Last name first

[madmac98]

I have a Motorola Droid. Does anyone know how to make the last name appear first in the contacts list?

 

[hookbill]

I have a Motorola Droid. Does anyone know how to make the last name appear first in the contacts list?

You can't do it like this: Doe, John?

Or are you asking to change all your contacts. I don't think it can be done except 1 at a time. Many contacts that I have don't even have last names. Like "Doctor."

 

[pilot25]

Go into Gmail on your PC. For each entry you need to change the name to "Last name, First name" i.e. Smith, John.

You cannot do it all at once. You have to edit each entry that way. Another Google flaw but it can be done.

 

[thebowers]

I think it can be done if exporting the contacts from Outlook to a .csv file. After export open the .csv file and change the column names around.

 

[madmac98]

I have 300+ contacts in my phone so changing them one by one would take quite a while. Maybe in a future update they could include a way to do it on the phone. I know I could do this on my Blackberry. I wonder why Google didn't include such a simple feature in the program.

 

[hookbill]

I have 300+ contacts in my phone so changing them one by one would take quite a while. Maybe in a future update they could include a way to do it on the phone. I know I could do this on my Blackberry. I wonder why Google didn't include such a simple feature in the program.

Because it's not a Blackberry. You bought a google phone and Gmail is not set up that way. If Gmail isn't set up that way then the phone can't be either.

If that's a feature you would like to see there is a link available where you can suggest to Google what features you would want in future updates. Sorry, I don't know the link maybe someone else can provide or you can do a google search.

 

[zasran]

Google contacts (check them out in gmail) have only one name, it'snot split into first, last.

ero

 

[hookbill]

I kept thinking about this thread and I wonder what the op needed last names first for. If you are searching for a name you can just use the search, microphone and say the last name. It should bring up the contact for you. There may not be a need with a Google phone to have this feature.

 

[rockin982]

Ok, so now that Dialer One no longer allows sorting by last name, any other apps still offer this feature?

I know that people say you can search for the last name, but if you think about the way most people use a phone when they are making a call (one handed, holding the phone vertically and navigating with their thumb), having to type in several letters is much more cumbersome than speed scrolling to the first letter of the last name (using a side ribbon), and then kinetic scrolling down to the desired contact. Particularly for people who know their contact list well and are used to doing this on almost any other modern smartphone. It seems like an amazing regression to remove this feature and then expect someone to change the way they find their contacts when it is so incredibly simple to simply allow the user to view by last names first.

 

[rcrow490]

It's there !!!

Since the latest update to 2.2, you have the ability to sort your contacts by last name. Open contacts, tap menu, display options, "sort list by", last name.
Then change "view contact names as" to "last name first".
And you're done!

 

[BradBev]

Hmm, I can't seem to find display options - sort on last time when I go to the menu. I'm running system version 2.3.340 and Android version 2.2.1.

 

[djakrse]

Make certain you are viewing contacts and not favorites (short list). It's there for me. Good find rcrow490

 

[BradBev]

djakrse,

I appreciate your assistance. I am a newbie and I may be overlooking something. Here's what I see:

From the top selection target, I can select All Contacts, Phone Contacts, or Google which is my Google contacts. This selection doesn't seem to make a difference, but for this example, let's use Google.

When I click the menu key (bottom left on my Droid X), at the lower 1/4th of the screen, I see "Add Contact", Backup Assistant", "Search", "Display Group", "My Info", and "More".

I've looked under each menu and can't find anything to change the display option to sort on last name or show last name first. From the convention of other programs, I would think I'd find it under "More" but from there I see "Manage accounts", "Settings" Share name cards" and "Import/Export". Again, I would think I'd find it under "Contact setting" but no joy, I only see Phone Contacts and Google with the option to turn on or turn off the check mark on the right side of the screen.

So, if you're seeing the same or something different under each target, I would appreciate knowing what you see, and if you can assist me by going step by step, it would make my work much easier. At the point, the only way I can see to do this is to insert the names reversed in the Google contact list (first name in last name field, and last name in first name field).

I ran this problem through Verizon tech support and they couldn't figure out how to do it either.

Another thought is that this is a software version issue. As best I can tell, I'm running the latest, greatest version, but I know by personal experience a bug might be fixed in version 5 but is reinserted when version 6 appears.

Thanks,

Brad

 

[djakrse]

That must be part of that motoblur. I have a slightly outdated rom, but my wife's droid 1 has 2.2.1 (FRG83D) and it looks the same as mine. I remember my friend's droid 2 had that system version and I know he just got an update to Android 2.2.1. I'm checking with him to see what he's got... just called and his is the same as yours. The menus we are talking about are not in that contacts app. They are in the Google version of the phone app you have. Apparently, you also have the motoblur version of the phone app, which has different menus. We have Phone, Call log, Contacts, and Favorites.

Sounds to me like the easiest way would be to root and install rom that removes blur. Basically, the contacts app you have is not part of the OS. It was almost certainly added by Motorola with Motoblur. It's just possible that you have both versions of the phone/contacts app and you could use both at the same time, just that the blur one is set as default app. Someone who builds roms or messes with their system a lot more than me could tell you. You might try asking in the hacks or tech issue section of the DX forum.