Overview

TThe Contact Editor allows the complete details of a contact to be viewed or modified. This includes contact information, notes, and links to other items or files. The currently displayed contact can be modified by selecting from a "Go To" drop-down list of contacts on the window's toolbar.

Toolbar

The Contact Editor window provides a number of buttons on its toolbar.

From left to right, the buttons perform the following actions:

• Save and Close - This saves all changes on the Contact Editor window and closes it. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+S.
• Save - Saves the changes but leaves the Contact Editor open.
• New Contact - This saves the current contact's data and then create a new contact. The Contact Editor window will update to allow entry of the new contact's data. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+N.
• Delete Contact - This deletes the currently displayed contact. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+D.
• Export Contacts - This command exports your contacts to a CSV file. Many other contact management programs allow importing contacts from CSV files.
• Import Contacts - This command causes the Import Contacts window to be displayed, where you can import contact data from a CSV file, Excel spreadsheet, Outlook, or Google Mail.
• New Email - Initiates a new email to the currently displayed contact, using your default email client. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+E.
• New Text Message - Initiates a new text message to the currently displayed contact. The Send a Text Message window will appear, where a free-form text message can be typed and sent. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+T.
• New Meeting Request - Initiates a new meeting request. The Attendees tab of the Event Editor window will be displayed and initialized with the currently displayed contact. After the meeting request has been defined, it will be sent via email to the contact. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+M.
• Link New Item to Contact - This button expands into commands for creating and linking a new event, task, or note to the currently displayed contact. The created items will appear on the Links tab after being saved.
• Add Birthday to Calendar - This menu option is enabled after the contact's birthday has been specified. Clicking this command will cause a new yearly recurring event to be created and displayed in the Event Editor window. The event's starting date will match the date of birth specified in the Contact Editor window. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+B.
• Add Anniversary to Calendar - This menu option is enabled after the contact's anniversary has been specified. Clicking this command will cause a new yearly recurring event to be created and displayed in the Event Editor window. The event's starting date will match the anniversary date specified in the Contact Editor window. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+A.
• Close - Closes the Contact Editor. If there are unsaved changes, a message will appear asking if you'd like to save the changes. The keyboard shortcut is Alt+F4.
• Go To - To switch the window to a different contact, select the contact from the drop-down "Go To" list. If the current contact has been changes, you'll be prompted to save changes before the selected contact is opened.
• Help - Shows this page. The keyboard shortcut is F1.

Contact Info

The Contact Info tab provides a number of inputs. These are described below.

Full Name

The contact's full name can be typed in the text box. In most cases, the contact's first, middle, and last names will be parsed from the entered text. If you need to specify a title or suffix, click the drop-down button. This allows each component of the contact's full name to be individually entered. A drop-down list if provided for title and suffix values, or you can type your own value in the input field. Changes made on the drop-down will be reflected in the contact's full name text box.

File As

This field is the value used for filing the contact information. Each contact must have a unique "File As" value, since this is the value that is used to identify the contact when sending email and SMS reminders. The File As value will typically be in the format of "Last Name, First Name", for easier sorting in the Contact List. However, you can select a different File As value from the drop-down list. The list of available entries for the File As field comes from the contact's full name.

Group/folder

The Group/folder field can be used to group contacts. These groups can be used when sending email/SMS reminders or meeting requests, so instead of selected individual contacts, the reminder or meeting notice can be sent to all contacts belonging to a particular group. A drop-down list groups is populated with currently used group names. If the desired group name is not present in the drop-down list, you can use the keyboard to type a new group name.

Category

In addition to groups, contacts can also be associated with one or more categories. The list of categories is the same used by events, notes, and tasks. The Contact List includes a "Category" column that can be grouped, filtered, and sorted.

Picture

A picture can be added to the Contact Editor by clicking the empty picture area and selecting the Add Picture command.

A file browser will be displayed where a picture can be selected. The picture will be automatically scaled to fit within the available space in the Contact Editor window. After adding a picture, you can remove or change the picture by clicking it again.

Clicking the Change Picture command will allow a different picture to be selected. Clicking the Remove Picture command will revert the Contact Editor to showing an empty contact picture.

Email Address

This is the contact's primary email address. This email address is used when sending email, reminders, and meeting requests. It is never transmitted to VueSoft or used for any other purpose. Clicking the email button on the right-side of the field will initiate a new email to the contact, using your default email client.

Business/Home Phone

These are the contact's business and home phone numbers.

Mobile Carrier/Phone/Send-To

The "Mobile carrier" and "Mobile send to" fields are only shown when the SMS/Voice options are configured to use your mobile carrier instead of the web-based SMS service.

When using your own mobile carrier for SMS reminders, the contact's mobile phone number and mobile carrier should be specified. This data is used to automatically generate a mobile send-to address, which is the address text message reminders will be sent to. This also requires the contact's mobile carrier to offer an email-to-SMS gateway, which is a service offered by most mobile carriers in the United States, and is usually included in the service plan. However, some international mobile carriers don't provide email-to-SMS gateways, or charge extra to activate this service. If you're not sure, please check with the mobile carrier.

You can also use the web-based SMS service, which doesn't require entry of each contact's mobile carrier and doesn't require the mobile carrier to provide an email-to-SMS gateway. In that case, the only information needed is the contact's mobile phone number.

A cell phone button is provided on the right-side of the "Mobile phone #" field. Clicking this button will initiate a new text message to the contact, via the Send a Text Message window.

Business Info

You can optionally enter the contact's company, department, job title, and website. The green arrow in the website field can be clicked to open the contact's website in your default web browser.

Personal Info

The contact's birthday, anniversary, nickname, and spouse's name can be entered. After entering the contact's birthday or anniversary, the "Add Birthday to Calendar" or "Add Anniversary to Calendar" commands will become enabled.

Addresses

These fields allow entry of the contact's business and/or home address.

Address information can be entered by clicking the drop-down button or anywhere within the address text field. A window will popup, allowing entry of each component of the address.

After entering the address data, click anywhere outside the popup window to return to the Contact Editor.

Notes

The Notes tab allows free-form entry of notes for your contact. The notes can consist of anything you'd like, and can also include pictures or links.

Files

The Files tab can be used to attach (link) files to the contact. File links can also be inserted into the Notes text, but the Files tab provides a number of different viewing modes, such as "List", "Details", and "Icons", and is more suitable when attaching a large number of files to a contact.

Adding a File

To add a file, click the "Add File" button. Files can also be dragged-and-dropped onto the Files tab.

Removing a File

To remove a file, click the file to select it. Multiple files can be selected and deleted at the same time by dragging the selection rectangle around the desired files or holding the Ctrl key while clicking the files. After selecting the file(s), click the Remove button. You can also press the Delete key or right-click the file and select "Remove" from the popup menu. You'll be prompted to confirm removal of the file. Removing a file from a contact does not delete the actual file, it just removes the link.

Opening a File

To open file, select the file by clicking it, and then click the Open button. If multiple files are selected when the Open button is clicked, all selected files will be opened. Files can also be opened by double-clicking or right-clicking and selecting the "Open" command from the popup menu.

Changing the View

The View button allows selection of different view types. These are very similar to the view types provided in Windows Explorer. The default view type is "Icons". To select a different view, click the View button and then select the desired view type from the drop-down menu. Below is an example of the "Details" view. In this view, items can also be sorted by clicking the column header.

Links

The Links tab provides the ability to define 2-way links between events, tasks, notes, and contacts. For example, tasks and events could be linked to an associated contact. When a link is established, it becomes 2-directional, meaning the association between the items can be viewed or removed from either item's editor window, via the "Links" tab. The tab can present all associated links in a single view, providing instant access to the details you need, such as an associated contact's phone number and address.

The "Links" tab shows currently defined links and allows the addition of links to other events, tasks, notes, and contacts. Links can also be removed. Each link is shown within a panel when the View option is set to "Tiles". If there are many links, the View option can be set to "List", allowing more links to be seen at one time.

Opening Links

To open an associated item, click its name in the Tile view, or double-click its row in the List view. This will open the linked item in a separate editor window. Any changes made to the linked item will be dynamically refreshed in the Links tabs.

Adding Links

To link an item with another item, click the appropriate "Add" button at the top of the Links tab. The Add a Link window will appear, containing a list that can be searched or filtered, and columns can be shown or hidden by right-clicking the column header. To select an item for linking, click its row. Multiple items can be selected by holding the Ctrl or Shift keys while clicking rows. When finished, click the OK button to link to the selected item(s).

Removing Links

To remove a linked item when viewing items by Tile, simply click the "X" in the upper-right corner of the item's tile. If viewing by List, click the linked item's row to select it, and then press the Delete key or click the red X button at the top of the Links tab. A message will display asking to confirm removal of the link. When the link is removed, it will also be removed from the associated item, since links are bi-directional.  

 

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