Community Knowledge Base

Contacts Overview

SmarterMail features an online contact manager that helps users organize and communicate with the people in their life. Users can view and manage their contacts from any computer with internet access, anywhere in the world, using the webmail interface.

Navigating Your Contacts

When you view your SmarterMail contacts for the first time, chances are they'll be empty: you won't have any contacts to display. This may not be true if you've migrated to SmarterMail from another email platform or service. Regardless, the layout of contacts is the same whether you have migrated or not. To view or hide different contact folders, such as the Global Address List, shared lists, or mapped resources, simply click the eye icon to the right of the resource name.

In general, the Contacts page is divided into two sections:

  • The folders view displays all of your contact folders. These are how your contacts are organized. These folders include the default "Contacts" folder, which are contacts you add or migrate over to SmarterMail, and any folders that contain shared contact lists, such as a Global Address List (GAL).
  • The content pane. Here you'll see individual cards that represent every contact and Contact Group you have displayed or, when in grid view, a list of your contacts and their details displayed as rows and columns.

Contact Views

There are two ways to view contacts, and these views are managed using the "Card/Grid View" button at the top of the content pane:

  • Card View - This displays each contact as its own card, and displays their contact image or monogram, and some details about the contact like their display name, company, job title, etc., if present.
  • Grid View - This displays each contact in a text grid and displays contact details as columns, such as First Name, Last Name, Email Address, etc.

Content Pane

In general, the following options are available when viewing your contacts in Card View:

  • Select - Allows you to select more than 1 contact at a time. To select multiple contacts, click Select and then click on one or more cards. To exit Select mode, click the Select button again. To de-select a contact, simply click on it again. Alternatively, click the down arrow and you're presented with the following options:
    • Select All - Selects all contacts in the list you are viewing.
    • Deselect All - Deselects the selected contact(s).
    • Enable Select Mode - This allows users to select multiple different contacts, individually, one at a time. Use this method for selecting different contacts that are separated or scattered throughout your list of contacts so they can be exported, deleted, or otherwise handled the same.
  • Sort - Sorts contacts by display name, email, or company in ascending or descending order.
  • Filter - This gives you the ability to display contacts based on the category(-ies) that are assigned.
  • Actions (⋮)
    • New Contact Group - Contact Groups are a convenient way to organize multiple contacts so that you can simply sent a message to the group rather than having to send the message to each person in the group individually.
    • Add to Outlook - Connects SmarterMail to Microsoft Outlook and synchronizes contact information. Note: This feature is only available in SmarterMail Enterprise.
    • Send Email - Addresses an email message to the selected contact(s).
    • Send vCards - Allows you to send an email with the selected contact(s) electronic business card(s) (vCards) attached.
    • Import - Allows you to import contacts from another email system into your contact database. SmarterMail can bulk import contacts in either vCard or CSV format.
    • Export all to vCard - Exports all of your contacts in vCard format.
    • Export all to CSV - Exports all of your contacts in CSV format.
    • Delete - Deletes the selected contact(s).

In general, the following options are available when viewing your contacts in Grid View:

  • Delete - Deletes the selected contact(s).
  • Filter - This gives you the ability to display contacts based on the category(-ies) that are assigned.
  • Actions (⋮)
    • New Contact Group
    • Add to Outlook - Connects SmarterMail to Microsoft Outlook and synchronizes contact information. Note: This feature is only available in SmarterMail Enterprise.
    • Send Email - Addresses an email message to the selected contact(s).
    • Send vCards - Allows you to send an email with the selected contact(s) electronic business card(s) (vCards) attached.
    • Import - Allows you to import contacts from another email system into your contact database. SmarterMail can bulk import contacts in either vCard or CSV format.
    • Export all to vCard - Exports all of your contacts in vCard format.
    • Export all to CSV - Exports all of your contacts in CSV format.

Attachments

Occasionally, when viewing a contact's details, a file of some sort is attached. Generally, attachments are added to contacts when the contact is initially created in an email client such as Microsoft Outlook. However, attachments can be added via the SmarterMail webmail interface as well using the paperclip button. Attachments can be downloaded to a local machine, or device, as needed. Attachments for contacts are handled just as attachments are handled in other areas of SmarterMail: the file's name and file extension are displayed and, if possible, a thumbnail of the attachment is displayed. (This most commonly occurs with image files.)

Manage Categories

You can also manage your categories from the Filtering menu. Clicking Manage Categories opens a modal window with all current categories listed. It's possible to do things like change a category name, change its associated color, or even add new categories using this modal. Once categories are changed or modified, those changes or modifications are carried over to any area categories are available. (E.g., Calendars.)

Individual Contacts

In addition to working with all of your contacts, each individual contact has some actions that are available. To view these, simply click the Actions (⋮) on each card. When you do, these actions are available:

  • Send Email - Addresses an email message to the selected contact(s).
  • Send vCard - Allows you to send an email with the selected contact(s) electronic business card(s) (vCard) attached.
  • Export to vCard - Exports only the selected contact(s) in vCard format.
  • Export to CSV - Exports only the selected contact(s) in CSV format.
  • Delete - Deletes the contact.

You can also click on a contact and open it in its own window. Opening a contact gives you the ability to update or edit the contact's information. You can also delete the contact or Mark it by assigning it one or more Categories.

Contacts as Trusted Senders

By default, SmarterMail "sees" any contacts you add as "Trusted Senders." What that means is that any email you send to, or receive from, a contact bypasses any spam filters that are set up for your domain. While SmarterMail doesn't add your contacts to the "Trusted Senders" list you will find in your Spam Settings, they're handled the same way. However, unlike the email addresses or domains you add to your Trusted Senders list, messages sent to or received from contacts are not counted in any reports that list or detail messages to or from Trusted Senders. Therefore, while a contact is treated like a Trusted Sender, it's not counted as one in reports.

Sharing Contacts

SmarterMail gives users the ability to share multiple things within their account. More information on sharing, and how to share items, can be found on the Sharing Overview page of this help documentation.

Sending vCards

SmarterMail users can send single vCards or multiple, as needed. Below are instructions on sending a single vCard as well as multiple different vCards.

To send a single vCard:

  1. Go to the Contacts area.
  2. Find the specific contact in your list, either by scrolling through your contacts or using the Search bar.
  3. Select the contact, then click Actions (⋮)
  4. From the dropdown menu, select Send vCard.
  5. SmarterMail will open a new message window with the vCard(s) attached.
  6. Type the recipient's email address in the To field and compose a message. Then click Send.

To send multiple vCards:

  1. Go to the Contacts area.
  2. Click the Select button and choose Enable Select Mode. This allows you to select multiple different contacts by simply clicking on them.
  3. Once you've selected the desired contacts, click Actions (⋮)
  4. From the dropdown menu, select Send vCards.
  5. SmarterMail will open a new message window with the vCards attached.
  6. Type the recipient's email address in the To field and compose a message. Then click Send.

When sending a vCard, it can be useful to use the Category selectors to help narrow down your contacts. Using Categories as well as the Select button even allows you to send vCards for all contacts in one or more categories. To view contacts from a specific category, use the Sort icon. From here, choose Category Filters and select the proper category(-ies) you want to use for filtering your contacts.