Communicator Help: Getting Started With AOL<sup><font size=-2>®</font></sup> Communicator

Contents | Index | Tutorial Movies

Getting Started With AOL Communicator

Getting Started With Address Book

Before you do anything else with AOL Communicator Address Book, make sure it includes the Friendly Name, e-mail address, and screen name for each of your buddies. This ensures that your Buddy List® window can notify you when you receive mail from any of them.

For details, see "Setting Up AOL Communicator Address Book.

The sections that follow introduce some useful Address Book features:

Working With Your Address Book
Addressing Mail from Address Book

Related topic:

Using AOL Communicator Address Book

Working With Your Address Book

After you install AOL Communicator, the left pane of AOL Communicator Address Book includes these primary headings:

- All Contacts: Displays an alphabetical list of all contacts listed under different Categories (see below). This view of your contacts provides an easy way to see or search all the contacts in all your Categories at the same time.
- Categories: When you first install AOL Communicator, these standard contact categories are created by default (and can't be deleted or renamed):
  Friends, Family, and Co-Workers are standard categories created for your convenience. You can use them to keep track of addresses of buddies in the corresponding Instant Messenger buddy groups
  Auto-Added are addresses that Address Book adds automatically from the recipient list whenever you send an e-mail
  General is the category for contacts added during synchronization with the AOL® Address Book that didn't fit anywhere else.
- Groups: A group is a logical grouping of contacts. There are no default groups. Only groups that you create will be listed here.
- Directories: Any online directories you may have configured, such as a corporate phonebook, appear under this heading. Directories are an optional convenience. You don't need to configure any directories to use AOL Communicator.

To create a new category, group, or directory: Open the `File` menu, choose New, and select the type of contact container you want to create.

To create a new contact: Select the category in which you want to store the new contact and click the New Contact button.

To import address book data:

- From Outlook® or Outlook Express software: For details on how to do this quickly, see Importing Contacts from Outlook or Outlook Express Software". The imported data appears in the General category.
- From other mail applications: First export the data from that application as an LDIF file. Then open Address Book, open the File menu, choose Import, and select the LDIF file.

When a category, group, or directory is selected, you can perform the following actions:

- Search ("Name or E-mail contains"): To locate a specific contact in the selected container, type the name or e-mail address you're looking for in the field near the top of the Address Book window. Only the contacts that match what you type will be displayed
  To search all categories at once, click All Contacts before typing your search information.
- Change the name or other details: Open the Edit menu and choose Rename Category, Edit Group, or Edit Directory.
  Note that you can't change the names of the default categories listed above.
- Change position in the container list: Drag the individual category, group, or directory you want to move to the new position and release the mouse button.
- Delete the selection: Right-click the item and choose Delete Category, Delete Group, or Delete Directory.

<< back to top

Addressing Mail from Address Book

To address a new e-mail message from within Address Book, follow these steps:

1. Select a category, group, or directory in the left column.
2. Select one or more recipients' names.
3. Click the Write Mail icon to write an e-mail message with the selected names entered in the To: field.
4. To add names from a different contact container to the To field or to add names to the Cc field, select one or more names and drag them to the appropriate field in the Write Mail window.

<< back to top

The sections in this document that discuss security, encryption, and privacy are provided by AOL for your information only. They may help you take certain steps to protect the privacy and security of your personal information on the Internet. This document does not, however, address all online privacy and security issues, nor does it represent a recommendation by AOL about what constitutes adequate privacy and security protection on the Internet.

© 2002-2003 America Online, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademark Information

Last Updated September 16, 2003