Copyright: Address Book Help v1.5


Contents

How Do I...

Add, Delete or Update Entries

Use Groups

Search for Entries

Print Entries

Import Existing Addresses

Export Addresses

Copy Entries to a Word Processor

Change the Level of Prompting

Change the Number of Columns Displayed in the Listbox

Create a Custom Field

Use the QuickSearch Field

Mail a Message

Password-Protect the Address Book


Adding, Deleting and Updating Entries

How do I add an entry?

Adding a new entry is done in two parts.  First, create a blank (new) entry.  This can be done several ways.  You can press on the [image] button, select New Record from the Action menu, or right mouse click on the listbox and choose New Record.  After a new record has been created, enter the information, create/add any groups for the entry, then press the [image] button (or select Commit changes to record from the Action menu, or right mouse click on the listbox and choose Commit changes to record).

After an entry is added, a new entry is automatically created and the screen is prepared for more entry.  This is also true at the start of a new Address Book.

How do I delete an entry?

Deleting an entry or entries can also be accomplished in several ways.  You can delete one or many entries at a time.  Whatever entries are selected in the listbox at the time will be up for deletion.  Delete entries by pressing the [image] button, choosing Delete these records from the Action menu, or right mouse clicking on the listbox and selecting Delete these records.

When you choose to delete records, the program will prompt you to verify that you do indeed want to delete the selected entries.  This extra precaution can be turned off by deselecting the Confirm on Delete feature.

How do I update an entry?

When an entry is selected, it can be modified by directly typing new information into the fields.  A record is modified when any field changes, or the groups are changed.  When you are finished making changes, press the  [image] button (ctrl-u), choose Commit changes to record from the Action menu, or right mouse click on the listbox and choose Commit changes to record.

When switching between entries, the program will prompt you to update if you made changes but did not commit them.  If you are making many modifications and do not want to be prompted to update every record, use the Auto Update feature.


Use Groups
Using Groups

How do I create a group?

Adding a new group to the Address Book can be done several ways.  You may press on the [image] button above the Groups listbox, select Add a new group from the Action menu, or right mouse click on the either of the Groups listboxes and choosing Add a new group.  Choosing this action will display a dialog box prompting you for the name of the new group.  This group will show up in the Groups and Categories and Groups belonged to listboxes.

How do I add an entry to a group?

Well, first you need to create the entry.  Then you need to create a group to which the entry will belong (or choose one of the existing groups).  Select the group to which you would like to add the entry by selecting the corresponding entry in the Groups belonged to listbox.  You can choose any number of groups with which to associate an entry.

How do I view all of the entries in a particular group?

The Groups and Categories listbox contains a list of all of the groups you create (see above).  You can look at all of the members of a group by clicking on the name of the group.  You can display any number of groups at a time.  If an entry belongs to multiple groups, it will still only be displayed once in the People, Places and Things listbox.

There are two special entries in the Groups and Categories listbox:  ***All Groups*** and ***Not Categorized***.  Selecting ***All Groups*** will effectively select every entry in the database (this includes entries that do not belong to a group), without selecting every group in the Groups and Categories listbox.  This is a quick way to show the entire contents of the Address Book.

Selecting ***Not Categorized*** has a similar effect, in that all entries that do not belong to any groups will be displayed in the People, Places and Things listbox.  This is useful for finding entries which you have not yet classified.

How do I rename a group?

Accidentally misspell a group and not catch it right away?  Not a problem.  Select the group to be renamed in the Groups and Categories listbox and press the [image] button, select Rename the current group from the Action menu, or right mouse click on the either of the Groups listboxes and choosing Rename the current group.

How do I delete a group?

Delete a group by selecting the group and pressing the [image] button, select Delete the current group from the Action menu, or right mouse click on the either of the Groups listboxes and choosing Delete the current group.

What are the effects of deleting a group?

Deleting a group removes the group from the Groups and Categories and Groups belonged to listboxes.  It also removes the group from any entries.  No entries will be deleted by deleting a group.  To delete an entire group of entries, select the group to delete in the Groups and Categories listbox (make sure it's the only group selected), then select all of the entries in the People, Places and Things listbox and delete the entries.  This is not advisable, as those entries may belong to other groups as well.


Search for Entries

What kind of searches can I do?

You can search based on any entry field in the Address Book, including groups.  For example, you can search for a particular name, address or phone number.  You can search for people named Joe who live in California and belong to a group called Cowboys.

How do I conduct a search?

You conduct searches directly from the entry screen.  The same fields that you type new entries into is where you enter search information.  Basically, you describe the entry you are looking for in the entry fields, then search based on those criteria.

There are two parts to conducting a search:  clearing the entry fields and doing the actual search.

Clearing the fields for a search

First you should clear all of the fields by pressing the [image] button, selecting Prepare screen for search from the Action menu, or right mouse clicking on the People, Places and Things listbox and choosing Prepare screen for search.   This clears out all of the entry fields.  This step is not necessary, but is recommended so that you do not have any information left over from a previously selected entry.

Executing the search

Once all of your search criteria are entered, press the [image] button, selecting Search the database from the Action menu, or right mouse clicking on the People, Places and Things listbox and choosing Search the database.  This will bring up a window with a list of the matching entries.  Any number of entries can be selected from the resulting list.  You can then either replace the current list of entries in the People, Places and Things listbox with your selected entries, add your selected entries to the existing entries in the People, Places and Things listbox, go directly to the selected entry (only available when only one entry is selected), or cancel the search.

How are matches made?

There are four levels of searching, each described in detail below.  You can specify the search method by opening the Properties dialog box (select Properties under the Edit menu).  The default property page is the search criteria.  The default search criteria is Fair Match (for those of you who are used to the searching in Address Book 1.1, this is the equivalent method).

Exact Match

Every field which has a value in it must have an exact match to be selected.  No partial matches allowed.

Good Match

Every field must have at least a partial match, and at least one field must have an exact match to be selected.

Fair Match

Every field must have at least a partial match to be selected.

Poor Match

Any field with a partial match will be selected.


Print Entries
Printing/Exporting Entries

Printing a single entry

The currently viewed address can be printed by selecting Print... from the File Menu.

Printing multiple entries (Exporting)

Printing multiple entries can be accomplished by using the Print a Formatted Report option from  the File menu.  This will bring up the Format Options dialog box, described below.  The selected entries in the People, Places and Things listbox will be written to a text file, and can be saved.  Use this method to export entries to a delimited text file.  To print the entries immediately, make sure to use the Show in Viewer option.  This will open Microsoft Write to view the formatted entries.  You can then print the entries.

This option enables you to save the entries to a text file, then use an alternate program to do the formatting you desire.  For example, you can read the text file into Word or Excel to make labels or lists.

Format Options Dialog Box

There are two ways to print to a file.  The first option, Print with line breaks, produces a line-by-line list of entries.  Here is an example (the address, city, state, zip and country fields are checked):

Francis Ancere

44, rue de l'Equerre

Montpellier, Herault 34000

France (French Republic)

John Margaglione

1160 Cushing Circle #323

St. Paul, MN 55108

United States

Will Abels, Jr.

442 Halter Ln. A

Wheaton, MT 60187

United States

This type of listing is good for producing mailing labels.  And since this produces a text file, you can import this into your favorite word processor or printing program and make labels the way you are used to.

The second method of printing to a file prints with tab stops.  This type of file produces a report like this:

Name	Country	Phone

Francis Alcade	France	33-61.52.53.83

John Margaglione	United States	(612) 644-7698

Will Abelson, Jr.	United States	(708) 872-0803

This makes for a great phone listing.  You can import it into your favorite spreadsheet program to make a fancy report.  Note that this type of output file includes appropriate headers for the columns.  Columns are separated by tabs, not spaces.

Items to Include

The previous examples selected the fields necessary to mail a letter and to dial a friend.  Other combinations can be used to produce customized reports.  Note that Name is not an option.  What good is a report without a name?  The name is always included in the report.

Show in Viewer

If this option is selected (which it is by default), the resulting file is opened in Microsoft Write (included with Windows 3.1 and 95).  If you have problems using this viewer, make sure that write.exe is in your Windows or Win95 directory and that this directory is in your path.


Import Existing Addresses

Choosing Import... from the File menu opens the Import Facility.  This facility translates text-delimited files into the Address Book format.  The difficulty in translating existing address books is that most address books have only two fields:  the name and everything else.  This limits the abilities of the address book to do selective searches and categorize data.  The Address Book has separate fields for name, address, city, state, zip, country, phone and a separate field for notes.  In addition, the Address Book has groups.  This is a unique feature of the Address Book, so after importing existing addresses, you will still need to create groups and add people to them.

note:  The Import Facility will not import a Cardfile file (*.crd).  Included with the Address Book is a program that will create a tab-delimited file from a Cardfile file.  The resulting tab-delimited file can then be read with the Import Facility.

In order to facilitate the transfer of addresses from your existing address book, the Import facility tries to map your existing entries' fields to the Address Book fields (see step 3, below).  There is no quick and easy way to import addresses correctly, but this facility greatly reduces the amount of effort necessary.

There are three steps involved in importing an existing address book.

Step 1:  Open the Import Facility.  The first screen asks for a file to import.  You can either directly enter the path to the file to import, or look for it using the Browse... button.  When a valid file is selected the Next >> button will be enabled.  Press this button to continue.

Step 2:  Select import options.  The second screen displays the data to be imported and options to control how the data is read.  First check the Preview listbox to make sure that this is the correct file to be imported.  Then check the delimiters that will be used.  A delimiter is the character used to separate fields in a line.  The most common delimiter is a tab, which is the default.  You can use several delimiters if necessary.  You may also use a custom delimiter by choosing the Other checkbox and entering the delimiter character into the corresponding text field.

If your addresses have the city, state and zip on the same line, check the City, State and Zip checkbox.  This will help correctly translate these fields to the appropriate fields in the Address Book.

Use the Start Import at row field to specify a row other than the first on which to begin the import.  If you have headers at the beginning of the file, or other non-address information, you can select another row to begin the import on.  When you are finished, press the Next >> button to continue.

Step 3:  Map the fields.  The third screen displays the records, one at a time, and enables you to map the individual fields to the appropriate Address Book fields.

The Map From listbox displays each field to be imported.  The To listbox displays the Address Book fields.  The fields on the right show the current mapping of the entry as determined by the Import program.  If this is the correct mapping, press the Next Record button under the Map From listbox.  If not, you can map the fields by selecting one or more lines in the Map From listbox and clicking on the desired field in the To listbox.  The fields on the right will display the result.  Continue these mappings until all the fields are mapped appropriately.  Then press the Next Record button to continue.  You can go to previous records using the Previous Record button.  Continue mapping the entries until all have been mapped.  Then press the Finish button to finish.

There are two "express" methods available if you just want to get the entries in the Address Book and will worry about formatting them later.  The first method, Process all records using the default mappings, lets the Import Facility decide how to best map the entries.  Depending on how the first entry was mapped, you will have a feel for how well this method will work.  If you have basic information, this will work well.  No data will be lost, as any unmappable information will default to the Notes field.  The second processing option, Process all entries using the same mapping as this entry, uses the mapping for the current entry as the basis for all mappings.  Use this option only if you have exactly the same number of lines in every entry.  After selecting one of these options, press the Finish button to process the rest of the entries.  Note that both of these options begin after the currently displayed record.  If you are on the last entry, all previous mappings will be used.  To correctly use these options, make sure that you are on record 1.

Step 4:  Save the file.  After pressing the Finish button on the third screen you will be prompted to save the file.  Remember the location for the next step.

Step 5:  Close the Import Facility.  Choose Exit from the File menu.

Step 6:  Open the new file in the Address Book.  Start by choosing New under the File menu in the Address Book.  This will create a blank address book.  Then choose Open under the File menu.  Select the new file and choose Open.


Copy Entries to a Word Processor
Copy Entries to Another Program

You can copy entries from the Address Book and paste them in other programs.  First select all entries to be copied in the People, Places and Things listbox.  Then select Copy Entries from the Edit menu.  Go to the other program and paste the data.


Change the Level of Prompting

Auto Update

You can have the Address Book automatically save changes to entries as you go by selecting the Auto update option.  This option is available by accessing the program's properties.  Select Properties under the Edit menu.  Then select the General tab and check the Automatic updates option.

Confirm on Delete

You can choose to be prompted to confirm when deleting entries by checking the Confirm on delete option in the program's General properties tab (see above).


Change the Number of Columns Displayed in the Listbox

You can choose 1 to 4 columns to display in the People, Places and Things listbox.  Using the [image] buttons above the listbox, you can change the number of columns of people to display.  Clicking on the left button decreases the amount of columns.  Likewise, pressing on the right button increases the number of columns.


Create a Custom Field

You can rename the Notes label to anything you want.  To change the label’s caption, select Properties from the Edit menu.  Then select the General tab and check the Use custom label for Notes field option.  Then enter the new caption in the edit field.


Use the QuickSearch Field

You can quickly scan the People, Places and Things listbox by using the QuickSearch field.  This field is located directly above the People, Places and Things listbox.  As you type letters into the QuickSearch box, the program scrolls through the listbox to the first matching entry.  This search method is case-insensitive.


Mail a Message

You can send a mail message to the currently selected user by clicking on the [image] button or selecting Send Mail... from the File menu.  This button will only be available if you:

1.  Have set up a MAPI-compliant mail program, such as MS Exchange, MS Mail, Lotus cc-Mail, Lotus Notes, and Novell Groupwise.  Winsock-compliant mail programs, such as Eudora,  are not supported.

2.  Have an e-mail address listed in the e-mail field.  This field accepts addresses in the name@site format, or simply the name format if the name is local to the mail program (such as on a LAN).

This command will open the corresponding mail program's compose window.  You will have access to all of the options within your normal mail program.


Password-Protect the Address Book

You can add simple password protection to your addresses by selecting the Password Protection:  On option.  Select Properties from the Edit menu.  Then select the Passwords tab and check the On option.  Turn password protection off with the Off option.