brilliant tip, especially the realization that setting the Address book’s filter to Category will place ones list as the active window.
I had had the same 8 or 9 second wait, so this is a great find. Many thanks.
--
Scott
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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From: "Entourage:mac Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 19:57:39 -0800
To: "Entourage:mac Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Entourage-Talk Digest - 02/21/01
> Hi folks,
>
> One of my complaints in Entourage has been how slow it is to find a listing
> in your contact list. I have nearly 2000 records, and when I first bring up
> the Address Book window Window > Address Book or Command-2, if I type part
> of a name in the "Name Contains" pane, it can take ages – 10 to 20 seconds –
> to filter the list. An eternity if you are on the phone talking to someone
> and trying to find a number. This speed is reduced dramatically after the
> first time you filter, but still can be slow. I think it must have something
> to do with the way the database is compacted. Note: if that *is* the case,
> then perhaps there should be a preference to NOT compact the database to get
> higher search speeds at the expense of it taking more disk space. Frankly I
> don't care if my database takes 100mb... as long as I can search it fast!
>
> Anyhow....
>
> The tip is this. I first realized that if I tab into the main window, as
> long as you know the last name of who you are looking for (or company name
> if sorted by company), when you start typing their name it will skip down to
> their listing MUCH faster than if you use the filtering feature!
>
> Unfortunately, double-clicking or hitting return to open the record can
> result in that same 20 second delay, which leads me to believe again that
> it's a database compacting issue. Fortunately if the info you are looking
> for is in the window listing (i.e. primary phone number), you can see it
> without having to open the record. And of course you can control what is
> shown in that window View > Columns > xyz or control-click on any column
> listing
>
> The last step of this trick speeds things up even more. You notice each time
> you open the Address Book window, you have to tab from the filter box to the
> main window. BUT... if you set the filter from "Name/Company Contains..." to
> "Category", then there is no text entry dialog, and each time you open the
> window, the active pane will already be that of your list! So it's just
> command-2 and the first few letters of a last name to find the listing you
> are looking for.
>
> Hey, I like it... saves me some headaches. I hate explaining to people on
> the phone "hold on, it's searching... searching... oh almost there...." ;-)
>
> ta,
> -Joseph-
