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

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<chapter id="usage-contact">
  <title>The Evolution Contact Manager</title>
  <abstract>
    <para>
      The <application>Evolution</application> contact manager can
      handle all of the functions of an address book, phone book, or
      Rolodex.  Of course, it's a lot easier to update
      <application>Evolution</application> than it is to change an
      actual paper book. <application>Evolution</application> also
      allows easy synchronization with hand-held and remote devices.
      Since <application>Evolution</application> supports most major
      network protocols, including <glossterm>LDAP</glossterm>, it can
      fit into almost any 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>
  </abstract>
  <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.  The
       contact manager is illustrated in <xref
       linkend="usage-contact-fig">.  By default, the contact manager
       shows all your cards in alphabetical order, in a
       <glossterm>minicard</glossterm> format.  You can select other
       views from the <guimenu>View</guimenu> menu, and adjust the
       width of the colums by clicking and dragging the grey column
       dividers.
    </para>


    <figure id="usage-contact-fig">
      <title>Evolution Contact Manager</title>
      <screenshot>
    <screeninfo>Evolution Contact Manager Window</screeninfo>
    <graphic fileref="fig/contact" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
        </graphic>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>

    <para>
       The toolbar for the address book is quite simple:
       <itemizedlist>
    <listitem><para>
           Press <guibutton>New</guibutton> for a new contact.
    </para></listitem>

    <listitem><para>
           <guibutton>Find</guibutton> brings up an in-depth search window.
         </para></listitem>
    
    <listitem><para>
        Press <guibutton>Print</guibutton> to print one or more cards.
    </para></listitem>
        <listitem><para>
           <guibutton>Delete</guibutton> deletes a selected card.
        </para></listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </para>
    <para>
       The last feature is <guilabel>Quick Search</guilabel>; to use
       it, just type in the name of the person you're looking for and
       hit <keycap>Enter</keycap>.
       <application>Evolution</application> will search through all
       the cards to find one that matches.
    </para>
    <para>
       If there are no matches, the card display will be blank.  To
       display <emphasis>all</emphasis> of your contacts, you can
       leave the <guilabel>Quick Search</guilabel> field blank, and
       press enter.
    </para>
    <para>
       The rest of the contact manager is taken up by the display of
       your cards.  You can view that display as a table or as a list
       of cards&mdash; switch views in the <guimenu>View</guimenu>
       menu &mdash; and move through them alphabetically with the
       buttons and the scrollbar at the right of the window.
    </para>
  </sect1>
  <sect1 id="usage-contact-cards">
    <title>Destroy, Create, or Change Cards</title>

    <para>
       To delete a card, click on it once to select it, then press the
       <guibutton>Delete Card</guibutton> button.  If you have
       multiple cards selected, you'll delete mutliple cards.
    </para>
    <para>
       Adding or changing cards is slightly more complicated.  Any
       time you add information to the contact manager, whether it's
       an old card you're editing or a new card you're just adding to
       your address book, you'll use the contact editor.  To change a
       card that already exists, just double click it to open the
       contact editor window with all the current information already
       filled in.  If you want to create a new one, clicking the
       <guibutton>New Card</guibutton> button will open up that same
       window, but with empty fields instead of full ones.  Either
       way, it's the same tool for quite similar tasks, and you'll
       find that it's pretty flexible and can store quite a lot more
       than you'd think would fit onto a file card.
    </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 full
        menu bar, covered in <xref linkend="menuref">.
      </para>
      
      <figure id="usage-contact-editor-fig">
      <title>Evolution Contact Editor</title>
      <screenshot>
        <screeninfo>Evolution Contact Editor</screeninfo>
      <graphic fileref="fig/contact-editor" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
        </graphic>
    </screenshot>
      </figure>
      
      <para> The <guilabel>General</guilabel> tab contains no less
        than seven sections, each with an icon: a face, for name and
        company; a telephone for phone numbers; an envelope for email
        address; a house for postal address; a file folder for
        contacts, and a briefcase for categories.  You can guess what
        sort of information belongs in fields like <guilabel>Job
        Title</guilabel> and <guilabel>Web page address</guilabel>,
        but there are several parts of the window that are a little
        more interesting.
    </para>
    <para>
      For more information about the <guilabel>Categories</guilabel>
      organization tool, have a look at <xref
      linkend="usage-contact-organize">.  The rest of the features in
      the window are here:
 
     <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>
                     The person's first, or given, name.
             </para></listitem> 
              </varlistentry>
              <varlistentry>
            <term><guilabel>Middle: </guilabel></term>
            <listitem> <para>
              The middle name or initial, if any, goes here.
            </para></listitem>
              </varlistentry>
              <varlistentry>
            <term><guilabel>Last: </guilabel></term>
            <listitem> <para>
               The last name (surname) belongs here.
             </para></listitem>
              </varlistentry>
              <varlistentry>
            <term><guilabel>Suffix: </guilabel></term>
            <listitem> <para>
               Suffixes such as "Jr." or "III" can go here. 
            </para></listitem>
              </varlistentry>
            </variablelist>
                   </para>
        </listitem>
            <listitem>
          <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:
                    <userinput>Eva Lucianne Tester</userinput>.
                    You'll notice that the <guilabel>File
                    As</guilabel> field also fills up, but in reverse:
                    <computeroutput>Tester, Lucianne</computeroutput>.
                    You can pick <computeroutput>Eva
                    Tester</computeroutput> from the drop-down, or
                    type in your own, such as <userinput>Lucianne
                    Tester, Eva</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 Eva's information under "F" for
                      "Fictitious Helix Code Employees"
                    </para>
          </tip>
        </listitem>
          </itemizedlist>
             </para>
           </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
            <term>Multiple Values for Fields</term>
            <listitem>
          <para>
                If you click on the small arrow 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
                remember them all.  The arrow buttons next to the
                telephone and postal address fields work in the same
                way.
              </para>
          </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
      </variablelist>
     </para>
<!--- ############# This section isn't implemented yet either:
    <sect2>
      <title></title>
      <para>
        <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.  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>
    </tip>
      </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>
    </sect2>
############### SHORTCUT SECTION COMMENTED OUT FOR NOW -->

  </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.  To
       learn about categories, read <xref
       linkend="usage-contact-organize-group-category">.
    </para>

<!--
    <para>
      Another useful UNIMPLEMENTED
      <application>Evolution</application> feature is its ability to
      recognize when people live or work together.  If several 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 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 that mail folders do.  For more
         flexibility, you can also mark contacts as members of
         different categories.
      </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.  Each
       card must be in a 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.  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, 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>
    <para>
           Then, you can refer to all the cards in that category by:
           <!-- FIXME --> Waiting for Evolution to support the
           operation.
         </para>
    <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>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>
  
  <sect1 id="usage-contact-sharing">
    <title>Sharing your Cards</title>
    <para>
       If you keep your cards on a network using an
       <glossterm>LDAP</glossterm> server, you can share access to
       them.  Actually, the server software takes care of that, and
       also determines who is allowed to see and change them.  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 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&mdash; 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 set up your connection to an LDAP server, 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, and will work exactly like a local folder of
       cards, with the following exceptions:
       <itemizedlist>
          <listitem><para>
              They 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 and then synchronize your copy with the networked version
              periodically.
          </para></listitem>

      <listitem><para>
              Your ability to view, change, add or delete contacts 
              depends on the settings of the LDAP server.  For example, you may 
              read all the entries in the public Netcenter directory (available by default in the 
              <guilabel>External Directories</guilabel> folder), but you may not change or delete 
              any of them.
           </para></listitem>
       </itemizedlist>
     </para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="usage-contact-automate">
    <title>Contact Manager Tools</title>
    <para>
       The contact manager works with
       <application>Evolution</application> mail and the calendar to
       help you add new address cards quickly.  However, it can also
       manage mailing lists.  There are more tools planned, and when
       they arrive, <!-- FIXME --> they will be described in this
       section.
    </para>

    <sect2 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> also 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.
      </para>
 <!-- FIXME this feature not yet implemented  -->
      <para>
         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!</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>