Names in address book do not list in any order!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R

Robin Jackson

Hi

I am totally lost, when I list all my contacts in address book they list but
in a totally random order and I have no idea why.

Has anyone else seen this issue???????

Robin
 
J

Jolly Roger

I am totally lost, when I list all my contacts in address book they list but
in a totally random order and I have no idea why.
Click to expand...

Notice you have several columns (Name, Company, Work Phone, Home Phone,
E-mail Address, etc.) along the top of the list. Which column is
selected (it's the blue column header)?
 
R

Robin Jackson

Notice you have several columns (Name, Company, Work Phone, Home Phone,
E-mail Address, etc.) along the top of the list. Which column is
selected (it's the blue column header)?
Click to expand...

Oh I REALLY wish it were that simple.

The column I have selected is Name.

I have tried reversing the sort order to no avail!!!!!!!

Robin
 
R

Robin Jackson

Hi

I am totally lost, when I list all my contacts in address book they list but
in a totally random order and I have no idea why.

Has anyone else seen this issue???????

Robin
Click to expand...
Okay, on looking closer most of them ARE sorted BUT on SURNMAE.

So the order all LOOKS to pot because I am expecting it to sort on FIRST
name!!!!!!

Any way to change this behaviour?

Robin
 
J

Jolly Roger

Okay, on looking closer most of them ARE sorted BUT on SURNMAE.

So the order all LOOKS to pot because I am expecting it to sort on FIRST
name!!!!!!

Any way to change this behaviour?
Click to expand...

Not that I know of.
 
G

gcmillman

Do you have any company names in your address book w/o a first name/
last name contact?
 
M

Mickey Stevens

Okay, on looking closer most of them ARE sorted BUT on SURNMAE.

So the order all LOOKS to pot because I am expecting it to sort on FIRST
name!!!!!!

Any way to change this behaviour?
Click to expand...

Below is a workaround for displaying Address Book contacts in "Last, First"
format by Paul Berkowitz.
----------------------
You can't [display in Last, First format]. Do note that the Name column
nevertheless _sorts_ by Last Name, not First Name.

You could copy LastName FirstName into the Nickname field or a custom field,
and then sort by that. You can also drag that column to the far left
(after making it visible in View/Columns) if you wish.

Transferring all the names in reverse order can be done easily by
AppleScript.

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
set allContacts to every contact
repeat with aContact in my allContacts
tell aContact
set {fName, lName} to {first name, last name}
if fName ‚ "" and lName ‚ "" then
set reverseName to lName & " " & fName -- or:
--set reverseName to lName & ", " & fName -- with comma
else if fName ‚ "" or lName ‚ "" then
set reverseName to lName & fName
else if company ‚ "" then
set reverseName to company
else if (every email address) ‚ {} then
set reverseName to default email address
else
set reverseName to ""
end if
set its nickname to reverseName -- or:
-- set its custom field three to reverseName -- or whichever
end tell
end repeat
beep
activate
display dialog "All done!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon 1
end tell

You can run this from Script Editor if you wish (no need to save it.) If you
want a comma between last name and first, remove the first "--" in front of
that line with comma and insert "--" before the preceding line. Similarly if
you want to use a custom field and not the nickname, remove the "--" in
front of the custom view line and insert it before the nickname line (or
just remove that line). You can change the "three" to anything from "one"
through "eight".
----------------------

Be warned that Custom Fields are not indexed and as a result they do not
sort as speedily as other fields.

To copy a script, open Script Editor (/Applications/AppleScript/Script
Editor), and paste the script in. Then click the "Run" button.

Another option is to place the first name only in a custom field (say Custom
Field 3) using this script. Then, in the Address Book, go to View > Columns
Custom 3, and click it to sort by first name. Then, the full names in the
Click to expand...
name column should also be sorted by first name.

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
set allContacts to every contact
repeat with aContact in my allContacts
tell aContact
set fName to first name
if fName ‚ "" && last name ‚ "" then
set newName to last name
else if company ‚ "" then
set reverseName to company
else if (every email address) ‚ {} then
set reverseName to default email address
else
set reverseName to ""
end if
set its custom field three to reverseName -- or whichever
end tell
end repeat
beep
activate
display dialog "All done!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon 1
end tell
 
R

Robin Jackson

Yes I do so I understand why these are ot of order, but ALL the contacts are
sorted on surname which looks totally strange.

Robin
 
R

Robin Jackson

My workaround is to put the first name into nickname and view and sort
by nickname.

One small advantage of this is that entries who are just in my address
book for silly reasons--eg, an address that sends newsletters I don't
want marked as junk, but is not really a contact of mine--can be grouped
together at the end with something like "zzzz" in the nickname field.
Click to expand...

I like this idea but it means I have to work through 400 plus entries
copying first name into nickname.

Don't suppose anyone has an applescript for this???? :eek:)

Robin
 
J

Jolly Roger

I like this idea but it means I have to work through 400 plus entries
copying first name into nickname.

Don't suppose anyone has an applescript for this???? :eek:)
Click to expand...

Just modify the AppleScript he already gave you. : )
 
B

Barry Wainwright [MVP]

Hi

Thanks for such a speedy reply.

Before I run this though (I am not great at Applescript).

Will it simply copy the first name into the nick name field or will it
delete the first name afterwards?

I really don't want the latter to happen as it would screw up my Apple
Addressbook sync!!!!!!!!

Cheers.

Robin
Click to expand...

As written the script will indeed delete the 'first name' entry, which would
be disastrous if you were to run the script twice!

However, just comment out (or delete) the line that says:
set first name to ""

And all will be well. The first name will be copied to the nickname field
and not deleted.
 
W

wallacestuart

Do you have any company names in your address book w/o a first name/
last name contact?
Click to expand...

Yes, I have a lot of them. When the sort column is "Name", all of
these company contacts sort to the top of the list, preceding all
contacts that DO have an entry in the Name field of the contact. The
these company contacts appearing at the top of the "Name" column are
not sorted alphabetically, though.

This phenomenon is confusing and not helpful. Does anyone have a
solution for this confusion, short of entering a company name twice in
the same contact -- once in the Name field and once in the Company
field?

Wallace Stuart
 
W

wallacestuart

Do you have any company names in your address book w/o a first name/
last name contact?
Click to expand...

Yes, I have a lot of them. When the sort column is "Name", all of
these company contacts sort to the top of the list, preceding all
contacts that DO have an entry in the Name field of the contact. The
these company contacts appearing at the top of the "Name" column are
not sorted alphabetically, though.

This phenomenon is confusing and not helpful. Does anyone have a
solution for this confusion, short of entering a company name twice in
the same contact -- once in the Name field and once in the Company
field?

Wallace Stuart
 
G

gcmillman

Yes, I have a lot of them. When the sort column is "Name", all of
these company contacts sort to the top of the list, preceding all
contacts that DO have an entry in the Name field of the contact. The
these company contacts appearing at the top of the "Name" column are
not sorted alphabetically, though.

This phenomenon is confusing and not helpful. Does anyone have a
solution for this confusion, short of entering a company name twice in
the same contact -- once in the Name field and once in the Company
field?

Wallace Stuart
Click to expand...

While the following appears to be not what you want, it works for me.
Copy the name of any company w/o a contact name into the Last Name
field. This will permit you to sort everything alphabetically in the
Name column: contacts will be sorted by last name, companies will be
sorted by the first letter of the company name. Additionally, I use
upper case entirely for all last names, except company names that have
been copied into the last name field. This makes it much easier to
recognize the last names in the sorted column and it easily
distinguishes names from companies. As unsophisticated as this
workaround appears, its easy to implement and it works. Hope it helps
you.
 
W

wallacestuart

While the following appears to be not what you want, it works for me.
Copy the name of any company w/o a contact name into the Last Name
field. This will permit you to sort everything alphabetically in the
Name column: contacts will be sorted by last name, companies will be
sorted by the first letter of the company name. Additionally, I use
upper case entirely for all last names, except company names that have
been copied into the last name field. This makes it much easier to
recognize the last names in the sorted column and it easily
distinguishes names from companies. As unsophisticated as this
workaround appears, its easy to implement and it works. Hope it helps
you.
Click to expand...

I was hoping for a work around with less work. It looks like you've
already come to the conclusion that entry of the company name in the
Last Name field of the Address Book contact is the best approach.
I'll have to set out a little time and do it. Thanks for the
feedback.

Wallace Stuart
 
M

Mickey Stevens

On May 22, 7:36 pm, [email protected] wrote:

I was hoping for a work around with less work. It looks like you've
already come to the conclusion that entry of the company name in the
Last Name field of the Address Book contact is the best approach.
I'll have to set out a little time and do it. Thanks for the
feedback.
Click to expand...

Here's a script to automate it. To copy a script, open Script Editor
(/Applications/AppleScript/Script
Editor), and paste the script in. Then click the "Run" button.

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
set allContacts to every contact
repeat with indivContact in my allContacts
tell indivContact
if company ‚ "" then set coName to company
if first name = "" and last name = "" and company ‚ "" then set
last name to coName
end tell
end repeat
activate
display dialog "Done" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end tell
 
W

wallacestuart

Here's a script to automate it. To copy a script, open Script Editor
(/Applications/AppleScript/Script
Editor), and paste the script in. Then click the "Run" button.

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
set allContacts to every contact
repeat with indivContact in my allContacts
tell indivContact
if company , "" then set coName to company
if first name = "" and last name = "" and company , "" then set
last name to coName
end tell
end repeat
activate
display dialog "Done" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end tell
Click to expand...

Mickey,

Thank you for offering the script to automate the process. I'll try
it.

Wallace Stuart
[email protected]
 
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