Adium Help
Index

# Managing Contacts

Most contact management in Adium occurs directly on the contact list or via menu items in the Contacts menu.

### Adding a Contact
Select Add Contact from the Contact menu to add a contact. You will need to select a service, destination group, and enter the user name of the contact. To add a contact on a particular service you must have a connected account on that service. For more information, see Creating Accounts.

### Adding a Contact Group
If you just signed up for your instant messaging account, you will most likely need to create a contact group before making new contacts. Select Add Group from the Contact menu to add a new contact group.

### Removing a Contact
Select the contact in your Contact List. Either press Cmd-Delete, or choose Remove Contact from the Contact menu.

### Moving Contacts and Groups
To move a contact to a new group or rearrange groups, simply drag them. If you have a "borderless" contact list, you'll need to hold down command in order to initiate the drag. Note: You can not manually reorder contacts if: You are sorting alphabetically (View->Sort Alphabetically) You are sorting by status (View->Sort by Status) and View->Configure Status Sort has "Sort within status groups: Alphabetically" selected.

### Showing Offline Contacts
Select Show Offline Contacts from the View menu or hit Shift-⌘-H. Repeat the process to hide offline contacts. Either press ⌘-Delete, or choose Remove Contact from the Contact menu.

### Setting a Contact's Name (Alias)
In some situations you may want to change how Adium displays a contact's name in your Contact List. To do this you will need to create an alias for that contact. Ctrl-Click the desired contact in the Contact List. Select Get Info from the Contact menu. Fill in the Alias field under the Settings tab.

### Grouping Contacts Under One Alias
See Also: Combining Contacts

### Renaming Groups
This currently isn't possible in Adium. However, you may create an alias for the group name as a workaround. Ctrl-Click the desired group in the Contact List. Select Get Info from the contextual menu. Fill in the Alias field under the Settings tab.

### Contact List Limits
Most services allow an unlimited number of contacts. Each individual AIM, ICQ, or MobileMe account can have a maximum of 500 contacts. This limit is set by the AOL servers; Adium itself places no limits.