BuddyPop
Mac Tip #143/31-Mar-2004

Address Book is really useful but I don’t like keeping it open all the time, or waiting while it starts up just so I can look up a phone number.

That’s why I’ve paid 5 Euros for BuddyPop (approx NZ$10 or US$6).

The BuddyPop window.

With BuddyPop installed I press Command-Option-Space to pop up a small window on screen. Now I type a sequence of letters or numbers and BuddyPop shows me how many matches there are. For example, if I’m looking for my friend Rachel’s phone number I type r and see there are 254 matches. Ra gets me 24 matches.

By the time I get to rac there are only 3 matches so I press return to see the first. That’s not Rachel so I press the right arrow key and now I can see Rachel’s phone number, email address — in fact all the information I have for Rachel. I use the down arrow to scroll down.

If I want to open Rachel’s card in the Address Book itself — perhaps I need to change some information — I click on the small @ in the bottom right corner of the window.

To dismiss the window I press the Escape key. To call up Help and Settings click the ? at bottom left.

And you don’t need to restrict your search to names. Wondering whose phone number that is on your Caller-ID? Type it in to BuddyPop and find out.