Contacts and other general OS questions...

MLSCrow

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Hi all, first, I'm sorry if I read as if I'm annoyed, but this problem has definitely frustrated me as well as my friend. The problem is that my friend has a Lumia 900 and I've been trying to help her out with some questions she has about the OS, but unfortunately I haven't been able to answer them for her as I get stumped when I try it myself. When she has a missed call and wants to turn that missed call into a contact, she presses the "+" symbol, but then it asks her to choose either Windows Live or Google contact, neither of which we understand, we just want to add the number to her contacts. Is there no standard contact option? Do we have to choose one or the other?

Anyway, since we have no choice to create a standard contact, we selected "Windows Live" (I figured that maybe "Windows Live" is Windows Phone's version of a normal contact), but then it brings us to her contacts list with the keyboard out so I can type. So, I was thinking that it must be asking me to type in a name for the number I'm trying to save (simple enough), but as soon as I started to type the person's name, it simply just goes to the part of her contacts list that starts with the first letter I typed. (Tried to type Kimberly, and it just brought me to the "K" section of her contacts list, with no option to actually enter a new name). I couldn't find the option to enter a name, so I gave up (the same way she did, which is why she asked me in the first place).

So, since we couldn't figure out what it was asking us to do, we decided that maybe we need to simply create a new contact from the "people" tile. So, we went to "people", selected the option to add a new contact, and once we clicked on "new contact", it brought up the screen where we could enter a name, number, and other details which is exactly what we wanted, but when we got to the part where we had to enter the number, she didn't have it memorize. So we closed out of it (we both don't know how to minimize it where it doesn't actually close), went back to the missed calls list and tried to copy it, but there doesn't seem to be any "copy" option, which is super annoying. So, we wrote down the number, went back to "people" and started over with creating the new contact.

Ultimately, we got the contact saved, but please tell me there is an easier way to do this. I have been looking at getting the Lumia 920 for some time now, eagerly anticipating it's release, but this problem is making me reconsider whether or not I want to get it. If adding a missed call to contacts is this difficult, I'd rather use something else.

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between Windows Live and Google contacts and whether or not there is an option to add a normal (non-branded) contact from the missed call itself? Also, is there a way to copy a missed call number easily? And how does one minimize something so that it doesn't have to be redone from scratch? I don't want to offend anyone here about WP, but jeez, I would have thought it would have been much more intuitive than it is. Users really need a course or book on WP in some instances.

I know that expert users may have all the answers and point out exactly what we were doing wrong, which is why I came here, so thank you in advance for your help.
 

1jaxstate1

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This is something I think MS should simplify. Its a lot of screens just to add a # from a missed call. You have a hotmail and Gmail account set up on your phone, from what I'm hearing. Try adding to the Gmail account. Follow through the steps with that. It should save the contact to your Gmail contacts. If you ever have to hard reset your phone, once you sync Gmail again, it'll automatically add the contact. I've yet to see an option to add a normal contact. Hotmail should work too, but try Gmail since hotmail isn't working.
 

jfa1

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Hi all, first, I'm sorry if I read as if I'm annoyed, but this problem has definitely frustrated me as well as my friend. The problem is that my friend has a Lumia 900 and I've been trying to help her out with some questions she has about the OS, but unfortunately I haven't been able to answer them for her as I get stumped when I try it myself. When she has a missed call and wants to turn that missed call into a contact, she presses the "+" symbol, but then it asks her to choose either Windows Live or Google contact, neither of which we understand, we just want to add the number to her contacts. Is there no standard contact option? Do we have to choose one or the other?

Anyway, since we have no choice to create a standard contact, we selected "Windows Live" (I figured that maybe "Windows Live" is Windows Phone's version of a normal contact), but then it brings us to her contacts list with the keyboard out so I can type. So, I was thinking that it must be asking me to type in a name for the number I'm trying to save (simple enough), but as soon as I started to type the person's name, it simply just goes to the part of her contacts list that starts with the first letter I typed. (Tried to type Kimberly, and it just brought me to the "K" section of her contacts list, with no option to actually enter a new name). I couldn't find the option to enter a name, so I gave up (the same way she did, which is why she asked me in the first place).

So, since we couldn't figure out what it was asking us to do, we decided that maybe we need to simply create a new contact from the "people" tile. So, we went to "people", selected the option to add a new contact, and once we clicked on "new contact", it brought up the screen where we could enter a name, number, and other details which is exactly what we wanted, but when we got to the part where we had to enter the number, she didn't have it memorize. So we closed out of it (we both don't know how to minimize it where it doesn't actually close), went back to the missed calls list and tried to copy it, but there doesn't seem to be any "copy" option, which is super annoying. So, we wrote down the number, went back to "people" and started over with creating the new contact.

Ultimately, we got the contact saved, but please tell me there is an easier way to do this. I have been looking at getting the Lumia 920 for some time now, eagerly anticipating it's release, but this problem is making me reconsider whether or not I want to get it. If adding a missed call to contacts is this difficult, I'd rather use something else.

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between Windows Live and Google contacts and whether or not there is an option to add a normal (non-branded) contact from the missed call itself? Also, is there a way to copy a missed call number easily? And how does one minimize something so that it doesn't have to be redone from scratch? I don't want to offend anyone here about WP, but jeez, I would have thought it would have been much more intuitive than it is. Users really need a course or book on WP in some instances.

I know that expert users may have all the answers and point out exactly what we were doing wrong, which is why I came here, so thank you in advance for your help.

In your call history which comes up when you tap the phone tile you'll have a number from someone you called or called you you tap on the number and you will get a page that says profile and there's a save button at the bottom tap on that and it takes you to your contact list if the name is not in your contacts list press the plus you are taken to edit phone number if its okay tap the save icon you go to new windows live contact tap name and enter the name if you have other information phone numbers fax numbers email addresses notes etc you can put it all in then tap the save icon and you are done you shouldnt have to remember the first number you put in Its fairly straightforward as far as I'm concerned
 

ImmortalWarrior

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jfa1 has it correct. It's ridiculously simple.

There is no "non-branded" contact. Your contacts are stored in the cloud, and synced to your device. Google and Windows Live do it. You can also have Outlook accounts as well. This is good because it takes zero time at all to resync all your contacts from the cloud if you change devices, or wipe your current device. I don't know how many times a I have friends lose their phones and complain that they lost their contacts.

From the call history, select the number you want to add to contacts. It will bring you to a profile page for an "Unknown Contact".

You can pivot over to investigate any previous history with that number (which is fantastic when a telemarketer keeps calling, you can see the pattern), but at the bottom of the profile pivot you will see a disk. Press that.

It then brings up your current contact list. The reason for this is so you can add the number to a contact you already have, or if someone has a new number, you can select them and replace their old number with the new one.

If the contact does not exist in the list, press the + symbol. It will then show the connected accounts that support contacts. I use Windows live as my primary but you can choose to save the contact in Google (gmail) or Exchange (Outlook, if you have an exchange account from University or work).

Once you have selected, it brings up the "Edit phone Number" page where you can set the type of number or change it (why change it, it will be the exact number you are trying to save). Select the type as Mobile, Home or whichever it is, then select the Disk at the bottom of the screen to save.

Once you have done this, you are at the standard New Contact window. From here you can add a name, address, email, etc. When finished, press the disk again to save it. At this point, you are done.



I think you are missing two important interaction features of the phone. These interactions show you what can and cannot be done at the page/window/object you are on. They are as follows:

1.) The "..." that is present on most windows/pages of the OS. This ... is meant to represent that there is more to be seen. Pressing this will bring up a panel that gives more details on the visible buttons, and/or functions that do not have a shortcut button in the minimized panel. Use this to discover what you can do at the window you are on.

2.) Pressing and holding on an item. Doing this will bring up options in areas that support it. For example, pressing and holding on a missed call in the call history, will bring up a drop menu that allows you to delete that missed call from the history. Another example would be if you are in a text message thread. Pressing and holding on a received or sent text message will bring up the option to copy, forward or delete the message. Use the "press and hold" interaction to expose shortcut features available on many items in the OS and in applications.

Using these two interactions, you should be able to solve any problem you might have with how to perform as task.
 

independentvolume

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How come some contacts in the phone book aren't in the SMS contacts? Is there a way to fix this? I'm sick of copy/pasting numbers.
Edit. I'm a damn idiot. I had a bunch of numbers set as home and not mobile. Only took me a year to figure that out.
 
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