]> The &kaddressbook; Handbook Tobias Koenig
tokoe@kde.org
Steffen Hansen
hansen@kde.org
Don Sanders
dsanders@kde.org
Michel Boyer de la Giroday
michel@klaralvdalens-datakonsult.se
2004-09-24 3.3 &FDLNotice; &kaddressbook; is the &kde; address book. KDE kaddressbook
Introduction &kaddressbook; is the main address book application for &kde;; it enables you to manage your contacts efficiently and comfortably. Since it is based on the kabc library it supports resources, which can be used to load and save your contacts to many different locations — not just the local file system, but also to LDAP servers and SQL databases. The user interface is similar to MS Outlook and it supports different views for to represent the contact data differently; it also provides an incremental search over all fields and a jump button bar to quickly access single entries. Since the underlying kabc library uses the vCard format (specified in RFC 2426) as its default storage medium, &kaddressbook; mainly reflects the supported entry fields in its graphical user interface. Using &kaddressbook; Getting Started After you have started &kaddressbook; (either using the panel menu or by typing kaddressbook at the command prompt) the &kaddressbook; main window will be displayed: 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; for the first time you will have a default resource installed that saves all contacts in a vCard file under $HOME/.kde/share/apps/kabc/std.vcf; you can add more resources by using the Resource Configuration dialog, which is available in kcontrol under KDE Components->KDE Resources Configuration: The Resource Configuration Dialog The Resource Configuration Dialog. The Resource Configuration Dialog. Load the configuration module you want to add your resource(s) to. By selecting it from the combo box at the top of the Resources section. The module for &kaddressbook; being contact. Launch the Resource Configuration dialog by pushing the Add... button. Choose the resource you want to add to your contact module and click OK to confirm your choice. Directory each contact will be stored in its own file; File all contacts will be stored in one file; IMAP To be written Kolab The contacts will be saved in the contact folder of your DIMAP account.Kolab server specificities: The Kolab resource should never be configured as Read Only. In case you have added several types of resources you need to set your Kolab Server resource as your Standard resource. LDAP all contacts will be stored on a LDAP server; Network all contacts will be stored in one file, which can be located on a remote server (for example, through HTTP, WebDAV, FTP or Fish). SLOX To be written XML-RPC To be written After selecting the type of resource another dialog appears where you can configure the resource-specific settings. The File and Directory resource supports different formats for storing the contacts: vCard the contacts will be stored in the vCard format, as specified in RFC 2426; binary the contacts will be stored in a binary format — this increases performance during loading and saving, but it 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 the standard resource, use the Use as Standard button to select it. You must have both read and write access to the new standard resource, otherwise you won't be able to select it. Managing Contacts To create or edit contacts, &kaddressbook; offers a dialog where you can input all the data that can be stored 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 this to work properly it is sometimes necessary to add custom name prefixes, suffixes or inclusions in the configure dialog. Nevertheless, no algorithm is perfect, so the name you enter may be parsed incorrectly; in this case, you can disable the automatic name parsing in the name edit dialog, which is available by clicking the Name... button in the contact dialog. If you wish to disable the name parsing for all new contacts you can 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 none of the above types 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. Instant Messaging The IM Address text box holds the preferred Instant Messaging Address for this contact. To add, view and edit additional IM Addresses, click the Edit IM Addresses... button. The Edit IM Addresses Dialog appears. The Edit IM Addresses Dialog The Edit IM Addresses Dialog. The Edit IM Addresses Dialog. A contact can have multiple instant messaging addresses associated with it. Other applications, such as Kopete and Konversation, store their information here. It is recommended that you add, edit and delete instant messaging addresses in Kopete or Konversation rather than here, since they can assist you better in adding the address, adding the user to a group, and so on. If you are not interested in whether they are picked up in another application, and just want to store the instant messaging address with the contact, then it is fine to add and edit it here. For more information on adding new Instant Messaging Addresses, see Kopete's handbook and Konversation's handbook. Crypto Settings tab In this tab, you can define preferences with regards to cryptography for a contact. At the time of this writing, only KMail will make use of these preferences when composing messages. This mechanism replaces the barely editable per-recipient crypto preferences of earlier KMail releases. Allowed Protocols Here, you can restrict the cryptographic message formats that can be used for this contact. See the section on Cryptographic Message Formats in KMail's handbook for a discussion of the different available formats. Preferred OpenPGP encryption key, Preferred S/MIME encryption certificate Here, you can assign a preferred OpenPGP key and/or S/MIME certificate to be used when encrypting to this contact. Otherwise, the local keyring and local certificate box are searched for matching keys and certificates. Message Preference Here, you can select from a set of directives for user interaction both when signing and when encrypting. <none> No preference, use whatever mode KMail defaults to. Never Sign, Never Encrypt Never sign (encrypt) messages to this contact. Don't ask for confirmation (except in the case of conflicts with preferences of other contacts). Always Sign, Always Encrypt Always sign (encrypt) messages to the contact. Don't ask for confirmation (except in the case of conflicts with preferences of other contacts). Always Sign If Possible, Always Encrypt If Possible Always sign (encrypt) messages to this contact when it would be possible to do so. Don't ask if it isn't possible. Situations in which signing might not be possible include other recipients having signing preferences of "Never". Situations in which encryption might not be possible include missing keys/certificates for this or other recievers. Ask Always ask whether to sign (encrypt). Using Views In this version, &kaddressbook; offers different views, which can 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 configuration dialog. Icon View The contacts are listed as icons in a view. If the contact contains a photo or logo, then it is used in the view; otherwise, an default icon is used. Card View All contacts are presented in form of cards. The titles of these cards are the formatted names; the body of each card depends on what fields were selected in the view configuration dialog. The View Configuration Dialog The View Configuration Dialog. The View Configuration Dialog. The Selected Fields page offers you the possibility of selecting which of the stored details 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 belong to the categories 'Family' and 'Friends'; you can also create a filter that matches all contacts which do not these categories. To manage filters, use the filter configuration dialog: The Filter Configuration Dialog The Filter Configuration Dialog. The Filter Configuration Dialog. Filters can be used in views to reduce the number of contacts shown. In the view configuration dialog you can specify what filter should be used by a view by default. Using Extensions Extensions are implemented as plugins in &kaddressbook;, so 3rd-party developers can provide more of them. At the moment we already have three extensions: Contact Editor Similar to the the contact editing dialog, but designed to allow contacts to be edited quickly. Location of Contact This extension takes the 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 management of the distribution lists: just create a new list and select a contact in the view; then, 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. See Settings Menu about how to add an extension. 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 are to 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 versions 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 the Eudora mail client; CSV CSV (comma separated value) is a format that is 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, used by Netscape and Mozilla to store their addressbook data — &kaddressbook; supports import and export of this format; PAB PAB is the MS Exchange Personal Address Book format, used by MS Outlook and MS Outlook Express to store their contact data — &kaddressbook; supports the import of this format; Opera use this plugin 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 Address information from LDAP servers can be imported into &kaddressbook;'s 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 phone number and press the Search button. When the results display in the listbox it is possible to select one or more address(es); you can then use the Add Selected to import the selected address(es) to the local addressbook, or click the Send email to Contact to invoke a mail program to write an email to the selected recipients. The Recursive search checkbox is enabled by default; 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 SettingsConfigure KAddressBook or using the toolbar icon. Configuring &kaddressbook; The preferences dialog. The preferences dialog. The <guilabel>Address Book</guilabel> Page The <guilabel>General</guilabel> 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 are to 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 extensions individually and configure their settings. The <guilabel>Contact</guilabel> 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, 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 to be used for new contacts. The <guilabel>LDAP Lookup</guilabel> Page On this page you can configure the LDAP servers that should be used for ldap queries in &kaddressbook;. Use Add Host... to add and setup a new server. Configuring LDAP Lookup for Kolab Example of LDAP Lookup configuration (Kolab). The Add Host dialog - Example of LDAP Lookup configuration (Kolab). You can include and exclude servers from the search by selecting or deselecting their check boxes. In the server list. Press OK to close the dialog. You may configure the search order by moving up or down the servers in the list. This can be done using the corresponding arrows on the right side of the dialog. Command References The <guimenu>File</guimenu> 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 Send email to Contact Opens the preferred mail program with the currently-selected contacts as recipients. File Send Contact Opens the preferred mail program with the currently-selected contact details attached as vCard. &Ctrl;Q File Quit Quits &kaddressbook;. The <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> 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 contents into the address book (if it is in a valid format). Delete Edit Delete Contact Deletes the currently-selected contacts. &Ctrl;A Edit Select All Selects all contacts. Edit Set Categories Opens a dialog where you can set the categories for the 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 should be overwritten . Edit Set Who Am I Marks the currently selected contact as the 'Who Am I' contact, which represents the user's data. You should have such a contact, because other applications, like &kmail; and &kword;, can make use of these data: this way you don't have to input it separately in every application . The <guimenu>View</guimenu> 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 <guimenu>Tools</guimenu> 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 <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> 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 keyboard shortcuts 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 <guimenu>Help</guimenu> Menu &help.menu.documentation; Command Line Options &kaddressbook; supports some command-line arguments, which can be used to influence its starting behavior: kaddressbook Shows the contact editor with the given email address. kaddressbook Shows the contact editor with the given uid. kaddressbook Launches in editor only mode. kaddressbook Launches an editor for a 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 , , and . Options Without a User Interface Representation Apart from the options presented in the configuration dialog, some options can only be set directly in the configuration file ($TDEHOME/share/config/kaddressbookrc) or through KIOSK. ContactListAboveExtensions If enabled, extensions (e.g. the distribution list editor) are shown below the contact list, not in an separate column. By default, this option is disabled. To enable this option, add a line reading (under [MainWindow] section): ContactListAboveExtensions=true 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;