Addressing Address Books For Linux - page 2

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The address book in Mozilla is my current favorite. It has a good mix of commonly used fields and is conveniently integrated into the Mozilla browser itself. As you may know, Mozilla also has a mail client bundled in and the address book seamlessly talks to that, as well.

Key Mozilla Address Book Features - (using Mozilla 1.4)

Simple spreadsheet style user interface

Multiple address books

Support for LDAP directory based address books

Commonly used address field names, with limited number of customized fields

The Mozilla address book can be started in a number of ways:

• From a menu item on your KDE or Gnome, etc. startup menu
• From an icon on your desktop
• From the command line: mozilla -addressbook

Once the program is running, you'll notice a fairly common user interface with a menu bar along the top, available address books along the left side, a spreadsheet view of contacts and a current card view area. Under the menu bar is a handy name/email search text box. Put a search text string in the box and it will find the string in the name or email address fields. An advanced search button let's you choose your fields and use boolean functions.

Entering new contacts is easy. Click on the "New Card" button at the top. A new card pane will pop up and let you add your contact's name, address, phone numbers and so on. The "Other" tab has several custom fields that you can use, along with a "notes" area.

The Mozilla address book can also import/export various types of common file formats, including LDIF, tab, cvs, txt. The import and export functions are accessed through the "Tool" button on the tool bar.

Since the address book is integrated with the Mozilla browser and email client, another cool feature is the ability to create distribution lists. Click on the "New List" button and type a couple of letters of the first email for your list. Enter the first character of the first email address in your list. A drop down box will appear with addresses that match your typing as you go. When you see the one you want double click to select and it will be added to your list. Later, when you want to edit your list, you'll have to remember what you named it so you can find it in the contact list. Double clicking on your list name brings up the edit window.

The Mozilla address book is easy to use and has many nice features. Best of all for me, is that it is integrated right in with the Mozilla browser, which is the one I use all the time.