WebAsyst Contacts at a glance

Here is your WebAsyst Contacts main window:

1. WebAsyst Contacts toolbar includes the following function buttons:
   • Folder – lets you manage WebAsyst Contacts folders. Click to access pull-down menu to add/delete/copy/move a folder and set folder access rights for other users
   • List – lets you manage your contact lists. Click to access pull-down menu to add, modify, or delete a list
   • Contact – lets you manage one or several contacts. Click to access pull-down menu to add, copy, or move contacts to a folder, delete contacts, add contacts to a list, import contacts to WebAsyst Contacts, export your WebAsyst Contacts to a file, print contacts, and send e-mail or SMS to your contacts
   • View – lets you choose and customize the format in which contacts are listed in the Contacts pane (i.e. Grid, Details)
   • Tools – click to access contact entry form constructor (to add custom field and sections to your contact storing form) and Sign-Up Form widget (to place on a webpage and collect subscribers) pages
   • Reports – click to run reports on subscribed and unsubscribed contacts
     
2. Search box. Enter a contact’s name or other detail (e.g. “Ann Miller”) and click Go to see the list of contacts where the search word is found.
3. Clicking on "Available Folders" will display all WebAsyst Contacts folders. For every folder you can see its access rights for a user who is currently logged in, number of contacts, and “Shared” checkbox indicating whether this folder is shared with other users.
4. Click Lists to see available lists and their content
5. Subfolder indicator. Click “+” to expand.
6. Click to hide folder list pane.
7. Click to select all contacts.
8. Sorting indicator. Click to reverse sorting order. Click on a column name to sort (e.g. click “Name” to sort contacts by Name).
9. Click on a contact to open Contact Edit form where you can add and modify contact details.
10. Selected contact checkmark.
11. Displays total number of contacts in the current folder.
12. Indicates current folder access rights for the logged in user.
13. Click “Shared” to see the list of users who have access to the current folder.

Adding contacts

Contacts can be added to your contacts database via contact entry form found on "Add Contact" page. Click Contact -> Add Contact from WebAsyst Contacts toolbar and enter new contact's details.

The form is broken into sections (Contact, Phones, Business, Home, Notes). Each section contains fields relevant to the section. When adding a new contact one of the following fields must have a value: First Name, Last Name, Nickname, or E-Mail. The rest of the fields in the form are optional.

Once information on the form is saved, the newly added contacts will be displayed in the folder that you have selected from the drop-down list at the top of the form.

Letting contacts add themselves

Sign-Up Form is a widget that can be placed on a website, blog, e-mail, or a newsletter – any web source that can be used to collect site visitors’ details. Sign-Up Form can contain any number of fields from the contact entry form. Contact details entered in Sign-Up Form are added to WebAsyst Contacts database. The picture below shows a sample Sign-Up Form and contact information added to contacts database.

To add Sign-Up Form to your webpage, follow the instructions below:

1. Click Tools -> Sign-Up Forms from WebAsyst Contacts toolbar
2. Click Create New Sign-Up Form and select your form from the following:
   
   
   • E-Mail only - sign-up form with a field for visitors’ e-mail addresses and a Submit button
   • Name and E-Mail - sign-up form which includes fields for visitors’ names and e-mail addresses
   • Name, E-Mail and Photo - sign-up form with fields for visitors' names, e-mail addresses and photos
   • Custom - sign-up form where you can place any number of fields from WebAsyst Contacts database; e.g. name, address, birthday, phone number, website address, etc.
     
3. Customize form's properties if needed, select a destination folder, enable “Double Opt-In” option if you want to create Sign-Up Form for permission based subscription, and save the form.

   NOTE: Enabling double opt-in will require that subscriber clicks a link in a confirmation email before he/she is actually added via this sign-up form. Subscribers retain "Pending" status until they click on the confirmation link.

4. Copy and paste the displayed link on your website HTML editing page or click Show more embedding options
5. If you would like your widget to appear in a pop-up window copy and paste the corresponding link on your web editing age
6. Click Install Widget on TypePad if you are a registered TypePad user and would like you widget to appear on your TypePad blog's sidebar

   The picture below shows Sign-Up Form placed on a blog page:

NOTE: WebAsyst Contacts lets you see your Sign-Up statistics. Click Reports -> Sign Up Statistics to see the report on the number of subscribers grouped by date.

Importing contacts from a text file

You can import your contact list into WebAsyst Contacts from any valid text file with comma or TAB separated columns (CSV file). The fragment of a CSV file is shown below:

Click Contact -> Import in WebAsyst Contacts toolbar, enter your CSV contacts file, template, and a destination folder. Importing template lets you set up the correspondence between fields in the imported file and WebAsyst Contacts fields. Outlook Express and Bat! templates are provided if you are importing your Outlook Express or Bat! address book. For a custom CSV file select Custom template and then specify field correspondence.

Sending Email and SMS to contacts

You can send an e-mail or SMS to your contact(s) right from WebAsyst Contacts.

To send an e-mail select your contact(s), click Contact -> Send Email from WebAsyst Contacts toolbar, and fill out standard fields in “Send E-Mail” form.

To send an SMS select your contact(s), click Contact -> Send SMS from WebAsyst Contacts toolbar, fill out the fields (cellular phone numbers and message). Please note that SMS rates vary with area and country codes.

Organizing contacts

Contact entries are stored in folders. All basic operations are allowed on contacts and folders; i.e. adding, copying, moving, deleting, etc. WebAsyst Contacts also allows you to create and manage contact lists, a “logical” way to organize your contacts which does not change the way contact entries are organized in the contacts database.

Both folders and lists are displayed in WebAsyst Contacts folders pane. Folders are shown by default. To see available lists click Lists.

Folders

Your contact entries are stored in folders and subfolders. For every folder a user with administrative privileges can customize access rights. Depending on your access rights you can add new folders to WebAsyst Contacts, set access rights for other users, copy, move, or delete folders. Click Folders in WebAsyst Contacts toolbar to see the list of folder operations.

Clicking "Available Folders" in folders pane will list all WebAsyst Contacts folders. For every folder you can see its access rights for a user who is currently logged in, number of contacts, and “Shared” checkbox indicating whether this folder is shared with other users.

NOTE: Deleting a folder will permanently delete all contacts stored in it from your WebAsyst Contacts database.

Lists

You can organize your contacts into lists. Click Lists in WebAsyst Contacts Folders pane to display available lists.

Individual contacts and users, contacts folder, or user groups can be added to a list. Click List -> Add List and then the corresponding tab (Folders, Contacts, or Groups). To share your list with other users, enable “Shared” checkbox.

Click on a list name to modify it. A list can also be copied and deleted.

NOTE: List is not a physical entity in WebAsyst Contacts database. Adding or deleting lists will not affect actual contact entries stored in your contacts database.

Copying/Moving/Deleting contacts

Select your contact(s) in the contacts pane and click Contact in WebAsyst Contacts toolbar. Click Copy or Move to copy or move contacts to another folder, or click Delete to permanently remove contacts from the current folder.

Sharing contacts with other users

Sharing your contact entries with other WebAsyst Contacts users and user groups is done by setting access rights to a folder of contacts by a user with administrative privileges. Select a folder and click Folder -> Modify Folder. Click on Users and Groups tabs to set/modify access to the folder for users and user groups.

The following are available levels of access to a folder:

Read (R) – a user (user group) can list and read files in this folder
Write (W) – a user (user group) can add/modify files in this folder
Folder (F) – a user (user group) can add/modify files, folders & permissions

When setting access level to a folder, the combination of personal and group access rights will be applied, e.g. if user Ann belongs to a group which has R (Read) access rights, then Ann has an effective permission as in the table below:

NOTE: Access rights to a folder do not automatically apply to its subfolders. They need to be set manually by the process described above. Setting access rights to a folder can be done by a user who has F (Folder) access level to this folder or by an account administrator in "Users & Groups" window.

Exporting contacts

You can export your contacts, contact folders or lists into a text file. Click Contacts -> Export in WebAsyst Contacts toolbar and indicate the contacts that you wish to export: selected contacts, list or a folder, or entire WebAsyst Contacts database. Choose field delimiter and specify contact entries fields to export. Click OK and then "Download" link. You are then given a choice of saving the file on your local computer to opening it in the new browser window.

Customizing contact fields

Your default contact entry form (click Contact -> Add Contact to open) is broken into five sections. Each section includes contact entry fields relevant to the content of the section. The following is the full list of sections and fields in your default contact entry form:

• Contact: First Name, Last Name, Middle Name, Nickname, E-Mail, Photo
• Phones :Home, Work, Mobile, Fax, Page, Business Fax
• Home :Street Address, City, State, Postal Code, Country, Personal Web Page, Birthday
• Business :Company, Department, Job Title, Street Address, City, State, Postal Code, Country, Office Location, Business Web Page
• Notes :Notes

When adding or editing a contact, one of the following fields must be non-empty: Contact: First Name, Contact: Last Name, Contact: Nickname, or Contact: E-Mail. The rest of the fields and sections are not required to have a value.

WebAsyst Contacts lets you customize your basic contact entry form - you can add, modify, and remove sections and fields.

NOTE: The fields that require a value (Contact: First Name, Contact: Last Name, Contact: Nickname, Contact: E-Mail) cannot be renamed or deleted. They can only be moved to a different location within the same section.

Adding sections and fields

If you would like to enter and store contact details not found in the basic contact entry form, WebAsyst Contacts lets you add new fields and sections.

Click Tools -> Constructor from WebAsyst Contacts toolbar.

To add a new section, click Add Section. Enter new section name and indicate the location of the new section in the form.

To add a new field, click Add Field. Enter new field’s properties; i.e. long and short names (e.g. “Married Status”, “Status”), field type (text, numeric, image, link, etc.), its location in the contact entry form and others details. The picture below shows the sample of the form with two new fields added ("Gender" and "Married Status"):

Modifying and deleting sections and fields

WebAsyst Contacts lets you modify and delete a section or a field

Click Tools -> Constructor from WebAsyst Contacts toolbar.

To modify a section’s or a field’s name or other properties, click on its name and add necessary changes.

If you find that some of the sections and fields are never used for storing a contact, you might want to remove them from the form. Click on the name of a section or a field and then click Delete.