Communicator Help: Using AOL<sup><font size=-2>®</font></sup> Communicator Address Book

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Using AOL Communicator Address Book

Managing Your Address Book

Changing Address Book Synchronization Settings
Adding Contacts
Adding Groups
Adding Categories
Managing Duplicate Contacts
Where Is My Screen Name Stored?

Settings & Preferences:
AOL Synchronization Settings
New Contact
New Group
New Category

Related topic:

Working With Your Address Book

Changing Address Book Synchronization Settings

By default, AOL Communicator Address Book continuously synchronizes stored contact information with the AOL Address Book for your screen name. Updates occur whenever you first open AOL Communicator Address Book or change or add any entry.

AOL Synchronization Settings let you turn this feature on or off and synchronize your contacts with the AOL Address Books for different screen names.

To change your synchronization settings:

1. From the AOL Communicator Address Book window, open the Edit menu and choose AOL Synchronization Settings.
2. Adjust these settings:
   Enable Address Book synchronization: Click the checkbox to turn synchronization off or on.
   Screen Name: You must provide a screen name for the AOL member account with which you want to synchronize your Communicator Address Book
   You must enable synchronization, at least temporarily, to enter a screen name.
   By default, this is the screen name for the first AOL member account you set up. Even if you turn off synchronization, the screen name stored here determines the Address Book entries used to display e-mail and other information in your Buddy List® window.
   Don't change the synchronization screen name unless you're willing to deal with changed behavior in other AOL Communicator applications as well. For example, a AOL member screen name must be specified here to sign on to Radio@AOL or My AOL Today. This screen name determines what kind of personalization settings you will see in those applications.
   Password: If you select the "Remember password" checkbox, you must enter the password for the screen name.
   Remember Password: Leave this option selected if you don't want to be prompted for your password every time synchronization takes place.
3. Click OK to confirm your selections.

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Adding Contacts

To add a contact to one of your Address Book categories, follow these steps:

1. Click New Contact.
2. Type the contact's name in the First Name and Last Name fields at the top of the New Contact window. This name will be displayed in your Buddy List window as the Friendly Name for this contact.
3. From the drop-down list, select a category in which you want to store the new contact.
4. Enter the following Primary Contact Information (if you have it). For each item, you can use the drop down lists to label it Home, Work, or Other:
   E-Mail Address: Enter the main e-mail address from which this person sends you messages.
   Screen Name: Enter the main screen name you use to communicate with this person via Instant Messenger software.
   If you provide this information, the Buddy List window displays an envelope icon beside this screen name when you receive e-mail from this e-mail address.
5. Fill in any other information about this contact that you want to keep track of.
6. Click OK.

Related topic:

Working With Your Address Book
Adding a New Buddy

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Adding Groups

A group is a set of related e-mail addresses. If you address a message to a group, the message will be sent to every e-mail address in that group when you click Send.

To create a group:

1. Control-click to select existing contacts that you want to add to the group. (This step is optional.)
   Note that preselecting contacts in this manner won't work for contacts listed under Directories.
   To see all your non-directory contacts in one list, click All Contacts in the left pane.
2. Click New Group.
   The New Group window appears. If you selected any existing contacts in Step 1, they appear in the New Group window.
3. Type a name for the new group.
   The name you specify must be unique among all group names, category names, and directory names in your Address Book. It appears as the name for this category in the list of categories in the left pane of the Address Book window.
4. To add an e-mail address to the group, type it in the Address field.
   When you stop typing for a brief interval, a list of matching e-mail addresses appears just below the field ("type down addressing"). Click a name to select it from the list.
   To add an address to the list, click Add. To remove it, select it and click Remove.
   When you type a new address that's not yet available as a contact, clicking Add brings up a window where you can type basic information for a new contact, which will then be added to the group.
   Clicking New Contact allows you to enter complete information for a new contact entry, which will then be added to the group
5. Click OK.
   The group name you specified appears under the Groups heading in the left pane. Click a group name to see the contacts it contains.

Related topic:

Working With Your Address Book

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Adding Categories

A category is a collection of contacts.

To create a new category:

1. In the main Address Book window, open the File menu and choose New, then Category.
2. Type the category name.
   The name you specify must be unique among all group names, category names, and directory names in your Address Book. It appears as the name for this category in the list of categories in the main Address Book window.
3. Click OK.
   Your new category appears at the bottom of the list of categories in the main Address Book window.
4. Drag your new category to the position where you want it to appear in the list.
5. To add entries to your new category:
   Select the category and click New Contact.
   Move entries from other categories by dragging and dropping them over the name of this one.

Related topic:

Working With Your Address Book

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Managing Duplicate Contacts

As you use AOL Communicator and add entries to AOL Communicator Address Book, you may end up with several identical or nearly identical entries for the same contact.

Entries that are nearly identical have one or more conflicts: for example, the screen names are different, or the first name is given as "Jonathan" in one entry and "Jon" in another.

To merge duplicate entries, you need to review any conflicts and decide how to resolve them. Follow these steps:

1. If you're not already viewing the Merge Selected Entries window, open the Tools menu and choose Manage Duplicate Contacts.
   The field on the left summarizes the contact entries that appear to be duplicates.
2. Click an entry to see information about it.
   If the currently selected set of duplicate entries includes some conflicts, the first set of conflicting data is displayed near the center of the window. In this case, go on to Step 3.
   If no information is displayed in the center of the window, the currently selected set of duplicates are identical, with no conflicts. Click Save to merge them into a single entry, then go on to Step 4.
3. If conflict information is displayed about the currently selected set of duplicate entries, click the version that you want to keep (or type the correct information in the field on the right).
   If there are more conflicts, the button on the right changes to Next. Click it to display the next conflict.
   If you have resolved all the conflicts, the button on the right changes to Save. Click it to save your decisions.
   If you have already saved your decisions, the button on the right is dimmed, and you are finished resolving the conflicts for that entry.
4. After you finish resolving one set of duplicates and click Save, repeat Steps 2 and 3 for the next entry.
5. When you have finished resolving the duplicates you want to merge, click Finish.

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Where Is My Screen Name Stored?

Radio@AOL for AOL Communicator, My AOL Today for AOL Communicator, and My AOL Today Ticker all use the same screen name to identify you for the purpose of saving your preferences and settings.

The screen name used by these applications is stored under AOL Synchronization Settings (page 189) in AOL Communicator Address Book. This is the same screen name used for synchronizing AOL Communicator Address Book with your AOL Address Book.

By default, this is the screen name for the first AOL member account you set up. If you're not seeing the radio presets or My AOL settings that you expect, it may be because this screen name is different from one you have used in the past with Radio@AOL or My AOL.

Don't change this screen name unless you're willing to deal with changed behavior in other AOL Communicator applications as well. For example, even if you turn off synchronization, the screen name stored here determines the Address Book entries used to display e-mail and other information in your Buddy List window.

Related topic:

Changing Address Book Synchronization Settings

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AOL Synchronization Settings

By default, AOL Communicator Address Book continuously synchronizes stored contact information with the AOL Address Book for your screen name.

If you're not already viewing the AOL Synchronization Settings, open the Edit menu from the main Address Book window and choose AOL Synchronization Settings.

You can control these settings:

- Enable Address Book Synchronization: Click the checkbox to turn synchronization off or on.
  If you want to disable synchronization, do so after entering a screen name.
- Screen Name: You must provide a screen name for the AOL member account with which you want to synchronize your AOL Communicator Address Book
  You must enable synchronization, at least temporarily, to enter a screen name.
  Important: By default, this is the screen name for the first AOL member account you set up. Even if you turn off synchronization, the screen name stored here determines the Address Book entries used to display e-mail and other information in your Buddy List window.

Don't change the synchronization screen name unless you're willing to deal with changed behavior in other AOL Communicator applications as well. For example, a AOL member screen name must be specified here to sign on to Radio@AOL or My AOL Today. This screen name determines what kind of personalization settings you will see in those applications.

- Password: If you select the "Remember password" checkbox, you must enter the password for the screen name.
- Remember Password: Leave this option selected if you don't want to be prompted for your password every time synchronization takes place.

Related topic:

Synchronization with the AOL Address Book

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New Contact

The New Contact window allows you to create a new contact entry. If you're not already viewing it, click New Contact in the main Address Book window.

The same window appears when you right-click the name of the contact in the Address Book window and choose Edit Contact Info.

Be sure to complete the following fields at the top:

- First Name: The contact's first name.
- Last Name: The contact's last name. The first and last names you enter here will be displayed in your Buddy List window as the Friendly Name for this contact.
- File In: From the drop down list, choose the category in which you want to file this contact. (You can change it later if you want to.)

A row of tabs allows you to fill in basic contact information as well as additional details under Home, Work, and Other.

The Contact tab contains the following fields:

Nickname: A shortcut you can use to enter this person's e-mail address.

Primary Contact Information: Be sure to enter the following information (if you have it). For each item, you can use the drop down lists to label it Home, Work, or Other:

- E-Mail Address: Enter the main e-mail address from which this person sends you messages.
- Screen Name: Enter the main screen name you use to communicate with this person via Instant Messenger software.

If you provide this information, your Buddy List window displays an envelope icon beside this screen name when you receive e-mail from this e-mail address.

Other Contact Information: You can use this area to store any other information about this contact, including alternate e-mail addresses.

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New Group

The New Group window allows you to create a new group. If you're not already viewing it, click New Group in the main Address Book window.

The same window appears when you right-click the name of the group in the left pane of the Address Book window and choose Edit Group.

You can specify the following properties for a group:

- Group Name: The name that appears under Groups in the left pane of the Address Book window.
  The name you specify must be unique among all group names, category names, and directory names in your Address Book.
  Address: To add an e-mail address to this group, type it in this field.
  When you stop typing for a brief interval, a list of matching e-mail addresses appears just below the field ("type down addressing"). Click a name to select it from the list.
- Add: Adds the e-mail address in the Address field to the group.
  If a contact entry does not already exist for the address, a window opens that lets you enter basic information for a new contact entry.
- Remove: Removes the selected entries from this group.
- New Contact: Opens a New Contact window where you can type complete information for a new contact entry that will be added to the group.

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New Category

The New Category window allows you to create a new category. If you're not already viewing it, open the File menu and choose New, then Category.

The same window appears when you right-click the name of the category in the left pane of the Address Book window and choose Rename Category.

The name you specify must be unique among all group names, category names, and directory names in your Address Book. It appears as the name for this category in the list of categories in the main Address Book window.

Related topics:

Adding Categories

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Last Updated September 16, 2003