Last
week I covered the basics of Address Book,
including some of the finer points of the interface, "hidden"
features of the application, and some good add-on applications and
plug-ins to make Address Book even more useful.
I should point out that I'm assuming you have the latest version
of Address Book, version 4.x, that comes with Mac OS X 10.4.x
"Tiger". If you're using an older version of Address Book, you may
find that some of the features and functions discussed here don't
apply. Specifically, last week I discussed printing options and
"Smart Groups", which are available only in Tiger's Address Book.
(Users of older versions will find
Address Book Reports, which I mentioned last week, to be a
great way to gain some of the Address Book 4.x printing
options.)
This week I want to take it a step further: Let's look at how
Address Book works in tandem with other programs. Address Book
starts out well: It uses the vCard standard, so many (most) other
contact management programs and services can interact with it. (If
you bump up against one that can't, see last week's article for
some add-ons that offer other export options.)
High Integration with Other Applications
Naturally, Address Book integrates seamlessly with Mail and
iCal. As with most applications Apple produces, drag-and-drop can
play a big role: Drag a contact to Mail and a new message is
created; drag one to iCal and a new appointment is made with that
contact. iCal can display birthdays, anniversaries, and other dates
entered in Address Book.
Mail's interaction with Address Book is an interesting one; you
can add a contact to Address Book from a Mail message (single-click
on the name when it appears beside "From", "CC", "BC", etc. and the
"Add to Address Book" option appears in a contextual menu). But
Mail also stores all names and email addresses that you've received
a message from, even if you don't add it to Address Book. You can
view these through the Window menu's "Previous Recipients" list
(below). From there, you can add contacts to Address Book even if
you've deleted the original email.
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Notice that contacts already in my Address Book show the familiar
card icon immediately to the left of the name; you can even sort
this window according to this column, so that all of the contacts
not yet in Address Book are grouped together. Nice job, Apple!
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One feature that I appreciate in Mail's integration is that
Address Book does not have to be open and running for Mail to
access it - not even for Mail to add a new contact. This means that
my RAM is not eaten up by running my contact manager all the time.
(Try doing that with Entourage!)
Address Book is also very
friendly with other applications. Pages 2.0, announced at Macworld
2006, supports merging Pages documents with Address Book in very
friendly ways; you'll find it accessible through a new Merge tab in
the Inspector window under "Link". A number of the new templates
included in Pages already have merge fields built-in, so that
envelopes, letters, flyers, and resumes will automatically include
your personal information from the "me" card in Address Book. (It
won't hurt to double-check to be sure that the information provided
is the information you want - edit your card in Address Book to
make necessary changes.) Pages is coming into its own, and working
so nicely with Address Book is a great new feature.
Devon Technologies' new
DEVONagent 2.0 (now available in public beta) allows any
highlighted text in Address Book to invoke a "Search in DEVONagent"
option in the single-click contextual menu.
Apple's iPhoto, recently updated to version 6, offers extensive
integration, including birthday cards and easy insertion of
pictures into contact cards.
I've also found that Serial
Mail (donationware), with a recently released universal binary
version, gives me even better integration with Mail. Serial Mail,
as I mentioned in my December
mailbag column, let's me build "mail-merged" emails so that
bulk emails are personalized. Good work!
RuleBox, which I
mentioned in Making Mac Mail Work
for You, lets me keep any email address-oriented rules in Mail
in sync with updated contact information in Address Book. Very
nice.
Plays Well with Exchange
I'm learning more about the concept behind Microsoft Exchange as
I dig deeper into these applications. One of the complaints that
seemed to have been fairly substantial about the Apple apps in the
past was that they were not Exchange-compliant. This complaint is
answered in Tiger's updates to the three applications, and now all
three - Mail, Address Book, and iCal - are (sort of) able to
synchronize with a Microsoft Exchange server.
This is accomplished through Outlook Web Access (OWA), which
means that your information synchs through the Internet, even if
your intranet supports Exchange synchronization. It also assumes
that your Exchange server offers utilization of OWA. This would
seem to have an obvious benefit: Your synchronization can occur
wherever you are as long as you have an active Internet connection.
But it also has a disadvantage: You can only sync your applications
if you have an Internet connection. While there may be little
difference in most cases, this could pose a problem.
I've also heard that some features that make these applications
great create difficulties with Exchange. Using multiple calendars
in iCal, for example, apparently messes things up terribly.
Enter Snerdware. This small company offers a few helpful add-on
applications that boost the compliance with Exchange to its highest
level. AddressX
(US$20) and GroupCal (US$55) bring
full contact and calendar synchronization with an Exchange server
whether an OWA service or Internet connection are present or not. I
haven't tried Snerdware's products myself - thankfully, I don't
require access to an Exchange server - but the buzz I hear is that
they pretty much got it right. Well done, Snerdware!
iSync Alternatives
Of course, iSync and .mac allow easy backup and synchronization
of your Address Book contents. I use .mac to keep my Address Book
database synchronized with Marcie's on her Mac Mini; this gives me
a reliable backup and it keeps the content as current as it can
be.
If you don't have .mac, there are solutions available, such as
Address-o-Matic
(US$20) and Address-o-Sync
(donationware), which utilize a Rendezvous Bonjour
network connection to synchronize your Address Book with one on
other Mac (OS X 10.3 or later required). You might also check
out MySync
(free, to become shareware), which purports .mac-style online
syncing without a .mac account.
I've also been using Plaxo
to keep my Address Book contents up-to-date. Plaxo is an online
service that sends out bulk requests for contact information
updating and verification. It does not require that your contacts
sign up for an account in order to participate (which is a big plus
for them), but if they do you will stay updated without having to
request again (a big plus for you). You can send out update
requests as often as you like, but I recommend doing so with only
occasional regularity - say, once a quarter.
Plaxo's basic service is free and has only recently begun
offering Mac-compatible accounts. Now that they do, however, it's a
snap to keep Address Book updated: When you request a download of
the most current data, Address Book automatically imports and
updates, allowing you choices about any changes being made.
Uploading information to Plaxo is not quite as simple, but after
an initial setup you should only have to upload a few cards at a
time. (Here's a hint for this: Plaxo inserts a tag into the Notes
field in every card, so all Plaxo-updated cards are marked. Set up
a Smart Group with the criterion that Notes "does not contain" and
paste the Plaxo tag into the last field. You can then export vCards
for just this group and upload it to Plaxo.)
Dashboard Rounds Out Integration
Rounding out Address Book's broad usefulness is
the Dashboard Widget that works perfectly with it. Apple just
updated the widget with OS X 10.4.4, and the new widget is
great. It's smaller (both in screen landscape and RAM usage),
easier to use, and very clean in appearance. And it doesn't require
that Address Book (the application) be open and running.
Between the widget and Mail's seamless use of Address Book's
data, I only run the actual Address Book application when
absolutely necessary - thus once again fulfilling the claim that
Macs (and their software) get out of the way and let me do my
work.
Overall, I'm impressed. Apart from the minor feature I mentioned
in December - wanting to specify which one of my email accounts
would be default for a given address - I can't think of anything
that I want Address Book to do that it doesn't already do. I'm sure
that Apple can (and I hope will) implement this in the next version
(with Leopard perhaps?).
Even without that, I'm a satisfied Address Book user. 
