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Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book Apps
Down Under, we have 10 digit phone numbers, for both Mobile (Cell) phones and Land Lines, However it's more common to see mobile numbers formatted 4 digits - 3 digits - 4 digits and landlines 2-4-4 . The "Auto Format Phone Numbers" option takes care of one of these ( by adding ## #### #### as a format option), but until now, I thought the numbers had to be of different lengths, forcing mobile numbers to be formatted like land lines. Until ...

All mobile numbers in Australia start with the prefix 04, if you add a new format into Address Book, say 04### ### ###, it will format numbers starting with 04 that way, and any other 10 number will be formatted in the other way.
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Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: arizdave on Jul 26, '04 02:17:05PM

I have an advanced degree in math - please help me here.

Quote:
"Down Under, we have 10 digit phone numbers, for both Mobile (Cell) phones and Land Lines, However it's more common to see mobile numbers formatted 4 digits - 3 digits - 4 digits and landlines 2-4-4."

4 digits - 3 digits - 4 digits = 10 (downunder) & 11 in (USA)
<(;-)



[ Reply to This | # ]
Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: marook on Jul 26, '04 02:48:13PM

I guess number 11 is the zero in the front.

But, this also goes for any other numbers, like if you add the countrycode in front: +45 ## ## ## ##

One think that would be nice, is if AB could show the number as both local and International. Ie. if it was +iii (0) aaa lll llll, it could ad the zero for local calls, and hide it for international calls. Now, that would rock...

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/Marook



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Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: chyna4xena on Jul 26, '04 10:35:37PM

For the record, Australian mobile numbers are indeed 10 digits in length (including the leading 0), but get formatted 4-3-3 normally. The format for the Address Book is therefore 04## ### ###. You will have to list this format above the (##) #### #### land line format in the preferences, because the first pattern that matches is used, so having the (##) #### #### first will format your Australian mobiles as (04) 1234 5678 instead of 0412 345 678.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: starwxrwx on Sep 22, '04 05:22:02AM

yes!

u need to put the "04## ### ###" before (in my example) "08 #### ####" or it has a freak-out (and wont work)

i assume if you are in nsw you would put the 02 format first...

anyway the order is important - thanks for pointing it out!!!



[ Reply to This | # ]
Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: pettri on Jul 27, '04 01:34:46AM

The tip author made a slight error - in oz mobiles are 4-3-3 format not 4-3-3.

---
Have a Great day!
pete.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: pettri on Jul 27, '04 01:35:29AM

The tip author made a slight error - in oz mobiles are 4-3-3 format not 4-3-4.

---
Have a Great day!
pete.



[ Reply to This | # ]
For multiple countries ...
Authored by: sellout on Jul 26, '04 02:51:59PM

I have something similar in my setup. I have phone numbers from a number of different countries. So, I have custom formats set up like this:

+1 ### ###-####
+44 ## ####-####
+354 ###-####

Those are for US, UK and Iceland respectively. Iceland has no area code (not enough people to justify it). I've noticed that the UK has a 2-4-4 or 3-3-4 thing depending on the phone as well (dunno if it's a landline/mobile distinction as in AU or not, though), but I haven't dealt with that at all.

IMO, Apple's formatter should allow me to do something like:

+CC AC PRE-SUF

Where CC = country code, AC = area code, and PRE & SUF are parts of the local number. That single pattern would handle all of my various custom formats. Someone else could choose to do like "CC (AC) PRE SUF" or something. It seems like the right way to handle it.



[ Reply to This | # ]
For multiple countries ...
Authored by: sellout on Jul 26, '04 02:52:08PM

I have something similar in my setup. I have phone numbers from a number of different countries. So, I have custom formats set up like this:

+1 ### ###-####
+44 ## ####-####
+354 ###-####

Those are for US, UK and Iceland respectively. Iceland has no area code (not enough people to justify it). I've noticed that the UK has a 2-4-4 or 3-3-4 thing depending on the phone as well (dunno if it's a landline/mobile distinction as in AU or not, though), but I haven't dealt with that at all.

IMO, Apple's formatter should allow me to do something like:

+CC AC PRE-SUF

Where CC = country code, AC = area code, and PRE & SUF are parts of the local number. That single pattern would handle all of my various custom formats. Someone else could choose to do like "CC (AC) PRE SUF" or something. It seems like the right way to handle it.



[ Reply to This | # ]
For multiple countries ...
Authored by: david-bo on Jul 27, '04 03:47:53AM

Nor France (has area codes).

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http://www.google.com/search?as_q=%22Authored+by%3A+david-bo%22&num=10&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=



[ Reply to This | # ]
Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: david-bo on Jul 27, '04 04:11:36AM

Any ideas for how to accomplish the following formatting of different kinds of numbers:

(the area codes are the digits before the dash)

Area codes that varies between 2 and 4 digits. Here are some examples and how they are formatted by hand:

Landlines
031-123 45 67
031-12 34 56
0303-12 34 56
0303-123 45 67
08-12 34 56
08-123 45 67
08-123 456 78

There are 264 different landline area codes, where ≈ 230 consist of four digits (and there are both three and four digits of almost all leading numbers, e.g., both 031 and 0303 or 042 and 0480 etc).



Cellphone numbers are always prefixed with the country code and therefore the leading 0 is excluded. I want cell phones to be displayed like this:

+46 (0)70-123 45 67


Suggestions?

---
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=%22Authored+by%3A+david-bo%22&num=10&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=



[ Reply to This | # ]
Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: joshums on Jul 27, '04 10:23:06AM
Well despite the easy to make mistakes in maths, this was a really useful tip.

Although to add to the usefulness (and possibly the vague intrigue of anyone curious to the number formatting system, here, in Australia) here's a slight alteration to the hint.

Landline numbers in Australia often have the area code in brackets rather than just separated by a space, eg. (02) 9123 4567 while mobiles are all strung together, eg. 0412 345 678. (Since the area code in the landlines is optional if you're in the same code but you always have to dial 04 for mobiles).

So if you add (##) #### #### as the unspecified ten digit format, then all landline numbers will present the area code in familiar brackets, while mobiles will be without.

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Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: encro on Jul 27, '04 01:27:25PM

Well this hint definately highlighted how buggy the custom fomatter part of Address Book really is :-)

I eventually just resorted to editing the com.apple.AddressBook.plist:

I added the following formatters:
<string>###-###</string>
<string>1300 ###-###</string>
<string>####-####</string>
<string>(0#) ####-####</string>
<string>+61 4## ###-###</string>
<string>+61 # ####-####</string>
<string>04## ### ###</string>
<string>+1 ### ###-####</string>
<string>+44 ## ####-####</string>
<string>+354 ###-####</string>



[ Reply to This | # ]
Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: timstringer on Sep 19, '04 02:04:29PM

Thanks for the great tip!

Is there any way to reformat phone numbers that have already been entered in Address Book. For example, I'd like to take all my (xxx) xxx-xxxx format phone numbers and format them to +1 (xxx) xxx-xxxx - this format works better with both my mobile phone and the Skype VOIP software.

Cheers,
Tim



[ Reply to This | # ]
Selective auto-formatted numbers in Address Book
Authored by: timstringer on Sep 19, '04 02:05:04PM

Thanks for the great tip!

Is there any way to reformat phone numbers that have already been entered in Address Book. For example, I'd like to take all my (xxx) xxx-xxxx format phone numbers and format them to +1 (xxx) xxx-xxxx - this format works better with both my mobile phone and the Skype VOIP software.

Cheers,
Tim



[ Reply to This | # ]