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Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry Apps
Tiger only hintAs a sales person specializing in Apple sales, I am constantly running into people that are switching over from programs like Outlook to Apple's iCal, Address Book, and Mail apps. One complaint that I have heard too many times is the inability to place a file inside of a person's Address Book entry. In the past, I didn't see any way to make this possible ... until 10.4 and Spotlight came along. Using Spotlight, you can now link a person to any specific object on your machine -- a file, a folder, an application. Here's how:
  1. Open Address Book and go into the Template section of its Preferences.
  2. Add a field like 'Related Names' to your template.
  3. Create a Custom Title for this field can call it File.
  4. Edit the vCard for then person's data to which you would like to add the file reference.
  5. Now simply type the name of the file that you would like to associate, and save the entry
  6. Click on the File field (not the data in the field, click on File itself) and Search in Spotlight is now available from the pop-up menu.
Now if you do a Spotlight search on the file, or the person's name/contact info, the file will be displayed in the results. If you are having trouble following the simplified instructions here, I have written a blog entry with images and more details.

[robg adds: In testing this, it seems that it's performing an exact filename search, and not just a generic Spotlight search. For instance, I entered "bar baz" as the file name, but the Spotlight search failed to find a folder named "foo bar baz." If I ran the same search in Spotlight itself, though, the folder was found. Changing the Address Book entry to "foo bar baz" found the file. I'm not sure how to explain the disparity in results, other than to think that Address Book is passing different arguments to Spotlight.]
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Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry | 14 comments | Create New Account
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Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry
Authored by: ornette14 on Feb 10, '06 06:53:56AM

My 'related names' is greyed out...



[ Reply to This | # ]
Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry
Authored by: stevec on Feb 10, '06 07:19:03AM

Ditto! And I can't seem to find the magic combination of selecting items or adding things to make it become available. Gol Durn modal selections!



[ Reply to This | # ]
Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry
Authored by: bothomasen on Feb 10, '06 07:47:16AM

It's grayed out because it is already visible: the fields 'Friend' and 'Assistant' are of the category 'Related Names'! Just change one of those or add one to their category.

- Bo



[ Reply to This | # ]
Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry
Authored by: MiGrant on Feb 10, '06 08:47:12AM

Or you could add a file:// URL to the URL field.



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Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry
Authored by: mesa on Feb 10, '06 08:59:37AM

The URL field seems the obvious place to add a file reference, unfortunately address book prepends a http:// if one isn't found which breaks a file:// URL. Maybe if someone from Apple reads this they can fix it.

/Michael

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[ Reply to This | # ]
Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry
Authored by: mark hunte on Feb 10, '06 11:48:19AM
Heres a plugin I just made to work with the "file" label in "Related Name"
Place it in your Addressbook plugins folder.
/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins/

Restart Addressbook. Enter a file path in the file label field i.e
/Users/Username/documents/x.pdf

Now when you click the 'file' label the will be a option to 'Open file'
select and the file is opened.

I am working on a script to choose a file to add to the list. In fact I can do it already.
But it not exactly how I want it, so I need to play some more.

the first script:

 using terms from application "Address Book"
	on action property
		return "Related Name"
	end action property
	
	on action title for p with e
		if label of e is equal to "file" then
			return "Open File"
		end if
	end action title
	
	on should enable action for p with e
		return true
	end should enable action
	
	on perform action for p with e
		set thefile to the value of e
		tell application "Finder"
			
			do shell script "open " & quoted form of thefile
			
		end tell
	end perform action
	
end using terms from

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mh

[ Reply to This | # ]

Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry
Authored by: mark hunte on Feb 11, '06 12:44:19PM
Someone wanted to open a file on their iDisk. so I adapted the script for that.
It uses system events , keystrokes to mount the iDisk...

the path to the file should be: /Volumes/loginnamefor.mac/filepath

 
using terms from application "Address Book"
	on action property
		return "Related Name"
	end action property
	
	on action title for p with e
		if label of e is equal to "file" then
			
			
			return "Open File"
		end if
	end action title
	
	on should enable action for p with e
		return true
	end should enable action
	
	on perform action for p with e
		set thefile to the value of e
		if thefile contains "idisk" then
			tell application "Finder"
				activate
			end tell
			tell application "System Events"
				keystroke "i" using {command down, shift down}
			end tell
			delay 5
			do shell script "open " & quoted form of thefile
		else
			tell application "Finder"
				
				do shell script "open " & quoted form of thefile
				
			end tell
		end if
	end perform action
	
end using terms from

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mh

[ Reply to This | # ]

Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry
Authored by: el bid on Feb 11, '06 12:36:51PM

Filename -> Spotlight -> File Location seems overly klugatious to me, but if you're going to go that route, why not keep it flexible by entering the filename into the Note field. That way you can easily keep multiple filenames (eg phone recordings) with short notes beside them to remind you what they're about.

When you want to access the file, just highlight the filename and hit Shift-Command-F to bring the filename into Spotlight.

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el bid



[ Reply to This | # ]
Related Name not Smart Parameter
Authored by: galaher on Feb 13, '06 09:29:26AM

I've found that I was missing a field that I could define relationships with. For example, families that belong to my daughters school. There cards have nothing in common with which to define a smart group. I used the 'notes' field to add a keyword like "School", but I find that area, which can be edited with out any gui feed back, better suited to a kind of scrapbook or sticky notes use.

When I found that Apple had added the 'related name' field, I was elated and created an Applescript to add custom field called 'Keyword' with a user defined value.

when I went to create smart groups based on the attribute of the 'Keyword' field, I was disappointed to find 'Related names' is not included in the list of fields that can be used to define a smart group. Using 'card' works but also includes any instance of the attribute that's outside of the 'Keyword' field. That defeats the purpose.

Any one have a work around?



[ Reply to This | # ]
Related Name not Smart Parameter
Authored by: mark hunte on Feb 13, '06 10:12:59AM

try card contains.

Or use 'department'

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mh



[ Reply to This | # ]
Related Name not Smart Parameter
Authored by: galaher on Feb 13, '06 10:07:09PM

Thanks Mark.

I thought of using 'Department' or something like that, but since a record could have multiple associations, I need a field that has a plus sign (can have multiple instances of different keywords in one record). Fooling around a bit, it looks like I could create a custom email address called 'Keyword' and put 'High School' in there. It seems to work, but it's certainly a klug that could have unexpected ramifications.

Still open to suggestions.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Related Name not Smart Parameter
Authored by: mark hunte on Feb 14, '06 03:12:45AM

For my records, I have started using a custom field in the Related names.
named 'category'
I need to know categories for each record. sport, News, Celeb, et.

so I put a unique entry in the filed. i.e ccSport, ccNews, ccCeleb.

These can be on the same line with a space in between and a + if you want one.
or have a category each.

If I want a smart group for News and Sport I use

All
card contains = ccSport
+
card contains = ccNews





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mh



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Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry
Authored by: altimac on Feb 12, '06 02:23:36AM

Or simply use real software, like OD4Contact from objective-decision (http://www.objective-decision.com). You will be able to link any files, urls, images or folders to people, find them later, preview them etc...



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Add file references to anyone's Address Book entry
Authored by: mark hunte on Feb 13, '06 10:22:26AM

I tried 'OD4Contact'

WARNING. if you are going to use it, backup your mail and address book prefs.

The app alters them.
I found this out yesterday when running the demo.
Trashed the app as I did not want it.
and found my Addressbook was altered, the most notable was check boxes next to the add field buttons in edit mode.
Even with all the 'OD4Contact' files gone these still appeared.
I had to trash the prefs for Addressbook to get rid of them.
And then have Fun resetting all the prefs and template settings I had.

Thats what I found so far... to me this is an invasive app.



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mh



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