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

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<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&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>