Address Book Alternatives

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Level 3

991 points

Address Book Alternatives

Does anyone know of any contact software that allows users to search and organize entries? The only 3 pieces of software I'm aware of that are made for Mac are Address Book, Entourage, and Now Contact, none of which have this capability. There is no hierarchical filing system, and no way to search by field with "and" and "or" operators. That basically renders the software useless if you've got more than a couple of hundred contacts to manage. Does anyone know of any software out there. It doesn't have to be free, as long as it works!

Thanks.

Other OS

Posted on May 11, 2009 9:14 AM

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Answer 1

May 11, 2009 9:22 AM in response to Ben-NYC

Ben,

Mozilla Thunderbird has its own Address book, but since I don't use it I don't know if it has the ability you desire. You could always download it and try, http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

Although your probably not going to get the interoperability that you have with Apples Address Book.

Hope that helps,
Weston

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Answer 2

Ben-NYC Author

Level 3

991 points

May 11, 2009 12:38 PM in response to westongallagher

Just downloaded it and looked at it real quick, and seems pretty stripped down actually. I know there has to be some software out there that can perform the basic database tasks of searching and organizing. I've been told Outlook can do this, but of course that is only for Windows.

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Answer 3

May 11, 2009 12:49 PM in response to Ben-NYC

Ben,

Man that stinks, like I said I don't use Thunderbird I just remember hearing that it had an address book. After you said database it made me remember the Bento does the things your looking for, the down side is it cost money, although they have a trial and it might be worth looking into, Its an offal nice database app. http://www.filemaker.com/products/bento/together.html

Then of course the only other thing I can think of is to send Apple your feedback on it. http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Weston

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Answer 4

May 11, 2009 1:02 PM in response to Ben-NYC

Ben,

I thought of something else, although it doesn't have the same in interoperability that address book or Bento through address book has. But you can use Apple Numbers to do what you want. Just highlight all the data you want to sort in address book and drop it into numbers, then while you have the table selected goto Table -> Show Reorganize Panel then punch in your criteria. You can also use the spreadsheet With Pages and do a Mail Merge. So if you have iWork a so/so solution.

Weston

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Answer 5

May 11, 2009 4:06 PM in response to Ben-NYC

I'm quite sure that Now Contact can do this. I have used Now Up to Date forever as it is the only Calendar program that can do repeating 'To Do's'. If you do a find in Now and then click on the'More' button, I think you'll find what your looking for.

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Answer 6

Ben-NYC Author

Level 3

991 points

May 12, 2009 2:41 PM in response to Norman Armour

You'd think so, but not as far as I can tell Norman. I downloaded a free trial and it seemed even more limited than Apple's Address Book, if you can believe that.

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Answer 7

Ben-NYC Author

Level 3

991 points

May 12, 2009 2:42 PM in response to westongallagher

What is Apple Numbers? Is that Apple's spreadsheet software or something?

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Answer 8

Ben-NYC Author

Level 3

991 points

May 12, 2009 2:49 PM in response to westongallagher

Thanks, I will check out Bento and report back. It is a shame that is costs, but $49 is nothing compared to what Now contact costs.

Just watching the promo on their website, nothing was mentioned about the ability to file database entries in any hierarchical way, but I am assuming that's a given since it is database software after all (although apparently not always a given for database software). In any event, I will download the free trial and let you know if it can or can't. Thanks again for the tip, and I will report back.

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