Resolution 2009: Make the most of Contact Lists!
For a long time in my life I have struggled to maintain all my contacts in one place, from where I could access them at any time, from any where. Usually, I export the contacts from outlook onto a .csv file or would export all contacts with my mails as a .pst with a plan to maintain all of them in one spreadsheet. But unfortunately, nothing ever happened. The result - I found myself toying with 4 different files fishing out relevant contact details, as and when, if at all.
I started using DeskAway in the second half of 2008 and found that they have an answer to my problem - a “Contacts” section where:
1. I can Import my contacts from my mail client or anywhere outside either as a .csv file or a .txt file
2. I can Add a Contact directly to DeskAway
3. I can Export all contacts onto a .csv file which I can keep as a backup on my machine and export it onto my mail client
Ever since, I’ve been trying to get all my scattered contacts onto DeskAway and manage it in a better fashion, but in vain. So, recently I told myself that I have to get this over and done with before 2008 ended! So, one of those days in December I got all the files I maintained my contacts in together and:
1. Exported the contacts as .csv files having the following column heads:
[First Name], [Last Name], [Email], [Designation], [Mobile], [Office], [Extension], [HomeNo], [Fax], [Address]
2. Imported the contacts .csv file onto DeskAway:
Under the Contacts Tab, there is Import Contacts option. You can upolad the .csv files from here on to DeskAway. Once you upload a file, all contacts will be labeled as Personal Contacts.
Upload contacts onto DeskAway by importing a .csv or .txt file
3. Organized my contacts: I accessed the contacts I had uploaded through the View Contacts option and edited the contacts by adding labels to each of them. Adding Labels is really helpful in organizing contacts. Say, you were at the MacWorld expo in San Francisco this year and you would have met quite a few interesting people, potential partners, etc there. You can create a label named “MacWorld Expo 2009″ and have all those contacts under this label, making it easy for you to access them later.
Edit individual contacts from the Personal Contacts view
Edit Contact and add relevant Labels, Add Company Name, etc.
4. Assigned Permissions: I “Shared” a few contacts with everyone in my team, so that they could benefit out of that contact. For a few contacts, where I wanted my team to know I know that particular person, but did not want to share the contact, I checked the Lock Sensitive Data option. This lets others know of the contact name, but hides other critical details. I also used the other permission based sharing options that DeskAway has, which I personally think is a great time saving tool and very well thought of.
Assign Permissions and lock sensitive data while sharing contacts
I am now glad that I actually got to organize all my contacts on DeskAway. My team accesses the contacts they want out of my list and I don’t have to look through four different files. Most of all, earlier I only looked back at contacts of people who I may have met in the recent past - as it was memory dependent. But now, all it takes is a lookup related to the relevant Tags, company name or first name / last name and I can sift through all the contacts I have at once. A great tool that compliments the efforts of networking and helps put it to use!
