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

    <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.
        </para>
    <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
          <shortcut><keysym>KEYSYM</keysym></shortcut>. The
          <interface>New Card</interface> window will appear.  It has
          the following fields:

          <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, mark them as members of different groups,
             and search through them in a variety of ways.  This
             section will describe how to organize and find contact
             information using <application>Evolution</application>.
             CHANGE THIS paragraph: it needs a great deal of work.
          </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.
        </para>
        <para>
              To create a new folder, do this:
        </para>
        <para>
              To put a card into a folder, do this:
            </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, do this:
            </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&mdash;
           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>