Add contacts with names to Mail's recipient list

Mar 26, '07 07:30:02AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

You probably already know that Mail stores the name and email address of people who have sent you messages as read from the header content. What I didn't realize is that this also works in reverse.

I hadn't an opportunity to try it out until now, after loading a fresh copy of Tiger on my system. As I went to send a message, I realized that (of course...) my list of contacts was gone. Rather than typing in the email address, however, I ramdomly decided to type in my contact's full name and then the email address, much like Mail does when you start to type the name of someone you've already been in contact with, like this:

Jane Smith <jsmith@somesite.com>
When you do this, Mail will actually send the message to the proper address and add the contact's name to its own little database (Window » Previous Recipients). This is great for me, because I can add these contacts to Mail for easy retrieval later without using Address Book, which I find somewhat over-featured in certain areas, and too simple in others.

[robg adds: And, of course, you can then use the Previous Recipients window to easily add any of these contacts to your official Address Book.]

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