Address Book Custom Template with Custom Labels not saved or "global" issue

Apple Address Book Template Issue - Custom Label Not Saved

....Long, but hopefully easy to understand….

When working with the Mac OS Address Book I have noticed what seems to be a flaw that makes the template feature somewhat less useful.

/Address Book.app

Once running, open Address Book preferences for templates, via key command or by using menu items:

Address Book > Preferences… > Template

Now that your looking this window

http://web.me.com/groyce/AddressBook_ScreenImages/Photos.html#1

You can select the "Add Field" option if you wanted to adjust the "default" fields.

If you drop down the "Add Field" list you will see something that looks like this…

http://web.me.com/groyce/AddressBook_ScreenImages/Photos.html#2

A user might select various options adding phonetics, nickname, title, etc. Because most people have phone numbers, Apple’s default settings for Address Book has the "phone" field checked, as such my issue will focus on this field to make things simple….

When looking at the "phone" field the default "headings or labels" are as follows:

work
home
iPhone (unlike others due to case be a consideration)
mobile
main
home fax
work fax
pager
other
-
Custom…

This above list looks like this:

http://web.me.com/groyce/AddressBook_ScreenImages/Photos.html#3

The "custom" option is what makes the template feature so cool! When selecting "custom" a window will appear that looks like this:

http://web.me.com/groyce/AddressBook_ScreenImages/Photos.html#4

We are given the ability to enter anything desired, allowing the creation of a custom label that will appear in the field - in this case we’re making a new "label" that will appear in the template for the "phone" field.

(Quick aside - Custom, is to say anything that does not go beyond 13 characters. For example if you entered "abcdefghijklmnop" as your "custom" heading all letters after "m" are not visible. The custom heading appears as "abcdefghijklm…" This restriction of 13 characters does not change when you exit address book template preferences, no matter if you re-size the address book window, or view an address book card in a single window, if you are "editing" the card, 13 characters is all you get! If you are not editing the card you can see 14 characters…)

Back to the original point….

Say you enter the custom text "foreign" in the "Add custom label" for the Phone field...

(this applies to some contacts that might have both US domestic phone numbers as well as "foreign" contact numbers)

Now "foreign" is a "default label" that will appear as part of the template when a user elects to create a new contact within address book… great!

If you decided that you wanted to add something more, you could click the green + symbol and create another custom label either within the single "new card" or by going back and adding to the default template or enable another Apple chosen "default". For example, because many people don’t use "pagers" any longer you might decide to remove this label from the phone field, assuming it’s still alive within your template.

OK so we’ve modified the address book template by adding the custom label "foreign" to the phone field, now we exit the address book preferences, and we’re looking at address book…

If you select the + button or any other method to "create a new address book card" you will see a template that looks like what you wanted… i.e. the default fields and labels are ready for you to input text, you create a card for person "A" and you use the newly created custom "foreign" label of the phone field - great things look good!

Let’s say now that the "foreign" label is created you move to an older card for person "B" … this person has both a US number that you’ve already input text for and you now want to add the "foreign" label…

THE PROBLEM....

Address book does not retain the custom label

You select person "B" from you contact list, click "edit" and then click the green + symbol to add a new label to the phone field, in doing so the newly added label is the next label from the default list...

it would seem that selecting the arrows would allow you to change to your "foreign" label, but doing this only shows the default list…. your created custom label is not in the list, you’d have to create a new "custom label"

Does anyone know how to force address book into retaining the "custom labels" that are added to the template?

This might not seem like a problem to some, but what if you have 20 custom labels that might appear in all or some of the different fields..

Example

Field > Custom Label
-
Phone > Foreign
Address > Foreign
Address > 2nd home
URL > FTP IP
URL > private
email > college

This list could go on forever, how we each decided to organize information for contacts is personal…. Just very annoying that I’ve not been able to figure out a way to have address book retain the "custom" wanted…

Address book is a really great app and with MobileMe and an iPhone it is a great place to organize A TON of information… just not saving templates with "global" custom fields makes things less useful

Problem via pictures:

http://web.me.com/groyce/AddressBook_ScreenImages/Photos.html#5

http://web.me.com/groyce/AddressBook_ScreenImages/Photos.html#0

HELP