The ContaX Manager

A central part of WordTricks is its powerful and easy-to-use Contact Manager.

ContaX provides a consistent and fast way to get your contact information from your primary Contact Manager (Like Outlook, Interaction, Metz Phones, Contact Ease, Goldmine and GroupWise) into your documents.

Note: The ContaX feature is not intended as a primary contact manager (and we do not recommend that it be used in that way), but it is possible and used by a few firms.

Click the ContaX button on the WordTricks toolbar.

The ContaX options are listed below:

ContaX can be launched by clicking the Contax Selectionbutton or pressing SHIFT + ALT + C.

It can also be accessed directly from the Letter/Fax/Memo Generators, and QlickFill forms wherever you see the ContaX Addressbutton.

The ContaX FlexGrid

The Contax Manager displays a list of your contacts in a grid-like fashion. This type of display is called a "Flex-Grid" and has some powerful advantages in finding and selecting the contacts you want.

The entire display and each column can be expanded and contracted to best fit your screen, and will remember these settings the next time it is used.

Sorting By Column

Clicking once on the title of any column will sort the contacts by that column in descending order, (A,B,C-1,2,3). Clicking a second time will sort them in ascending order, (Z,Y,X-10,9,8)

Typematic Lookup

To look up a particular name (or any other information), click in the column that contains the information and simply start typing. For example, click on any field within the FileAs column and type the name needed.

Selecting Single or Multiple Contacts

To select a single contact, simply double click that row.

To select more than one, either hold down the Ctrl key and click other rows (for individual selections), or hold down the Shift key and click other rows (to select all contacts within that block of selections.)

Multiple Rolodexes

The ContaX Manager can hold up to 10 Rolodexes. These can be accessed by scrolling left or right with the horizontal scroll bar near the Rolodex Name at the top.

Note: For Outlook, Interaction, Contact Ease and GroupWise users, these correspond to either your personal contact folders, or ones that have been shared to which you have access.

ContaX Synchronization

The ContaX Rolodex grew from the frustration that many users experienced in getting their contact information into documents in a timely and useful way. To address this problem, the ContaX Manager uses a fast, locally stored database that holds a copy of your contact information.

This means that lookup, selection, and access is extremely fast, even for large merges. The accessible information is available even if the Network is unavailable, such as with a Laptop computer. This information can be instantaneously accessed from the Letter/Fax/Memo Generators.

However, this requires that the local database be kept "up to date." That's the job of the ContaxSync program.

Important Note: The ContaxSync program is not needed for Stand-Alone installations. It is required however, for using Outlook, Interaction, Metz Phones, Contact Ease, Apex, Goldmine, and GroupWise contact management.

The Sync Icon

There are two ways to access the ContaxSync application from within the ContaX Manager screen. The Sync icon is located in the lower left corner.

1. Left Click to Force a Synchronization.

2. Right Click to access the Synchronization Options Menu (displayed below).

The Sync Tray Icon

The ContaxSync application is also available via a Tray Icon. Locate the Icon in the Windows System Tray (usually in the bottom right corner of your screen). Left or Right Click the Icon to access the Synchronization Options Menu (displayed below).

Timed Synchronization

By default, your contacts will be synchronized 15 minutes after you log in each day.

With the "Once-a-Day" option checked, they will not be synchronized again until the following day. If the "Once-a-Day" option is unchecked, they will be synchronized every 90 minutes.

At any time, you can force a synchronization by selecting the "Sync Now" option.

Rebuild and Folder Selection

For all 10 of the available Rolodexes, the synchronization process updates existing contacts with new information, adds newly created contacts, and deletes ones that have been removed.

Occasionally, an entire contact folder will change, or you may periodically need to add new contact folders.

For these circumstances, choose the "Rebuild Now" option. This allows you to completely rearrange how your contact folders are placed in the Rolodexes. It also clears all previous contacts from the local ContaX database.

Rebuild Now

The rebuild process scans for available Contact Folders (in the case of Outlook, Interaction and GroupWise only), and allows you to choose up to 10.

Once chosen, the timed synchronization process will continue to automatically synchronize your chosen folders.

Note: You should check the folders in the order you want them to appear. For example, you may want the Firm\Contacts to appear as Rolodex #1, and your personal Contact as Rolodex #2.

Outlook Public Folders

Note that in the example above, Outlook Public Folders are listed. This is because the "Include Public Folders" option was checked in the ContaxSync Options.

Important Note: Scanning public folders is a time consuming process and should not be checked unless it is necessary. To limit this time delay, public folders are scanned only to 4 levels of sub-folders.



In the example above, the sub-folder "..\Cards Only" cannot be synchronized because it is 5 levels deep. See WordTricks Knowledge Base Article KB-CTXEXPUB for more information.