Contact book in Emacs (or, how do I use BBDB?)

I would love to use Emacs for a contact book. I hear [BBDB](https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/bbdb/) mentioned in several places, so I've tried trying it out. Either I can't find the documentation or it's non-existent. (C'mon, people! Do you know what the Emacs manual has on bbdb after you install it? A FREAKING TEMPLATE FILE! No docs!!) Is there somewhere where I can either a.) get some good documentation on how to use BBDB with e.g. mu4e, or b.) a contact book system that's actually documented? ## UPDATE 2022-07-01 [ebdb](https://github.com/girzel/ebdb) hits the sweet spot for me: *way* better documentation than bbdb, and I was able to figure out how to combine the built-in mu4e capf with the capf provided by ebdb. You can see my config [here](https://github.com/ashton314/.dotfiles/blob/fb8488f309ec4694281065263e528f0e607be3a5/email-setup.el#L101)

https://github.com/redguardtoo/mastering-emacs-in-one-year-guide/blob/master/gnus-guide-en.org#auto-complete-mail-address I introduced a few bbdb plugins.

The Hyperbole package has a fast, easy-to-use and well documented freeform contact manager called HyRolo that uses Org/Emacs outline format (initial \* characters represent levels within a hierarchy, e.g. people in an organization , if you like). Just: {M-x package-install RET hyperbole RET} {C-u M-x hyperbole-mode RET} And then see the "(hyperbole)HyRolo" Info manual section for complete details.

Already mentioned, but check out [Hyperbole](https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/hyperbole.html ), there is a "[Rolodex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolodex )" feature built-in called [HyRolo](https://www.gnu.org/software/hyperbole/man/hyperbole.html#HyRolo ). It is a fully plain-text flat file database.

Slight tangent on this topic. Years ago, I used emacs for mail (vm), calendar, and Usenet (gnus) but had to give that up when all the companies I worked for went with OWA / Outlook. So, just sticking with contacts for the moment, how would you sync up HyRolo (or similar) to contacts on your Android or iPhone? Unless you are self-employed and/or running one of the rare Linux phones, how do you keep your life in sync? I love using emacs but I can't spend hours a day running special synchronization scripts. Thanks!

https://github.com/andycowl/bbdb3-manual/blob/master/tutorial.rst https://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/mu4e/BBDB.html https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/bbdb.html

[ebdb](https://github.com/girzel/ebdb)

I kept track of hundreds of students and all their attributes just using standard org-mode. Never had any issues. I am now planning to use org as a kind of CRM for investor contacts. Still won't use any packages. Standard org has plenty of tools for searching, sorting and extracting data from outlines and tables. Enough for me. You can set up simple capture templates to put info into a standard form. Rule #1 for me in org-mode, if it can be done without installing a package, do it. Saves me a lot of grief.

I've thought about that too. I'm looking for something that I can easily use as capf for email completion.

I use Windows, and decided not to do email in emacs for the most part. Emacs support for email under windows isn't that great. Under linux etc., I expect there are some good solutions for that.

I use isync + mu4e. Dream come true. :) I've switched to using ebdb, which provides a nice capf function. I've joined it with the default mu4e email capf with [cape-super-capf](https://github.com/minad/cape#super-capf---merging-multiple-capfs).