Get the Most out of Apple Address Book

By Ricky Buchanan • September 23, 2007

This is a great article from MacTips explaining most of the many things the OS X Address Book app is able to do:

Although it at first appears to be a very simple application, Apple’s Address Book actually has a lot of tricks up its sleeve, and some excellent plugins are available to guide its way to become an incredible tool for remembering birthdays, getting directions, and organizing all your contacts.

I use the Address Book to dial the regular phone for me (via PhoneValet, which I haven’t written about yet), put upcoming birthdays and anniversaries into iCal, start iChat and Skype calls, print envelopes for mail, keep my contacts in groups (family, RL friends, net friends) and smart groups (companies, local people, and so on) so it’s easy to find people to email or call them, and make more general notes about stuff I should remember … like that so and so’s cat’s birthday is the 2nd of April! You never know, I might need to remember it some day - I’m strange like that.

Website: Get the Most out of Apple Address Book

- Ricky Buchanan, ATMac

Save or Share this post:

Categories: Geek, Information, Neurologically Impaired, Primary Mouse Users, Users, VoiceOver
Tags: addressbook, dial phone, remember birthdays

About the Author

Ricky Buchanan

Ricky Buchanan is 33 years old and the founder and main writer for ATMac. She's bedridden with severe CFS/ME or perhaps a primary mitochondrial disorder - the doctors are not sure. When she's not working on ATMac or her other websitse she composes music, listens to audio books, does other disability advocacy, watches TV with her flatmate, and enjoys her cat.

Newest Posts

Weekend Round-Up: See You In January 2009!

The ATMac team have been working hard all year and now we’re exhausted! We will be taking a break for Christmas and to come up with more great information and articles for you next year. There’ll also be a competition to give away some great software. We’ll be back in January, so don’t forget to check up on us.

AssistiveWare’s Giesbert Nijhuis Launches Apparel Line

I thought I’d pass on the news that MacWorld just published an interesting news item about one of our very own, Giesbert Nijhuis. Giesbert has started selling his own line of T-Shirts under the label, AssistiveWear. Congratulations Giesbert!
You can check out the full article here.
- Paul Natsch

MacSpeech Dictate Global Commands List & Cheat Sheet for 1.2.1

MacSpeech Dictate is a great program but learning so many commands at once can be intimidating. I’ve put together two documents to help you learn and remember all the global commands found in Dictate version 1.2.1.

VoiceOver For Sighted Users

VoiceOver is a screen reader primarily used by blind Mac OS X users, but sighted people also use it for a variety of reasons, either for themselves or to better support a blind user. So, where would one start with learning to use it?

All I Want For Christmas Is Power!

Power’s what assistive technology gives us, really. The power to communicate, to read, to type, to plan, to play, to control things. The power to achieve things that we couldn’t otherwise achieve. Here are some ideas for gifts to empower assistive technology users.

Aims and Goals

This journal aim to be of interest to all OS X users and developers with an interest in disability.

Alternative Keyboard Layouts

Virtually all computer keyboards in English speaking countries are arranged so that the letter keys, if you read from the top-left, start of with QWERTY. What are the alternatives and why would you want to change anyway?

Text-to-Speech in Languages other than English

OS X only offers US English text-to-speech voices, and they are not of a very high quality. What alternatives are available?

Simple Keyboard Shortcuts To Save You Time

Keyboard shortcuts are a quick way of getting many things done without needing to access the menus or the mouse. If you know to press command-s to save your work, you’ve used a keyboard shortcut. For people who primarily use a keyboard or a switch interface, using keyboard shortcuts can save a lot of time and effort.

Did you know your Mac could do that?

If your computer already has the assistive technology you need, then accessing things via a computer means you don’t need to deal with yet another set of accessibility aids. So what amazing things might your Mac be able to do?

ATMac

Assistive Technology for Apple and Mac Users