Send and Receive Contacts Wirelessly

One of the most common transactions in business is exchanging business cards. Business cards represent one of the most basic forms of communication in the business world. When you think about it, each contact on your Treo acts somewhat like a virtual business card. With your Treo device, you can even create and identify a single contact that serves as your own virtual business card. This is important because your device is capable of sending and receiving contacts with little effort on your part. In other words, it offers a high-tech way to share virtual business cards.

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A few different options are available for sending and receiving contacts with your Treo. One approach involves using one of two messaging options to send a contact to another device, which can be a Treo device or any other computer, for that matter. The messaging options involve using email or Bluetooth. The other approach is Palm specific and involves sending a contact via infrared to another Palm devicereferred to as beaming a contact.

To send a contact via email or Bluetooth, follow these steps:

1.	Press the Option key followed by the Calendar button to launch the Contacts application. You can also navigate to the Contacts application on the application screen and launch it if you've changed the Option + Calendar application button combination. Tip Another command on the Record menu of the Contacts application is Send Category, which is much more powerful than Send Contact. The Send Category command sends the entire category of contacts currently displayed on the screen. So if you want to send all your contacts to another computer, just select All as the category and issue the Send Category command.
2.	Scroll through the contact list to select the contact you'd like to send.
3.	Press the Menu button. Scroll down to the Send Contact menu item, and then press the five-way navigator (or simply tap Send Contact). The Send With screen opens (see Figure 5.20). Tap the messaging transport approach you'd like to use, and then tap the OK button. Figure 5.20. In the Send With screen, you choose how you'd like to send a contact.
4.	If you selected Bluetooth, your device immediately starts looking for discoverable Bluetooth devices. After a few seconds of searching, a list of devices is displayed from which you can choose (see Figure 5.21). Tap to select the device to which you want to send the contact, and then tap OK. Figure 5.21. The Discovery Results screen displays a list of devices that you can send the contact to via Bluetooth.
5.	Depending on whether you have established a Bluetooth connection with the device in the past and flagged it as a trusted device, you might have to enter a passkey for the device. The device's owner supplies this information. Other than that, sending the contact is mostly automatic.

Keep in mind that you can also send a contact via more traditional channels, such as email and SMS. If you select these options, you're prompted to specify to "To" address for the contact.

Perhaps even more interesting than sending a contact via Bluetooth or email is the capability of beaming contacts via infrared. Most Palm devices support transferring contacts via infrared, so you shouldn't have any trouble sharing contacts with other Treo devices and other devices in the Palm/palmOne family, not to mention numerous other mobile handheld devices that also support infrared. To beam a contact via infrared, follow these steps:

1.	Press the Option key followed by the Calendar button to launch the Contacts application. You can also navigate to the Contacts application on the application screen and launch it if you've changed the Option + Calendar application button combination. Tip Similar to Send Category, a Beam Category command beams the entire category of contacts currently displayed on the screen. So if you want to beam all your contacts to another device, just select All as the category and issue the Beam Category command.
2.	Scroll through the contact list to select the contact you'd like to send.
3.	Press the Menu button. Scroll down to the Beam Contact menu item, and then press the five-way navigator (or simply tap Beam Contact). The Beam screen opens, as shown in Figure 5.22, and your device begins looking for another Palm device to beam the contact to. Figure 5.22. The Beam screen displays the status of the beam operation as the contact is sent.
4.	When the Beam screen appears, lining up the infrared port on your Treo with the infrared port on the other device is essential. This involves aiming the top edges of the devices at each other. For example, you can set two Treo devices on a flat surface with their antennas aimed at each other. Keep in mind that infrared ports on Palm devices are designed to work within a range of about three feet, so you must keep the devices fairly close to each other. Note When attempting to beam contacts between a Treo 650 and a Treo 600, some users have reported problems with the devices not seeing each other if the Treo 650 has a username longer than 10 characters. You can change your username by selecting Users from the Tools menu in the Palm Desktop application on your desktop computer. Just make sure you update the new username in any applications that required you to enter the name.
5.	The person on the other end of the beaming needs to accept the contact and specify a category for it. Otherwise, the contact is sent with no additional effort on your part.

If you're on the receiving end of an infrared contact transfer, first make sure you have your device's infrared port turned on. Then when the beamed contact notification arrives, select a category for it and accept it to receive the contact. The contact is then added to your contact list.

One other handy feature associated with beaming contacts is identifying a particular contact as your own virtual business card. This makes it possible to quickly beam your business card contact without having to search through the contact list to find it. To designate a contact as your business card, open the contact to edit it, and press the Menu button. Choose the Select Business Card command on the Record menu to indicate that the current contact should be your business card. When you're prompted to confirm the business card designation, just tap the Yes button. You've now established a business card contact for your device.

To quickly send your business card to another Palm device, press the Menu button in the Contacts application and select Beam Business Card from the Record menu. Your business card contact is then beamed to another Palm device exactly as though you had selected it in the contact list and beamed it. You can think of the business card contact as a shortcut for quickly and easily beaming your own contact information.

Tip

An even quicker way to send your business card is to hold down the shortcut key for the Contacts application, which by default is Option + Calendar. In other words, press and hold the Option key and the Calendar button for a couple of seconds to beam your business card.