Address Book Wish List!

Unless it's already possible, anybody know if Apple ever plans on updating "Address Book" to enable the user to password protect an address book and to have multiple address books.... Having multiple sign-ins is not really a solution.
Thx
MBP 2ghz 1gig Mac OS X (10.4.8) 10+ yr. user and lovin it!

Here's my 2 cents worth:
Allow users of Address Book to --
1. Auto select an address from Address Book by typing in a nickname associated with an Address Card. (i.e. "mom" or "gramps").
2. Set a preferred or default email address for cards in your "ALL" group, just like you can when you select "Edit Distribution List…" from the EDIT menu on a particular distribution group. (Kind of like how you set Favorites on the iPhone in the Phone application)

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Address Book Wish List Additions???

As a long time Mac user I find Address Book extremely lame in that it lacks many helpful usability features that were standard in older third party contact managers. Ever since Now-Up-to-Date bought out and stupidly extinguished Touchbase/Datebook, Macheads have had to put up with less than optimal address book solutions. In the hope that Apple's AB developers peruse this forum once in a while, I'd like to start a wish list of features I'd like to see in a future version...please copy, append and post your suggestions to this list as well.
1. Selectable auto-capitalization with manual field override when in auto-cap mode.
2. Selectable auto-fill with manual field override
3. Ability to query contact database and to mark, unmark, select, sort, total and display contacts in printable listings. I still use my dinosaur Touchbase program in Classic to perform marketing studies on my business's house list. TB provides an elegant usability model.
4. Ability to save and edit custom list formats.
5. Selectable Alpha-tab A-Z index at top of contact window.
6. Ability to auto-dial numbers from contact window or menu bar.
7. Integration with Text Edit or ??? to create auto-letters.

Here's my 2 cents worth:
Allow users of Address Book to --
1. Auto select an address from Address Book by typing in a nickname associated with an Address Card. (i.e. "mom" or "gramps").
2. Set a preferred or default email address for cards in your "ALL" group, just like you can when you select "Edit Distribution List…" from the EDIT menu on a particular distribution group. (Kind of like how you set Favorites on the iPhone in the Phone application)

My Address Book Wish List

Just sent the following to Apple Feedback. Curious to see if any others share similar hopes -- or if any of my requests are in fact already possible, but I've just been too dense to figure out how to do them:
(using AB 4.0.4 under OX X 10.4.8)
Nine Improvements Many Address Book Users (including me)
Would Really Like To See:
1) Phone dialer function.
Since Macs still have internal modems, why not take advantage of the fact and provide users with the option of having Address Book dial the number you've just used Address Book to look up? There are 3rd party apps that do this, but it's the kind of feature that really should be built right in for full compatibility.
2) Auto Fill + Auto Capitalization options for each text field.
Users should be able to designate which text fields do or do not use one or both. (Previous editions of Address Book had a hyper-active auto-fill function, while the latest version seems to have abandoned it altogether.)
The auto capitalization should work the same as when you start typing a name into Mac Mail's "To" field, offering a list of possible matches (different cities, for example), beginning with the one most recently used.
The auto capitalization should be a separate user pref which can be turned on or off for any text field.
3) More display options for Name column
Specifically, it would be nice to be able to have Last Name / First Name for scrolling through the Name column, but still show First Name / Last Name in the individual Card View on the right.
4) More intelligent search capability
For example, by entering a phrase with quote marks, I should be able to see only those cards which contain that exact phrase, not just any card which happens to contain any one of the words in the phrase.
5) Intelligent handling of two-surname couples.
For non-business, personal entries, there's a reality out there which needs to be acknowledged: there are a lot of unmarried couples sharing the same address and basic contact info, AND there are many married couples where the wife has retained her own surname.
Address Book needs to be able to deal with two-surname couples much more intelligently, so that (for example) a search can be run using EITHER surname to access the same card. Also, you've got an Anniversary field, but apparently no option to add a second "Birthday" date (since most couples do have different birthdays).
There needs to be a basic template in which the members of couples with different surnames each get equal "weight" in the database -- and this applies to same-sex couples as well, so the pairs of Surname and Birthday fields should not be automatically designated as "His" and "Hers".
6) Ways to enter partial dates
For certain date fields (such as "Brthday" and "Anniversary"), it's often the case where only a year is know, or a year and a month but not the exact date. Sometimes a date is just a best guess or an approximation. But Address Book seems determined to create a complete date, using the current month and day if none are entered, and not even letting manually erase same after it does.
A little flexibility here, please! I know I can put anything I want down in the Notes field, but couldn't the Birthday and Anniversary ones be made a little less rigid in their formatting?
7) Remember the new template fields when editing
I've added several new fields for the template which appears when I create a new entry. But it's annoying when those new fields all disappear as soon as I then need to edit that entry later on.
You've given us the option to add additional fields to our default template when we CREATE a new entry; why not also give us the option to access those same additional fields (and field names in the pull down lists) when we EDIT the same entry?
This should even apply to entries which were originally created using the original Apple template -- the new fields and field names created by the user should become available whenever you go into Edit mode.
8) Make Distribution Lists easily printable, exportable, and more flexible.
Should be able to select more than one e-address from a particular contact for a distribution list (as in both members of a couple, or both the home and work e-addresses for a particular individual -- instead of having to create a separate card just for those separate e-addresses).
Also like to be able to simply copy/paste a distribution list (and/or Export it as a Tab or Paragraph delineated text file), which I could either print out, or e-mail to a friend who needed it, etc.
9) Hours of Operation field.
For commercial/business entries, a default "Hours" field would be nice, with some sort of easy-to-select options to facilitate entering the times a business, a store, or even a customer service line is open on given days. There should even be the ability to enter seasonal hours for different times of year.
I hope that these features have already been incorporated into the next release of Address Book -- and if not, that you'll give serious consideration to implementing them as soon as possible. Your users will thank you.

Download AddressBookToCSV 1.1 from www.versiontracker.com. It will export your contacts to a CSV file that can be imported by Gmail.
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When forwarding an e-mail I have lost the address book contact list on the left side.

I used to have the address book contact list on the left side of the page being forwarded to allow easy selection of addressees. It's gone and I need it back.
Thank you very much

Open a Write window and press F9 to toggle the Contact Sidebar on and off.
You can also turn it on from the View menu in the Write window.

Does Lion allow you to edit the Address Book chat list yet so you can add Skype or Gmail? Real pain not having these

Does Lion allow you to edit the Address Book chat list yet so you can add Skype or Gmail?
Real pain not having these
Thanks
Carl

Does Lion allow you to edit the Address Book chat list yet so you can add Skype or Gmail?
Real pain not having these
Thanks
Carl

How can I edit an Address Book Distribution List that will not display in Lion?

The option to edit an Address Book Distribution List (to select preferred emails for certain contacts) only appears as light print and does not respond to selection. I have a number of Address Groups that display and funtion properly in Mail, but since installing Lion, the problem described occurs. Any fix? Thanks.

The key is that the Contact List is now being kept in the Cloud & you cannot edit the Distribution List in your Mac's Address Book.
The fix is:
Quit your Address Book
Go to  Menu --> Sys Preferences --> iCloud
Uncheck the CONTACTS icon
Close Sys Pref
Open Address Book - Edit your Distribution Lists (No longer Greyed out)
Quit Address Book
Go to  Menu --> Sys Preferences --> iCloud
Check the CONTACTS icon
You should be good to go!
Hope this helps!
...John

Importing AOL Address Book/Contact List into Apple Mail Program

This is probably an old and already answered queation, but it has just come up for me. Does anyone know how to export the AOL Address Book/Contact List so it can be imported into the Apple Mail Program? I would like not to have to reinter all the address when I drop AOL.
@ GHz Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.4) No DVD

The AOL Service Assistant works fine for transfering the AOL contacts to the Apple Address Book. However, I was unable to get the AOL favorites to tansfer to Safari. It keeps hanging up with the rotating basketball. Any further suggestions?
466 MHz PowerPC G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) No DVD

Using Address Book, distribution list contact does not appear

Using 10.7.4, added a name to an address book distribution list but it does not appear in the email "to" address. Had added to people previously and it worked fine but not with the last entry. Verified that the contact's name, address, etc. all correct and does display in the distribution list but not in the "to" field of an email. Very strange!

The key is that the Contact List is now being kept in the Cloud & you cannot edit the Distribution List in your Mac's Address Book.
The fix is:
Quit your Address Book
Go to  Menu --> Sys Preferences --> iCloud
Uncheck the CONTACTS icon
Close Sys Pref
Open Address Book - Edit your Distribution Lists (No longer Greyed out)
Quit Address Book
Go to  Menu --> Sys Preferences --> iCloud
Check the CONTACTS icon
You should be good to go!
Hope this helps!
...John

Address Book Print list view column format

Is there a way of changing the column width of the List View when printing the contacts in Address Book? I select all contacts, check the boxes for address and notes and send so PDF in Preview. The left hand column (Names) takes nearly half the page width. The center column with all the addresses, e-mails and notes is very narrow, which causes the text to wrap in the middle of the address or e-mail.
If it can't be changed, does anyone know of an application that will use the address book data and allow me to format pages to my specification?

Thank you KT. I downloaded the utility and was able to create a tab delimited file from Address Book. I also imported the data into Numbers but I could not produce a report format I wanted. I was afraid I was forced to copy the data into Windows and use one of the many address book formatters.
I kept searching the web and read about Palm Desktop for Mac but that did not include the Notes field. Last night, I believe I found a reasonable solution, it is called "Address Book Reports" by Scruffy Software. There are choices of format and page size. I will try it out today and if it's OK will send the $15 shareware fee.

Address Book sorting list print

I noticed today a strange behaviour of the print function in Mac Os X Mountain Lion Address Book.
I have to print the entire contacts list.
I ckecked the "Sort by Last Name" in preferences, and on the video everithing is as expected.
So I tried to print ad with my big surprise all the contacts are totally mixed!
I can't find any sort rule! Just one contact after another!
At the moment I thought that I made a mistake in some settings.
I checked the entire print window and I havent found any option to set the sorting list preference.
Maybe is very well hidden........
Can anybody help?

https://discussions.apple.com/message/19330865
Hope this helps.

Problems in trying to print address book as list

Am trying to print my address book as a list. Page 1, 2 and 4 print just fine, but page 3 has data moved so that it overprints other data. Is there a fix for this or should I just reinstall the address book?
Macbook intel core duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Try booting into safe mode and previewing -
Before ordering your book preview it using this method - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1040 - and save the resulting PDF for reference - the delivered book will match it.
if it looks good order while in safe mode then reboot to get out of safe mode
LN

Mail app using old Address Book group list

I have a strange problem. Using OS 10.7.2 and iCloud on my mac. I just removed all of the entries from a group contact in Address Book and added new ones. It shows up with the new list when I check my contacts on-line on iCloud.com.
The problem is in Mail.app. When I create a new message and type the group name, it is somehow using an old list of contacts for that group. I deleted everything from the "Previous Recipients" list thinking that would help, but it didn't.
Any idea why Mail is not using the address book correctly?
Thanks.

A computer restart seems to have solved the problem.

Use iCloud and Address Book Distribution List disappear. Why?

Prior to upgrading to Lion, I was able to edit my distribution lists in Address Book on my Mac; while I am not sure if the same worked after I upgraded to Lion, I'm fairly certain that the main change happened when I went to iCloud, which appears to have made significant changes to my Mac apps. I can no longer edit the distribution lists in Address Book and there does not appear to be a facility to edit the distribution lists in Apple Mail (the issue is with those in the distribution who have multiple email addresses).
Anyone got an answer for this?

Okay! Lesson learned! I need to search more deeply in the Discussions forums! The answer to my question found under https://discussions.apple.com/message/17129766#17129766

Customize address book's list view

I have quite a few contacts with the same name (not all countries rely on the middle initial as a differentiator). It would be nice if I could have AB include prefix and suffix in the list view to help me differentiate without having to click on each contact to look at the card. In the end that wont solve all ambiguity, but it is a step in the right direction.

Greetings,
You can already do that in Address Book. Select a contact, then choose Card > Add Field, choose the field(s) you want to addand enter the data, then click the Edit button to save the changes. Repeat for all the contacts you want to add that information for.
D'oh!
I didn't know Address Book omitted that feature in Snow Leopard. Sorry.

Deleting Address Book URL list

How can I delete the URL lists that come up when I begin to type in the address book window?

You're welcome.
I was hoping there is a way to delete that info w/o clearing everything else.
Unfortunately not. I suggest sending feedback to Apple via the Safari Menu>Report Bugs to Apple. Always good to make one's needs known.

Address Book Wish List!

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