para> You can also use the addressbook to print postal addresses on mailing labels. Future versions of <application>Evolution</application> will allow you to you export a group of cards to a spreadsheet, database, or word processor so you can print address labels or prepare large mailings. </para> <para> Need a map or directions? Click <guibutton>MapIt</guibutton> from within the addressbook, and <application>Evolution</application> will map the address for you online. </para> --> </chapter>