Hi,
How do I remove/reformat phone numbers in the Contacts app in OS X El Capitan?
Phone numbers have spaces eg +61 111 222 333 and when using Copy + Paste get rejected by my VOIP application.
Thanks!
iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)
I found a way to make a plugin that will strip non-numeric characters from the phone number.
Copy the following and paste it into a new Script Editor document.
using terms from application "Contacts"
on action property
return "phone"
end action property
on action title for selectedPerson with thisPhoneNumber
return "Copy Digits"
end action title
on should enable action for selectedPerson with thisPhoneNumber
return true
end should enable action
on perform action for selectedPerson with thisPhoneNumber
set phoneToCopy to (value of thisPhoneNumber) as string
set the clipboard to returnNumbers(phoneToCopy)
end perform action
end using terms from
on returnNumbers(phoneNumber)
set theDigits to {"+", "0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9"}
set onlyNumbers to ""
repeat with i from 1 to length of phoneNumber
set j to (character i of phoneNumber)
if j is in theDigits then set onlyNumbers to onlyNumbers & j
end repeat
return onlyNumbers
end returnNumbers
Save the script into your user Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.AddressBook folder.
To get to the user Library, hold down the Option key and select Library from the Go menu in Finder.
When you click on the phone number label in Contacts, Copy Digits will appear in the list.
If your VOIP software is scriptable, it might be possible to just have it dial from that menu.
I wrote it to allow + symbols in the string. Does your VOIP software understand the + or does it need to be stripped out?
I can't find a way to alter the copying of the number format in Contacts. The numbers are formatted to match the country code generally recognized formatting. Even if you enter the numbers without formatting, the display will be formatted and anything you copy will too.
Contacts has a Plugin architecture. Perhaps the VOIP software has a plugin for Contacts that allows you to dial from the label menu in Contacts. Or, perhaps there is a plugin out there that will copy the number without the formatting (though, I didn't find one when googling).
You could contact the VOIP software developers and ask them to fix their app because it should be stripping all non-numeric data from the string. It has no idea where you would copy a number from (like a website), and it should be able to parse out the number.
Perfect!
It took me a while to recognise that the phone number 'label' eg mobile/home/work is a clickable field.
Copy Digits shows up as an option and does the job.
I use an online service to send SMS occasionally - and it was rejecting phone numbers formatted by OS X Contacts app.
Re: the preceding '+' - my VOIP app (LinPhone) accepts it no problem.
Thanks so much for your plugin. Kudos!
What about just clicking the Edit button in Contacts and manually removing the spaces?
Luis Sequeira1 wrote:
What about just clicking the Edit button in Contacts and manually removing the spaces?
Give it a try. Didn't work for me. It auto formats for display.
Remove spaces in phone numbers in Contacts
