To add a contact with the name and e-mail address from an e-mail, right-click the address in the mail component and select ‘Open in Address Book’. To add a completely new contact, select ‘File’+‘New Contact’ in the address component. Both methods open a dialog in which to enter information about the contact.

In the ‘General’ tab, enter basic contact information, such as name, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers. Categories can be used to sort addresses. ‘Details’ contains more specific information, such as birthday and spouse's name.

If your contact uses an instant messenger, you can add these identities in ‘IM Addresses’. If you do this and have Kopete or another KDE chat program running at the same time as Kontact, view status information about these identities in Kontact. In ‘Crypto Settings’, enter the contact's encryption data, such as public key.

‘Misc’ has additional information, such as a photograph and the location of the user's Free/Busy information. Use ‘Custom Fields’ to add your own information to the contact or address book.

Contacts can also be imported in a variety of formats. Use ‘File’+‘Import’ and select the desired format. Then select the file to import.

If you frequently send e-mail messages to a group of people, make this easier by creating a list. First, click ‘Settings’+‘Show Extension Bar’+‘Distribution List Editor’. In the new section that appears, click ‘New List’. Enter a name for the list then click ‘OK’. Add contacts to the list by dragging them from the address list and dropping them in the distribution list window. Use this list like regular contacts when creating a mail.

	Groupware Address Books
The best way to add groupware resources is with a separate tool. To use it, close Kontact then run groupwarewizard in a command line. Select the server type, such as SLOX, Groupwise, or Exchange, from the list offered then enter the address and authentication data. The wizard then adds the available resources to Kontact.

Kontact can access multiple address books, such as shared ones offered by Novell GroupWise or an LDAP server. Select ‘Settings’+‘Show Extension Bar’+‘Address Books’ to view the current address books. Press ‘Add’ to add one then select the type and enter the required information.

The check boxes in front of the books show the activation status of each. To stop display of a book without deleting it, uncheck it. ‘Remove’ deletes the selected book from the list.