# The &kaddressbook; Handbook

## Introduction

&kaddressbook; is the main address book application for &kde;. It enables you to manage your contacts efficient and comfortable. Since it is based on the kabc library, it supports so called resources, which can be used to load and save contacts at many different locations like the local file system, but also in LDAP servers and SQL databases.

The user interface is similar to MS Outlook and it supports different views for different representations of the contacts data. Furthermore it provides an incremental search over all fields and a jump button bar for quick access of single entries. Since the underlying kabc library uses the vCard format (specified in RFC 2426) as default storage medium, &kaddressbook; mainly reflects the supported entry fields in its graphical user interface.

## Using &kaddressbook;

### Getting Started

After you have started &kaddressbook; (using the panel menu, or by typing `kaddressbook` at the command prompt) the &kaddressbook; main window shows up:

Starting &kaddressbook; The &kaddressbook; main window.

The &kaddressbook; main window.

### Configure Resources

&kaddressbook; can use multiple resources for loading and storing its contacts. After starting &kaddressbook; the first time, you have a default resource installed, that saves all contacts in a vCard file under $HOME/.kde/share/apps/kabc/std.vcf. But you can add more resources, by using the Resource Configure Dialog, which is available in kcontrol under KDE Components->Address Book:

The Resource Configure Dialog The Resource Configure Dialog.

The Resource Configure Dialog.

When you click the Add... a dialog will appear, where you can select the resource type. At the moment there are three types available:

file

- All contacts will be stored in one file.

dir

- Every contact will be stored in its own file.

ldap

- All contacts will be stored on a LDAP server.

net

- All contacts will be stored in one file, which can be located on a remote server (e.g. HTTP, WebDAV, FTP or Fish).

After selecting the type, another dialog appears, where you can configure the resource specific settings.

The file and dir resource supports different formats for storing the contacts:

vCard

- The contacts will be stored in the vCard format, like specified in RFC 2426.

binary

- The contacts will be stored in a binary format. That increases performance during loading and saving, but is not portable like the vCard format.

&kaddressbook; needs a standard resource, where all contacts should be saved if no other resource is specified. For this reason, after starting &kaddressbook; the first time, there is already a resource available. If you want to use another resource as standard resource, use the Use as Standard for selecting it. The new standard resource must be read-write able and active, otherwise you can't select it.

### Managing Contacts

To create or edit contacts, &kaddressbook; offers a dialog, where you can input all data, that are also available in a vCard.

The Contact Dialog The Contact Dialog.

The Contact Dialog.

#### Automatic Name Parsing

&kaddressbook; tries to provide an easy name input by automatic name parsing. For proper working it's sometimes necessary to add custom name prefixes, suffixes or inclusions in the configure dialog. Nevertheless no algorithm is perfect, and so it may happens, that it parses your name input wrong. In this case, you can disable the automatic name parsing in the name edit dialog, that is available by clicking the Name... in the contact dialog. If you wish to disable the parsing for all new contacts, disable automatic name parsing globally in the configure dialog.

#### Formatted Name

The formatted name of a contact is used by other programs to represent it. &kaddressbook; offers three predefined types of formatted names:

SimpleName

- <given name> <family name>

FullName

- <prefix> <given name> <additional name> <family name> <suffix>

ReverseName

- <family name>, <given name>

If the above types doesn't fit your needs, you can select the Custom name type, where you can add your own formatted name. This configuration can be done in the name edit dialog. To specify a default formatted name type for new contacts, use the configure dialog.

### Using Views

In this version &kaddressbook; offers different so called views, that represent the contacts in different ways:

Table View

- All contacts are listed in a table. They can be sorted by clicking at the column header of the table. The columns of the table depend on the fields, which were selected in the view configure dialog.

Icon View

- The contacts are listed as icons in a view. If the contact contains a photo or logo, then it's used in the view, otherwise an default icon is used.

Card View

- All contacts are presented in form of cards. The cards contains the formatted name as title. The body of the card depends on what fields were selected in the view configure dialog.

The View Configure Dialog The View Configure Dialog.

The View Configure Dialog.

The Selected Fields page offers you the possibility to select what parts of a contact should be shown in the view. In the Default Filter page you can setup what filter should be used by the view.

### Using Filters

You can setup filters in &kaddressbook;, which depend on the categories, a contact belongs to. For example you can create a filter that matches all contacts, which belongs to the categories 'Family' and 'Friends'. But you can also an filter that matches all contacts, which belongs not to these categories. To manage filters, use the filter configure dialog:

The Filter Configure Dialog The Filter Configure Dialog.

The Filter Configure Dialog.

Filters can be used in views to reduce the number of represented contacts. In the view configure dialog you can specify what filter should be used by a view as default.

### Using Extensions

Extensions are implemented as plugins in &kaddressbook;, so 3rd-party developers can provide more of them. At the moment we have already three extensions:

Contact Editor

- It's the same like the contact edit dialog, but as extension it can be used for fast editing a contact.

Location of Contact

- This extension takes a postal address of a contact and loads a map service from the internet (like www.map24.de) with these data. The result is shown in a html view.

Distribution List Manager

- This extension provides easy managing of distribution lists. Just create a new list and select a contact in the view. After clicking Add contact, the selected contact is part of the distribution list. A simpler way is to drag a contact from the view and drop it over the distribution list manager.

The main window with distribution list extension. The main window with distribution list extension.

The main window with distribution list extension.

### Import and Export

With the new import/export framework &kaddressbook; offers a dialog where you can select which contacts shall be exported.

The export selection dialog. The export selection dialog.

The export selection dialog.

The following import and export plugins are available at the moment

vCard

- The vCard format is standardized format (RFC 2426) that is supported by most addressbook applications. &kaddressbook; can import and export version 2.1 and 3.0.

Mobile Phone

- This plugin can import contacts from Nokia mobile phones via the gnokii library.

Eudora Addressbook

- With this plugin you can import your contacts from Eudora mail client.

CSV

- CSV (comma separated value) is a format that's used by many (addressbook) applications. You can import and export your contacts with this format.

KDE2

- To import your old addressbook data from KDE 2.X you can use this item.

LDIF

- LDIF is a plain text representation of LDAP data. Netscape and Mozilla use this format to store their addressbook data. &kaddressbook; supports import and export of this format.

PAB

- PAB is the MS Exchange Personal Address Book format. MS Outlook and MS Outlook Express use it to store their contact data. &kaddressbook; supports the import of this format.

Opera

- To import the contact database of the Opera web browser.

Bookmarks

- This is a pseudo export plugin, that makes the web urls of your contacts available in the bookmark menu of konqueror.

### LDAP queries

&kaddressbook; can be used to import address information from LDAP servers into the local addressbook by using the LDAP search dialog.

To configure (a number) of LDAP servers, use the configuration dialog.

On the main toolbar in &kaddressbook; a button with a picture of a magnifying glass over a book is available. Use this button to open the LDAP search dialog. The dialog itself is pretty straight forward. Just type in parts of a name, email address or phonenumber and press the Search button.

When the results display in the listbox, it is possible to select one or more address(es) and use the Add Selected to import the selected address(es) to the local addressbook, or click the Mail to Selected to invoke the mail program and write an email to the selected recipients.

The Recursive search checkbox is by default enabled. This will make the LDAP query consider all objects below the base DN of each server. If you only want to consider objects one level below the base, uncheck this checkbox. If in doubt, leave it checked.

### Preferences

You can modify many aspects of &kaddressbook;'s behavior in the preferences dialog. The dialog can be opened via Settings Configure KAddressBook or the the toolbar icon.

Configuring &kaddressbook; The preferences dialog.

The preferences dialog.

#### The Address Book Page

##### The General Tab

Honor KDE single click

- If checked, &kaddressbook; pays attention to the KDE single click option.

Automatic Name Parsing for new addresses

- If checked, the automatic name parsing feature is used for new addresses.

Script-Hooks

- Here you can specify the commands which shall be executed whenever you click at a phone number or fax number link in the details page.

Extensions

- In this list view you can enable and disable the single extensions and configure their settings.

##### The Contact Tab

&kaddressbook; can automatically parse a name into its parts. To make sure this works in many cases, you can add here additional name parts identifier like prefixes, suffixes and inclusions.

Prefixes

- Here you can manage name prefixes like 'Prof.' or 'Dr.'.

Inclusions

- Here you can manage name inclusions like 'van' or 'von', which are often part of dutch or german names.

Suffixes

- Here you can manage name suffixes like 'Sr.' or 'Jr.'.

Default Formatted Name

- Here you can select the default type of formatted names, that should be used for new contacts.

#### The LDAP Lookup Page

On this page you can configure LDAP servers, that should be used for ldap queries in &kaddressbook;.

Use Add Host... to add and setting up a new server. You can include and exclude servers by selecting or deselecting the check box in the server list. Press OK to close the dialog.

## Command References

### The File Menu

&Ctrl;N File New Contact

- Opens the contact editor for adding a new contact.

File Edit Contact

- Opens the contact editor for editing the currently selected contact.

&Ctrl;S File Save

- Saves the changed contacts.

File Import

- Lists all available import modules.

File Export

- Lists all available export modules.

&Ctrl;P File Print

- Prints the currently selected contacts.

File Mail

- Opens the preferred mail program with the currently selected contacts as recipients.

File Mail vCard

- Opens the preferred mail program with the currently selected contacts as vCards attached.

&Ctrl;Q File Quit

- Quits &kaddressbook;.

### The Edit Menu

&Ctrl;Z Edit Undo

- Undos the last change.

&Ctrl;&Shift;Z Edit Redo

- Redos the last change.

&Ctrl;X Edit Cut

- Cuts the currently selected contacts.

&Ctrl;C Edit Copy

- Copies the currently selected contacts to the clipboard.

&Ctrl;V Edit Paste

- Paste the clipboard content into the address book, if it is in a valid format.

Delete Edit Delete Contact

- Deletes all currently selected contacts.

&Ctrl;A Edit Select All

- Selects all contacts.

Edit Set Categories

- Opens a dialog where you can set the categories for all currently selected contacts. When the selected categories differ from the categories of the contacts, the dialog will ask you, if you want to merge these differences or if the categories shall be overwritten .

Edit Set Who Am I

- Marks the currently selected contact as 'Who Am I' contact, which represents the users data. You should have such a contact, because other applications like &kmail; and &kword; can make use of these data. So you don't have to input them separately in every application .

### The View Menu

View Select View

- Lists all available views.

View Add View

- Opens a dialog for creating a new view.

View Modify View...

- Opens a dialog where you can modify the settings of the current view.

View Delete View

- Deletes the current view.

View Refresh View

- Refreshes the current view.

### The Tools Menu

This menu provides tools for acting on the contact database.

Tools Lookup Addresses in Directory

- Opens the search dialog for addresses located on LDAP servers. You can configure the server settings in the configure dialog.

### The Settings Menu

This menu provides options for configuring &kaddressbook;, changing its appearance, shortcuts and standard behavior.

Settings Toolbars

- Toggles the toolbars on/off.

Settings Show Extension Bar

- Selects what extension should be shown in the extension bar at the bottom of the main window.

Settings Show Jump Bar

- Toggles the Jump Bar on/off.

Settings Show Details

- Toggles the Details Page on/off.

Settings Edit Filter

- Opens a dialog where you can edit the filters.

Settings Configure Shortcuts...

- Opens a dialog for changing the key bindings. Using this option you can change the standard key shortcut for &kaddressbook;'s commands or create new ones.

Settings Configure Toolbars...

- Opens a dialog for configuring the toolbar. You can add and remove toolbuttons for &kaddressbook;'s commands with this option.

Settings Configure KAddressBook...

- Opens the preferences dialog.

### The Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

## Command Line Options

&kaddressbook; supports some command line arguments, which can be used influence the starting behavior:

`kaddressbook` `-a, --addr <email>`

- Shows contact editor with given email address.

`kaddressbook` `--uid <uid>`

- Shows contact editor with given uid.

`kaddressbook` `--editor-only`

- Launches in editor only mode.

`kaddressbook` `--new-contact`

- Launches editor for the new contact.

&kaddressbook; also supports all other command line options common to &kde; and &Qt; programs. You can get a list of these options with ``--help``, ``--help-kde`` and ``--help-qt``

## Credits and License

&kaddressbook; - The &kde; Address Book

Copyright (c) 1997-2003, The KDE-PIM Team

&kaddressbook; was originally written in 1997 by Don Sanders dsanders@kde.org. Currently it is maintained by Tobias Koenig tokoe@kde.org.

&underFDL;