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Using Contacts

This guide covers everything you do day to day with your workspace's shared address book: adding and editing contacts, finding them quickly, organizing them into lists, and recognizing saved people as you work elsewhere in Copera.

For a high-level introduction, start with the Contacts Overview. To bring in an existing address book in bulk, see Importing Contacts.

Creating a Contact​

  1. Open Settings → Contacts and stay on the Contacts tab.
  2. Click New contact in the top-right corner.
  3. Fill in the contact's details. The form is split into sections you can scroll through:
    • Identity --- full name (required), an optional nickname, and a birthday.
    • Organization --- company, department, and job title.
    • Emails --- at least one email is required.
    • Phones, Addresses, Websites --- add as many as you need.
    • Categories --- your own tags for grouping.
    • Notes --- anything else worth remembering.
  4. Click Create to save.
tip

A name and one email are the only required fields. You can save a bare-bones contact now and flesh it out later --- there is no penalty for an incomplete record.

Adding multiple emails, phones, addresses, and websites​

People often have more than one way to reach them. In the Emails, Phones, Addresses, and Websites sections, use the add control on the section header to add another entry. Each entry has a type label so you can tell them apart:

SectionAvailable types
EmailsWork, Home, Other
PhonesCell, Work, Home, Fax, Other
AddressesHome, Work, Other
WebsitesWork, Personal, Other

Remove any entry with the trash icon beside it. (A contact must always keep at least one email.)

Choosing a primary email or phone​

When a contact has more than one email or phone number, one of them is the primary --- the address or number Copera treats as the main way to reach the person. Click the star icon next to an entry to make it the primary; the previously starred entry is unstarred automatically. If you remove the primary email, the next one is promoted automatically so a contact is never left without one.

Adding categories (tags)​

In the Categories section, type a tag and press Enter to add it. Categories are completely free-form --- invent whatever labels make sense for your workspace, such as "Customer", "Supplier", "Press", or "VIP". Add as many as you like; they become powerful later when you build rule-based lists or scan a contact at a glance.

Editing and Deleting a Contact​

On the Contacts tab, every row has actions on the right:

  • Edit (pencil icon) --- opens the same form you used to create the contact, pre-filled with their current details. Make your changes and click Save changes.
  • Delete (trash icon) --- removes the contact from the workspace after a confirmation prompt.
caution

Deleting a contact removes it from your workspace's address book for everyone. This cannot be undone, so double-check before confirming.

Finding a Contact​

The Contacts tab shows your directory as a table with columns for the person, their contact details, their company, and their address. Two tools help you find anyone quickly:

  • Search --- Use the search box at the top of the tab to filter by name, email, or other details. Results update as you type.
  • Pages --- Large directories are split into pages; use the pagination controls at the bottom of the table to move through them.

Recognizing Contacts Across Copera​

The real payoff of keeping a directory is that Copera uses it for you everywhere an email address appears.

Hover cards on email addresses​

Hover over an email address --- a sender or recipient in your Inbox, or a recipient chip while composing --- and a small card appears showing who that address belongs to. For a saved contact, the card shows their name, photo, job and company, and a quick summary of their links, addresses, categories, and notes. From the card you can:

  • Edit --- jump straight to that contact's record.
  • Add to contacts --- if the address is not saved yet, add it to your directory in one click (the card pre-fills the name and email for you).
  • Copy email --- copy the address to your clipboard.
tip

The Add to contacts shortcut is the easiest way to grow your directory. As you work through your Inbox, add the people worth remembering with a single click --- no need to retype anything.

Suggestions when you type an email​

When you add recipients to an email or guests to a calendar event, Copera suggests matching people as you type. Suggestions include your saved contacts as well as people Copera has noticed you correspond with, so the right address is usually one tap away even before you have formally saved someone.

Organizing Contacts into Lists​

Lists let you group contacts so you can find and work with a set of people together --- for example, "Newsletter subscribers", "Q3 prospects", or "Board members". Open the Lists tab on the Contacts page to manage them.

Copera offers two kinds of list:

List typeHow members are chosenBest for
StaticYou add and remove contacts by hand.A fixed, curated set of people that does not change on its own.
DynamicMembers are chosen automatically by rules you define, and the list updates itself as your contacts change.A living segment, such as "everyone at a given company" or "all contacts tagged VIP".
note

A list's type is chosen when you create it and is locked afterward. To switch a list from one type to the other, create a new list of the type you want.

Creating a static list​

  1. On the Lists tab, click New list.
  2. Give the list a name and an optional description.
  3. Leave the type set to Static.
  4. In the right pane, search for contacts and click to add each one. Added members appear in the list below, where you can remove any with the close icon.
  5. Click Create.

Creating a dynamic (smart) list​

A dynamic list is defined by rules rather than a fixed roster. Copera matches every contact against your rules and keeps the membership up to date automatically --- add a new contact that matches, and it joins the list on its own.

  1. On the Lists tab, click New list.
  2. Give the list a name and an optional description.
  3. Set the type to Dynamic.
  4. In the right pane, build your rules (see below). A live preview shows exactly which contacts match as you work, along with a running match count.
  5. Click Create once your rules are valid.

Building rules​

Each rule (called a condition) matches contacts on one of three things:

  • Property --- a field on the contact. Choose the field (Email, Name, Organization, Department, or Job title), an operator (is, is not, contains, doesn't contain, starts with, ends with, is empty, is not empty), and a value to compare against.
  • Created by --- who added the contact. Pick is one of or is not one of and choose one or more workspace members.
  • Category --- the tags on the contact. Pick is one of or is not one of and list the categories.

You can combine conditions and even group them:

  • Within a group, choose whether a contact must match all of the conditions or any of them.
  • Add more groups for more complex segments. When you have multiple groups, you choose whether a contact must match all groups or any of them.

This lets you express precise segments such as "Job title contains 'Director' and Category is one of VIP" or "Organization is 'Acme' or Organization is 'Globex'".

tip

Watch the live preview and the match count as you edit. If a list shows zero matches, loosen a condition or switch a group from all to any --- you will see the count update immediately.

Saving a dynamic list as a static snapshot​

Sometimes you want to freeze a smart list at a moment in time --- for example, to capture exactly who qualified for a campaign on its launch day, so later contact changes do not alter the record.

On the Lists tab, a dynamic list has a Save as static list action. It creates a brand-new static list containing the contacts that match right now. The original dynamic list is left untouched and keeps updating; the new static copy is frozen and will not change as your contacts evolve.

Editing and deleting lists​

Each list row on the Lists tab has edit and delete actions:

  • Edit --- rename a list, change its description, and (for static lists) adjust its members or (for dynamic lists) refine its rules.
  • Delete --- removes the list after a confirmation. Deleting a list does not delete the contacts in it --- only the grouping is removed.

Tips and Best Practices​

tip

Standardize your categories early. Agreeing on a small, consistent set of tags (for example, Customer / Prospect / Partner / Vendor) makes your dynamic lists far more reliable, because everyone tags contacts the same way.

tip

Use the Inbox Add to contacts shortcut as your main way to capture people. It keeps your directory current with almost no effort, and the more contacts you save, the smarter recognition and suggestions become across Copera.

tip

Reach for a dynamic list whenever the membership should follow a rule ("everyone at this company", "everything tagged VIP"). Reach for a static list when you have hand-picked a specific set of people that should not change on its own.

Frequently Asked Questions​

What fields are required to save a contact?​

Just a full name and one email address. Everything else is optional.

Can a contact have more than one email or phone number?​

Yes. Add as many as you need in the Emails and Phones sections, each with its own type label, and mark one of each as the primary.

What is the difference between a static and a dynamic list?​

A static list has members you add and remove by hand. A dynamic list chooses its members automatically from rules you set and keeps itself up to date as your contacts change.

Can I change a list from static to dynamic later?​

No --- a list's type is fixed once it is created. Create a new list of the type you want instead.

If I delete a list, do I lose the contacts in it?​

No. Deleting a list only removes the grouping. The contacts themselves stay in your workspace directory.

Why do some people appear as suggestions even though I never saved them?​

Copera also suggests people it has noticed you correspond with, so common addresses appear before you formally save them. Use Add to contacts to turn any of them into a permanent saved contact.