Hack3.Extend the Address Book


Hack 3. Extend the Address Book

Just names and phone numbers, right? What could there possibly be to hack in the Address Book? Several small hacks allow you to do more with the Address Book.

As with the To Do List [Hack #2], there are a few simple tricks and techniques you can use to get the most out of the Address Book. These techniques will help you do things that you didn't realize you could do.

1.4.1. Find Jobs and Chase Prospects

You can use the Address Book to ease your job search or make it easier to stay on top of other kinds of prospects. Create a new category called Companies, Prospective Companies, or some such category. Then, add info on companies as you see ads posted by them or as you send them resumes or otherwise contact them. In the Notes section, keep track of job postings (title and date) and any communications you have with the company (sending resumes, interviews, etc.). Note the dates that things happen as well. If you meet with or contact relevant people in the company, add them as separate entries in the Address Book. Keep note of meetings and contacts with them as well. A good use for the Preferences option is to list contacts by company name, last name. Grouping everyone by company can make it easier to keep track of who you have been talking to, which makes it easier to follow up with those contacts.

1.4.2. Find Your Doctors Fast

Write your doctors' names entirely in the last name field to get them to show up correctly. After all, you want to see Dr. Smith show up in the list as Dr. Smith, not Smith, Dr. or just Smith. You can use the title field to indicate what kinds of doctors they are (dentist, family practice, or PhD).

1.4.3. Alternate Business Cards

After you have set up your primary business card, you may want to set up additional business cards. These could be a home address or a side business. Set up a new category titled appropriately. For example, I might create a category called Scott's Card or Scott MacHaffie. Create a single business card for yourself in that categoryuse one category per card. Then, whenever you want to beam an alternate business card to someone, switch to the appropriate category and select Beam Category from the Record menu. That will send over your alternate business card. You can see examples of doctors, companies, and business cards in Figure 1-7.

Figure 1-7. Address Book showing companies, doctors, and two business cards


1.4.4. Use Titles as Short Descriptions

You can use the title field as a short description or reminder of who someone is, if you don't need to keep track of an actual title. If you have a restaurant in your address book, you could put a short review in the title"great ribs" or "order #3." For a person, you might put something like, "Met at Siggraph '05."

1.4.5. Select Which Number to Show

For each item in the Address Book, you can select which phone number is displayed in the List View. You can pick any of the number fields. The number you choose to display is also the number that will be returned if you do a Phone Lookup from one of the other applications. To set the displayed number, select the item from the list view and hit Edit, then select Details. From Details, you can select which number to display under Show in List, as you can see in Figure 1-8.

These numbers don't have to be phone numbers at all. They can be email addresses, web sites, ICQ numbers, or anything else you can think of.

Figure 1-8. Setting the displayed phone number in the Address Book





Palm and Treo Hacks
Palm and Treo Hacks: Tips & Tools for Mastering Your Handheld
ISBN: 059610054X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 115

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net