Using the People app

The People app is the central place for all your contacts, and it's one of the most important apps you'll use in Windows 8. The People app can also be integrated with your favorite social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. In this lesson, you'll learn how to add, manage, and organize your contacts, as well as how to connect your social networks.

• To open the People app, locate and select People on the Start Screen. The People app will appear.

  
  

  Opening the People app

Click the buttons in the interactive below to become more familiar with the People app interface.

Adding contacts

Rather than keeping a separate list of contacts for different apps—for example, email contacts and messaging contacts—the People app keeps all of your contacts together. Once you've added contacts to the People app, you'll use the same contact information to send emails, chat, and share files and photos.

There are two ways to add contacts:

• Manually entering information for each of your contacts.
• Importing existing lists of contacts from other accounts, like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you already have a lot of contacts saved with another account, this method can save you a lot of time and effort.

To import contacts from a service:

Connecting to another account will import all of your existing contacts. If you choose to connect to a social network, your news feeds and updates will also be integrated into the People app.

1. In the People app, hover the mouse in the lower-right corner to access the Charms bar, then select Settings.
   Clicking settings
2. The Settings pane will appear on the right. Select Accounts.

   
   

   Clicking Accounts
3. The Accounts pane will appear. Click Add an account.

   
   

   Clicking Add an account
4. Select the service you wish to use. In this example, we'll add a Facebook account.

   
   

   Adding a Facebook account
5. The Connecting to a service page will appear. You will need to sign in to the chosen account.

   
   

   Signing into Facebook
6. The Request for Permission page will appear with options and permissions. This page will vary depending on which service you choose. Follow the instructions to give the People app permission to access your account.

   
   

   Connecting Facebook with your Microsoft
   
7. Once you are connected, your contacts will be imported into the People app.

   
   

   Facebook friends imported into the People app

Unlike manually added contacts, any contacts imported from another service cannot be deleted. We've noticed that connecting to some services (especially Twitter) may import contacts that you don't actually need to communicate with. Be sure to consider how often you'll use all of your contacts before deciding to import from any given external service.

To add a new contact manually:

If you don't have all of your contacts stored on your social networks, or if you just prefer to enter contact information on your own, it's easy to add contacts manually.

1. Right-click anywhere on the People app. A menu will appear at the bottom of the screen.
2. Locate and select New contact.

   
   

   Clicking New contact
3. Enter the contact information. At the very least, you should enter a first and last name, as well as an email address. However, you can also enter other information, like phone numbers, alternate email addresses, and work info.
4. When you are finished filling out the contact information, click Save.

   
   

   Saving contact details
5. The contact will be added to the People app.

   
   

   The added contact

Viewing and editing contacts

Once you've added some contacts, you're ready to start using the People app. It's easy to connect with any of your contacts by navigating to their contact page. From there, you'll be able to see each contact's information, as well as updates and photos from any connected social networks. You can also edit a contact if you need to change or update information.

To view a contact page:

1. Locate and select the desired contact.

   
   

   Selecting the desired contact
2. The contact page will appear.
   Viewing a contact page

Sometimes the Back Arrow may not appear on a contact page. If this occurs, right-click the mouse, and then select the Home button from the menu at the bottom of the screen.

To edit a contact:

1. Locate and select the contact you wish to edit.
2. The contact page will appear. Right-click, and a menu will appear at the bottom of the screen.
3. Locate and select Edit.
   
   Editing a contact
4. Modify the contact information as desired, then click Save. The contact information will be saved.

   
   

   Saving the edited contact information

Finding contacts

If you have a lot of different contacts, it can be difficult to locate the one you need. Fortunately, there are several ways to find your contacts quickly.

To search for a contact:

• From the People app, type the contact you're looking for. Your search results will instantly appear on the left side of the screen. Simply click a contact to open the contact page.

  
  

  Searching for a contact in the People app

To zoom out:

If you want to jump directly to a specific place in your contacts list—for example, contacts whose names begin with the letter G—you can zoom out to see a simplified view of your contacts.

1. From the People app, locate and select the zoom button near the lower-right corner of the screen.

   
   

   The zoom button
2. Your contacts list will zoom out. Simply click a letter to navigate to a specific set of contacts.

   
   

   Zooming out to view all contacts
   

Linking contacts

If you import contacts from multiple services, you may find that you have duplicate contacts. For example, you might have imported the same contact from both Gmail and Facebook. You can link these together to create a single contact.

To link a contact:

1. Locate and select the contact you wish to link.
   Opening the desired contact
2. The contact page will appear. Locate and select Link contacts.

   
   

   
3. The People app will suggest contacts to link if they share common information, like a name or email address.
4. Click the suggested contact, or click Choose a contact to select a contact manually.

   
   

   Choosing a suggested contact
5. Click Save.

   
   

   Clicking Save
6. The information will be linked together into a single contact.

   
   

   The linked contact

Changing account permissions

Once you have added an account, like Facebook or Twitter, you may want to modify how much information the People app can access. You can also choose to remove a linked account completely.

To modify account permissions:

1. In the People app, hover the mouse in the lower-right corner to access the Charms bar, then select Settings. The Settings pane will appear on the right. Select Accounts.

   
   

   Clicking Accounts
2. The Accounts pane will appear. Select the account you wish to modify.

   
   

   Choosing the desired account
   
3. The account details will appear. Click Manage this account online to modify the account permissions.

   
   

   Managing the account
4. The account permissions page will appear. This page will vary depending on which account you select. You can either click the boxes to set specific account permissions (if applicable), or select Remove this connection completely to remove the connection from your Microsoft account.
   Managing linked account settings
5. Once you are satisfied with the changes, click Save. Your account permissions will be saved.

Removing a linked account will also remove all contacts imported from that service.

Favoriting and pinning contacts

If you have certain contacts you use frequently, you may wish to favorite or pin those contacts for quick access.

To favorite a contact:

1. Locate and select the contact you wish to Favorite.
2. The contact page will appear. Select Favorite.

   
   

   Clicking Favorite
3. The contact will appear under the Favorites group whenever you open the People app.

   
   

   The contact added to Favorites

To pin a contact:

Just like apps, you can also pin a contact to the Start screen.

1. Locate and select the contact you wish to pin.
2. The contact page will appear. Right-click, and a menu will appear at the bottom of the screen.
3. Select Pin to Start.

   
   

   Pinning a contact to the Start screen
4. A dialog box will appear. Click Pin to Start to continue.

   
   

   Clicking Pin to Start
5. The contact will be pinned to the Start screen. Simply click a contact on the Start screen to view that person's contact page.

   
   

   The contact pinned to the Start screen

To unpin a contact from the Start screen, right-click on the contact page, and then select Unpin from Start from the menu.

Viewing your social feeds

The social page makes it easy to see a quick summary of the latest information from your connected social networks. From here, you can edit your profile picture, post status updates, view your notifications, like and comment on posts, and more.

To access the social page:

1. From the People app, click your profile picture.

   
   

   Accessing the social page
2. The social page will appear.

   
   

   The social page

To change your profile picture:

It's easy to change your profile picture from the social page, but it's important to note that this will only change your Microsoft account profile picture, not connected accounts like Gmail or LinkedIn.

1. From the social page, select your profile picture.

   
   

   Clicking the profile picture
2. The Change your account picture page will appear.
3. Click Browse to choose a new photo. If your computer or tablet has a built-in camera, you can click Take a Photo to take a picture of yourself.
4. When you are satisfied, click Save. Your profile picture will be updated.
   
   Changing the profile picture