path: root/help/C/usage-contact.sgml

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<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>
      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 criteria, 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>
        <para>
           Ximian Evolution cannot store contact lists on Exchange
           servers.
        </para>

      </sect3>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>
  
  <sect1 id="usage-contact-sharing">
    <title>LDAP: Shared Addressbooks on a Network</title>

    <para>
      The <glossterm linkend="ldap">LDAP</glossterm> protocol was
      created to let users share contact information over a network by
      sharing access to a central address book.  LDAP allows a company
      to maintain a shared set of contact information for a company or
      department.  Many companies keep a common LDAP address book for
      all their employees or for client contacts.
    </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 LDAP 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>
              You cannot add, delete, or alter cards on the LDAP
              server. If you need to change information there, you
              will need to speak to your system administrator
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
    </para>
    <sect2 id="usage-contact-sharing-setup">
      <title>Configuring Evolution to use LDAP</title>
      <para>
    For information about setting up
    <application>Evolution</application> to use LDAP, please refer
    to <xref linkend="config-prefs-contact-ldap-add" />
      </para>
    </sect2>
  </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.
      <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>