- NOTE: This article is applicable to Sky customers. If you are a MiCloud customer, see the Managing Your Personal Contacts article for information about managing your personal contacts in the MiCloud Account Portal.
Table of Contents
Managing Your Personal Contacts Phonebook
On Your Phone
In the Sky Account Portal (Add, Edit, and Delete Contact)
Importing New Contacts (Create and Import .csv file)
Exporting Contacts
Exporting a .csv File from Outlook
FAQ
Managing Your Personal Contacts Phonebook
The Personal Contacts phonebook, a feature of the Sky phone system, enables you to create a list of phone numbers that are accessible on your phone and in the Account Portal. Individual users create and manage the entries in their own personal phonebook. You can access the Personal Contacts phonebook in the Account Portal and from your phone's Directory or Directories menu. The Personal Contacts phonebook functions much like a list of contacts in a mobile phone, which enables you to dial people on your list and display a known caller's name on the screen of your phone when you receive incoming calls.
On Your Phone
To access Personal Contacts on your phone, use the instructions below for the brand of phone used in your Sky phone system:
Using 400 Series Phones
Please note that contacts from the Personal Contacts Phonebook, Employee Directory, and Company Phonebook (available in the Account Portal) are combined together in the Directory on 400 series IP phones.
- Press the Directory function key.
- Scroll to highlight the desired contact.
- Press the Dial soft key.
To search for a contact using a 400-series phone:
- Press the dial pad numbers that correspond to the first few letters of the contact's first or last name until you see the desired contact in the search results displayed on the phone's screen (for example, to find the name Smith, dial the numbers 76484).
- Press the Backspace soft key to delete each unwanted character.
- When a match is found, press the Dial soft key to place a call or press the Exit soft key.
Using Cisco Phones
To select each option, either press the corresponding option number on your phone's dial pad or highlight the desired option on the phone's screen and press the Select soft key.
Press the Directories button (open book icon), select option 4 to access Personal Phonebook, then select from the following three options:
- List Phonebook - Scroll through the list and if desired, press the Dial soft key to call someone.
- Search Phonebook
- Type search criteria using the phone's keypad to select letters using the same method required by older mobile phones (quickly press each key multiple times to select the desired letter and case).
- Use the << soft key to delete each unwanted character.
- Press the Submit soft key.
- If a match is found, press the Dial soft key to place a call or press the Exit soft key.
- Manage Phonebook - Select from the following two options:
- Add New Entry - This requires adding a Name and Number
- Enter a Name using the phone's keypad to select letters using the same method required by older mobile phones (quickly press each key multiple times to select the desired letter and case).
- Use the << soft key to delete each unwanted character.
- Press the Accept soft key to add the Name.
- Enter a number using the phone's keypad.
- Internal contacts can be the 4-digit extension or 10-digit phone number.
- External contacts must be the full 10-digit phone number.
- Press the Accept soft key to add the number.
- Update Phonebook
- Scroll through the list to highlight the desired name.
- Press the Detail soft key.
- Press the Edit soft key.
- For the Name, Number, and Note, do the following for each:
- Use the << soft key to delete each unwanted character, then use the phone's keypad to select letters using the same method required by older mobile phones (quickly press each key multiple times to select the desired letter and case).
- Press the Accept soft key to save the changes.
- Press OK to continue.
In the Account Portal
- Log in to Account Portal with phone number and phone/voicemail PIN.
NOTE: You can also log in with your business email address (username) and user password. - Navigate to Home > Contacts.
- Select Personal Contacts.
Note that the Personal Contacts screen is a tabular formatted grid that enables you to customize your view of data on the screen. To learn how to utilize this tabular screen, see the Tabular Formatted Screens article.
Adding a Contact
- From the Personal Contacts screen, click Add, which opens the Add Personal Phonebook Entry dialog.
- Enter the following values as desired:
- Display Name - Add first and/or last name in any order as desired
- Phone Number - Enter only digits (no dashes, spaces, or parenthesis)
- Internal contacts can be the 4-digit extension or 10-digit phone number
- External contacts must be the full 10-digit phone number
- Speed Dial - If desired, select a speed dial number from 1 to 16
- Note - Add all additional information here (this can include address, additional phone numbers, notes, etc.).
- Click OK.
Editing a Contact
- From the Personal Contacts screen, right-click the row of the desired contact and select Update from the menu that appears.
- You can also select (highlight) the row of the desired contact and click the Update button in the toolbar.
- Edit the following values as desired:
- Display Name - Can contain first and/or last name in any order as desired.
- Phone Number - Enter only digits (no dashes, spaces, or parenthesis).
- Internal contacts can be the 4-digit extension or 10-digit phone number.
- External contacts must be the full 10-digit phone number.
- Speed Dial - If desired, select a speed dial number from 1 to 16.
- Note - Add all additional information here (this can include address, additional phone numbers, notes, etc.).
- Click OK
- Edit the desired information and click OK
Deleting a Contact
- From the Personal Contacts screen, right-click the row of the desired contact and select Delete from the menu that appears.
You can also select (highlight) the row of the desired contact and click the Delete button in the toolbar. - Click OK when the Delete confirmation dialog appears
Importing New Contacts
- Log in to Account Portal with phone number and phone/voicemail PIN.
NOTE: You can also log in with your business email address (username) and user password. - Navigate to Home > Contacts.
- Select Personal Contacts.
Creating the .csv File
To import a list of contacts, the data must be in a 3-column Excel spreadsheet saved as a .csv (Comma Separated Values) file with the following characteristics:
- The 1st row must be a "header" row containing Name in the 1st column, Number in the 2nd column, and Notes in the 3rd column (the spelling of the column headings can vary but there must be header text in the first row of the file or a processing error will result)
- Add as many rows of contact data as desired below the three-column headings for Name, Number, and Notes.
- Combine all of the desired first and last name values into the one Name column.
- For each entry in the Name column, add one phone number in the Number column. You can use most standard phone number formats, for example, (555) 444-3333, 555-444-3333, and 5554443333. If you have multiple phone numbers for a contact, add the additional phone number(s) into the Notes column or create multiple rows in the file using the same contact name for each phone number.
- Add all additional information into the Notes column (this can include address, additional phone numbers, notes, etc.).
- If you are editing an existing file, delete all additional columns of data other than the three columns for Name, Number, and Notes.
- Save the .csv file
Importing the .csv File
After creating a .csv file, as described above, perform the following steps:
- From the Personal Contacts screen, click the Import button in the toolbar.
- In the Import dialog box that appears, click the Browse button.
- Navigate to and select the desired .csv file located on your computer.
- Click the Import button in the Import dialog box to import the desired contacts to your personal phonebook.
Exporting Contacts
- From the Personal Contacts screen, click the Export button in the toolbar.
- In the pop-up dialog that appears, select Open or Save.
- Edit the file as needed, and save it.
After modifying this file to delete the Speed Dials column, you can use it to Import Contacts into your personal phonebook or the company phonebook.
Exporting a .csv File from Outlook
Outlook has an "Import and Export" feature under the File > Options > Advanced Options menu that allows you to export the Contacts list. A CSV file that has been exported by Outlook can be opened and edited in Excel. Also, a file can be created in Excel and then exported.
To save your Outlook contacts to a CSV file:
- Select File > Export (or Import/Export) (options vary depending on your version of MS Office).
In Office/Outlook, navigate to File > Options > Advanced > Export. - Select Export to a file.
- Click Next.
- Select the Comma Separated Values (Windows) option.
- Click Next.
- Select the Contacts folder.
- Click Next.
- Click the Browse button to select a folder location and provide a file name for the exported contacts. (A file name such as Outlook.csv is a good example.)
- Click Next.
- Click Finish.
NOTE: If the instructions above are not accurate for your version of Outlook, search the Internet for current instructions specific to your version of Outlook (click Help or About in Outlook to determine the specific version on your computer).
After you have exported a .csv file from Outlook, you can modify the file and use it to import contacts into your personal phonebook. Locate and edit the exported .csv file according to the instructions in the Importing New Contacts section above.
FAQ
Q: How many characters are allowed in each field?
A: Use the following as a guideline for each field:
- Name - up to 20 characters.
- Phone Number - up to 16 characters.
- Notes - up to 100 characters.
Q: If I export my outlook contents as a CSV file, do I need to edit the file?
A: Yes, you need to move all of the data that you want to import into the first three columns of the file. These columns are Name, Number, and Notes. First and last names need to be combined into the one Name column. Only one phone number can be included in the Number column. All other data can be placed into the Notes column. Note that the first row in the file must be a "header" row containing Name in the 1st column, Number in the 2nd column, and Notes in the 3rd column
Q: Do the columns need to be labeled a certain way in the header row?
A: No, the text used in the header row can vary - but there must be text in the first row of the file or a processing error will result.
Q: Can I have a separate column for an email address?
A: No. Email addresses can be added into the "Notes" column.
Q: Where do I place additional phone numbers?
A: Additional phone numbers can be added into the "Notes" column.
Q: How many characters are allowed in each field?
A: The maximum length for the Name and Notes columns is 125 characters.
Q: Can I have special characters in the Personal Contacts fields (for example, ? & # $% ~ `)?
A: Yes, you can include special characters in the Name and Notes fields, but the Number field may generate an error message during import if the phone number digits cannot be extracted from the special characters during processing.
Q: How many contacts can I upload at once?
A: There's no limit of entries per upload.
Q: How many contacts can I upload in total?
A: You can upload up to 3,500 numbers. Note, that this is numbers not contacts. If in Outlook you have two numbers for a person it will count as two entries. One number is stored per record. If a contact has two numbers, the contact will be stored twice.
Q: Do dashes, spaces or periods need to be removed in the phone number field?
A: Any non-digits in the phone number field will automatically be removed.
Q: Do I need to worry about including my outbound dial digit in the phone number field?
A: No, you do not need to worry about including the outbound dial digit.
Q: Can I upload international numbers?
A: Yes. If you are uploading through a CSV file that was created in Excel and it contains a long international number starting with a zero, the default cell size in Excel will display this number in exponential format. When this information is exported from Excel into a CSV file, the leading zero is no longer on the number. When the data is imported into Account Portal, the number will not be correct because the leading zero was not in the file that was imported.
For example: phone number 011-845-882-2999, when entered in Excel with the standard cell width, will be displayed as 1.18459E+11. Therefore, 11845911 will be the number that gets exported to a CSV file by Excel.
To correct this problem, be sure to widen the columns in Excel so that the number is displayed correctly before you export it to a CSV file. This problem does not occur when exporting data from Outlook.