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First off: I'm mass printing envelopes. I export my contacts (from Contacts.app) to vCard, then convert them to CSV, before using MS Word's built-in mass-mailing tool.

In my contacts, I've found it to be easier to make an individual contact for each person, so I can keep their email addresses and phone numbers sorted nicely. However, I'd like to have my cards addressed to the family, not just the individual.

TL;DR:

I'd like a program that will combine the spouse's name with the main contact's name, and store it either in the existing FN field of the card, or else add a new field (such as famName, etc.). I'd prefer a UI-based program, if available, but having found nothing that has this functionality built in, I wouldn't mind a simple regex-based script.


Example:

Contact:

Contact Example

Export to vCard:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//Mac OS X 10.11.2//EN
N:Johnson;;;;
FN:Johnson
TEL;type=HOME;type=VOICE;type=pref:##########
ADR;type=HOME;type=pref:;;################;##########;##;#####;
NOTE:CLCC
CATEGORIES:Address Book
X-ABUID:6D98572D-5520-4E6E-9474-3294827D4D39:ABPerson
END:VCARD

You'll notice the two separate fields, N, and FN. The N field seems to be each part of the name, separated by semicolons. The FN field seems to be the display name (Although it probably stands for Full Name). It would be wonderful if I could find a way edit that field through the UI, but I can't find it.

Edit: If there is a spouse's name in the card, the card will look like this:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//Mac OS X 10.11.2//EN
N:Doe;John;;;
FN:John Doe
ADR;type=HOME;type=pref:;;##############;#########;##;#####;
item1.X-ABRELATEDNAMES;type=pref:Rebbecca Doe
item1.X-ABLabel:_$!<Spouse>!$_
CATEGORIES:Christmas Cards Set 2 2015
X-ABUID:3FD45D07-093E-446E-AB4B-3767FDEC1A15:ABPerson
END:VCARD

Soooo:

Is there a way to Edit the Display Name (FN) through the Contacts.app UI?
If not, is there a way to edit it through any UI?
If not, is there an easy way to edit it programmatically? (I have access to Windows, too...)
If not, I'm open to any way to edit it programmatically... :)

Thank you all!


Edit: After thinking about it for a while, I think an even better/easier way would be to take the spouse (first) name in the contact, and add it to the display name.

e.g.
First Name = John
Last Name = Doe
Spouse = Rebbecca Doe

Full Name (Display Name) = John & Rebbecca Doe

3
  • Maybe not a perfect solution, however you can add a Nickname field to any contact. This would allow you to manually edit and set the nickname to the joint name. You could then use the nickname field in Word to achieve the result you are looking for. And this would be done manually through the UI.
    – Charlie74
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 19:20
  • That's a good idea, but I already use the nickname field in some cases. I'd rather just export the vCard (like I have to do anyways to convert to CSV), and edit the vCard.
    – Cullub
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 20:05
  • I think maybe the best option would be to write an AppleScript that would edit the vCard.
    – Cullub
    Commented Jan 11, 2016 at 20:05

1 Answer 1

1
+50

Hope this may help you somehow. Download Bento for Mac from here. Unfortunately, it's not supported by FileMaker anymore, but anyway it works fine even on El Capitan (I use it here :)) Open it and it will ask permission to access your Contacts. Allow it. This it will open very convenient interface for mass editing your Contacts in list and/or individually with ability to add your own fields. Cheers.

1
  • Thanks, that's a good option. It has a lot of customizability. I particularly like that you can export directly to CSV or Excel. (+1) If no better options come up, I think I'll use this one. However, what I'm really looking for is something that will simply auto-combine the spouse's name with the main contact's name.
    – Cullub
    Commented Jan 13, 2016 at 18:14

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