Read-only archive of the All About Symbian forum (2001–2013) · About this archive

Contact Details - What do they all do?

11 replies · 6,073 views · Started 10 October 2009

I'm very very bored today so I've decided to update all the details in my contacts list as much as I possibly can. This meant I had to trawl through all of the contact details available to me on my N97. Some of them I'm confused about. Could someone help me fill out this extensive list of what each of them are for? It might help others who are doing the same, who don't know what all of the details mean...

Note: For completeness, I'm including all of the details, even the obvious ones, and listing them in the order they appear on the N97. However, those with (?) at the end are assumed. I'd appreciate if anyone can confirm what exactly is meant to go in these. I will update the details in this post when I learn anything new.

  • First name - First name
  • Middle name - Middle name
  • Last name - Last name
  • Title - To signify either veneration, an official position or a professional or academic qualification. For example: Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Dr, Prof, Sgt
  • Suffix - Provides additional information about the contact, such as position, educational degree, accreditation, office or honour. For example: Jr, Sr, BSc, MSc, Esq, Ph.D
  • Nickname - A descriptive name given in place of, or in addition to, the official name of the contact.
  • Mobile - General mobile number
  • Mobile (home) - Home mobile number
  • Mobile (business) - Work mobile number
  • Telephone - General (landline) telephone number
  • Telephone (home) - Home (landline) telephone number
  • Telephone (business) - Work (landline) telephone number
  • E-mail - General email address
  • E-mail (home) - Home email address
  • E-mail (business) - Work email address
  • Call alert text - Piece of text that will appear on the screen (underneath the contact's name and number) when the contact calls you. The text also repeats itself in the background on the screen when you're on a call with the contact.
  • Gizmo - Gizmo VOIP username (More info...)
  • Facebook - The contact's Facebook account URL, their username, or the name that they're known as (More info...)
  • MSN - MSN Live ID address, also known as a "Microsoft Passport" (More info...)
  • Yahoo - Yahoo Messenger email address (More info...)
  • Ovi by Nokia - Ovi username (More info...)
  • Google - The contact's Google username or email, either for Gmail or GoogleTalk (More info...)
  • Skype - Skype username or number. It's not yet known whether Skype for the N97 will use this detail (More info...)
  • Car phone - Carphone telephone number
  • Video call - General video call number
  • Video call (home) - Home video call number
  • Video call (bus.) - Work video call number
  • Fax - General facsimile number
  • Fax (home) - Home facsimile number
  • Fax (business) - Work facsimile number
  • Pager - The contact's pager number. Sadly, you can't select this number and send a message to it, like you can with a mobile number.
  • DTMF - Stands for "Dual Tone Multi Frequency". Used for in-system tone signalling to a call centre (More info...)
  • Share video - Unknown (?)
  • SIP - Unknown (?)
  • Company - The name of the company the contact works for
  • Department - The name of the department where the contact works. For example: Customer/Technical Support, Human Resources, etc.
  • Job title - The contact's job title
  • Assistant's name - The name of the contact's assistant, possibly for when the contact's assistant might answer the phone instead (?)
  • Assistant's number - The telephone number for the contact's assistant (?)
  • Address - General postal address of the contact. Selecting this, however, doesn't add "Address" to your contact, but instead adds the following (Each can be removed individually, if not required):
    [INDENT]P.O. Box - The P.O. Box number
    Extension - Unknown, possibly an abbreviation of the Country (?)
    Street - Street name, and usually house/flat number
    Postal/ZIP code - Post Code
    City - Town or City in which the contact lives
    State/Province - Also known as "County" to us in the UK. For example: Cleveland, Derbyshire, etc.
    Country/Region - Country, or region of the country (if the country is very large, like America)[/INDENT]
  • Spouse - The name of whomever the contact is married to (Husband/Wife)
  • Children - The name(s) of the contact's children
  • Web address - General website address
  • Web address (home) - Home website address
  • Web addr. (business) - Work's website address
  • Address (home) - Home postal address of the contact. Like Address, selecting this adds the following details:
    [INDENT]P.O. Box (home) - The P.O. Box number
    Extension (home) - Unknown, possibly an abbreviation of the Country (?)
    Street (home) - Street name, and usually house/flat number
    Postal/ZIP (home) - Post Code
    City (home) - Town or City in which the contact lives
    State/Prov. (home) - Also known as "County" to us in the UK. For example: Cleveland, Derbyshire, etc.
    Ctry/Region (home) - Country, or region of the country (if the country is very large, like America)[/INDENT]
  • Address (business) - Work postal address of the contact. Like Address, selecting this adds the following details:
    [INDENT]P.O. Box (business) - The P.O. Box number
    Extension (bus.) - Unknown, possibly an abbreviation of the Country (?)
    Street (business) - Street name, and usually house/flat number
    Postal/ZIP (business) - Post Code
    City (business) - Town or City in which the contact lives
    State/Prov. (business) - Also known as "County" to us in the UK. For example: Cleveland, Derbyshire, etc.
    Ctry/Region (bus.) - Country, or region of the country (if the country is very large, like America)[/INDENT]
  • Birthday - The contact's birthday. Sadly, this isn't shown in the calendar.
  • Anniversary - The contact's anniversary (Usually a wedding anniversary). Sadly, this isn't shown in the calendar.
  • Note - Anything else not covered by the above.
  • Image name - Select this to assign a picture to the contact. Default value is "Add image" but will then show the picture's filename when one has been assigned. If the original image assigned is moved or deleted, the thumbnail remains on the contact.
  • Ringing tone - Select this to assign a ring tone to the contact. Default value is "Default tone", which means it will use the default tone assigned in the current profile, but will show the name of the ring tone when one is assigned
  • Synchronisation - Specifies the status of the contact when it is being synchronised with anything else (Like Ovi and Outlook). Options available are "Private" (Default), "Public", and "None" (?)

Thanks for detailing this out...

DTMF - dual tone multi frequency (in-system tone signaling to a call center)

BTW...I don't know of anyone in the US who would file anything by "region"...state is good enough. At present we have 50 of them, though our current president is under the impression that he's visited all 57 states.

I file my contacts for couples together as one contact which Nokia's scheme doesn't really make provision for. After all, why have the same address or home phone listed twice? Your caller ID wouldn't know which it was calling?

rdcinhou wrote:Thanks for detailing this out...

DTMF - dual tone multi frequency (in-system tone signaling to a call center)

BTW...I don't know of anyone in the US who would file anything by "region"...state is good enough. At present we have 50 of them, though our current president is under the impression that he's visited all 57 states.
I file my contacts for couples together as one contact which Nokia's scheme doesn't really make provision for. After all, why have the same address or home phone listed twice? Your caller ID wouldn't know which it was calling?

That was probably when he was out on his Nobel Peace Prize Election campaign....

By all accounts he had been Prez for 10 days before the nomination deadline.

But not as knowledgble as the previous incumbant, who though the US was part of Europe?

rdcinhou wrote:Thanks for detailing this out...

DTMF - dual tone multi frequency (in-system tone signaling to a call center)

BTW...I don't know of anyone in the US who would file anything by "region"...state is good enough. At present we have 50 of them, though our current president is under the impression that he's visited all 57 states.
I file my contacts for couples together as one contact which Nokia's scheme doesn't really make provision for. After all, why have the same address or home phone listed twice? Your caller ID wouldn't know which it was calling?

That was probably when he was out on his Nobel Peace Prize Election campaign....

By all accounts he had been Prez for 10 days before the nomination deadline.

But not as knowledgble as the previous incumbant, who thought the US was part of Europe?

Thank you zxon for taking the time, and trouble, to lay out the Contact details in a very easy to understand posting. Have added to your rep for that using the "rep" box on your posting. :icon14:

What is so unbelievable is that Nokia in their infinite wisdom would enable so much information to be saved to contacts (including thumbnail images) but then only enable the Contacts to be saved to Phone Memory or SIM memory!?!?!

Also, previous Nokia phones has a MyNumbers feature where you had a vCard that you could send via SMS or Bluetooth to another phone.

To save Contacts to another memory...

Contacts > Options >Mark/Unmark > Mark all > Options > Copy business card > To other memory > here I am offered E: Mass memory or F: Memory card.

If you have a Memory card installed you can use File Manager to do a back-up of not only Contacts but Settings, Messages, Calendar entries, Bookmarks and Files.

To send your contact details:-

I have my details, Name, numbers, etc; saved in Contacts.

Then to send it to another phone I select myself and then, at the top of the screen, select details > Options > Send as business card... where I'm offered the choice of sending via message, e-mail or Bluetooth.

Thanks everyone for your help thus far. I've made some changes to the list, incorporating your feedback.

Saving a copy of your Contacts to E: or F: is not the same as changing the working storage location of Contacts to someplace other than your C: drive (which is woefully small to begin with).

As far as backing-up my Contacts....Ovi Suite does a fair enough job.

rdcinhou wrote:What is so unbelievable is that Nokia in their infinite wisdom would enable so much information to be saved to contacts (including thumbnail images) but then only enable the Contacts to be saved to Phone Memory or SIM memory!?!?!

Also, previous Nokia phones has a MyNumbers feature where you had a vCard that you could send via SMS or Bluetooth to another phone.

I do apologise.

When you said "saved" I didn't realise you meant stored.

Hope the other tip helped with the sending of vCards.

SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol. I'm sure you're none the wiser until I explain that its the most commonly used way (apart from Skype which has its own protocol) of routing voice calls over the Internet.

So in there you would expect to put something which may even look like an email address, but isn't. For example [email][email protected][/email] is a valid SIP address.

Its of no use on an N97 (which currently lacks a SIP stack) unless you have something like Truphone's "sawn off" version of software which will route the call over their Truphone Anywhere service. A GSM call to their server, followed by a SIP call further on. Cheaper than your mobile provider for making International Calls. Can also be useful for making 0800 calls from your mobile if your provider (VF UK for example) charge pennies for making 0800 calls.

Regards
Neil