Address Book
Encyclopedia
Address Book is an address book
Address book
An address book or a name and address book is a book or a database used for storing entries called contacts. Each contact entry usually consists of a few standard fields...

 for Apple's Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

. It features various syncing features and integrates into the rest of the OS.

Features

  • Exports and imports cards to and from vCard
    VCard
    vCard is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards are often attached to e-mail messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web or Instant Messaging...

     3.0 format.
  • Imports cards from LDIF
    LDAP Data Interchange Format
    The LDAP Data Interchange Format is a standard plain text data interchange format for representing LDAP directory content and update requests. LDIF conveys directory content as a set of records, one record for each object...

    , tab-delimited, and comma-separated files
  • C
    C (programming language)
    C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....

     and Objective-C
    Objective-C
    Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language.Today, it is used primarily on Apple's Mac OS X and iOS: two environments derived from the OpenStep standard, though not compliant with it...

     API
    Application programming interface
    An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...

     to interface with other applications.
  • Prints labels and envelopes, mailing lists, pocket address books
  • Can configure page setup and paper size before printing
  • One-click automatic look up for duplicate entries
  • Change of address notification
  • Contact groups
  • Smart groups based on Spotlight
    Spotlight (software)
    Spotlight is a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Spotlight is a selection-based search system, which creates a virtual index of all items and files on the system. It is designed to allow the user to quickly locate a wide variety of items on the computer,...

  • Look up addresses on Google Maps
    Google Maps
    Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...

  • Auto-merge when importing vCards
  • Customize fields and categories
  • Automatic formatting of phone numbers
  • Synchronizes with Microsoft Exchange Server
    Microsoft Exchange Server
    Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...

  • Synchronizes with Yahoo!
    Yahoo!
    Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...

     Address Book
  • Synchronizes with Google
    Google
    Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

     Contact Sync
  • Speech recognition
    Speech recognition
    Speech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to recognition systems that must be trained to a particular speaker—as is the case for most desktop recognition software...

     searching
  • Capability to query an LDAP
    Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
    The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is an application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol network...

     database containing person information
  • Plugin interface allowing third-party developers to add functionality to the program

Integration with Mac OS X

  • Integration with Mail
    Mail (application)
    Mail is an email program included with Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system. Originally developed by NeXT as NeXTMail, a part of their NeXTSTEP operating system, it was adapted, following Apple's acquisition of NeXT, to become OS X's Mail application.Mail uses the SMTP, POP3, and IMAP protocols,...

    , iCal
    ICal
    iCal is a personal calendar application made by Apple Inc. that runs on the Mac OS X operating system. iCal was the first calendar application for Mac OS X to offer support for multiple calendars and the ability to publish/subscribe calendars to WebDAV server....

    , iChat
    IChat
    iChat is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its Mac OS X operating system. It has audio, video and screen-sharing capabilities as well as text messaging...

    , Fax, Safari
    Safari (web browser)
    Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included with the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. First released as a public beta on January 7, 2003 on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther". Safari is also the...

    , iPhone
    IPhone
    The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

  • iSync
    ISync
    iSync is a software application published by Apple Inc. It runs only under Mac OS X and is used to synchronize contact and calendar data from Address Book and iCal with many non-Apple SyncML-enabled mobile phones via a Bluetooth or USB connection. Support for many devices is built-in, with newer...

     compatibility to sync contacts to phones, PDA
    Personal digital assistant
    A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...

    s, iPod
    IPod
    iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...

    s, and other Macs
  • Syncs with MobileMe
    MobileMe
    MobileMe was a subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. Originally launched on January 5, 2000, as iTools, a free collection of Internet-based services for users of Mac OS 9, Apple relaunched it as .Mac on July 17, 2002, when it became a paid subscription...

    's Contacts
  • Contacts are indexed by Spotlight
    Spotlight (software)
    Spotlight is a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Spotlight is a selection-based search system, which creates a virtual index of all items and files on the system. It is designed to allow the user to quickly locate a wide variety of items on the computer,...

  • Address Book stores previous recipient addresses used by Mail
  • URLs
    Uniform Resource Locator
    In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....

     in Address Book cards appear in Safari's Address Book bookmarks
  • Buddies in iChat can be associated with Address Book cards
  • Birthdays saved in Address Book appear in iCal if enabled
  • Address Book Dashboard Widget
  • AppleScript
    AppleScript
    AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. and built into Macintosh operating systems since System 7. The term "AppleScript" may refer to the scripting system itself, or to particular scripts that are written in the AppleScript language....

     support for querying, adding, modifying, and removing people and groups

Description

Address Book has two viewing modes: View Card and Column, and View Card Only. The user can switch between modes with a control in the upper-left portion of the window under the close box.

In View Card and Column, the Address Book window is divided into three panes. The first pane has the title Group. This pane lists All, Directories, and each user-made group. Users can add new groups by pulling the File menu down to New Group, or typing Command-Shift-N.

When selecting All or a user-made group, the second column has the title Name. It lists the names of the people with cards in that group, or all the names if the selected group is All, in alphabetical order by first or last name, depending on user preference.

The third pane has the card corresponding to the selected name. The card can include information, some of which the user can classify into customizable categories like Home and Work. Many of the fields can have duplicate entries, for example, if the person the card describes has several email addresses. The user can edit the fields by pressing the edit button below the bottom-left of the third pane. Default fields include:
  • Picture
  • Name pronunciation
  • First name
  • Last name
  • Job title
  • Company
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Home page
  • Birthday
  • Instant messaging username
    • AIM
      AOL Instant Messenger
      AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997...

    • ICQ
      ICQ
      ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed and popularized by the Israeli company Mirabilis, then bought by America Online, and since April 2010 owned by Mail.ru Group. The name ICQ is a homophone for the phrase "I seek you"...

    • XMPP
      Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
      Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence...

    • Windows Live Messenger
      Windows Live Messenger
      Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD...

    • Yahoo! Messenger
      Yahoo! Messenger
      Yahoo! Messenger is an advertisement-supported instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!...

  • Address
  • Related Names
  • Note


Address Book can search LDAP (network) directories. Users customize these in the LDAP tab of the preferences. Users search these by selecting Directories in the first pane, selecting a directory or All in the second pane, and typing their search in the search box above the top-left of the third pane. Results appear in the third pane.

Directories

Your computer must be connected to a network on which the directories reside. If you’ve changed locations or lost your network connection, Address Book can’t look up contacts in directories on the network. If your computer is set up to access directory services on your network, Address Book automatically searches the directory services for addresses.

You can also set up Address Book to search Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) servers for addresses. LDAP is an Internet protocol used for looking up contact information on servers.

Information from network directories appears only when you’re searching. To search a network directory, select Directories in the Group column and a directory in the Directory column, and then type text in the search field. To add someone from the network directory to your personal address book, drag the card from the directory to All in the Group column.

For instructions about setting up your computer to access directory services on your network, open Directory Utility and choose Help > Directory Utility Help.

Problems and Limitations for Business Use

  • Address Book used to integrate Bluetooth
    Bluetooth
    Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...

    -enabled phones (displaying incoming and missed calls, displaying incoming text messages
    Short message service
    Short Message Service is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices...

    , letting you send text messages using the phone, etc.) but these features have been entirely disabled since Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard).
  • Address Book can print either a person's name, or company/affiliation, on a label or envelope, but not both at the same time unless you check print company name in the print menu and you have the contact displayed by name and not company (uncheck company when editing contact.).
  • Address Book contacts cannot be synchronized with an LDAP server, therefore sharing addresses is only facilitated via Address Book's MobileMe sharing feature.
  • Relatively primitive de-duplication facility
  • Cannot export to Excel for mass editing - will only export vCards, which are of limited use as a de-duping or filtering tool.
  • LDAP support only provides searching, not browsing.
  • Several contacts cannot be edited simultaneously to modify a specific field.
  • Emails can no longer be dragged and dropped from Mail to a specific group to add it to the group.
  • There is no table view to quickly identify missing information.

External links

  • Portable Address Book – allows for using Address Book as a portable application
    Portable application
    A portable application , sometimes also called standalone, is a computer software program designed to run independently from an operating system...

     with database stored on a thumb drive
  • Addza Address Book – Address Book clone for Microsoft Windows
    Microsoft Windows
    Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

  • SyncMate – freeware for Address Book and other Mac synchronization purposes
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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