This is the HOME TAB, where you will frequently return. To that end this tab can be quickly jumped to from any other tab by pressing the Back softkey. It displays the names of all your contacts and it is always sorted in alphabetical order. You can choose to sort and display the names in first-then-last order, or last-then-first order (whichever suits you the best). To change the sort order, do so from the Settings dialog. To display this dialog press the Options softkey and then choose Settings from the resulting menu. The setting you are looking for is labeled Name Order.

The most fundamental feature of the Names tab is an ability to quickly find the contact you wish to call, view, or edit. While most non-QWERTY cell phones (including S60s) settle for the ancient multi-tap approach, ContactsEx uses a method based upon T9 predictive text entry. While there is no actual predictive engine used here, the concept of pressing just one key per letter remains.

On QWERTY models however, searching is done pretty much as you'd expect by typing the name in directly using the keypad. If you have a QWERTY keyboard, please read the following paragraphs, but realize that all you need to do is spell out the name you want by directly pressing the key corresponding to the letter or symbol required. Everything else works as described below.

Say we need to search for the name Steve and that we have to enter at least 3 letters of that name to refine the search enough to find what we're looking for. On most phones that would require 7 keystrokes, which are:

7-7-7-7-8-3-3

The reason we must enter so many keys is because we must tap a numeric key multiple times to represent specific letters. The letter S is obtained by pressing the 7 key four times. With ContactsEx however, we can find Steve by pressing just 3 keys:

7-8-3

This works because ContactsEx reduces the size of the list each time a key is pressed to only those names that use the specified combination of letter keys to spell them. So although you end up with all of the names beginning with P, Q, R, and S when the 7 key is pressed, the list gets quickly smaller as more digits are entered. You'll find that in practice you can find most contacts with just 2 or 3 keystrokes. At the very least you can reduce the number of candidates to just one screenful in those same number of presses.

For digits in names, simply press the corresponding number key. For a space, press the 0 key. For all other symbols, use the 1 key. To remove a key you just entered, press the "C" key. To return to the full list and clear all of the digits you've entered, press the right softkey, which will be labeled Reset.

The search technique works on whichever name the list is sorted by. If you sort by first name, then the search applies to the first names. If you sort by last name, the search applies to last names.

To clear a search and return to the full list of contacts, press the right softkey which is labeled Reset.

Sometimes we don't even know the name of the contact we're trying to find. We may for example have a phone number and wish to find out if we've got it stored in any of our contacts, or we may only know the name of the street on which they live. To that end ContactsEx offers numerous deep-search options.

Using the Search menu we can scour the database by name, phone number, or any field. The latter is a wide-ranging search that checks for matches in each and every field in a contact (including names, numbers, postal addresses, text notes, spouses, children, job titles, etc). It even searches the field labels. The result of such a search is a list of all the contacts with matching data.

The second most fundamental function of the Names tab is to select a contact. This will directly impact the contents of the next 5 tabs. The Data, Airtime, and Log tabs are all global and are not influenced by the contact selected. Selecting simply means moving the highlight bar down to the contact in question. It doesn't matter how the highlight gets there or how many (or how few) contacts are listed on the screen. All that matters is the name that is highlighted.

Manual Dialing

While the primary purpose of a Contacts Manager to is to store and dial contacts from a database, it is sometimes necessary to quickly dial a number that isn't entered in the database. While this can be easily done outside of ContactsEx, you might have a legitimate need to dial a number through the Calling Card.

Manual dialing needs to be easy to get to, and so it isn't accessed via a menu. Instead you activate the manual dialing box by pressing the "0" key while no T9 narrowing is in effect (because once narrowing is started the "0" key is used to denote a space). Right after you press the "0" key, a box will pop up allowing you to enter the number you wish to dial.

What may seem odd is that the only softkey that appears is Cancel. This is done to enforce the use of the TALK key instead. Like regular dialing, the number you enter is dialed locally or through the Calling Card based on how you press the TALK button. See the section on Calling Cards for details on how numbers are dialed.

Keyboard Behavior

The asterisk key will always move the highlight back to the first entry in the list, regardless of how long or short that list is, or how you ended up with it. Think of asterisk as the HOME key.

The right softkey (when it isn't labeled Reset) will say Hide. Pressing this key hides the application and puts it in the background. When labeled Reset, the key clears the name search you initiated by pressing number and/or alpha keys.

The up and down cursor keys move the highlight up and down. When you move up from the topmost item, the highlight will move to the bottom of the list. When you move down from the last item, the highlight will move to the top. If you hold the shift key (which on non-QWERTY phones has a pencil icon on it) while you press up or down, the list will scroll one page at a time.

This feature can also be used on phones without the pencil key, but you'll need to switch the # Key option in the Settings dialog to Shift in order for this to work. Switching on this mode prevents the # key from doing anything else in this tab. You can still get at the functionality provided by the # key (for listing only Calling Card contacts) by pressing-and-holding # (as a shift key) and then pressing the OK button.

The left and right cursor keys are used to move to an adjacent tab. Right moves to the #s and Emails tab, while left move to the Log tab. You can also get to the #s and Email tab by pressing the SELECT key.

The Clear key (usually mark as "C" on most Nokia keypads) deletes the selected contact. Don't worry about pressing the key accidentally, because you'll be prompted to confirm the deletion. Note however that if you are partway into a search the "C" key only removes the last-pressed key. Only once all of the search keys are removed does "C" act as a delete contact. Alternatively you can use a menu option to delete the current contact.

Pressing the TALK key will dial the default phone number of the selected contact. However, if the selected contact doesn't have a phone number, but they do have an email address (and you are using the UNSIGNED copy of the program), then pressing TALK begins a new email message to the default email address. See the documentation on the #s and Emails tab for details on setting default numbers and email addresses. Also see the section on Calling Cards for details on how numbers are dialed.

The END key sends the program to the background and returns the phone to the idle screen. This differs slightly from pressing the Hide softkey, in that the softkey only sends the program to the background, leaving it wherever it was at the time.

Menu Functions for Regular Contacts (not Calling Cards)

Send: This option expands to one to three or four sub-menu options. Those submenu options are Email, SMS, MMS, and Audio Note, but the Email options only appears on the UNSIGNED copy. Which of these submenus is visible also depends upon whether the contact has phone numbers designated as "Mobile" or "Car" type and/or email addresses assigned to it. When the Email option is chosen, an email message will be started addressed to the current default email address (if there's more than one). When the SMS, MMS, or Audio Note option is chosen, an appropriate type of message will be started, addressed to the default phone number IF it is a "Mobile" or "Car" type. If not, then the program will scan for the first number that is, based on the sort order you've designed for the contact.

Assign as Card: Choose this to change the contact into a Calling Card. For further details, see the section on Calling Cards.

Add New Contact: This option is used to create a new contact. In this step you add only the name and/or company of the contact. Once complete an empty contact is added to the list and the highlight is moved to that name. To add details to this new contact you must move to the desired tabs and do so from there.

Edit: This option allows you to edit the name and/or company of the current contact.

Delete: This option allows you to delete the current contact, but to ensure that you don't do so accidentally you must confirm this action. This is the same functionality as the "C" key.

[Name]'s Calls: This option's exact text will depend upon the name of the contact. If the contact's name is John Doe, then this option will read John Doe's Calls. When chosen it will display a filtered version of the call log, including only calls that were to or from any of the phone numbers found in the contact. This filtered version of the log ceases to exist the moment you leave it, regardless of how you do that.

Settings: This option launches the tabbed settings dialog in which you can set any of the various options for this program. For full details see the Settings Dialog.

Number Formats: This option allows you to edit the formats used to present phone numbers. For complete details on this feature, see Number Formats.

Archive: This option presents 3 sub-options. The Backup option makes a backup copy of all your contacts, including all field labels, all phones numbers (regardless of how many duplicate types there are), all Fullscreen Picture ID images, all program configurations, all universal number formatting, and all collected Name ID information. The two restoration options allow you to restore your phonebook and ContactsEx back to the way it was when you made the backup. Restore Contacts restore only the configuration information needed for the contacts. Restore All restores all of your configuration settings.

Multiple backups can exist simultaneously, so when you begin a restoration a list of available backups will be presented, from which you may choose the one you wish to restore. From this list you may also remove backup sets that are no longer needed. To select more than one backup set for simultaneous deletion, press the shift key (which on non-QWERTY models is either the pencil key, or the #) and click cursor down while continuing to hold the shift key.

Search: This option presents 3 sub-options. Those options are Numbers, Names, and All Fields. Each one does pretty much the same thing, which is to search through the database for matches. The difference is which fields are searched. Also note that on non-QWERTY phones the Numbers option displays a prompt that is set to numeric mode. The other two options display a prompt set to alpha mode.

Filter by Group: This option presents a sub-menu populated with the names of each of the Groups in your database, including an option labeled Show All. By selecting one of the groups in this list the Names tab will be modified to show only contacts that are associated with the specified group. A global option tells ContactsEx whether this selection survives until changed, or if it is cleared once the application is hidden.

Help: This option presents three sub-options. About presents a standard display of version number, release date, and copyright notice. The Check for Update option manually begins an online check of the version you have against the official version. If your version is out-of-date, you are given the option to download and install the most recent. Note however that during the alpha test period, during which time the application is not signed, users without hacked phones will be unable to use this feature to its fullest. They must download a copy onto their PC and sign it using Nokia's online signing service before it can be installed on their phone.

Create Test Contact creates a contact that contains all possible field elements for seeing which data your sync client can handle.

Exit: This option terminates the program.

Menu Items for Calling Cards

Use As Calling Card: This options appears for all Calling Cards that not presently the Active Calling Card. Selecting this option designates the current contact as the Active Calling Card.

Remove From Cards: This option changes a Calling Card back into a standard contact.

All other options available to Calling Cards are the same as above.