The OS X Contacts application is a central location for storing your contact data. Many applications (both from Apple & third-parties) make use of this data. For instance, the Apple Mail application uses the Address Book data for addressing outgoing messages & identifying incoming mail. The Address Book data is also a key part of the sync services that are integrated in the OS which means other applications (such as Microsoft Entourage) can synchronize contact data so that no matter where you enter your data, your contacts can be kept up-to-date at all times.
OS X provides a robust set of tools for accessing & manipulating this contact data. Dialectic makes use of this data in several locations. Here are the places where Dialectic interacts with you Address Book data:
- Lookup. You can specify the Address Book database (managed by the Contacts application) as the source for the lookup feature.
- Missing called contact name lookup. If you dial a number without an associated name, Dialectic can use the Address Book database to search for the number and add the associated contact name (if applicable) for use with alerts & the Call Log. You can enable this option to automatically search for missing names in the dialing preferences or you can search for it after the call has been added to the Call Log by using the corresponding action in the Call Log action menu.
- Caller ID lookup. When an incoming call is detected on a monitored device, Dialectic can search for the number of the incoming call to get the localized name of the associated contact using your data (if applicable). The name as entered in Contacts will be used for alerts & the Call Log and the contact image, (again, if available) will be used as well.
- Address Book menu. The Address Book menu, one of the main features of Dialectic, uses the data from your Address Book database (managed by the Contacts application) to populate its menus.
- Address Book window. This window, a utility window available from the main menu & the main window, allows you quickly find contact for dialing or for adding to your Quick Dial list.
- Address Book Plug-In. To dial directly from the Contacts application, install this plug-in from the Dialectic extras preferences section. Once installed, simply click & hold on the label next to any phone number in the Contacts application and you will see an option for dialing the corresponding number with Dialectic (using the current Location & Dialing Rules).
Interaction between Dialectic & Contacts could be further enhanced using AppleScript. For instance, when an incoming call is detected, Dialectic could run a script to open the associated contact record in the Contacts application (if available) and append an entry to the contact’s note field with the date & time of the incoming call.
