Chapter 21

Managing Names and Addresses

IN THIS CHAPTER

Using your Contacts folder

Creating and managing contacts

Creating contact groups

Importing and exporting contacts

You’ve no doubt seen and tried out the new People app, which lets you integrate your contracts and updates from multiple social network sites such as Windows Live, Facebook, and Twitter. The Mail and Messaging apps rely on the People app for selecting contacts to send e-mail and instant messages. If you haven’t tried out the People app, have a look at Chapter 19, “Social Networking with Windows 8.”

Windows 8, like Windows 7 before it, offers an alternative you can use from the desktop to manage contacts — the Contacts folder. Each file in that folder is a contact, someone with whom you communicate. It doesn’t have to be only people you contact online. You can store anybody’s contact information in your Contacts folder. As with pictures, songs, videos, and other documents, each user account has its own Contacts folder. So each person who has a user account can have his or her own collection of names and addresses.

Note
Keep in mind that the Windows Contacts folder and the contacts in it are separate from the contacts in your e-mail program. For example, if you opt to download and use Windows Live Mail as your e-mail program, it has its own set of contacts. Although you can import your Windows Contacts into Windows Live Mail, the contacts are not synchronized. So, if you import your Windows Contacts into Windows Live Mail and then make a change to one of your Windows Contacts, that change will not show up in Windows Live Mail because there are actually two separate contacts. Likewise, there is no synchronization between the Contacts folder and the People app.

Why use Windows Contacts? If you are one of the few people who use a computer but don’t use e-mail, the Windows Contacts folder provides a place for you to keep your own address book for letters, a phone list, and so on. Or you might use Windows Contacts to store your personal contacts and your e-mail program to store your business contacts. Whatever the case, you can use your Windows Contacts for addressing e-mail, as described later in this chapter.

Tip
The Contacts folder does not offer social networking integration like the People app does. However, if the Mail app is set as your default e-mail program, you can click a contact’s e-mail address to open a new e-mail message in Mail addressed to that address. If you use social networking sites, and have previously used the Contacts folder, consider switching to the People app. Unfortunately, there is currently no way to export existing contacts from the Contacts folder and import them into the People app.
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