Address Book

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Greeting Cards and Mailing Labels

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        Time to figure out making/sending greeting cards and printing out labels for mailing.  John Carter speaks up, commenting on my question about labels, "A much better way, if you intend to print mail labels, is to use Avery Label's Design Pro for Mac (there's only one version, and Avery has discontinued support for the Mac as an application that you download - they now prefer that you use their free online service). Design Pro has a feature to merge contact information from Contacts and sort them."
      Bobbie Pastor offers this info, "I make the club's name tags with Design Pro.  That will be over when I get ML.  I have to do my business cards with Design Pro on line as well.  It Sucks!  I don't like it at all.  Downloading the program to your computer is so much better.  

        "Maybe, if you make cards and do a lot of that creative stuff, look into buying a program that can do all that.  Here's one I found.  http://www.snowfoxsoft.com/greeting-card-maker-mac.html"
      What started the conversation was my comment about ML  (Mountain Lion) Contacts which used to be called Address Book.  Printing out a list of names for a Christmas card list the ML no longer alphabetizes the list, but does alphabetize the labels that you print out. 
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FaceBook Concerns

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        "For those of you with FaceBook accounts, and getting ready to upgrade to iOS 6 when it comes out, here's something else to worry about. iOS 6 will have the ability to sync your Contacts with your FaceBook friends. This is a two-way sync, so your Contacts (Address Book on older Macs) will potentially get a bunch of new information added. The problem is that FaceBook is scheming to increase the use of useless Facebook.com email addresses, and will send them to your Contacts. Check out the story for the details."  This info from Prez Art Gorski.  http://www.tuaw.com/2012/09/04/with-ios-6-your-address-book-may-be-invaded-by-facebook-com-em/

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Your Family Reunion!

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        Sooner or later you’ll probably volunteer to head up your family reunion, won’t you? What a way to make memories and enjoy conversations and great food. But, yes, it involves some work. Thankfully, you will use your Mac; that makes the job easier.
        Let’s start with Address Book. A lot of preparation here, but it saves time later. You’ll be notifying the relatives, later reminding the relatives, corresponding with them, and then finally thanking them after it’s over.
        Probably you’ve already got those names and addresses of the chosen relatives under a title such as Christmas Cards. Click under File to make a Family Reunion 2011 group. Now just drag address listings under Name to add them to this group.
        If some of the relatives have email you might not want to notify them by mail. For this, just click to Edit individual cards and omit the mailing address. When you open Mail and New Message just type in the group name, Family Reunion 2011. The names of those people who do have email addresses will be the recipients.
        For relatives without email you will mail the Reunion info. When you have Address Book open click on the Group name. At the menu at the top of the screen go to File > Print. Uncheck Attributes since they don’t apply. Click on Address Book and see the selections available. Click on Style and see the selections there. You can print on the envelopes or print out address labels. Under Paper Size you have lots of possibilities.
        Under Style is where you choose the address label size. Click on Mailing Labels and note two places: Layout and Label. Specify to print in alphabetical order or postal code order. You can choose the font name and size. Lucida Grande - 12.0 comes up automatically.
        Click on Layout. I’m using Avery Standard labels, 5160. You get a little preview look to verify that’s what you want.
        Now for sharing some wonderful family photos, old and new. Call on Keynote!
        Go to Applications > iWork 9 and look at Keynote. This is the handy way to make a slideshow for the Reunion. Up comes Theme Chooser. Nifty templates are ready for your pictures to be added. On the menu at the top of the screen go to Help > Video Tutorials. Brush up on the how-to directions and then play and have fun. It’s Mac and it’s easy.

        Next to Numbers! Now to make lists, lists, and more lists. Go to iWork > Numbers and choose a format, perhaps Checklist, Budget, Expense, or Event Planner. Take a look at all the possibilities on the Event Planner template shown just above. Click on illustration to enlarge.
        Obviously, you want to delegate, delegate and delegate. Location? Menu? Assigned photographer? Name tags? Written introductions? Music?
        Map: Google > Prescott Valley AZ then click on maps.google.com. You can email the URL or go in closer to do a screen shot of the area on the map you want to print off and send to family.
        Accommodations in Prescott: Google: hotels, Prescott AZ and up comes listings with links, descriptions, prices, reviews, directions, etc.
        If you haven’t already done it, make a new folder on your desktop and put all of these items you’re working on into it.
        Going to make up a booklet of family remembrances, names & dates, etc? Go to www.bluesquirrel.com for the Mac ClickBook program. Inexpensive & easy to do.
        Plan ahead! You’ll appreciate your Mac computer all the more as you sail through the Family Reunion this year!
        (If you attended today's PMUG meeting you received the printed copy of this handout.  If you weren't there WE MISSED YOU.  See you in July?)

Synchronize Your Address Book with Google/Yahoo/MobileMe

Here's an idea:  synchronize your Address Book with Google/Yahoo/Mobile Me.  Why, you ask?  I asked that, too.  Here John Carter explains the why and how:
"There is no way to export the Mac Address Book so that it can then be imported into something like Google Mail Contacts or Yahoo Mail Contacts, but you can synchronize between your Mac Address Book and Google, Yahoo, or your MobileMe accounts.

"It's easy to do, but there are complications. . . "

"Here's the sequence:
1. Open Address Book
2. Select Preferences
3. Select Accounts

"Check the accounts you want to synchronize with.
Select 'Configure' for each account. You will asked for the username and password for that account.
Nothing happens right away. In a short while you will get a pop-up that notifies you that one of those accounts is attempting to synchronize. There may be conflicts between the two accounts that you will have to correct, choosing which entry to accept (from the other account or from the Mac account).

"When you're all done, check both the external contact list and the Mac Address Book. There will be lots to do to make them look the same (this is the part that can be complicated). But once you've done this, synchronizing thereafter will be a breeze.

"Once you've got your contact list updated in Google or Yahoo, simply export the contact list to a CSV file. That file can be imported into any other application."

"But John," I asked,  "Does putting Google or Yahoo or MobileMe in any way compromise your security and/or the privacy of the names and info you have in your Address Book?"

"No."

Then I needed to know, "Will I want to, or need to do this at some time?  I have lived this far without having this synchronized."

John explains, "It's a personal choice. Sometimes I'm away from home. The only access I have to email is through Gmail, Yahoo, or my GoDaddy account. If I don't synchronize the address book with the Mac Address Book, I may not be able to send a note to someone I'm thinking of.

"With regards to my GoDaddy account, since there is no direct sync with that provider, I then need to export the address book from either Gmail or Yahoo and import it into GoDaddy. It has to be done this way because the Mac Address Book has no way to export the address book contents into a CSV formatted file. The exports from Gmail and Yahoo can be done to a CSV formatted file."   # # #