by ruth davis mac2school · to your current contacts, i recommend you do a quick archive backup of...

CONTACTS FOR MAC

by Ruth Davis Mac2School

Backup First 3 .....................................................................................................Customize Preferences 3 .......................................................................................General 3 ............................................................................................................Accounts 4 ..........................................................................................................Template 4 ..........................................................................................................See Your Contacts 5 .............................................................................................Sync Contacts with iCloud 6 ..................................................................................My Card 7 ...........................................................................................................Add a Person to Your Contacts 7 ............................................................................Edit and Add Information to a Contact 8 ..................................................................Designate an Entry as a Company 8 .......................................................................Add Additional Phone Numbers, Emails, Addresses 8 .................................................Add a Photo 8 ......................................................................................................Birthdays 9 .........................................................................................................Remove a Person From Contacts 9 .........................................................................Find a Person 9 ....................................................................................................Duplicate Records 10 ............................................................................................Link Contacts 10 ..................................................................................................Create a Group 11 ................................................................................................Remove a Person From a Group 12 .........................................................................Change the Name of a Group 12 ............................................................................Delete a Group 12 ................................................................................................Send an Email to a Group 12 .................................................................................Smart Groups 13 .................................................................................................Edit the Distribution List 13 ...................................................................................Share Someone’s Contact Information 13 ................................................................Map An Address 14 ..............................................................................................Select More Than One Address 14 ..........................................................................Print Envelopes 15 ...............................................................................................Print a List 15 ......................................................................................................Print Mailing Labels 15 ..........................................................................................Add a Graphic to Mailing Labels 16 .........................................................................Print Return Labels 17 ..........................................................................................Troubleshooting Tips 17 ........................................................................................Bad Addresses in Email 17....................................................................................

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The Contacts app, previously called the Address Book, is where you store all of your information about the people in your life. Many apps, including Mail, your iPhone’s phone, the Calendar app, even Safari, use the information in Contacts, so you want to make sure it is current and complete, and syncing between your Mac and mobile devices.

Since your computer screen is bigger, you might want to do all of your Contacts editing on your Mac, and also, some of the features of Contacts aren’t available in the mobile version of the app.

Backup First Even if you use Time Machine as your regular backup, before you make any big changes to your current Contacts, I recommend you do a quick archive backup of your Contacts, just in case. If you are using iCloud, changes you make in Contacts on your Mac will affect Contacts on all of your devices. 1. From the File menu, choose Export 2. Choose Contacts Archive 3. Select where you want to save this backup file 4. Now, if something weird happens with your contacts, you can always open up this

archive and go back to how things are right now.

Customize Preferences Under the Contacts menu, choose Preferences General • Click on the General icon to

• Choose how the names appear, first name first or last • Choose whether to sort the list by last name or first name • Which default account you want to use to save your contacts • If you want things to such between your devices, choose iCloud



Accounts • Click on the Accounts icon to confirm that you are using iCloud and it is enabled • If you use other accounts to keep track of contacts, you can choose to include them in

Contacts

Template • Click on the Template icon to

• Choose what fields appear on every card • Click Add Field to choose additional fields you want to appear all cards • You can add fields to individual cards when you are editing that person’s card



See Your Contacts When you look at the Contacts window you’ll see a list of all of your Contacts. To the left of this column, in the Sidebar, are your Groups. You can click on All Contacts or All iCloud or on a Group and those people’s names appear in the middle column. When you click once on an individual’s name in the list, their Contact card appears in the column to the right. If you double-click on a name, it opens in a separate window.

You can narrow and widen these columns by hovering the cursor on the vertical line separating the columns and dragging with the arrow tool.

In addition to being an address book, you can also use Contacts to start a text message, phone call or email on your Mac by clicking one of the blue icons.



Sync Contacts with iCloud You may have reasons to keep some contacts only on your Mac, but most people have all of their Contacts saved on iCloud so that all contact information is current and available on all devices.

If you want all of your contacts to be synced with the same information between your Mac and all devices, be sure they are on iCloud, not On My Mac. Also confirm in Settings and Preferences, both on your Mac and mobile devices, that iCloud is turned on and Contacts is selected. 1. Under the Apple menu choose System Preferences 2. Click on the iCloud icon 3. Confirm that there is a check mark next to Contacts (and any other apps you want to

sync between your devices) 4. Close the window when done

If you have your Contacts On My Mac and you want to move them all to iCloud 1. Be sure you have Archived your Contacts (see above Backing Up) 2. Click on On My Mac in the left sidebar 3. Click on one name in the list 4. From the Edit menu, choose Select All 5. Drag one of the names to iCloud in the left sidebar and they will all move. Depending

on how many people you have, it may take a few minutes 6. Open Contacts on your iPhone to confirm that they are there. You may need to go

into iPhone Settings, turn off and then turn on iCloud Contacts syncing



My Card Contacts sets up a card with all of your personal information on it. Your My Card will be listed a the top of the Contacts list. The information in your card is used in Mail, Safari and other apps. To quickly go to your card, from the Card menu, choose Go To My Card.

Add a Person to Your Contacts 1. Choose New Card from the File menu, or click the “+” sign at the bottom of the right

window and choose New Contact. A new blank card appears in the right window 2. The first box, FIRST, is highlighted in blue. Without moving or clicking your mouse,

type the person’s first name 3. Instead of clicking, press the Tab key to move to the next box and type the person’s

last name 4. Continue pressing the Tab key, filling in each appropriate box 5. You can change the bold-faced label of the field by clicking on it and choosing what

you want 6. When you’re finished, click Done

• No need to type dashes in the phone number--it will add them automatically when you press Tab to move to the next box

• No need to type commas or spaces in the address. • Be sure to only put the City in the City box, State in the State box, etc. so that, when

you print mailing labels, all of the information will be in the correct place



Edit and Add Information to a Contact 1. Click once on the person’s name 2. Click the Edit button at the bottom of their card 3. Click once in the field that needs to be edited 4. Click the cursor again to position it correctly or type over what’s highlighted 5. Click Done when you’re finished

Designate an Entry as a Company • Put a checkmark in the Company box and enter a name for the company • You can still enter a contact person’s name, but designating it as a Company will list

the entry in your list as the name of a company

• You can also use the company line to enter a second person’s name, ie. a couple with two last names. Just don’t put a checkmark in the Company box.

Add Additional Phone Numbers, Emails, Addresses 1. If all of the provided fields are used, you can click the green “+” sign to the left of

the field 2. A new entry line will appear 3. You can change the bold-faced label of the field (ie. work, home, mobile, and even

customize your own label) by clicking on it. 4. Click the red “-” sign to delete a field entry

Add a Photo You can add a person’s photo to their card 1. Click on the person’s name in the list 2. Click on the circle to the left of their name to reveal the word Edit 3. Click the big + to change the picture 4. Choose a graphic or a photo 5. This photo will also appear on your iPhone when they call you



Birthdays • You can enter a person’s birthday on their card and that date can automatically appear

in your Calendar • You can only enter one birthday per address card • You can add additional date fields by customizing the template under Contacts

Preferences, and then label the fields what you want (ie. anniversary), but those dates will NOT appear in the Calendar.

• If you need to track individual’s birthdays, make a new card for each person

To have Birthdays appear in Apple’s Calendar app 1. In Calendar, under the Calendar menu choose Preferences 2. Click General 3. Check the box to Show Birthdays Calendar

Remove a Person From Contacts 1. Click on their name 2. Press the Delete key OR Control-Click or Right-Click on their name and choose Delete

Find a Person Instead of scrolling up and down through your list of contacts to find a person, use the Search tool at the top of the column with everyone’s names.



Duplicate Records Instead of you manually looking, Contacts can find Duplicate cards for you. 1. From the Card menu choose Look For Duplicates 2. Contacts will find any duplicates and offer to merge them for you

Link Contacts If you have contacts from iCloud as well as Gmail or Facebook, you can choose to include them in Contacts in Preferences/Accounts, and you will see an individual card for each list they are on. If you want to keep each card from each provider but only see one card displayed in Contacts, you can Link the cards together. 1. Select the cards by clicking on one card, holding down the Command key and

selecting the others 2. From the Card menu, choose Merge and Link Selected cards 3. Contacts will now create one card, and on that card, at the bottom, you will see the

linked cards 4. Click on a link to see that provider’s card specific information 5. To change any information on a linked card, you have to go that provider, ie

Facebook, to make the changes



Groups If you send the same email to the same group of people all the time (ie. a book club, a board of directors, your family), instead of choosing each person each time, you can create a Group.

Create a Group 1. From the File menu, choose New Group OR 2. Click on the + sign at the bottom right and choose New Group 3. Without moving or clicking your mouse, type the name of the group 4. Press Return to lock it in 5. Click on All iCloud in this left column to see everyone in your Contacts 6. Scroll through the list to select the people who belong in the group:

• You can drag each person, one at a time, to the left column on top of the Group name OR

• Click on one name, hold down the Command key and continue selecting others, then drag one of the selected names on top of the group and they will all go

OR: Select the people first, holding down the Command key, then, under File, choose New Group From Selection

Be sure to drag the name left first and then up, or you may accidentally highlight the entire list of people.



Add a Person to a Group Who Isn’t Already In Your Contacts 1. Click on the Group 2. Click the “+” in the middle column 3. Choose New Contact 4. Enter the information

The person is now in the group AND in All Contacts

Remove a Person From a Group 1. Click on their name 2. Press the Delete key Or Control+Click or Right Click on their name 3. You will have the choice to delete them from your Contacts completely or just remove

them from the group

Change the Name of a Group 1. Click once on the group name 2. Press Return 3. With the words highlighted, make your changes

Delete a Group 1. Click once on the group name 2. Press the Delete key

Send an Email to a Group 1. In Mail, in the To line, type the name of the Group OR In Contacts, Control-Click or Right-Click on the name of the group and choose Send Email To 2. To see the names of the people in the group listed in the To box and not just the

name of the Group, in Mail, under the Mail menu, choose Preferences 3. Click on Composing 4. Under the Addressing section, put a checkmark in the box next to “When sending to a

group, show all member addresses”

If you want everyone in the group to see everyone else’s address, you can put the Group name of the group in the TO box. If you don’t want everyone to see each other’s address, type the name of the group on the BCC line.



Smart Groups Smart Groups will automatically create a group based on criteria you select. For example, if you are traveling to your home town, you might want a quick list of everyone that lives there, or, if you’ve added a note on someone’s card, you can search by those words. 1. From the File menu, choose New Smart Group 2. Title the group 3. Click on the word Card and choose what you’re looking for 4. Add the info to the next box 5. To limit the info even more, click the + to add a second criteria 6. Click OK and all cards meeting that criteria will be in the new Smart Group

Edit the Distribution List If someone in a group has several email addresses, you can select which address is used in the group email 1. From the Edit menu choose Edit Distribution List 2. You’ll see each person’s name and their email addresses listed 3. Choose the one you want to use

Share Someone’s Contact Information 1. Click once on their name 2. Click the Share icon (right facing arrow) at the bottom right 3. Choose to send it as an Email or text Message 4. The information will appear as a vCard, a format that most computers can read 5. The recipient will just need to double-click on the v-card to see the information, and

also be given the option to add the person to Contacts



Map An Address If you have a person’s street address in your Contacts, you can quickly get a map to their house 1. Click once on their name 2. Hover your cursor over the address until you see a map pinpoint appear in the right

next to their address 3. Click on the pinpoint 4. Apple Maps will open 5. If you want driving directions, click on Directions and enter your starting address

Select More Than One Address 1. Click on the first name 2. Hold down the Command key 3. Click on the other names



Print Envelopes 1. Select the names or the groups of the people you want to print 2. From the File menu, choose Print 3. Next to the word Style, click the pulldown menu and choose Envelopes 4. A thumbnail preview will appear in the left column 5. Click the Layout tab to choose the envelope size 6. Click the Label tab to choose

• whether or not to print your return address • which address of the recipients if they have more than one • whether to print information in the Company field • the color of the text • whether to add an image (click set and find the photo to use) • the font

7. Click Print when you’re ready

Print a List 1. Select the names or the groups of the people you want to print 2. From the File menu, choose Print 3. Next to the word Style, click the pulldown menu and choose Lists 4. A thumbnail preview will appear in the left column 5. Click to select and unselect the various attributes that you want to include in your list 6. Choose the font size 7. Click Print when you’re ready

You have no control over how the information fits on the page in the list, but you can change the page orientation to wide.

Print Mailing Labels 1. Select the names or the groups of the people you want to print 2. From the File menu, choose Print 3. Next to the word Style, click the pulldown menu and choose Mailing Labels 4. A thumbnail preview will appear in the left column 5. Click the Layout tab to choice the label size. Most Avery sizes are listed. 6. Click the Label tab to choose

• which address of the recipients if they have more than one • whether to print in alphabetical order or by postal code • whether to print the information in the Company field • whether to print the Country • the color of the text

7. Click Print when you’re ready



Add a Graphic to Mailing Labels 1. Before starting your labels, it’s easiest if you find the image you want to use and save

it or drag it to the Desktop for easy access 2. Follow the above steps 1-6 3. Click the word Set to the right of Image 4. Navigate to the Desktop and click on the image you saved there 5. Click OK and the image will show up in the print preview 6. You can also change the label’s font and color



Print Return Labels There is no built-in template to print return address labels but there is a way to do it. 1. Select your own name in the Contacts 2. From the Edit menu, choose Copy or press Command +C 3. From the Edit menu, choose Paste or press Command +V 4. Repeat the Paste 29 more times so that you have 30 occurrences of your own name 5. In the search box, type your name to pull out only those 30 cards 6. Select all 30 cards by clicking on the first one, holding down the Shift key and clicking

at the end of the list. All will be selected 7. From the File menu choose Print 8. Click next to Style to choose Mailing Labels 9. Click the Layout tab to choice the label size. 30 labels is Avery 5160 10.Make other choices for what prints or the label 11.Click Print when you’re ready 12.You may want to print several pages at once so you don’t have to do this often 13.When you’re done, delete all but the first of your name cards in the list

Troubleshooting Tips • If a name is out of alphabetical order, click on it, click the Edit button and check to see

if the entire name has been entered in the First name field

• Check for spaces you may have typed before the first or last name

• If the entry is just a person’s email address, go into that card and edit it, adding the person’s name

Bad Addresses in Email If an incorrect address keeps appearing as a choice when you write an email, even after you have corrected it in Contacts: 1. In Mail, from the Window menu, choose Previous Recipients. Mail remembers

everyone you’ve ever sent and received from, even incorrect addresses 2. Find the bad address and click on it 3. Click Remove From List You’ll notice that many names in the list have an icon of an index card next to them. These people are in your Contacts.

You can go through the list, select people who don’t have the card next to their name, and click to Add to Contacts.

For more great training e-books, check out www.mac2school.com/learn

Happy Mac-ing! Ruth Davis, Mac2School

helping people love their Macs since 1987


http://www.mac2school.com/learn


by ruth davis mac2school · to your current contacts, i recommend you do a quick archive backup of...

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