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Looking for a Decent Contacts Manager

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Perry Mowbray:
Take a look at Open Contacts Free, open source, simple and flexible.  Reasonable printing by selection.  Just basic and works great for me.
-Sarkand (July 14, 2010, 08:25 PM)
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Well, I wouldn't have called OC basic per se: it does a lot of Addressbook related stuff. I've been a OC user for many years now, but like fenix last year, it just didn't seem to click with me in the long term. But it's an excellent programme... and will ensure that I write an OC to ContactsFX import option  ;)

I noticed a lot of these apps try to mimic Outlook in many ways as I guess they feel that Outlook's features are known/wanted by most users. (Not me, though!)-J-Mac (June 29, 2010, 02:30 PM)
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Glad to hear that  :Thmbsup: I only want an AddressBook, if I wanted Outlook I'd use Outlook  :) ... at the moment I'm using OC.

J-Mac:
Perry.

Come to think of it I downloaded Open Contacts right after reading that you were using it and possibly basing your upcoming app on its feature set. I did end up purchasing Handy Address Book but mainly as a stop-gap because I needed something now. However I am still watching for your new app as soon as you have anything available for testing.   :D

Thanks!

Jim

Perry Mowbray:
However I am still watching for your new app as soon as you have anything available for testing.   :D
-J-Mac (July 14, 2010, 11:55 PM)
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I'm trying not to feel under pressure  ;) but in terms of what you're wanting (and my hopes too infact):
[*] Add contacts with ability to add details, like spouse, children, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
[/list]-J-Mac (June 14, 2010, 03:15 PM)
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I was going to have relationships that could be exported in xfn format. Birthdays and anniversaries are fields.

[*] Able to add notes and if possible, links to associated files.
[/list]-J-Mac (June 14, 2010, 03:15 PM)
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Notes are a field. Associated files: hadn't got to that, but that's a good idea and probably just extends the links area.

[*] Ability to slice and dice the data in many ways.
[/list]-J-Mac (June 14, 2010, 03:15 PM)
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Not sure what you're thinking of here, but I'm wondering if export to excel/access would work?

[*] This one I have had difficulty finding: Ability to print the address book without having to print them as a series of separate cards.
[/list]-J-Mac (June 14, 2010, 03:15 PM)
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There are three parts to this project: the application, a FARR plugin and HTML exports (I was thinking here that I'd put them on a password protected directory, or USB drive, etc). The HTML will be based on xml, so getting a print view would be pretty easy in fact...

Anyway, this is maybe a discussion that should be happening over in the NANY2011 thread :huh:

ppass:
I looked for a good contact manager software to use in my job hunt. I wanted to track whom I had met, store notes of our meetings, track thank-you notes, emails, etc. I could not find a decent contact manager program, so I turned to CRM. I use vtiger (open source CRM uploaded to my server, so that I can access it from any PC, lots of other useful features like webmail integration). I am very pleased with it and hardly goes a day without my using it.

J-Mac:
Perry,

Pressure? Please, don’t feel under pressure from me! I didn't mean it that way.

I'll have to look up "xfn format", but if you use it then it is probably just fine for me too.   :)

Regarding linked files, I meant just that: files that are associated with a particular contact and just a logical link to them; not attach files or literally insert files into the contacts app.

By "slice and dice" I just mean the ability to filter and sort the contacts in any way desired. Some of the address book apps I looked at were severely limited in this respect. Many utilize "Categories" or "Groups" to accomplish this but I guess I am accustomed to using groups for mailing lists. BTW most were also using the same vehicle for their mailing lists. I figure that if the contacts are contained in a database then selecting and sorting should be very expansive. (Though limited knowledge might very well make me dead wrong in that assumption!?!)  However most of the apps on the market don’t allow any access to the database itself. A lot of them rework the database structure to be - or at least appear to be - proprietary. Like using an Access-based DB but renaming the file format as *.abcdb (For an imaginary contacts software by the imaginary "ABC Addressbook" developer!  :P  ) instead of the native *.mdb. (I didn't see any using the more recent *.accdb Access format; all that used Access seemed to be using Access 2003 or earlier).

And as for having this conversation in your NANY 2011 thread, you're right, though I started this thread before I had seen that one. Sorry...   :)

Thanks!

Jim

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