Page updated 1 November 2012
The Address Book Window
The Address Book is used to store addresses so that they can be picked from a list, rather than typed each time they are used, thus avoiding the risk of mistyping them. The Address Book dialogue is re-sizable abd can be can be accessed from the File Menu on the Main Window and the Mail Property and Recipients dialogues.
The three field columns in the main part of the window can be re-sized by dragging on the divisions between the column headings. The EDIT, DELETE and MAIL buttons become active once an address is selected. The way to Add, Maintain and Retrieve addresses is described below, with a description of the data structure of the underlying "Address.lst" file following.
NOTES:1. If accessed from the
Main Window:
Clicking the OK button, confirms all adjustments made to the Address
Book, writes the revised address book file, Address.lst,
to disk and closes the dialogue. Clicking the CANCEL button aborts any
changes to the address book and closes the dialogue.
2. If accessed from the Property or Carbon Copy dialogues:
Clicking the OK button, accepts the addresses, adds them as a comma
separated list to the "To:" field (Property dialogue) or "Address:"
field (Recipients dialogue) and closes the dialogue. Clicking the CANCEL
button closes the dialogue and returns to the original dialogue.
Selecting an Address to
Send Mail
If the Address Book is opened from the File Menu on the Main Window, then clicking the Mail Button will pass any selected address in the main part of the window to the Property dialogue and will start the process of creating a new message.
Holding down the CTRL or SHIFT key will enable multiple addresses to be selected. (CTRL permits individual addresses to be selected or deselected. SHIFT allows a block of addresses to be selected.) If multiple addresses are selected then they are passed as a comma separated list to the Property dialogue.
Adding Addresses
To add an address, click the NEW button on the Address Book window. This opens the ADDRESS dialogue.
Complete the Mail address field and, optionally, either or both the others. (See the sections below.) When done, click the OK button.
The CANCEL button closes the ADDRESS dialogue aborting the operation.
Mail address
The field can be completed in any way that meets standard Internet conventions. However, it is recommended that the general format prompted in the dialogue is used, e.g. one of the following:
"Forename Surname" <name@domain>
"Surname, Forename" <name@domain>
"Company" <name@domain>
as these allow the most flexible use of the Comment field. Acceptable alternatives for the address field include:
name@domain
Forename Surname <name@domain>
Surname Forename <name@domain>
It is possible to add multiple addresses to the field. Each address must be separated with a comma. However, most users will find it more flexible to use the address book's Group facility if they expect to send mail regularly to a particular set of recipients.
Comment
Completion of the "Comment:" field is optional. It may contain text of any length. Typical uses include:
- The post holder's name for an address such as "sales@company.com"
- Note to distinguish between multiple addresses (e.g. Home / Work) for an individual
- Snail Mail Address or Telephone number(s)
Group
Completion of the "Group" field is optional. Grouping is used both to limit the addresses displayed in the Address Book to a particular sub-set, so make it easier to find the one needed, and to allow a group of addresses to be selected for bulk mailings.
For example, you could place all relatives in a "Family" group and other people in a "Friends", "Club", "Businesses" or "Work" group. Multiple groupings are allowed, e.g. "Family, Work" (The quotes illustrated here should NOT be entered).
TIPS:
1. To avoid a conflict with the auto-complete
facility when entering addresses in the Mail Property
and Recipients dialogues, avoid using
spaces in Group names.
2. To avoid the possibility of mis-typing or unintentionally creating
similar groups when adding group names manually, develop the habit of
picking the group name from the drop-down list.
3. To create a new collection of group names, create a dummy address
book entry and select it together with the address book entry for which
you want the new groups added. The Change Group
dialogue will then appear, which enables adding and removing existing
group names without typing.
Maintaining Data
Maintaining data involves selecting one or more entries and then choosing either to edit or delete it or them.Holding down the CTRL or SHIFT key will enable multiple addresses to be selected. (CTRL permits individual addresses to be selected or deselected. SHIFT allows a block of addresses to be selected.)
The Edit Button
The EDIT button may open either the "Address" or "Change group" dialogue depending on whether a single or multiple addresses have been selected first.
If a single address has been selected clicking the EDIT button will open the ADDRESS dialogue with the existing entry details displayed. Change the lines as required, and click the "OK" button. This revised entry now appears in the main address book window.
If multiple addresses have been selected, then the CHANGE GROUP dialogue opens. Although similar to the "Address" dialogue, only the "Group" field is active and additional Add and Remove radio buttons are present.
Either open the Group drop-down list and select an existing group name, and select the required radio button, or type in a new name and select the Add radio button. These actions will either add or remove all instances of the group name from the selected addresses. The action is confirmed with the OK button.
The CANCEL button closes the ADDRESS dialogue aborting the operation.
The Delete Button
To delete entries, select the item or items and click the DELETE button. A warning dialogue appears. Click the "YES" button to accept the proposed deletion, "NO" to abort.
Finding Addresses
By default, a new address, on being added to the address book, will appear at the bottom of the list in the window (and are added to the end of the Address.lst file that holds the address data). As the list of addresses grows longer so finding the required address can become more difficult.
Some will find that having the address list in alphabetical order the most convenient. Those who use a small subset of addresses on a regular basis will find manual ordering of the address list convenient as it allows the required addresses always to be visible as the Address Book window opens. It is also possible to filter the addresses so that, initially, only certain ones are displayed (see AddressShowGroup). As a alternative to sorting or ordering the list in particular ways, the nPOPuk Address Book may be searched for a match by typing in some initial characters from an entry.
File and Sort Order
Items in any of the three columns of the address book may be sorted by clicking the column heading. Clicking a second time on the column heading reverses the sort order.
NOTE: In the Address column, any "less than" (<) and "quote" (") characters are ignored.
To return the list to file order click the [#] button at the top right of the dialogue.
Manual Ordering
The two arrowhead buttons to the right of the main address list will move a selected entry up or down the address list one position. You can use them to arrange the address book entries as you wish. Similarly, the [+10] and [-10] buttons move a selected entry ten places up or down the list. These actions affect the order the entries are stored in the Address.lst file, so future use of the [#] button on the window, will not undo manual ordering.
Large scale manipulation of address list data is probably best performed by importing the Address.lst file into a spreadsheet program or text editor.
Matching Search
With the Address Book open, typing the first few characters of an entry will select the first matching entry. By default, the search is made on the Address column. Those who use the column for names should consider editing an entry (AddressJumpKey) in the nPOPuk.ini file that forces the search to be made on the Comment column instead.
Data Structure
The Address book data is held in the file "Address.lst" which is stored with nPOPuk's other data files at the location controlled by the nPOPuk.ini file. The file contains three tab delimited fields: Address, Comment, and Group. Should the number of entries become large, the simple tab-delimited format makes it easy for the data to be loaded into a text editor or imported into and manipulated in a spreadsheet program.