The address book gives you the capabilities to effectively manage Direct messaging addresses for your recipients. Recipient addresses can be maintained as individual address book entries ("users"), or you can create address book groups containing many addresses. Group names can be added to your recipient list when you Compose a message. User nicknames can also be used in the recipient list in place of the address.
The address book can be accessed from the Member Center, or from the Address Book button on the Compose page.
The first time you access the Address Book, it will be empty, with no users or groups. To take full advantage of the address book's capabilities, you must add users and groups by performing the following steps.
Note: Green dots identify unsaved additions, and red dots identify unsaved deletions. To discard your unsaved changes to the address book (users and groups), click the Reset button. To save changes, click the Save button.
The first of these tasks is to add a user.
Adding Users
In the Direct Address text entry field, enter a valid Direct messaging address (required).
In the optional Nickname and Name fields, you may also enter a nickname and full name if desired. If you enter a nickname here, it provides you with an easy way to send to this user, because when you compose a message, you can type the short nickname in the recipient list instead of the full address.
Note: If this is the first time you add a user, you have probably not yet added a group, so you will not select a group for the user at this time. Assigning the user to a group is optional, and can be done later, or if you have already created a group, you can do it while adding the user.
After entering the appropriate information, click the green plus sign (+) at the end of the row on the right ("Add Contact to Address Book"). The user's contact information is added and displayed with a green dot in the list below the text entry fields.
You can add more users if desired, and when you are done, click the Save button to save your changes to the address book.
The second task is to make a group. Although groups are not required, they allow you to create a distribution list so that you can quickly and easily send to multiple recipients. This is especially useful when you send to a group of recipients on a regular basis.
Adding Groups
Click the green plus sign at the top right, next to the Group column ("Edit Groups").
In the Contact Groups dialog box that opens, type in a name for the group and click the green plus sign (+). The name is added to the groups list in the dialog box.
You can add more groups if desired. You can also modify any groups you have added. To change the name of a group, click on the group name in the list and make the changes. To delete a group, click on the red "X" next to the group name.
Note: You can click the Undo button at any point during this process to reverse the group changes you have made. The Undo button will only work when you have made active changes to the groups, and it will become grayed out when there are no active changes. When you are asked to confirm the Undo ("Save group changes before leaving?"), click Cancel to discard the changes.
Click the Done button when you have completed adding or changing your groups. This closes the Groups dialog box and returns to the address book.
Click the Save button to save your (groups) changes to the address book.
The third task is to move users into any groups if desired. By default, users are not assigned to any group and are classified as "Unfiled."
Moving Users to Groups
Find an existing user's contact information in the address book.
Click the Group drop-down menu to the right of the user's information, and select the desired group from the list.
Click the Save button to save your changes to the address book.
To confirm that the user was added to the group, you can select the group name in the group filter drop-down menu on the top right. This displays the users assigned only to that group. To cancel the group filter, select All Users in the group filter drop-down menu.
You can also add users to your address book from the Health Provider Directory (HPD). This is useful if you don't know the user's Direct address or exact name. To find providers, click the Access HPD... button to bring up the HPD search window. After you import users from the HPD to your address book, you must click the Save button if you wish to save them to your address book. For more information, see Direct Messaging Health Provider Directory (HPD).
If you want to delete a user from the address book or change any contact information for a user, you can do so easily.
Find an existing user's contact information in the address book.
Click directly on the information you want to add, modify, or delete. For example, click in the space for Nickname to add a nickname. You can then add, delete, or modify text in the field.
Note: Fields that you have changed will become highlighted when you leave the field.
To delete a user/contact, click on the red "X" to the right of the user information.
Click the Save button to save your changes to the address book.
The Filter feature is located at the top of the address book. It allows you to find address book entries easily. This is especially helpful when your address book contains many entries. You can use a text filter or a group filter or both. The text filter helps you find users by Name, Nickname, and Address. The group filter displays only the members of a selected group. When the filters are combined, they help you find users within a group.
Text Filter
In the text box next to the Filter button, enter a name, nickname, or address, or part of one of these, and click the Filter button. Only those entries containing matching text will be displayed in the list. The text matching is case-sensitive.
To cancel a text filter, clear the field by deleting all text in it, and click the Filter button again.
Group Filter
Click on the Group drop-down menu to the right of the Filter button, and select the group from the list. You can select All Users, a specific group you have created, or Unfiled, which shows all users not assigned to a group.
To cancel a group filter, select All Users in the group filter drop-down menu.
There are several ways that you can use contacts in your message recipient lists (To, Cc, Bcc):
In a recipient list when composing a message, you can type the Nickname of a user in your address book, which can be used in place of the user’s address. Using a nickname is a convenient way to enter the user in the list with less typing.
In a recipient list when composing a message, you can also type in a Group name, which can be used to send to multiple recipients in the group. Using a group name is a convenient way to enter multiple recipients in the list with less typing.
From the address book, you can select users for any of the recipient lists, and click Set in Message to place them in the respective recipient lists of a message in the Compose window. This is explained in more detail below.
Set in Message
After you have added users into the address book, you can select them for adding to a recipient list in messages by first clicking the To. Cc, or Bcc checkboxes, and then clicking the Set in Message button. This adds them to the respective recipient lists in the message Compose window.
You can also click the checkboxes above these columns to select all users displayed for adding to the desired recipient lists when you click the Set in Message button. If you filter the users first, this provides a useful way to select groups of users. For example, you can type a text filter of “XYZ Hospital” and then click the To column heading checkbox to select them all as primary recipients. If you have created a distribution group, you can also select a group filter in the Group filter drop-down menu (e.g., “Operations Team”), and then click the To column heading checkbox to select them all as primary recipients.
Compose a Message | Direct Messaging Health Provider Directory (HPD) | Table of Contents