Copyright: Help for Personal Address Book 4.0
Citation: Help for Personal Address Book 4.0


Runing Personal Address Book
Running Personal Address Book

After you install the Personal Address Book 4.0 on your computer go to Start->Programs and click on the Personal Address Book icon. When you execute PAB for the first time, an empty data file called data.pab will be automatically created. If you're upgrading from a previous version of PAB (versions 1.6 - 3.0), you will be asked if you want to convert you old data file to a new format. It's recommended that you do. You can reverse that process later (see: Saving Found Records). If you're upgrading from a version prior to 1.6, your data file will be converted to a new format and your old data will be saved in the data.pab.orig file (see also: Loading Files).

When the main window gets displayed you can start entering addresses by clicking on the Add button. After you're done, you can press the [image] (asterisk) flat button on the main window (just above the address display area) to view all records in the database.

To uninstall Personal Address Book 4.0 go to the Control Panel, double click on the "Add/Remove Programs" icon, select "Personal Address Book 4.0" from the list of installed programs and click on the "Add/Remove" button to start the uninstallation process.


Adding/Editing Records

Adding New Records

From the main menu choose Function->Add.... A new dialog box will open up with several edit boxes where you will enter your data. The edit boxes are grouped by Name & Address, Phone(s), E-mail & WWW, Note and Location/Category. The edit boxes are self explanatory, however some of them are worth mentioning here.

PHONE(S) - There are 3 edit boxes where you can enter phone numbers. To the right of the edit boxes there are 4 checkboxes that correspond to 5 categories: 2nd line, fax, cell phone, pager. The fifth (or rather the first) category is the main line which is assumed if you don't check any of the checkboxes. Initially the checkboxes are disabled but when you get to the point where you're ready to enter a phone number, the checkboxes will be enabled. At this point, you will notice a little red arrow pointing to the edit box that the phone number is being entered into. After you enter a phone number you may want to mark it (for example as fax), then the arrow will show you what phone number the current checkbox selection corresponds to.

LOCATION - When you write down someone's address it might be their home or work or school address. You have to have means of identifying the location of the addresses and/or phone numbers. There are 5 options to choose from initially: Home, School, Office, Work (not everyone works in an office), Other. If you select the "Other" option, the edit box below will be automatically enabled and you will be able to type in your own specific location that you want to assign to the record.

You can add, edit and remove items from the list box to suit your needs by right clicking on the list box and choosing an appropriate menu item. You may also set the order of the items in the list box by selecting an item and dragging it to its new spot.

One other feature of this list box is that you can toggle its name between Location and Category (see: Settings). I've been asked by various PAB users to add this feature to facilitate better address categorization and organization.

When you're done entering the address just click Save (or press SHIFT & ENTER) to save the record in the database. Make sure that at least one of the search fields (Note, First Name, Last Name, Address, E-mail, WWW Address, Phone Number) contain data. If you leave all of these fields blank the program won't let you save the data. It needs to have some way of searching for the record(s) later.

Editing Existing Records

From the main menu choose Function->Edit.... If you don't have a record displayed already, you will be prompted to choose whether you want to add a new record or cancel the operation. If you click YES refer to the Adding New Records section above. Otherwise you will get the same dialog widow as in the above section, but the relevant fields will be filled with data.


Searching for Addresses

First, in the box labeled Search/Sort by select the field you want to perform the search on (e.g. First Name, Last Name etc.). The Last Name is chosen for you by default. Next, click on the checkboxes below to narrow the search criteria.

•  Starts With: Looks for records that start with the same sequence of characters as the string in the Search For edit box. Checking this checkbox automatically disables the Match Whole Field checkbox.

•  Case Sensitive: Checking this box forces a case sensitive search.

•  Match Whole Field: Looks for records whose field(s) contain the exact copy of the string in the Search For edit box. Checking this box automatically disables the Starts With checkbox.

Finally go to the box labeled Search For and type the string that you want to search for and click on the Find button.

You can use the flat buttons (also called the speed buttons) to perform quick searches. Pressing one of those buttons is equivalent to typing the button's letter in the Search For edit box and clicking on the Find button. For example, if you want to display all the records in the database you can type *  in the Search For box and hit the Find button or just click on the [image] speed button.

If a record is found, it will be displayed in a white rectangular area right beneath flat buttons. Unless PAB is in the Additive Search mode (see: Other Features & Options), the results of previous searches will disappear. Only the newly found records will be displayed. You can resize the main window if all contents of the address record can't fit in the display area. If there is more than one record found, then you can view the other records by pressing the navigation buttons with >, <, >>, << signs or the arrow keys on the computer keyboard (see: Keyboard Shortcuts). The number next to these buttons is the counter. It shows how many records were found and which record you're viewing. For example, 3/7 means that your looking at the third record out of 7 that were found.


Additive Search Mode
Additive Search Mode - a mode in which consecutive searches do not overwrite the results of previous searches but append results to the list of currently found records. If you find that you need to clear the current list of found records click the Clear All button.


Searching Using Wild Cards
Using Wild Cards

The following are symbols that allow you to perform wild card searches. This feature is useful when doing some cleaning up. When you enter these in the Search For edit box in the Main Window the results will be as follows:

* - Finds all records in the database.

? - Finds only the records that contain data in the field(s) that you specify in the Search/Sort By combo box. If used when searching on more than just one record (e.g. Phone (any field)) then the search will yield all the records that have data in all of the searched fields.

! - Finds only the records that DO NOT contain data in the field that you specify in the Search/Sort By combo box. If used when searching on more than just one record (e.g. Address (any field)) then the search will yield all the records that DO NOT have data in any of the searched fields.


Using the Record Browser & the Note Browser

Using the Record Browser

Choosing Options->Record Browser menu item displays a floating list box with all the currently found records. The fields shown in the list box (by default) are Last Name followed by a comma and the First Name. You can change the display field(s) in the settings. Using the Record Browser is just a convenient way of scanning through a batch of records. Another way of displaying the Record browser is to click on the counter flat button, provided that at least 1 record has already been found and currently displayed.

You can perform certain operations while in the Record Browser window. If you just want to look at the contents of the record, simply select the record from the list, using the mouse or the keyboard arrow buttons, and it will be displayed in the display area of the main window. You can edit a record by double clicking on it or pressing ENTER after making a selection. You can also right click on the Record Browser and a popup menu will let you choose the action that you want to perform.

If PAB is in the Multiple Selection mode you can select several records at a time. The currently displayed address will be grayed in the Main Window and a small rectangular box (above the right top corner of the Display Area) will appear, indicating how many records are selected. At this point you can perform batch Delete and/or Hide functions.

Using the Note Browser

If the (...) symbol gets displayed in the Note field it means that it contains more information that could be displayed. You can double click on the Note label or the Note field to invoke the Note browser and view all the information. In version 4.0, you can leave the Note Browser open while you perform other searches.


Multiple Selection Mode
Multiple Selection Mode - allows for selection of more than 1 record in the Record Browser.


Sorting Records

When you start the program, or after you press the Clear All button, the Sort checkbox gets displayed underneath the Search/Sort By dropdown box. If you check the checkbox, then when you perform a search the data will be sorted in alphabetical order by the field that you just selected. The checkbox then becomes a Sort button. When the button is in the disabled state it indicates that the data currently displayed is sorted. If you choose another field from the Search/Sort By dropdown box the Sort button becomes enabled allowing you to sort the data by that field. When you sort records you may sometimes come across records whose sorting field contains no data. A standard sorting algorithm would put these records in front of the records whose sort field contains data. I found that to be impractical here and implemented an algorithm that puts the empty sort field records at the end of the list.


Printing

Personal Address Book 4.0 allows you to print Address Books and Envelopes with address information.

•   Printing Envelopes

•   Printing Address Books


Printing Envelopes

Under Function->Print choose Print Envelope menu item. A window resembling an envelope will appear with  several buttons and edit boxes.

•  the To: edit box is for the address of a person or place that the envelope is going to be mailed to. If you do not have any addresses currently displayed in the database you'll need to enter the information yourself otherwise the currently displayed record will appear in this box. You can also scroll to a desired record using the navigation buttons "<" & ">".

•  the From: edit box is for the return address. You'll need to enter it yourself unless you specify a default return address in the settings section. A checkbox directly underneath it indicates whether the return address is to be printed on the envelope or not. NOTE: This checkbox appears only if the return address is entered in the From: box.

•  the Font button displays a dialog that allows you to specify the kind of font you want to use.

•  the Envelope button displays a standard page setup window. Generally this window will allow you to choose the printer you want to print to, paper type, size and orientation, etc. But keep in mind that these options are dependent upon the printer and the printer driver that you currently have set up on your system.

•  the Print button prints the information from the To: and optionally the From: edit boxes to the printer.

•  the Help button brings up this help window.

•  the Close button closes the Print Envelope dialog.


Address Book
Address Book - a set of addresses to be printed


Printing Address Books

Under Function->Print choose the Print Address Book menu item. A small window will appear with several last minute printing options. Note that if you don't have any address(es) currently displayed the Print Address Book menu option is disabled.

•  the Print Page Markers checkbox allows you to print the page beginning and the page ending markers in the upper right corner of a page. The markers content depends on the field that the records were sorted by. Suppose that you found all the people that start with the letter S and you sorted them  by last name. The markers on each page of the printout will indicate the last name of the first person on the page and the last name of the last person on that same page. For example: if the last name of the first person on the page is Shue and the last name of the last person on the page is Smith then the markers will print "Shue - Smith" for that particular page.

•  the Page Numbers checkbox allows numbering of the printout pages.

•  the Print To File checkbox enables you to direct the address book printout to a file rather than the printer.

•  the Location edit box is where you can enter the location of the file you want to print to. You can use the browse button [...] to select that location with the Open File dialog.

•  the Include Field Names checkbox will print out the field name before printing the contents of each field.

•  the Include Title checkbox will print out the title at the top of the printout.

•  the Append checkbox determines whether the printout will be appended to an already existing file or if that file will be overwritten with new addresses.

•  the Font button displays a dialog that allows you to specify the kind of font you want to use.

•  the Page Setup button displays a standard page setup window. Generally this window will allow you to choose the printer you want to print to, paper type, size and orientation, etc. But keep in mind that these options are dependent upon the printer and the printer driver that you currently have set up on your system.

•  the Print button prints the information from the To: and optionally the From: edit boxes to the printer.

•  the Help button brings up this help window.

•  the Close button closes the print window.

Personal Address Book 4.0 allows you to print only the fields that you explicitly select. Checking the Allow Selecting Fields for Printing checkbox in the Settings will enable a white arrow flat button near the top right corner of the window. Clicking on it will display or hide the fields checklist.


Field Selection
By default all fields are selected for printing


White Arrow
- Show field selection checklist

 - Hide field selection checklist


Fields Checklist
Fields Checklist - a control where you can select specific fields to be printed


Loading Files

Personal Address Book 4.0 allows you to load and view different files. Under File->Load New... you can select a new file to be loaded into the application. The file has to be in one of the PAB's formats in order to be properly loaded. After you load a file into PAB the previously loaded file gets saved and closed and you will be able to view only the addresses contained within the newly loaded file. Refer to section on importing data if you want to combine contents of two files.

The menu item File->Load Main allows you to quickly load the file that you designated as the Main Data File in the Settings.


Main Data File
Main Data File - a file designated as the main database file in the settings of the Personal Address Book under the Data File tab. Data.pab is the default main data file.


PAB Formats
PAB distinguishes between 3 file formats for loading purposes:

•  PAB ver. 1.0 & 1.5 (obsolete - always converted to the newest format)

•  PAB ver. 1.6, 2.0 & 3.0 (optionally converted to the newest format)

•  PAB ver. 4.0


Importing Files

Choosing File->Import... menu item displays the Import dialog. The dialog contains several controls which specify the import file's formatting criteria:

1. PAB Format allows you to import files from older and/or current versions of Personal Address Book.

2. Delimited Format allows to import ASCII files whose fields are comma or tab delimited. Optionally the fields may  be wrapped around by another character. Most often that character is a double quotation mark.


Saving Found Records

Choosing File->Save As... menu item will display the Save As dialog. The dialog contains several controls which specify the format in which you can to save the currently displayed records. If you're saving records to an already existing file you have an option to append the records to the file, by checking the Append checkbox, or overwrite the file with new data.

The Tab Delimited format allows you to save PAB's data into a file where the data fields are delimited by the ASCII TAB character. This format is very useful if you want to export data into other database aplication formats.


Transferring Addresses to Other Applications

Cut & Paste

When an address is displayed in the white display area, you can extract any or all the information you can see there. Just highlight the fields of information you need and right click on the white display area. A popup menu will allow you to choose Copy and the highlighted components will be copied to the Windows clipboard. At this point you can use any word editor and paste it there. If you want all the displayed info, just right click on the display area, choose Select All (w/o separators) or Select All (w/ Separators), then choose Copy and again you can paste it in your favorite word processor.

Export Plug-in

In order to be able to export data from PAB you need to download a free copy of the Export plug-in for PAB. It is not included with the installation version to minimize the installation file size and at the same time minimize the download time of the application. You can find your free copy at the Personal Address Book Web Page at: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Chip/2719/AddrBook.html

This plug-in does not work on some Windows 98 systems.

NOTE: Unless you install the plug-in the options below do not show up in the File Menu.

When you choose File->Export you'll get a popup menu with options to export data. DBF File, Excel Spread Sheet, and Lotus 1-2-3 Spread Sheet menu items export PAB data to files in these particular formats. You can later use the corresponding applications that use these file formats to manipulate the data in any way you want.


Dialing Phone Numbers

When you choose Address->Dial option from the menu a dialog box will appear with several pre-dialing options. Depending on how many phone numbers there are entered for the currently displayed record they will show up in the three edit boxes. At this point, you can revise the phone numbers and press the appropriate Dial button to start dialing. If there aren't any phone numbers in the currently displayed record then the dial dialog will have only one edit box and one dial button enabled. You can enter a number you wish to call into the edit box and press dial to start dialing. Note that the Add/Edit dialog (where you enter data) does not put any restrictions on the phone number format. PAB will do its best to display it in some readable manner. If you find that the numbers you wish to dial are shown incorrectly you can always edit it before dialing and/or adjust dialing settings in the Settings section. The bottom line is that all the numbers (characters in some cases) that are shown in the edit box (and are not comments) will be dialed. Any punctuation relevant when dialing phone numbers will also be dialed.

If you have a record that contains more than 3 phone numbers and thus you "sacrificed" a different field to enter the fourth phone number, you can highlight that number then right click on the display area and choose the Dial option. This will ignore any other phone numbers that might have been entered into the current record and will display only the highlighted number in the dial dialog.

•  Local/Long Distance controls are used for toggling between displaying only the first 7 digits of the number and the full number with the area code. Note that it only applies if you use the canonical phone number format (+1(999) 999-9999).

•  Convert Characters to Digits checkbox is displayed only if you check the Interpret characters as digits checkbox in settings. It is used to convert character based numbers (e.g.. 999-9-NUMBER) to their digit equivalents (999-9-686227).

•  Dial for Outside Line checkbox can be used if you need to dial a number to get the outside line. You need to supply the outside line number in the settings before you can use this control.

•  International Phone Call checkbox is used when you want to place international phone calls. You need to supply the prefix number in the settings before you can use this control.

Since there are not any restrictions on how you should enter a phone number into the database, Personal Address Book will try to decipher it for itself (and for you too). By default PAB assumes that phone numbers are in a format similar to the canonical format (i.e.+1  (999) 999-9999). The +1 should not be entered when adding/editing records. Instead it should be specified in the dialing section of the Settings dialog. You also have an option not to use the canonical format at all. The bottom line is that PAB will dial any dialable digit (or character) as long as it is not a comment.


Dialing Comment
Dialing Comment - the text in the phone number field that is wrapped around by the square brackets, e.g. [this is a comment]


Dialing Punctuation
Common Dialing Punctuation:

* - same as pressing the * on the phone dial

# - same as pressing the # on the phone dial

, - pauses dialing for about 2 seconds


E-Mailing & Web Browsing

E-Mailing

You can use Personal Address Book to start your system's E-mail Client and/or Web Browser. When you choose Address->Write E-Mail menu item, your system's default E-mail program will be launched and any information entered in the E-mail field of the currently displayed record will be placed in the TO: section of the e-mail message. If you have an e-mail address entered in a field other than the e-mail field you can highlight it, right click on the display area of PAB and choose Write E-mail. The E-mail field contents will be ignored and the highlighted address will be displayed in the TO: section of the e-mail message.

WWW Browsing

You can use Personal Address Book to open Web Pages using a Web Browser. When you choose Address->Browse WWW menu item, your system's default Browser will be launched and any information entered in the WWW field of the currently displayed record will be used to locate the desired web page. You can use protocols such as HTTP (default), FTP, TELNET, NEWS. If you have a web page address (URL) entered in a field other than WWW, you can highlight that URL, right click on the display area of PAB and choose Browse WWW. The WWW field's contents will be ignored and the highlighted text will be used to locate the web page. If you want to use a protocol different than HTTP then you need to explicitly specify it in the URL (e.g. ftp://ftp.anonymous.com).


Other Features and Options

•   Keyboard Shortcuts

•   Customization of the Main Window

•   Rebuilding Database


Keyboard Shortcuts

Main Window

Insert Key - add a new record

Delete Key - delete selected record(s)

Home Key - takes you to the first record of the address list

Arrow Up Key - same as Home key

End Key - takes you to the last record of address list

Arrow Down Key - same as End key

Page Up Key - skips to the previous record in the address list

Arrow Left Key - same as Page Up key

Page Down Key - skips to the next record in the address list

Arrow Right Key - same as Page Down key

Record Browser

Enter Key - allows user to edit the current record

Shift-E - same as Enter

Shift-A - allows user to add a new record

Shift-D - allows user to delete the currently selected record(s)

Shift-H - allows user to hide the currently selected record(s)

Shift-C - closes the Record Browser

Shift-X - exits the Personal Address Book application


Customization of the Main Window

In Personal Address Book 4.0 you can resize the main window to fit your needs and to display the addresses correctly using different fonts (see Settings). The Options menu allows the user to further customize the look of PAB's main window.

•  The Option->Record Browser allows you to display/hide the record browser window.

•  The Options->Address Display Splitter allows the user to adjust the width of the field names display area. This menu item toggles the show/hide attributes of the splitter.

•  The Options->Function Buttons menu item toggles the show/hide attributes of the function buttons panel

•  See section on Rebuilding Database to read about the Options->Rebuild Database menu item.

•  See section on Settings to read about Options->Settings menu item.


Fields Names Display Area
Field Names Display Area - the area containing field names, to the left of the main address display


Function Buttons Panel
Function Buttons Panel - panel with PAB's basic function buttons: Add, Edit, Delete, Hide, Help & Exit


Rebuilding Database

 The Options->Rebuild Database menu item lets you reload the data from the backup file in case there are problems with loading or reading the current data file. The backup file name is the same as your data file name but it has the *.BAK extention instead of the *.PAB extension. The backup file gets saved when you exit the application (or load a new file) if a change has been made to its corresponding data file.


Change to Data File
A Change to a data file occurs when an Add, Edit or Delete operation is perfomed.


Settings
Settings Dialog

The Options->Settings menu item invokes the Settings tabbed dialog where you can customize certain features of the program.

There are 6 tabs to choose from:

•   Main Window

•   Dialing

•   Printing

•   Data File

•   Record Browser

•   General


Main Window
Main Window Tab (Settings)

The Main Window tab allows you to customize features of the main window.

•  The Search/Sort Defaults box is used for setting up the initial look of the controls in the main window at startup.

•  Display Alignment lets you choose how you want the records to be aligned in the display area.

•  When the Search all records at startup is checked all records in the address book will be displayed every time you open PAB.

•  When the Perform additive searches checkbox is checked, found records get appended to the already existing address list. The first record of the set of newly found addresses gets displayed in the main window.

•  The Show the "Hide" button checkbox toggles the show/hide attributes of  the Hide button in the Function Buttons Panel. The Hide button removes record(s) from the found list without actually deleting them from the database.

•  When the Don't display the 'Note' field information checkbox is checked, any information entered in the Note field will not be displayed.


Dialing
Dialing Tab (Settings)

The Dialing tab allows you to customize the dialing dialog features. The top group of controls consists of 2 checkboxes. When the Interpret Characters as Digits checkbox is checked, any character (A-Z, a-z) in a phone number that is not a comment (anything inside square brackets []) will be interpreted as a corresponding digit on the phone dial. You will then be able to convert the character(s) contained in phone numbers into digits and back. If the checkbox is unchecked then any characters in the phone number will be ignored.

When the Display Characters As Digits checkbox is checked, Personal Address Book automatically converts all character(s) contained in phone numbers into digits.

The middle group consists of 3 edit boxes and 2 button-like checkboxes. You can input the International Prefix, the Outside Line Number and the Long Distance Prefix in the provided edit boxes. Pressing the Use at startup button-like checkboxes causes the equivalent checkboxes in the dial dialog to be checked each time the dialing window is opened.

The bottom group lets you customize in what format you want the phone number to be displayed. The default is the canonical-like format (1+ (999) 999-9999). The radio buttons let you choose whether to display the entire phone number or just the local number. If you check Don't use the Canonical Format you can customize how you want the phone number to be grouped by selecting a number in the updown control. See Dialing Phone Numbers for more information.


Phone Dial
______ _____ _____

|     | ABC | DEF |

|  1  |  2  |  3  |

|-----------------|

| GHI | JKL | MNO |

|  4  |  5  |  6  |

|-----------------|

| PRS | TUV |WXYZ |

|  7  |  8  |  9  |

|-----------------|

|  *  |  0  |  #  |

|_____|_____|_____|


Printing
Printing Tab (Settings)

The Printing tab allows the user to set default values for printing controls. The big edit box is for the return address to be printed on an envelope, provided that the checkbox below is unchecked. The bottom controls let you choose the defaults for printing the address books. The radio buttons let you toggle between printing all found records or just the currently displayed record. The checkboxes set the defaults for printing page numbers and/or page markers. You can also specify the default title for address book printouts by entering it in the edit box at the bottom. The bottom Allow Selecting Fields for Printing checkbox allows you to control what fields you want to print when printing address books.


Data File
Data File Tab (Settings)

As the name suggests, the Data File tab allows users to customize some of the settings regarding the data files. The Main Data File group box lets you select the  main data file for the application. By default data.pab is selected for you.

Checking the Display current data file name in the main window title bar checkbox allows to indicate to the user the currently used file.

Don't update the PAB 1.6-3.0 format to PAB 4.0 format allows for maintaining compatibility with older versions of PAB. If the above checkbox is not checked the user gets prompted whether or not to convert to the new format when loading older files. Checking the Don't prompt for conversion to new format will prevent the prompt from appearing.

When you use more than one file to store information in, you can set PAB to remember the last used file between sessions by checking the Remember the last used data file between sessions checkbox. The location of the currently used data file will appear on the bottom.


Record Browser
Record Browser Tab (Settings)

The Record Browser tab of the Settings dialog allows users to customize some of the Record Browser features.

The Display Fields group box allows for selecting fields and in what order they should appear in the Record Browser.

Checking the Display only the first field in the Record Browser checkbox will display only the field that you indicated as the first field.

Checking the Allow selecting multiple records checkbox enables the user to select more than one record in the Record Browser.

Checking the Stay on top checkbox causes the Record Browser window to always be visible (not covered by other PAB's widows) whenever the Personal Address Book application is selected among all other possible applications that may be open and/or running.

Checking the Show records browser at startup allows you to display the Record Browser at startup.

NOTE:

On slower machines ( < 100 MHz) the record browser may affect PAB's performance, especially when the Allow selecting multiple records checkbox is checked. In those cases it is recommended that you don't keep the record browser opened at all times.


General
General Tab (Settings)

The General tab allows users to customize general settings for Personal Address Book application.

The Font Defaults group box allows users to choose display & printout default fonts by pressing on the corresponding Select button.

In the After Import group box you can choose how records are to be displayed after an import of data has been performed.

Checking the After adding a new address, display it in the Main Window checkbox will show the newly added record when you press OK in the Data Input/Edit dialog (see Adding/Editing Records).

You can prevent the keyboard arrow keys (Up,Down,Left,Right) from being the navigation keys in the main window (not in the Record Browser) by checking the Prevent the Keyboard "arrow" keys from record navigation checkbox.

You can change the Location field to Category field by checking the Change the name of the 'Location' field to 'Category' checkbox. Many users reported to me that they didn't find use for the Location field but would like to have an additional field with record category info.

The Use HTML Help checkbox can be used with the Windows 98 HTML help system. You can download it from the PAB's web page.

The Use PAB's e-mail plug-in to send electronic mail checkbox works only if you install the email plug-in (see: Performance & Implementation Issues), also available on PAB's web page.


Frequently Asked Questions

This section contains some frequently asked questions asked by users of previous versions of PAB and some potential questions/problems users may have about Personal Address Book 4.0

•  What happens to my addresses when I'm upgrading from an older version of PAB?

•  Where is the help file?

•  How can I retrieve a record that I just deleted?

•  PAB won't dial phone numbers even though the Phone Dialer program is installed.

•  PAB won't dial 1 before the area code if the area code is the same as mine.

•  How do I display the address I just added?

•  How do I display records I just imported into PAB?

•  How do I select what fields to print?

•  Where can I get the latest version of Personal Address Book?

Other questions and/or comments send to: fsware@geocities.com


What happens to my addresses if I'm upgrading from previous versions of PAB?
What happens to my addresses when I'm upgrading from previous versions of Personal Address Book?

It is recommended that you uninstall the older version of PAB and install the current version into the same directory. The default directory is C:\Program Files\Pab. The uninstallation program does not remove the data files from the disk. So, if you installed the current version of PAB into the same location as the previous version, all addresses should appear in the current version. Otherwise you need to copy the data file called data.pab from the old location to the new one.


Where is the Help file?

The help file for the Personal Address Book 4.0 is called addrbook.hlp and resides in the same directory as the main application's executable (addrbook.exe). The TEXT help is no longer provided. The HTML help file (for Windows 98) is available only on PAB's web page: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Chip/2719/AddrBook.html


How can I retrieve a record that I just deleted?

If you haven't closed Personal Address Book since you deleted the record, DO NOT EXIT OUT OF THE PERSONAL ADDRESS BOOK. Choose Options->Rebuild Database to restore the lost info.

If you have closed the Personal Address Book after the unfortunate deletion then unless you have backups of files on your system the record in question is irretrievable.


PAB won't dial phone numbers even though the Phone Dialer program is installed

In the Phone Dialer program, go to Tools and choose Connect Using... from the menu. Make sure that the Use Phone Dialer to Handle Voice Call Requests from other Programs checkbox is checked. Click the OK button, exit out of the Phone Dialer and try dialing using PAB.


PAB won't dial 1 before area code if the area code is the same as yours
PAB won't dial 1 before the area code if the area code is the same as mine

At first, I thought it was a bug in the PAB's code, but it turns out that Windows Telephony System makes it happen. To get around this problem you have to go to the Control Panel, double click on the Modems icon. In the Modems Properties dialog click on the Dialing Properties button. Now in the Area Code edit box enter some dummy 3 digit number and click OK.

Note that this change will affect your system globally so you may want to keep this in mind, in particular when sending faxes.


How do I display the address I just added?

In the PAB's Settings dialog click the General tab. Make sure that the After adding a new address, display it in the Main Window checkbox is checked. Now every time you add a new address it will get displayed in the main window.


How do I display records I just imported into PAB?

In the PAB's Settings dialog click the General tab. Now choose one of the options provided in the After Import group box.


How do I select what fields to print?

In the PAB's Settings dialog click the Printing tab. Now check the Allow selecting fields for printing checkbox. This will enable you to display a field selection check list in the Print Address Books dialog where you can check off the fields you want printed.


Where can I get the latest version of Personal Address Book?

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Chip/2719/AddrBook.html


Performance and Implementation Issues

The Personal Address Book versions 1.0 - 2.0 were written in C++ using Borland C++ compiler with OWL 5.0. Versions 3.0 & 4.0 were written using Borland C++ Builder 3.0 with VCL. All versions should run on any 32 bit MS Windows platform. In version < 3.x the records are stored on a disk in the file called data.pab and in the backup.pab. PAB 4.0 uses data.pab as the default data file however PAB 4.0 allows users to store its data in more than one file. The backup file now has the same name as the data file but it has the *.BAK extension. If you're upgrading from a previous version of PAB the backup.pab gets renamed to backup.old, and the new backup file gets named data.bak.

I recommend that you run PAB 4.0 on a Pentium machine with at least 16 Mb of RAM. However, when I tested the program on a 486/50 with 16 Mb RAM,  2000 records were in the database and  PAB still performed (in my opinion) with tolerable speed.

There are two plug-ins available for use with the Personal Address Book 4.0, the Export plug-in & the Send Email plug-in. The Export plug-in can be used for exporting PAB's data directly into file formats: DBF, Lotus 1-2-3, Excel. I found that it does not work on some Windows 98 systems. The Send Email plug-in can be used to send email, in case you don't have an email client on your system already or it's not properly installed or you just don't wish to use it with PAB. This plug-in can only send email, it cannot receive it. It can be used as a stand alone application.

You can download both plug-ins (free of charge) from:

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Chip/2719/AddrBook.html


Credits & Copyrights

I'd like thank my wife Danielle for editing this help file and making it more readable (also for putting up with me and my procrastination of house chores while I wrote this program).

I would also like to extend my thanks to all the people who sent me comments and suggestions about previous versions of Personal Address Book. It has been a tremendous help while trying to improve the program.

This program is freeware. Feel free to use, copy and/or distribute this software freely as long as it's free of charge.

If you encounter any bugs, errors or if you just have comments do not hesitate to report them to:

  	Rafal Szukala

  	fsware@geocities.com


Freeware
Freeware - Copyrighted software given away for free by the author. Although it is available for free, the author retains the copyright, which means that you cannot do anything with it that is not expressly allowed by the author.


Contents

1. Running Personal Address Book

2. Adding/Editing Records

3. Searching for Addresses

4. Searching Using Wild Cards

5. Using Record/Note Browser

6. Sorting Records

7. Printing

- Envelopes

- Address Books

8. Loading Files

9. Importing Files

10. Saving Found Records

11. Transferring Addresses to other Applications (cut'n'paste, export)

12. Dialing Phone Numbers

13. E-mailing and Web Browsing

14. Other Features and Options

15. Settings

- Main Window

- Dialing

- Printing

- Data File

- Record Browser

- General

16. FAQs

17. Performance and Implementation Issues

18. Credits and Copyrights