contact/setup.mdwn



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:

Remove noise (eg. non-tabular comments)
Export as comma-separated file


Use "Western european (ISO-8859-1)" as character codepage (not Unicode)


Open Mozilla Thunderbird, and select "Import..." from the Tools menu
Import addressbook, choose "Comma Separated" and open the exported data file
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!)


Review the imported data now stored in a new Address Book


Re-import if not satisfied: The field matching is remembered from last import


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