User Guide

InternLink is a desktop app for managing contacts, optimized for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while still having the benefits of a Graphical User Interface (GUI). If you can type fast, InternLink can get your contact management tasks done faster than traditional GUI apps.

Table of Contents:

• Quick start
• Features
  • Viewing help: (help)
  • Adding a person (add)
  • Deleting a person (delete)
  • Editing a person (edit)
  • Listing all persons (list)
  • Locating contacts globally (global find)
  • Locating contacts by specific fields (field find)
  • Adding tags to one or more people (addtag)
  • Deleting tags from one or more people (deletetag)
  • Editing existing tags (edittag)
  • Filtering contacts by tags (filtertag)
  • Starring a person (star)
  • Unstarring a person (unstar)
  • Adding a meeting (addmeeting)
  • Deleting a meeting (deletemeeting)
  • Clearing all entries (clear)
  • Exiting the program (exit)
  • Saving the data
  • Editing the data file
• FAQ
• Known issues

• Command summary

Quick start

1. Ensure you have Java 17 or above installed in your Computer.
   Mac users: Ensure you have the precise JDK version prescribed here.

2. Download the latest .jar file from here.

3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your AddressBook.

4. Open a command terminal, cd into the folder you put the jar file in, and use the java -jar addressbook.jar command to run the application.
   A GUI similar to the below should appear in a few seconds. Note how the app contains some sample data.
   

5. Type the command in the command box and press Enter to execute it. e.g. typing help and pressing Enter will open the help window.
   Some example commands you can try:

   • list : Lists all contacts.

   • add n/John Doe p/98765432 e/johnd@example.com : Adds a contact named John Doe to the Address Book, with phone number 98765432 and email johnd@example.com.

   • delete 3 : Deletes the 3rd contact shown in the current list.

   • clear : Deletes all contacts.

   • exit : Exits the app.

6. Refer to the Features below for details of each command.

Features

Viewing help : help

Shows a message explaining how to access the help page.

Format: help

Adding a person: add

Adds a new person to the address book.

Requirements: A person must have a NAME and at least one of the following:

• PHONE_NUMBER
• EMAIL

Format: add n/NAME [p/PHONE_NUMBER] [e/EMAIL] [t/TAG]...

💡 Tip: A person can have zero or more tags.

Examples:

• add n/John Doe e/johnd@example.com
• add n/Betsy Crowe p/1234567 e/betsycrowe@example.com t/friend t/criminal

Deleting a person : delete

Deletes the specified person from the address book.

Format: delete INDEX

• Deletes the person at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​

Examples:

• list followed by delete 2 deletes the 2nd person in the address book.
• find Betsy followed by delete 1 deletes the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Editing a person : edit

Edits an existing person in the address book.

Format: edit INDEX [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL] [t/TAG]…​

• Edits the person at the specified INDEX. The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list. The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• At least one of the optional fields must be provided.
• Existing values will be updated to the input values.
• When editing tags, the existing tags of the person will be removed i.e adding of tags is not cumulative.
• You can remove all the person’s tags by typing t/ without specifying any tags after it.

Examples:

• edit 1 p/91234567 e/johndoe@example.com Edits the phone number and email of the 1st person to be 91234567 and johndoe@example.com respectively.
• edit 2 n/Betsy Crower t/ Edits the name of the 2nd person to be Betsy Crower and clears all existing tags.

Listing all persons : list

Shows a list of all persons in the address book.

Format: list

Locating persons globally: global find

Global find can take in multiple parameters and will output all contacts that has any of the fields that fit the parameters

Format: find <SEARCH SUBSTRING> [<OTHER SEARCH SUBSTRINGS>]...

• The search is case-insensitive. e.g hans will match Hans
• The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. Hans Bo will match Bo Hans
• Persons matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. Hans Bo will return Hans Gruber, Bo Yang

Examples:

• find John returns john and John Doe in all fields except tags (name, email, phone)
• find alex david returns Alex Yeoh, David Li
  

Locating persons by specific fields: field find

Field find can take in multiple parameters of the same type and only search within that field. BUT, field find cannot be used with global find concurrently.

Format: find [n/NAME] [p/PHONE] [e/EMAIL]...

Example: find n/ david p/ 9927 e/ charlotte

The above example will filter all contacts whose name contains david OR whose phone number contains 9927 OR whose email contains charlotte.

Adding tags to one or more people : addtag

Add one or more tags to one or more people in the address book

Format: addtag INDEX, [INDICES...] / TAG [/ TAG]

• Adds the specified TAG(s) to the specified INDEX(s).
• The indices refers to the index numbers shown in the displayed person list (1-indexed).
• The indices must all be positive integers (1, 2, 3, …), and be referring to a valid index in the address book.
• All indices must be separated from each other by a comma.

Examples:

• addtag 5 / classmates adds the classmates tag to contact index 5.
• addtag 1, 2, 3 / friends / cs adds the friends and cs tags to contact indices 1, 2 and 3.

Deleting tags from one or more people : deletetag

Deletes one or more tags from one or more people in the address book

Format: deletetag INDEX, [INDICES...] / TAG [/ TAG]

• Deletes the specified TAG(s) from the specified INDEX(s).
• The indices refers to the index numbers shown in the displayed person list (1-indexed).
• The indices must all be positive integers (1, 2, 3, …), and be referring to a valid index in the address book.
• All indices must be separated from each other by a comma.
• At least one of the TAGs must be already tagged on one of the specified contacts, otherwise the command will fail.

Examples:

• deletetag 5 / classmates deletes the classmates tag from contact index 5.
• deletetag 1, 2, 3 / friends / cs deletes the friends and cs tags from contact indices 1, 2 and 3.

Editing existing tags : edittag

Rename existing tags across multiple contacts in batch

Format: edittag [INDICES OR 'all'] o/ OLDTAG n/ NEWTAG

• Using the all keyword instead of specific indices will do a global edit of the given OLDTAG, while inputting specific indices only edits them for the given contacts.
• As long as one of the specified contacts has the given OLDTAG, the command will be valid.
• edittag operates on the current list, not the whole address book.
• Indices are to be separated by commas.

Examples:

• edittag 1, 2, 3 o/ cs n/ computer science edits the tag cs for contacts 1, 2 and 3, and changes it to computer science.
• edittag all o/ cs n/ computer science edits the tag cs for all contacts in the current list, and changes it to computer science.

Filtering contacts by tags : filtertag

Display only contacts with specific tags for easier management

Format: filtertag / TAG [/ TAG]...

• filtertag operates on the entire address book rather than the current filtered list.
• All contacts containing at least one of the given tags will be filtered.

Examples:

• filtertag / classmates will filter all contacts that contain the classmates tag.
• filtertag / schoolB / schoolC will filter all contacts that contain at least one of the schoolB or schoolC tags.

Starring a person : star

Stars / Favourites a person in the address book

Format: star INDEX

• Stars the person at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• This command is functionally the same as addtag INDEX, [INDICES...] / STAR, where addtag can star more people simultaneously

Examples:

• list followed by star 2 stars the 2nd person in the address book.
• find Betsy followed by star 1 stars the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Unstarring a person : unstar

Unstars / Unfavourites a person in the address book

Format: unstar INDEX

• Unstars the person at the specified INDEX.
• The index refers to the index number shown in the displayed person list.
• The index must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …​
• This command is functionally the same as deletetag INDEX, [INDICES...] / STAR, where deletetag can unstar more people simultaneously

Examples:

• list followed by unstar 2 unstars the 2nd person in the address book.
• find Betsy followed by unstar 1 unstars the 1st person in the results of the find command.

Adding a meeting : addmeeting

Add meetings to one or multiple contacts at once

Format: addmeeting INDICES d/DESCRIPTION dt/DATE

• Dates must be in the YYYY-MM-DD format.

Example: addmeeting 1, 2 d/ Casual icebreaker dt/ 2026-03-26

Deleting a meeting : deletemeeting

Remove meetings using indices

Format: deletemeeting INDICES

• Regarding index order: Meetings are sorted by date by default to give chronological overview.

Example: deletemeeting 1

Clearing all entries : clear

Clears all entries from the address book.

Format: clear

Exiting the program : exit

Exits the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

AddressBook data are saved in the hard disk automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually.

Editing the data file

AddressBook data are saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/addressbook.json. Advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing that data file.

Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, AddressBook will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to take a backup of the file before editing it.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause the AddressBook to behave in unexpected ways (e.g., if a value entered is outside of the acceptable range). Therefore, edit the data file only if you are confident that you can update it correctly.

FAQ

Q: How do I transfer my data to another Computer?
A: Install the app in the other computer and overwrite the empty data file it creates with the file that contains the data of your previous AddressBook home folder.

Known issues

1. When using multiple screens, if you move the application to a secondary screen, and later switch to using only the primary screen, the GUI will open off-screen. The remedy is to delete the preferences.json file created by the application before running the application again.
2. If you minimize the Help Window and then run the help command (or use the Help menu, or the keyboard shortcut F1) again, the original Help Window will remain minimized, and no new Help Window will appear. The remedy is to manually restore the minimized Help Window.

Command summary