path: root/help/C/link-contacts.page

<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
  type="topic"
  style="task"
  id="link-contacts">
      
  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="index#contacts" />
    <link type="seealso" xref="send-message" />
    <link type="seealso" xref="audio-call" />
    <link type="seealso" xref="video-call" />
    <desc>Merge and separate different contacts into a single one.</desc>
    <revision pkgversion="2.32" version="0.1" date="2010-09-06" status="draft"/>
    <revision pkgversion="2.32" version="0.2" date="2010-09-09" status="review"/>
    <credit type="author">
      <name>Milo Casagrande</name>
      <email>milo@ubuntu.com</email>
    </credit>
    <license>
      <p>
        Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0
      </p>
    </license>
  </info>

  <title>Combine and separate contacts</title>
  <p>
    If one, or more, of your contacts has multiple accounts with different
    messaging services, you can combine these contacts into a single one.
  </p>
  <p>
    The resulting contact is called a <em>meta-contact</em>: a contact composed
    from different single contacts.
  </p>
  <p>
    If you have a Jane Smith contact that is using three different messaging
    services like:
  </p>
  <list>
    <item>
      <p>
        janes@facebook
      </p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>
        jane.smith@gmail
      </p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>
        jane_smith@hotmail
      </p>
    </item>
  </list>
  <p>
    You can combine these contacts into a single Jane Smith one.
  </p>
  
  <section id="linking">
    <title>Combining contacts</title>
    <steps>
      <item>
        <p>
          From the <gui>Contact List</gui> window, right-click one of the contact
          that has different accounts, and select
          <gui style="menuitem">Link Contacts...</gui>.
        </p>
      </item>
      <item>
        <p>
          From the left pane in the <gui>Link Contacts</gui> window,
          select the contacts you want to combine.
        </p>
      </item>
      <item>
        <p>
          Click <gui style="button">Link</gui>.
        </p>
      </item>
    </steps>
    <note>
      <p>
        When a meta-contact has been created, the default contact that will be used
        to have a conversation with when you double-click on it, is the contact with
        the highest presence on-line.
      </p>
    </note>
  </section>
  
  <section id="unlinkg">
    <title>Separating contacts</title>
    <steps>
      <item>
        <p>
          From the <gui>Contact List</gui>, right-click the contact
          to separate, and select <gui style="menuitem">Link Contacts...</gui>.
        </p>
      </item>
      <item>
        <p>
          Click <gui style="button">Unlink</gui>.
        </p>
      </item>
    </steps>
  </section>
</page>