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-
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Joseph A. Linaschke
Tel UK: +44 780 818 0311
Tel US: +1 408 206 1790
seeking a position in the world of marketing
résumé/C.V. @ http://www.carbonblack.com/linaschke
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