Big Contacts

Table View - Better Manage your Contacts

This week we released Big Contacts Table View. With the contacts table view, you can edit a group of contacts, delete multiple contacts, or merge several contacts into one. You can also assign a task to several contacts at the same time. This is not something you will use all of the time, but is a great way to maintain your contact data.

Update: We now have a flash video you can watch to demonstrate how the Table View works. Click here to see the demo

We get asked all the time how to handle duplicates. Let's say you have three identical John Smith contacts. Pull up the contact table, type Smith into the last name filter and John into the first name filter. You will then see all the contacts named John Smith. Click the checkbox next to each of the contacts that you want to merge and click the Merge button. They will be combined into a single contact preserving any meetings, notes, history or sales opportunities that you have created for each of them.

Maybe you want to delete a bunch of contacts at a company that you no longer do business with. Open the contact table and type the company name into the company name filter. You will then see all the contacts for that company. Click on select all. Maybe you want to keep a few, click to uncheck the box next to their names. Then click on the Delete button.

Here's another common problem. You wish to change the contact type of a group of contacts. After opening the table view, select the contacts that you which to change the contact type for and click the checkbox next to their name. Next, below the contact type header, select the new contact type from the dropdown. Then click replace. All of the selected contacts should now show the new contact type in their contact type field. Finally, click save and all of the selected contacts will have the new contact type.

One more great use for the Contact Table. Maybe you want your assistant to call each of your clients and thank them for their business. Click on Display:All and sort by Contact Type. Then next to each contact with Contact Type equal to Client, check the box next to their name. Then click the link Assign a Task to Selected Contacts. Enter the details of the task, making sure to assign the task to your assistant, and then click assign task to selected contacts. Each contact that you selected will now have this new task assigned.

We hope this new feature will help you to better manage your contacts and make Big Contacts even easier to use.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Here is a feature you rarely see on web sites or web services - Keyboard Shortcuts!

In Big Contacts, instead of looking for and then clicking on the link that says 'Add a New Contact', you can instead use a keyboard and simply type CTRL-SHIFT-N. This will bring up the 'Note' popup. Then just start typing the note. Tab and enter details. Tab again and type 'Enter' and you have added a note without ever leaving the keyboard.

If you're like me and would rather use the keyboard as much as possible. This will really save you time.

To see the list of keyboard shortcuts at any time, just type the CTRL key.

Big Contacts is out of beta!

This morning, we pushed the button and launched the full production version of Big Contacts. It is exciting to finally be out of beta and officially launched. Thanks to the thousands of registered users and the huge number of people that provided us tremendous feedback and ideas during our open beta period. Thank you - you have helped make Big Contacts what it is - the premier web based contact manager.

You may notice a few new things that we did not have before.

• Edit in place - you can click on an item in the business card and make changes right there. Click on the 'edit-me' icon to make changes to phone numbers, email address and websites.
• Improved import wizard - start by telling the wizard what you are importing from. We  provide extensive help on how to get your data. We then directly map data based on what you are importing from. Try it out!
• Internationalization - we added many new timezones. We have added several new date and time formats. We have options for different currencies. We support more international character sets. And we have phone number formatting.
• Advanced Search - is now better organized and easier to use

There is much more help available.  And, we have cleaned up the interface in a number of places that you might not even notice, but wanted to make Big Contacts as clean and easy to use as possible.