<!DOCTYPE Chapter PUBLIC "-//GNOME//DTD DocBook PNG Variant V1.1//EN">
<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. The
contact manager is illustrated in <xref
linkend="usage-contact-fig">
</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 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
<keysym>KEYSYM</keysym>. The <interface>Contact
Editor</interface> window will appear. It 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 with all
the items from the main window (IS THIS TRUE? DESCRIBE MENUBAR
AGAIN?)
</para>
<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 handshake for contacts; and a
briefcase for categories. The things that go into most of the
text fields should be obvious enough, so we'll just describe the
more interesting parts of the window. Aside from the
<guilabel>Categories</guilabel> feature, which is discussed in
<xref linkend="usage-contact-organize">, there are two things
you'll want to know about.
</para>
<para>
Type "Eva Lucianne Tester" into the <guilabel>Full
Name</guilabel> field. You'll notice that the <guilabel>File
As</guilabel> field also fills up, but in a phone-book fashion:
Tester, Lucianne. You can pick "Eva Tester" from the drop-down,
or type in your own. I suggest that you don't enter something
entirely different from the actual name, however. You might
forget that you've filed Eva's information under "C" for "Code, Helix."
</para>
<para>
The other little feature I want to mention involves the little
squares next to several of the fields. Click on them and you'll
get a menu of different labels; for the fields in the telephone
section, it's a long list involving things like
<guilabel>Home</guilabel>, <guilabel>Home 2</guilabel>,
<guilabel>Other Fax</guilabel>, and <guilabel>Pager</guilabel>.
Select from among them to determine which four telephone numbers
to display at any given time. Of course, these connected times
mean that people often have more than four telephone numbers.
You can display only four in the editor, but
<application>Evolution</application> can remember them all for
you. When you click the little square button for the list of
labels, any that you've already filled in will be marked.
</para>
<figure id="usage-contact-editor-fig">
<title>Evolution Contact Editor</title>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>Evolution Contact Editor</screeninfo>
<graphic fileref="fig/contact-new" format="png" srccredit="Aaron Weber">
</graphic>
</screenshot>
</figure>
<!--
<variablelist>
<listitem>
<term>
<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 and mark them as members of different categories.
Although the contact manager does not support vFolders,
categories should provide as much flexibility as you need in
grouping your address cards.
</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. If you've read <xref linkend="usage-mainwindow">
then you already know that you can create a new folder by
selecting <guisubmenu>New</guisubmenu> and then
<guimenuitem>Folder</guimenuitem> from the
<guimenu>File</guimenu> menu.
</para>
<para>
To put a card into a folder, just drag it there from the
folder view, or (SOMETHING ELSE). Remember that address
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. A dialog box will pop up with check-boxes for
different categories in it. You can select as many or as
few categories as you like.
</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>
