This contains fields (title, first, middle, last names, degrees, address, city, state, zip, country, phones, fax and email) and Notes field (with a maximum of 32,000 chars in each address) into which you can type contact details you wish to retrieve.
You can retrieve names/text in several ways: (i) The Find... menu item (Text menu) will work as in the Scheduler, allowing you to find instances of any text in any field. (ii) There are pop up menus of the surnames in alphabetical order hidden beneath the individual letters of the alphabet to the right of the window. Click and hold on one to pop it up, then drag to get to the name you wish to see. (iii) There is also a slider control at the bottom left of the window. You can browse through the records by clicking to the left or right of the thumb, or move over many records by clicking and dragging on the thumb. When you release it, the address linked to the number above the slider will appear. Note that the most left record number is 0, associated with a blank address. This is one way to create new addresses (as an alternative to clicking the New button). (iv) use the Command & arrow keys to move 1 address at at time. Note that Shift-Command key combinations (S Save, F Format, N New, C Copy, B Clear, I Import, D Delete, L Clone) also work on their respective buttons.
To update an address, just modify the existing address, and then click the Save button (or hit the Enter key). Note that most buttons will update the current address automatically before doing its own action. The exceptions are the Delete (trash icon), Help (house icon), and Clone buttons. To clone an address (ie create a new name with some of the details the same) you must alter at least the first or last name, then click the Clone button. Note that dragging the slider control all the way to the left, will update the current address before clearing the display. The New button will save any changes, then empty the display (and zero the id) ready for a new address.
The Tab key will move you from field to field (Shift Tab reverses the direction). You can also click directly into a field to select its contents. If there are any other methods you want for moving around, please tell me.
The check boxes are named "Custom 1" and "Custom 2" as a default, but you can alter their titles to your own words by Option-clicking them and typing in your new preferred name (to a maximum of 13 chars). This name will then be used subsequently in ALL addresses, ie you only get 2 and they are common to all records. The only other field name which can be option-clicked and altered is the Degrees: title, since many users feel this could more usefully be other terms (eg Contact: , Salutation:, Suffix:, etc. but also to a maximum of 13 chars). The word you use may contain a colon (and this will be stripped out in the menus which use it).
Clicking the Address Book icon (bottom left) will bring up this help screen. Note the trash can out the front of the house icon. This is the Delete button which will delete the currently showing address (you will be prompted to confirm this choice before its actually deleted). Note that when an address is deleted from within the middle of the address stack, then the most recently added address in that letter group will replace it. This is done to preserve the contiguous numbering system.
The Format popup menu controls the format for exporting (or importing) records (eg the default is a common mailing format). You can change this to anything you like (& save under new names) by selecting the "New" menu item in the popup. This presents the format setting dialog. This has 17 field popups with each followed by a character separator popup, and a sample address as it would appear when exported. You can alter the order and the separator character(s) by clicking on the popups, and see what it would look like. Some symbols need clarification: • space, > tab, ¶ return, LF line feed (char 10), and » is itself, but can be used as a wild card for later replacement globally. When you are happy with a format, either click OK to replace the one currently showing, or select "New" again from the format popup and give the format a name. It will then appear in all format menus in future. A Delete button will only appear when one of your custom formats appears. There is a check box which allows you to include separator characters even if the entry is empty (or not). This is useful for mail merging where empty entries must still be correctly separated (& for re-importing into DeskMates). New formats are saved within the address file. I think this system is pretty flexible but would appreciate feedback. You can display this dialog also from the Export… dialog's format menu too (see below). The selected Export Format is also used for importing new addresses saved in a text file (see below).
To copy an address (in the specified format) directly to the clipboard click the copy (clipboard icon) button above the New button. This saves going into the Export dialog (and won't change your default settings there either).
To Export... records in more complex ways click the middle button of the 3 square buttons (the record with outward arrow). It leads to a dialog with 2 basic functions (but many buttons!): sorting and/or exporting. The best way to understand what you can do is to click the buttons and see what happens. For example, you cannot sort addresses unless the option to export many addresses is selected. You can then sort by up to three key fields. You also can narrow the retrieved addresses to criteria set by either a keyword (all fields or only 1 field) or using the custom check boxes in the 4 possible combinations (either, both, neither). When you click the Sort button, the sorted list appears in the scrolling list box. Note that this list is just that, a list, it is not intended to show the formatted addresses. You can inspect records by clicking on them in this list, and they will appear in the Address window. If you are happy with the sorted order/number retrieved you can then set the export format and destination to send them to. If you send to the Notebook or a text file, you can elect to append to the current text in these or replace them. If you envisage that there will be more than 32K of text to export, then please use either the clipboard or a text file.
You can choose to have the Address window appear at DeskMates' startup by checking the appropriate box in the Preferences dialog (File menu) and clicking OK. You can save the current Address Book in another location by using the Save Address As... menu item (File menu) when the Address Book is active, or open another previously saved DeskMates Address Book by using the Open Address... menu item (File menu). If you wish to make these the automatically opened defaults at startup, you must check the "Save Current schedules, alarms and addresses as defaults" check box in the Preferences dialog (File menu), then click OK. Note also that you can have backups made automatically (in the same folder as the currently open address book) by checking the "Save automatic backups..." check box in the same dialog box.
The Import... button (left most square button at bottom). Importing is problematic since I cannot control the importing format (there is no standard), and if your text file omits but 1 crucial separator then nonsense addresses will result. Therefore please note the following guidelines if you want to use this feature. (i) Use a copy of your current address file for the import. If it creates 300 nonsense addresses, you'll then be able to trash it and start again easily. (ii) Ensure your text file containing the records is correctly formatted! My recommended format is: tabs between fields, » (Option-Shift-\) at the end of each record. This format works well since fields can then contain returns & spaces. Please ensure that the first & last names are specified, or you will get many addresses with the default names for these. (iii) Set the Format popup menu to that of the incoming records! I recommend you save this format with a unique name eg Import Format. (iv) Click the Import button, select a text file for importing & click Import. One new record will be made for each formatted record. You can then edit them. One really neat aspect of this function is being able to give some of your addresses to someone else! Just decide upon a format, export the chosen records (use keywords, checks etc) in 1 or more text files, then Import them into the new address file using the same format! You can also reorder your own, or save backup files in text format (which might be a bit smaller). Your choice!
The Telephone button will play the tones for the selected field (which must be one of Work, Home, Fax fields) through your Macs' speaker. Certain non-numeric characters are regarded as signals to pause: "-" 1/6 sec (ie dash), " " 1/3 sec (ie space), "," 1 second (ie comma), "!" 5 seconds (ie exclamation mark). The Preferences dialog now allows you to specify up to 2 prefix strings and 1 string to ignore (each can be 3 characters long). I intended (and use) these in the following manner:
(i) I put the full area code in the phone fields (eg 617-12-3456)
(ii) I put "9," in the option key adding field so I can ring out of the hospital where I work by option clicking the telephone button
(iii) I put "1," in the shift key adding field so I can dial interstate calls quickly by holding the Shift key down (with or without other modifier keys), and
(iv) I put "617" in the control key ignoring field since I do not wish to dial this area code when I'm in Boston.
Both numbers and Capital ie upper case, letters will work c auto-dialing.
These combinations should allow quick dialing of most numbers, but if you have other suggestions please tell me!
The Alarm Clock icon (far right above the Save button) will bring up the Alarm Clock window with the first & last names of the addressee entered into the message field at top.
Oh, before I forget, the theoretical limit for this address book is 32,000 entries, but it will probably be pretty slow for some things if you have this many!
