If you have a problem with the use of the interface, you should first give Balloon Help a try. All controls in people book 2.1 support Balloon Help and maybe you could save the time it takes to read this document.
If Balloon Help is no-help, read this document. Please also note the known problems at the bottom.
If that still doesn't help, email me: asagoo@gmx.net
concept
Each people book file represents a separate "address book".
You can have as many people in a people book file as you like.
The people can be put into groups, where each person can be in several groups.
interface
When you have people book 2.1 running, and no file is open, what you see is the control window.
From here, you can create a new people book file, open an existing one, open the one last used, or quit the application.
When you have a people book file opened, you see the main window.
The main window is split into three parts:
Ñ The list of people, with the controls to add and remove people.
Ñ The list of groups.
This part of the window can be viewed in two modes:
The simple group mode: you only see a popup menu from which you can choose the group you want to view.
The editing group mode: you see the groups in a list, and you see the controls to add, rename or remove groups and change their order.
Ñ The details of the selected person.
input
To get people's details into a people book file, there are different ways:
Ñ Add each person by clicking on the "add" button in the "people" part of the window and enter the person's details in the right hand side of the window. You don't have to confirm your entries, just continue working after you have entered the details.
There are six fields that are labelled "Phone 1", "Phone 2", "Phone 3", "Phone 4", "Email" and "Web". This doesn't mean you have to enter four phone numbers, one email address and one web address. You can decide what you want to enter in each of those fields. You can also change the labels.
Ñ Import people from a tab-delimited text file.
Most contact managers should have an export function to create a text file, where the data are separated by tabs and returns.
People book 2.1 can read those files and get the data into your people book file.
- Choose "Import╔" from the "File" menu.
- In the following open-dialog, open the tab-delimited text file which contains the data you wish to import.
- You then see the import window. here you can set which fields to import, and their order. Each popup menu represents a field in the details part of your people book file. The list displayed in each popup menu represents the data of one person in the text file. What you have to do now is assign the data in the file to the fields in your people book. You do this by choosing the bit of data from the popup menu that should go in the field the menu represents.
- Click "ok" to confirm and to add all the people from the text file to your people book file.
- The people are being put in a group called "import x", where x is a variable number.
Ñ Import people from people book version 1.0.0 or 1.0.1
The file format of people book 2 files is different to that of people book 1 files.
You can convert your old files by dropping them on the converter which you find in the same folder as this document. It creates a file at the same location as the original file with the prefix ".pb2" (You don't need to keep the prefix, it is just to help you distinguish the files).
groups
You can put your people into groups, like for example, "friends", "family" or "work". But you might know people who you work with and who also are your friends. That's why in people book 2.1 you can put people into as many groups as you like.
To edit the list of groups, editing group mode must be active. To switch between the modes, click the small triangle at the right side of the group part of the main window.
To add a group, type it's name in the text field first, then click on "add".
To rename a group, select it in the list, then type the new name in the text field, then click "rename".
To remove a group, select it in the list, then click "remove".
To move groups up and down in the list, select the group and click "up" or "down".
If you have created or selected a person, and you want to put that person into one of your groups, double-click on the name of the group in the group list in the details part (below the comment field). If a person belongs to a group, a bullet is shown before the group's name.
search
To search for people by any criteria, like name, company, or one of the phone numbers, do the following:
Ñ choose "Find" from the "File" menu.
Ñ In the search window, type the text you are looking for into the field it is supposed to be in. You can type text into more than one of the fields to perform an "and"-search. If you enter something in the "phone" field, all four phone numbers are being searched. Same applies for the email addresses.
Ñ To start the search, press "ok".
Ñ If any people are found, they will be put into a new group called "query x", where x is a variable number.
output
To get data out of a people book file, there are different ways:
You can get the details of only the currently selected person into a different application:
Ñ Either, choose "copy details" from the "edit" menu. This will put the person's details into the clipboard as text, so you can paste them into your word processor when writing a letter, for example.
Ñ Or, if you like it the more elegant way, drag the person from the list of people directly to the other application. This will give the same result as above, or, if you drag it to the Finder, it will create a text clipping.
You can also create a tab-delimited text file to import your contacts into another contact manager or database:
Ñ Either, select the group you wish to export and choose "export╔" from the "file" menu. You get a save-dialog, where you can set the name and location of the export file.
Ñ Or, again more elegant, drag the group from the group list to the desktop or any window or folder in the Finder (this requires you to be in editing group mode).
communicating
People book 2.1 can let your modem dial a person's phone number, create an email message to that person or go to their web page.
The buttons next to the six contact fields find out which they have to do, depending on the type of number or address in the corresponding field.
To dial a phone number:
Ñ Select the port your modem is connected to in the "Dialling Port" submenu in the "Edit" menu.
Ñ Select either tone or pulse dialling in the "Dialling Method" submenu in the "Edit" menu.
(The steps above need to be done only once)
Ñ Select the person.
Ñ Click on the symbol next to the field that contains the phone number.
Ñ A dialog will open and your modem will start dialling. as soon as it has finished dialling, you can pick up your phone and click "close" to tell the modem to hang up, or if you wish to abort, click "close" without picking up the phone.
To create a message:
Ñ You need to have "Internet Config" or MacOS 8.5's "Internet" control panel installed. (Here you can set the default email client)
Ñ Select the person.
Ñ Click on the symbol next to the field that contains the email address.
Ñ Your default email client will open and create a message with the chosen person as the recipient.
To go to a web page:
Ñ You need to have "Internet Config" or MacOS 8.5's "Internet" control panel installed. (Here you can set the default browser)
Ñ Select the person.
Ñ Click on the symbol next to the field that contains the web address.
Ñ Your default internet browser will open and attempt to go to the chosen person's web page.
known problems
- People book might crash when using large files. Try assigning more memory to the application.
- Dialling doesn't work with all modems. Currently only modems that are connected to the standard modem or printer port and that don't require special initialisation are supported.
- When you drag a group to a Finder folder that already contains an export file of that group, you have to switch to the Finder and confirm that you wish to replace the existing file.
- When you double-click a file shortly after closing it, the Finder brings an error -110. Wait a few seconds before re-opening the file.
