<chapter id="usage-contact">
<title>The Evolution Contact Manager</title>
<para>
The <application>Evolution</application> contact manager can
handle all of the functions of an address book, phone book,
or Rolodex. Of course, <application>Evolution</application>
allows easier updates than an actual paper book. <application>
Evolution </application> also allows easy synchronization with
handheld and remote devices. Since <application>Evolution>
</application> supports most major network protocols, including
<glossterm>LDAP</glossterm>, it's easy to use over an existing
network.
</para>
<para>
Another advantage of the
<application>Evolution</application> address book is its
integration with the rest of the application. That means
that when you look for someone's address, you can also see a
history of appointments with that person. Or, you can get
an e-mail with contact information in it and create a new
address card on the spot. In addition, searches and folders
and all work in the same way they do in the other
components, so you don't have to learn another system for
similar tasks.
</para>
<para>
This chapter will cover using the
<application>Evolution</application> contact manager 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 contact manager, see
<xref linkend="config-prefs-contact">.
</para>
<sect1 id="usage-contact-basic">
<title>Getting Started With the Contact Manager</title>
<para>
To open up your address book, click on
<guibutton>Contacts</guibutton> in the shortcut bar.
</para>
<para>
The contact manager interface is broken into two main parts.
The first part is the contact display section. This can be
found at the bottom right panel of
<application>Evolution</application>. This section is where
all your contact information is displayed. Each of these
cards are organized into folders. The second section is the
administrative section which spans the top of the
<application> Evolution</application> window. This is where
you can add, edit, or delete records.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="usage-contact-cards">
<title>Creating, Deleting, and Adding Cards</title>
<para>
You can create a new card by pressing the <guibutton>New
Card</guibutton> button, or by pressing
<shortcut><keysym>KEYSYM</keysym></shortcut>. The
<interface>New Card</interface> window will appear. It has
the following fields:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem> <para>
<guilabel>Name:</guilabel> Enter the person's name here
</para></listitem>
<listitem> <para>
</para></listitem>
<listitem> <para>
<guilabel>Business:</guilabel>
</para></listitem>
<listitem> <para>
<guilabel>Job Title:</guilabel>
</para></listitem>
<listitem> <para>
<guilabel>Home:</guilabel>
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>
You can choose which fields an address card has, and create
new fields for cards. For example,
<application>Evolution</application> provides for two line
postal addresses by default, but you may have as many or as
few lines to an address as you wish. To change which
fields an address card has, choose DESCRIBE HERE HOW TO DO
THIS.
</para>
<note>
<title>Quick ways to add cards</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. While looking at a calendar
appointment, right-click any email address, and choose
<guimenuitem>Create Card for this Address</guimenuitem>.
(NOTE that feature may change! unimplemented!)
</para>
</note>
<para>
You delete a card by pressing the <guibutton>Delete
Card</guibutton> button, or by dragging it into the trash
folder.
</para>
<para>
You can move cards around just as you would move email
messages: dragging and dropping works, as does
right-clicking and choosing <guimenuitem>Move</guimenuitem>
from the menu that appears.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="usage-contact-organize">
<title>Organizing your Contact Manager</title>
<para>
Organizing your contact manager is a lot like organizing
your mail. You can have folders and searches the same way
you can with mail, but the contact manager does not allow
vFolders. It does, however, allow each card to fall under
several categories, and allow you to create your own
categories. We'll go over categories in a bit.
</para>
<para>
Another useful UNIMPLEMENTED
<application>Evolution</application> feature is its ability
to recognize when people live together. If two people in
your contact manager 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 both of
them, or just for one.
</para>
<sect2 id="usage-contact-organize-group">
<title>Groups of contacts</title>
<para>
<application>Evolution</application> lets you put cards
into folders, mark them as members of different groups,
and search through them in a variety of ways. This
section will describe how to organize and find contact
information using <application>Evolution</application>.
CHANGE THIS paragraph: it needs a great deal of work.
</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. You can create
more folders inside that one, or create other address
book folders as well. Each card must be in one and only
one folder.
</para>
<para>
To create a new folder, do this:
</para>
<para>
To put a card into a folder, do this:
</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. The difference
between folders and categories is that folders contain
cards, but category membership is a property of each
card. 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, do this:
</para>
<para>
Then, you can refer to all the cards in that category
by:
</para>
<para>
If the default categories don't suit you, you can add
your own. Here's how:
</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="usage-contact-sharing">
<title>Sharing your Cards (and keeping them to yourself)</title>
<para>
Cards can be shared over a network. 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
also share your calendars, 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 someone at
Company X, so he checks the network for the Company X
address card that states his contacts there. Since
his company also shares calendars, he then learns that
his co-worker Deanna has already scheduled a meeting
with them next Thursday. He can either go to the
meeting himself or ask Deanna to discuss his concerns
for him. Either way, I avoid 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 on your network you're talking to new job
prospects? <application>Evolution</application> lets you
decide which folders you want to make accessible to others.
</para>
<para>
To begin sharing a folder of address cards, select (something) <!--
DESCRIBE PROCESS HERE -->. The
<interface>Sharing</interface> window will pop up. It contains:
<!--DESCRIBE INTERFACE HERE-->
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="usage-contact-automate">
<title>Automating the Contact Manager</title>
<para>
The <application>Evolution</application> contact manager
can perform a wide variety of tasks for you. From speeding
up basic tasks like adding a new address card to managing
mailing lists, you'll find that the contact manager is more
than a mere address book.
</para>
<sect2 id="contact-automation-basic">
<title>Send me a card: Adding New Cards Quickly</title>
<para>
When you get information 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> adds cards from a hand-held device
during HotSync operation. For more information about
that, see <xref linkend="usage-sync">.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="contact-automation-lists">
<title>Managing a Mailing list</title>
<para>
You already know that when you are writing an email, you
can address it to one or more people, and that
<application>Evolution</application> will fill in
addresses from your contact manager's address cards if
you let it. In addition to that, you can send email to
everyone in a particular group by doing SOMETHING HERE.
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 postal mailings.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="usage-contact-automation-extra">
<title>Map It! and other extra features</title>
<para>
Need a map or directions? Click
<guibutton>MapIt</guibutton> from within the contact
manager, and <application>Evolution</application> will
map the address for you online.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>