# Setting up and using central addresses

## Looking up addresses

### Web access

 * Public search page

 * Horde webmail

### Desktop applications

 * Mozilla Thunderbird

### Cell phone

 * SMS lookup

## Adding and editing

### Web access

 * Horde webmail

### Desktop applications

 * Directory assistant (Linux, MacOS w/ X11)

## Exchanging data

### Importing addresses

#### Well-structured address databases

Some address book applications can export entries as an LDIF file.
This often means the data is well-structured and easy to feed into the central database.

Import of LDIF files is supported from the following applications:

 * Mozilla Thunderbird

If you use a different application and it can export LDIF files, then try if it works.
Tell us your experiences, so we can (maybe improve the import routines and) add it to this list.

#### Other sources

For applications that cannot export LDIF, first feed the data into an application that does,
and then import from there.

Here's a possible recipe for a list of addresses stored in an Excel spreadsheet:

 1. Remove noise (eg. non-tabular comments)
 2. Export as comma-separated file
   * Use "Western european (ISO-8859-1)" as character codepage (not Unicode)
 3. Open Mozilla Thunderbird, and select "Import..." from the Tools menu
 4. Import addressbook, choose "Comma Separated" and open the exported data file
 5. Match Address Book fields with records to import
   * Use "Display Name" as full name, if first and last name was not previously stored separately
   * Use company fields for company info, if each previous record contained both company and contact person info
   * Use custom fields for custom data (avoid reusing standard fields for new purposes!)
 6. Review the imported data now stored in a new Address Book
   * Re-import if not satisfied: The field matching is remembered from last import
 7. Edit entries as needed
   * Each personal entry *must* contain both first name and last name
   * Each company-only entry must contain *no* personal data

### Two-way syncronization