How do you organize your phonebook?

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Ajanta - 18 Jan 2007 22:32 GMT

For a long time I was with AT&T's eventually ill-fated TDMA service. My
first free phone had little memory, one number to each name, and I
organized it as "Susan home" "Susan cell" etc.

Then I got a phone that could store a few names under each name (but
they were predefined, like home/work/cell). So I started writing names
as "Susan H C" and "Josh H W C" to remind myself which numbers were
there under that name.

Anyway, now I just signed up a new account with T-Mobile and got a
Nokia 6030. It seems to have a lot of memory. It also has an option of
"groups".

Before I spend a lot of time typing in names and numbers, I am
wondering what the best organization would be. By best I mean easiest
to retrieve with least number of clicks. If you have worked out a good
system, I would love to hear what it is. Do you create groups, or just
a long list of names, for example?

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(PeteCresswell) - 18 Jan 2007 23:50 GMT

Per Ajanta:

>Anyway, now I just signed up a new account with T-Mobile and got a
>Nokia 6030. It seems to have a lot of memory. It also has an option of
>"groups".

I'm still doing what you are - just a slightly different format.

viz:
-----------
JoeD-c
JoeD-h
JoeD-w
-----------

and so-forth.

My phone's contacts app has space for many numbers under a name too, but the SIM
card doesn't support that and I keep all my numbers on the SIM card. That way
I can easily back them up to a spare phone and if I swap phones the numbers
don't go away.

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PeteCresswell

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Ajanta - 19 Jan 2007 03:31 GMT

PeteCresswell <x@y.Invalid> wrote:

: My phone's contacts app has space for many numbers under a name too,
: but the SIM card doesn't support that and I keep all my numbers on the
: SIM card. That way I can easily back them up to a spare phone and if I
: swap phones the numbers don't go away.

Having had only TDMA phones so far, I have never dealt with SIM cards
before and this is a new complication for me. How do you know which
numbers are stored on the SIM card and which ones somewhere else in the
phone? When saving a number, how do you choose where it should be
saved? I am sorry if this seems too elementary but that's where I am
with SIMs and GSM. A few hours of ownership and two calls. :-)

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(PeteCresswell) - 19 Jan 2007 13:29 GMT

Per Ajanta:

> How do you know which
>numbers are stored on the SIM card and which ones somewhere else in the
>phone? When saving a number, how do you choose where it should be
>saved?

Dig through your phone's docs a little and I bet you'll find it.

On the Nokias I've used so far (older candy bar phones) numbers get saved
automatically to the phone and it's on the user to go into the number edit
dialog and move them to the SIM.

On the Samsung I've been using the past few days, they seem tb saved
automatically to the SIM card - probably because some parm was set by the prior
user.

For me, who doesn't have more than 200 numbers, the SIM card seems like a
no-brainer. Not only in light of immediate portability, but also in light of
different phones having different contact database formats/capabilities.

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PeteCresswell

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Canopus - 19 Jan 2007 11:34 GMT

Ajanta scribed in message <180120071632186681%ajanta@null.void> at
22:32:18 18/01/2007

>Before I spend a lot of time typing in names and numbers, I am
>wondering what the best organization would be. By best I mean easiest
>to retrieve with least number of clicks. If you have worked out a good
>system, I would love to hear what it is. Do you create groups, or just
>a long list of names, for example?

Why either/or? Putting a contact into a Group doesn't remove it from the
long list, it creates another option for searching. If your phone has
speech recognition as well then you just press one button and speak the
contacts name. However, in using speech recognition you will have to list
each contact and phone number uniquely. For instance, my boss has two
phone numbers I use, one home and the other mobile, so I can't list him as
Chris and include his home and mobile in his details as the phone always
dials a default number, I have to make two entries, Chris Home and Chris
Mobile.

Spend a bit of time giving yourself all the options and it will pay off in
the future.

Signature

Rob

http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/

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Robert Coe - 28 Jan 2007 14:45 GMT

: Ajanta scribed in message <180120071632186681%ajanta@null.void> at
: 22:32:18 18/01/2007
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
: dials a default number, I have to make two entries, Chris Home and Chris
: Mobile.

Some newer phones (my LG 8300, for example) don't require you to preset the
voice dial feature. I can say "Call John Doe home" or "Call John Doe work",
and the phone will select the right number from John's entry in my contacts.

Bob

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Canopus - 28 Jan 2007 15:02 GMT

Robert Coe scribed in message <9ddpr2duehh69gd26a1hni682r2mmuq3dj@4ax.com>
at 14:45:14 28/01/2007

>Some newer phones (my LG 8300, for example) don't require you to preset the
>voice dial feature. I can say "Call John Doe home" or "Call John Doe work",
>and the phone will select the right number from John's entry in my
>contacts.

That's interesting, I never thought of adding Home or Work after the
contacts name during voice dialling, will have to try it on my 6234.

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Rob

http://www.flickr.com/photos/canopus_archives/

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Cyrus Afzali - 19 Jan 2007 17:26 GMT

>For a long time I was with AT&T's eventually ill-fated TDMA service. My
>first free phone had little memory, one number to each name, and I
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>system, I would love to hear what it is. Do you create groups, or just
>a long list of names, for example?

The best course of action for you would be to not use the
multi-listing directory feature in your Nokia because it won't "port"
to a new phone. In other words, those don't get written to the SIM
card, but rather the phone's memory.

The easiest way to get phone numbers to your new phone is through
T-Mobile's Web-based phone book update feature. You can type in a list
of names and numbers, hit one button and have them sent to your phone
in seconds. I believe it's under the "communication tools" section,
although they keep re-arranging stuff on the Web site.

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SMS - 28 Jan 2007 19:11 GMT

> Before I spend a lot of time typing in names and numbers, I am
> wondering what the best organization would be. By best I mean easiest
> to retrieve with least number of clicks. If you have worked out a good
> system, I would love to hear what it is. Do you create groups, or just
> a long list of names, for example?

For the quick-dial numbers, 1-9, I put in the names as 1-Home, 2-Wife
Cell, 3-Child Cell, ....

Then I put in all the names lastname, firstname. The newer phones let
you have multiple phone numbers under each name, and specify which is
the primary number, so you can call it without going to the sub-number
menu once you get to the name in the contact list. Prior to that, I
would just add "Home," "Work," or "Cell," to the listing.

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