 | Protecting your CorelCENTRAL™ address books
By Laura Acklen
For most of us, our contact information is our most valuable resource, professionally and personally. If you take a minute to calculate how many hours a week you spend working with this information (i.e., looking something up, creating new entries and updating the existing entries), you might be surprised. Would it add up to five hours? How about ten? Anything more than twenty and you can consider yourself an address book addict!
Obviously, the more time you invest in maintaining this information, the more important it becomes to protect it. Unfortunately, the tools for protecting address book data differ from version to version and they are not always easy to spot. This article focuses on several methods for protecting your contact information so it stays secure, even if your system has a complete meltdown.
Importing and Exporting Address Books
Importing and exporting sounds so...technical. Why you would you want to do such a thing? Allow me to give you a few examples: you are upgrading to a newer version of WordPerfect® and you want to transfer your address information; you want to give one of your address books to someone else; you might need to copy an address book from a desktop system to a laptop; and last, but certainly not least, you may want to keep a backup copy of your address book(s) in case something happens to your system. All of these things are accomplished in the same way—by exporting and importing the address book(s).
Exporting
If you’re working with Corel® WordPerfect® 7 or 8, open the address book (Tools, Address Book). Select the address book that you want to export. Choose Book, Export. Type a filename, verify that the .ABX format is selected, then choose the drive and folder where you want the file stored. Do this for each book that you want to transfer.
WordPerfect 9 and 10 have an Import/Export Expert for importing and exporting the address book(s). Choose File, Import/Export Expert, then select Export, Next. Leave Text file (*.CSV, *.TXT) selected in the Export to: drop-down list, then click Next. In the left pane, select the address book that you want to export (you may have to click the plus sign next to CorelCENTRAL™ to see a list of address books). In the right pane, type a filename and verify that Text file (*.TXT) is selected in the Save as type drop-down list (see Figure 1). Click Next, then click Next again to finish.
Note: When you export an address book for the first time, you’ll be prompted to select the fields that you want included in the exported file. Think about it: if you only use five or six of the fields, why would you want to export a bunch of empty fields? In the Field Mapping page of the Import/Export dialog box (see Figure 2), click on each field that you want included in the export, then choose Add. You can change your mind and delete a field later by selecting it and choosing Delete. When the list is complete, choose Next, then Finish to complete the export.
Importing
When you’re ready to bring the address book(s) in, you just import the file that you exported. In Corel WordPerfect 7 and 8, open the Address Book. Choose Book, Import. Select the type of file that you want to import, then choose Next. Either type the name of the file, or use the Browse button to go look for it. When you’ve selected the file, choose Finish.
In WordPerfect 9 and 10, choose Tools, Address Book. Choose File, Import/Export Expert. By default, Corel® Address Book 8 (*.ABX) is selected as the type of file to import from, so if you’re importing an address book from Corel WordPerfect 7 or 8, leave this option selected. Otherwise, choose Text file (*.CSV, *.TXT), then choose Next. In the left pane, select the file that you exported earlier. In the right pane, select the address book that you want to import to. You may notice that you cannot create a new address book here, so if you want to import to a new, blank address book, you’ll need to back out and create it before you can continue. Choose Next, Next. The right pane shows you how the fields will be mapped. If there are fields that could not be directly mapped, they will be shown in the left pane. The fields in this list will need to be mapped manually. Select the unassigned field, then select a field to map it to from the Address Book Fields drop-down list. When the list of mapped fields is complete, choose Next, then Finish.
The trickiest part of importing and exporting seems to be getting the file in the right format and making sure the fields are mapped correctly, so pay close attention to this part of the process.
Caution: If you get the following error message when you try to import address book data: “Address book not available. No address books were found,” you need to install Windows® Messaging. This situation occurs frequently on new machines that are pre-installed with Windows 98.
Recovering a Corrupted Address Book
Should your address book files become damaged, you’ll get error messages when you try to open an address book or when you try to add a new record. In most cases, you can recover the files by exporting the address books, recreating the address book folder structure, then importing the data back in. The instructions for exporting and importing in Corel WordPerfect 8, 9 and 10 are shown above. After you’ve exported the address book(s), you need to rename the address book folder:
For WordPerfect 8, locate the \corel\suite8\shared\address folder, right click it, select Rename then change “address” to “addbkold”.
For WordPerfect 9, locate the \my documents\ccwin9\address book folder, right click it, select Rename then change “address book” to “addbkold”.
For WordPerfect 10, locate the \my documents\ccwin10\addrbk folder, right click it, select Rename then change “addrbk” to “addbkold”.
Now, launch Address Book to create a fresh copy of the address book files, then import the exported files back in.
Printing Your Address Book(s)
I don’t know about you, but my contact list is extremely valuable to my business. I keep everything from email addresses to cell phone numbers to FedEx account numbers. I’ve been in a few situations when I couldn’t get to my address book files and I was virtually incapacitated. My solution? I print out a copy of my address book every now and then and take it with me when I travel. That way, if my laptop battery gives out on me, I can still get to the information. It’s also a good idea to have a hard copy of your address book in case something happens to the electronic version (see “Recovering a Corrupted Address Book” above).
Printing an Address Book in WordPerfect® 9
In WordPerfect 9, open the address book that you want to print. If you only want to print a portion of the address book, select those records now. Large address books are easier to read if they are printed on across the page (landscape), so you may want to choose File, Page Setup and select Landscape before you open the Print dialog box. Choose File, Print. In the Print section, choose Selected record(s) or All records, depending on how much you want to print.
Click the Select Columns tab, then place a check mark in each column that you want to print (see Figure 3). When you're ready to send the address book to the printer, click Print.
I recommend printing the address book in table format since each record is on a separate line and the field names are inserted as column headings. If you want to print the records in list format, choose Address List from the Print Format drop-down list.
Printing an Address Book in WordPerfect® 10
In WordPerfect 10, you arrange the column headings in the right pane of the CorelCENTRAL window to reflect what you want printed. Right-click a column heading to open a dialog box where you can place check marks next to the fields that you want printed. Having done that, click and drag the column headings around until they are in the order that you want. Choose File, Print to open the Print dialog box. Optionally, click the Advanced tab and choose the print format that you want: Table or Address Book List.
Printing an Address Book in Corel® WordPerfect® 8
Printing the address books in Corel WordPerfect 8 requires a few more steps, but it’s relatively painless. You need to create a table with a column for every field that you want to print, turn it into a merge form document, then pull the records from the address book.
First, calculate the number of columns you need. Second, based on the number of columns, decide if you want to print in portrait or landscape. (If you want to print in landscape, choose File, Page Setup, Size, Landscape.) Third, create the table. Choose Insert, Table, then type the number of columns you need.
Now, turn this table into a merge form. Choose Tools, Merge, Create Form Document, Use File in Active Window. Choose Associate an Address Book, then choose the address book that you want to print from, then click OK. Click in the first column, then click the Insert Field button. Select the field that you want in the first column and choose Insert. Move to the second column and insert another merge field code. Continue until you’ve inserted codes for each field that you want to print. Close the dialog box, then click in the last cell after the merge field code. Click Merge Codes, then scroll down until you can select REPEATROW. (This merge code creates a new row in the table for every record in the merge.) Choose Insert, Close. Your table should now look like the one shown in Figure 4.
Click the Merge button and verify that the Current Document is Form Document, Data source is set to your address book and Output is set to New Document. For those times when you don’t need to print the entire address book, choose Selected Records from the Data source drop-down list, then select only those records that you want printed. Choose Merge. These results can be formatted and printed just like any other table.
Laura Acklen is a freelance technical writer and trainer. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, three children, two cats and a bunny. She is the author of Que’s Special Edition Using WordPerfect 9 and is currently updating the book for WordPerfect 10. A complete table of contents is available on her web site at www.wpwriter.com
Disclaimer: The information provided on OfficeCommunity.com is not legal advice, but is intended to be general information. Articles reflect the opinion of the author and do not imply sponsorship, endorsement or approval by Corel Corporation.
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