Searching for a contact using initials 20
Whenever you are searching for a contact within webOS, be it via Universal Search, within the Contact App, while addressing a new email or text message, or when on a Contact picker screen within an app, the easiest and fastest way to find that person is by using their initials. While you can search by using only the first or last name, your best method is by using the "First Initial + Last Name" method that has been around since PalmOS. So, in the screenshot to the right, you can see that you can find Jon Rubinstien by typing "jrubinstien" (actually, you do not need to type in the entire search term, just the first few characters).
Note: Contact Search will look through all the Linked Contacts for a given contact, not just the Primary Profile. So, if you have a contact that has a linked listing from Facebook, Google Contacts and your Palm Profile, webOS will look through the names listed for all 3 of those in the search, but will still only return the single linked contact. Some accounts like Facebook sometimes treat middle and last names a bit oddly which can affect your search results. Here is a good forum post on one way to combat this behavior.
Thanks to alexhaefner for suggesting this tip
20 Comments
Whoo!?!?!
This is awesome! I have 4 Emily's on my phone, now I can easily find "E V" for the right one - instead of picking out on the list!
The Universal Search is handicapped. That "First Initial + Last Name" method works fine for an individual, but if you have a couple entered as "Jack and Meg White", and try to search on MWhite or simply Meg, you will get no results. The suggested ways to enter that couple is not to use "and" or "&", but rather "/" or "-" or nothing i.e. "Jack Meg White".
Also searching on a company only searches the first word or a company name. If you have an entry for Tchaikovsky & Gold Attorneys, you would only get results when searching on Tchaikovsky - a search on Gold or Attorneys will bring you no results.
Couldn't agree more. I don't like how contacts works at all. I so miss Datebook Contacts for PalmOS!!!
I've now experimented with splitting apart records that I've always had combined (I guess it'll be easier when people get divorced...). Now I'm "linking more profiles" which gets all screwy: If I "link" my cousin's wife to his account, then I get SMS messages from him, but the label has HER name on it!
Anyone have experience with a better contact manager?
Here's a suggestion: Enter them as two different people and then link the two contacts together. That way both names are can be found through Universal Search but there is only one entry in your contacts list.
(and FYI..that is planned for a future tip... want the credit?)
Yes, but as This2ShallPass explained, it screws up names displayed on text messages. I've had to unlink contacts for that reason.
Great Tip. Helps me a lot. Thanx!
I just called that number and Steve Jobs answered. What the..??!?
I had no idea about this. Thanks for helping me sort through my Davids. =)
I cannot get the search for a couple to work no matter how I enter the name. For example 'Garry & Cheryl Atkins' can be found by entering the initials 'ga'. However 'ca' for Cheryl Atkins doesn't work with any method I've tried. Using '/', '-', '&', 'and' all fail to work. The '-' is worse than the others. If I enter Garry-Cheryl it won't find Cheryl when I enter 'ch' while the others will work with 'ch'. Has anybody found a way to enter a couple that works?
Here's a suggestion. Enter them as two different people and then link the two contacts together. That way both names are can be found through Universal Search but there is only one entry in your contacts list.
I don't get it: If I enter them as 2 different people, doesn't that then constitute 2 different entries (and therefore contradict your final point)?
If you go to one of the contacts, and "Link" that profile to another persons, they will only show up ONCE in your contacts and searches, but you can use EITHER name to do the search.
btw the field nickname is also searched by universal search.
never knew this. yay!
learned something new today....:)
I have two sisters, Cheryl & Christine. I'm always texting Christine, but Cheryl doesn't text at all. To get right to Christine's contact information I type, "chr m".
I have heard Jeff Hawkins talk about this feature in the past at an event. It is an old school method that was introduced with the phone software on the TreoPhone Springboard module for Visors.
The idea is to type three letters to find anyone amongst thousands of contacts. I don't know any contact search method that beats it when dealing with thousands of contacts.
Type one letter of the first name and preferably two letters of the last name. Once in a while, you may have to type three letters of the last name. You could also type any number of letters of the second name for someone whose second name was unique or the only thing you remembered. Or if the contact only had a company name, you could type the company name.
In webOS Palm embraced the old Palm OS method (three letters and no spaces)and a cousin of windows mobile search which requires any number of letters of the first name and of the last name with a space between.
Here's a few examples for webOS:
To find/dial jeff hawkins - type jha
To find/dial Barak Obama - type bob
To find/dial Sarah Palin... well let's not bother :-)
yeah any palm OS user pretty much new about this. too bad it wasn't clearly defined for the new people. I just came to say we should refer to him as J-Rub now. I like the way it sounds.