KAddressBook 4.4.2 : separating first and last name

[bleck]

Hi,

The KAddressBook contact Editor doesn't let me set the first and last name on my contacts. It only display a "Name" field, where first and las name are mixed. Is it a limitation of KAddressbook 4.4.2 or some bad setting ?

There are also 2 missing fucntionalitites :

• the ability to build diffrents views
• the ability to display the list of contact groups in it's own frame (field), since they are now mixed up with individual contacts

Any idea about how to recover these functionnalities ?

(I upgraded from Karmic to Lucid)

Thanks in advance for your help

Bleck

[Snowhog]

Re: KAddressBook 4.4.2 : separating first and last name

As to the first question, there is only a single "Name" field. It isn't a bad setting. It's just how they configured it.

Please give an explanation of what you mean by "different views" and also, a description of what you mean by the "ability to display the list of contact groups in it's own frame"

[bleck]

Re: KAddressBook 4.4.2 : separating first and last name

Thank you for the information, Snowhog. I won't waist time finding how to restore separate fields for first and last name. But I'm so sorry the developers decided to downgrade the contact's editor in such a way that I can't use it anymore if they don't change their mind Separating first and last name in a pre-basic functionnality of any professionnal contact management application.

Views

I may not use the right word for I'm running a french version of Kubuntu. So I try to translate on the fly ;-)
What i mean by "views" is the ability to record different ways to present the list of contacts : choosing wich fields to display, which field would be the sorting key, etc. Once these views are recorded, the user can switch form one view to another. Is there a way to that again, as it worked on older versions of KAddressBook ?

Group of contacts

May not be the right words again. What I mean by "group of contacts" is what is sometimes (badly) called "mailing-list" (created through File > New > New group). On my running KAddressBook instance, the Groups I have defined are displayed in the same list as individual contacts (i.e. group Friends will appear just under Fiona). Is there a way to display the list of groups in one area of the KAddressBook window and the list of individuals, in another area ? (as it was in previous versions)

[bleck]

Re: KAddressBook 4.4.2 : separating first and last name

Answering to myself about point 1 expectation…

It seems that some KAdressBook's functionalities are dropped for a long time, if not forever. The present version of KAddressBook is consistant with it's definition, as stated in KDE 4.4 feature plan : "Completely new KAddressbook based on Akonadi". The goal was not to "port" KAddressBook to Akonadi but to set a new standard. Consistently, KDE 4.4.3 does change anything to this new standard : functionality drops are not bugs and thus, are not fixed. Moreover, the KDE team does not plan to add any feature to KAddressBook 4.5 (released in August), according to their own Feature Plan. You may notice that applications such as KMail and KOrganizer will not be "Completely new" applications but ports to Akonadi.

My conclusion is that KDE-PIM doesn't match my basic requirements because of some KDE team decisions. The KDE team had all the needed end-users feed-back on this subject. Of course, they do the job so they decide where they go. My contacts being a key element of my professional day to day activity, I can only acknowledge that I don't belong anymore to the users groups targeted by KDE.

[Snowhog]

Re: KAddressBook 4.4.2 : separating first and last name

Well, for good or bad, nothing remains 'the same' for ever. It is a practical impossibility, in any OS, to please all the users all the time. Development moves forward, and there will always be casualties along the way. Life is change, and any OS that doesn't change will, eventually, die.