I’m really impressed. After nearly one year in using my Macbook I could learn about hidden features of Apple software each day. All of them will give your live more power and also simplifies your work-flow. Today I will tell you some nice features of the OS X address book.
The trigger to have a deeper look at possible address book features was an email I received on Monday. Someone answered the message I sent him a while back and annotates that I used the wrong address. So my first thought was: “Don’t have I set his primary address correctly?” I decided to have a look for. But where can I see what’s the primary address? I cannot find it anywhere. I searched Google and had to read that it’s not possible by default. The address book automatically uses the first entered address as the primary one. Only when you are using distribution lists you can select the primary address of a contact within the edit mode. But that’s not the same. I want to have it set globally. Thanks Apple!
But to my surprise I found a fascinating website. For the first time I got the information that the address book can be enhanced by plug-ins. There are also mentioned some basic information. Take the time and read it!
To solve my own issue I downloaded and installed the plug-in ‘Set primary Addresses‘. After a restart of the address book you have an additionally context menu entry when hovering over an email or home address to set it as the primary one. As I was able to see the wrong address was set. So I corrected the entry and tried it again from within Thunderbird. And yes, Thunderbird takes the correct address now.
After that is working now, I also wanted to give the Google Maps Plugin a shot. I tried the one which was mentioned at the site above but wasn’t able to get it to run. I did a search and after trying several plug-ins I found a solution which is working for me. Just installed I’m able to see where contacts are living in high quality. Even directions are possible and you can immediately print the route if you plan to visit a friend. Cool!
That’s just the beginning. Be surprised while exploring the hidden address book features.