I was popping a few new contacts into my Mac Address Book and while doing so I discovered a few new handy features that I hadn’t used before.
Synchronize with Google
Click on Address Book in your top menu bar then Preferences then go to the Accounts tab and check the box that says “Synchronize with Google”. Enter your Gmail account information and all the information from your Mac Address Book is automatically imported (and synchronized so it’s always up to date) to your Gmail contacts list. Since I do all of my emailing in Gmail, everyone’s email address is now ready to go.
I was a little worried this might make a giant mess of my Address Book when it imported my Gmail contacts back but it wasn’t too bad. I did have to do a little clean up but Look for Duplicates and Merge Selected Cards options in the Card menu made that quick and easy.
Smart Groups
The contacts I was entering into Address Book on this go were all people I met at a recent event. In the notes section, I typed the name of the event and the year so that later when I wonder where I met them I have a reminder. Now, I could drag and drop them each into a manual group but since I already had the note in place a smart group was quicker and easier. Go to File > New Smart Group and select your criteria like you would when setting up a Smart Playlist in iTunes and you’ve got a quick and easy group.
Apple could still make a lot of improvements to Smart Groups. Since my iPhone is my only phone, it tracks all of my calls. I’d love for that data to be imported back to Address Book so I could create Smart Groups based on the statistics of who I call the most, talk with the longest, or when I last called them. By layering Groups and Smart Groups you could narrow down, for example, relatives you haven’t talked to in at least 3 months and then you’d easily be able to see a list of who you needed to call and catch up with. The options could also be a little smarter: rather than what their city or zip is or is not, I’d like to be able to make a “local” group of all my contacts within a certain distance of my home.
Shared in Works for me Wednesday.
Related posts:
One Gmail Address to Rule Them All
Smart Playlists Just Got Easier
Wishlist for Future Apple Events
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