Mozilla 1.4 Addr book - Help!

GPaDavis,

I think there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The problem is in the syntax of the entries that manually enter (type) into the LIST propeties box and HOW moz handles the entries.

I should have a definitive answere later this afternoon. I know what it is doing, it's just a matter of explaining it.

Hang in there.

regards:

 

GPaDavis,

Following comments and suggestions are based on personal experience and observations of Moz 1.4f INSTALLED on Win98se machine. (OS should not matter, and should also apply to NS 7.1)

When you create a NEW address card via Address Book window - New Card - you enter First Name (field 1) and Last Name (field 2) Moz generates "display" (field 3). You enter "Email" (field 5) etc. This card will display correctly regardless of what you have selected in the Address Book VIEW menu.

When you "collect" addresses, Moz has no way of parsing the address (it does not know first name from last name) so it does the best it can and enters data in the "display" (field 3) and "email" in field 5.

When you "type" an entry in the List properties window, Moz does the same thing and adds the card to your addressbook. (No field 1 or field 2 -ONLY field 3 and "email ") You can verify this by looking at the properties of a collected address or one that you added to the "list" properties.

The "Auto Complete" feature searches existing address books on FIELD 3 as this is the only common field for both created and collected cards.

Whether or not an address shows correctly in the "List" or not is dependent on what you have set in VIEW|Show names as| - if you select "display" it shows correctly, if you select anything else, it will show as Blank with the "email" address. It will be at the top of the list if sorting is in ascending order.

Moz is very particular about the syntax of entries that you TYPE in the List - properties and does what it can with what you enter.

I could go into more detail, but I hope you follow my basic logic.

Knowing this, you can see that "collecting" addresses and "TYPING" data in the List properties window is a bad idea. Drag & Drop works as it should. Selecting from the "auto-complete" drop down works also, but keep in mind that these entries are based on field (3) which may or may not display correctly depending on the properties of the entry and VIEW|Show name as| selection.

Bottom line suggestion:

Start with a CLEAN address book with NO lists.
Create the LIST- and DRAG & DROP entries to List from existing entries.
If you use the "auto-complete" feature, ensure that the properties for the entry includes Fields 1 & 2. or it may not display correctly.

Cleaning up your existing Personal Address Book may be more of a problem than it is worth. If you want to try, do the following:

Open Address Book window.
Select Personal Address Book
Select View|Show Name as|Firstlast ascending order
This should bring ALL entries that DO NOT have a Field 1 or 2 to the top of the list -
Delete these entries.
Deleting an entry from the MAIN address book will delete it from any list.
Deleting an entry from a LIST will not delete it from the MAIN address book.

Hope this helps to clear up your problem. If you have questions please let me know.

regards:

 

I noticed that when I typed in a partial name into the mailing list properties window when the entry ONLY existed in Collected Addresses, it would add the entry to the Personal Address Book but with no name at all, just the e-mail address, even though the Collected Address entry DID show First/Last AND display name. Checking back to the mailing list properties window later, the display name was blank, with just the e-mail address showing at the top of the address book.

Manually typing in an address to the mailing list properties window when the entry existed ONLY in the Personal Address book worked fine, with the correct display name appearing.

When the exact same entry ( first/Last, display name and e-mail address) existed in both Collected Addresses AND the Personal Address book, I saw the same problem manually typing in the name to the mailing list properties window - blank display name, only e-mail address showing later in the Mailing list - PLUS an additional blank display name. e-mail address for the entry was added to the Personal Address book.

However, if I drag/dropped the entry from Collected Addresses to the Personal Address book, the new card DID include the correct First/Last and Display name in addition to the e-mail address. Don't know if that's a Moz 1.0.1 quirk or whether it applies to Moz 1.4.

Do you mean you have no entries at all in Collected Addresses?

If you still want to try manually typing addresses into the mailing list (edit/properties) and using the autocomplete feature I would make sure there are no entries in Collected addresses. If there are, then drag/drop any you want to save to the Personal Address book, delete from Collected Addresses, then add to the mailing list.

Bottom line, good advice from captjlddavis...
...use drag/drop to add names from your PAB to a mailing list instead of manually typing in
... keep View/ "Show Name as" set to Display Name)

 

Looks good . . . so far

Captjlddavis, Alice,

Thanks to both of you for jumping in and explaining my address book dilemma. At least for the moment, using the good Capt's sequence, all appears to be stable.

The Collected addees remain empty. I have no need for this, as far as I know and the "Add email addees . . ." remains unchecked. My needs are quite simple. If this holds up, then I'll be quite content. Overall, I am very pleased with Moz 1.4 and hope that the next version will improve upon this "buggy" feature.

But, my very limited experience with programming computers causes me to be a little cautious 'til some time has past. Needless to say, I've backed up the entire profile, not to mention, having exported the address book in .ldi, .ldf, .txt, formats.

You and this BBS are to be commended. I have been the beneficiary of all this knowledge for some time now -- lurking in the backgroud, as it were. Thanks once again,
Bob

 

GPaDavis,

Glad my suggestions work for you.

regards:

 

Alice:

After reading your lengthy reply I noted the following paragraph,

This indicates to me that your comments (at least that paragraph) - pertain to Moz 1.0.1 - and not to 1.4f as the OP (Original Post) and I clearly stated. I do not know nor do I care what or how Moz 1.0.1 works as we are talking about 1.4f.

I stand by my comments and suggestion. If you have a legitimate disagreement with ANY comment I make regards to 1.4f - please bring it to my attention and I will explain the comment and how I come to that conclusion.
I do not appreciate the innuendo that I am incorrect in a comment.
Nor do I need your approval.

regards:

 

captjlddavis...I have no idea what I did to deserve such a rude comment from you