DCOLACE  Plaxo for Mac has never altered the data that is synced. What you might be remembering is that older versions of Plaxo for Mac would create custom labels for things like email and phone numbers with things like "work 2" and "home 3" to match the multiple phone and email slots shown in the Plaxo Online interface. The past several versions of Plaxo for Mac have done away with these numbered, custom labels so that software that works with the standard, Apple provided, "Home" and "Work" labels will work correctly.  
(Version 3.12 v839)

BILLY THE BIKER  I would like to reinstall Plaxo, because I think it would be handy, but I had big problems with duplication in my Address Book when I installed it last summer, and had to manually go through twice deleting dupes. If I knew that it wouldn't happen again I would give it another try. MobileMe has worked the bugs out, so I am continuing to use it for the time being.  
(Version 3.12.2v868)

DCOLACE  There is an option on the initial screen of the Plaxo system preferences to show/hide the Plaxo menu item.  
(Version 3.9v616)

GLOBETROTTERDK  True, but maybe there should be. At any rate, the preferences should work correctly when a user chooses for the toolbar NOT start at login/startup.  
(Version 3.10v616)

GLOBETROTTERDK  It should also be noted that the toolbar (even the newest version) still restarts after having been told to quit. It also starts up when the prefs are set for it NOT to start at login/startup. These issues really need to be sorted out.  
(Version 3.10v616)

DCOLACE  Which version of OS X are you using? I've recently tested this feature on Leopard and I know it is working as designed.

You might be confusing the fact that we will auto-launch Plaxo when you launch the Address Book (all OS versions) or Apple Mail (10.4 and above) as well as the Plaxo preferences since it services the functions of those respective plugins.

Plaxo is intended to be a service to your system and really should be running all the time. When it isn't actively syncing, it uses virtually no CPU time or other computer resources (check Activity Monitor for a comparison of everything else running on your Mac).

If you don't like seeing the menu bar icon, you can simply turn that off while still allowing Plaxo to run.  
(Version 3.10v616)

GLOBETROTTERDK  I start my Address Book at login/startup. I disagree that the Plaxo toolbar needs to be running all the time. I prefer to choose when I want the toolbar to function. The Plaxo service is still in it's infancy and therefore I only use it once in a while.

Regardless, of how often someone uses Plaxo, I can see no reason to justify it running all of the time as users aren't dumping hundreds of new contacts into their Address Book on a daily basis.

Thanks for the prompt reply.  
(Version 3.10v616)

DCOLACE  You are certainly entitled to your point of view but I would argue that you are diminishing the usefulness of the Plaxo service by selectively employing it. One of the goals of Plaxo is to take the burden of contact management off of our members shoulders. With Plaxo running on your Mac, your calendars and contacts keep up to date without you having to think about it. From the web to your desktop (and likely to your phone) you shouldn't have to wonder if your latest edit (or Plaxo contact update) is where you want it to be.

Hopefully, we'll earn your trust so you can use our service to its full potential.  
(Version 3.10v616)

AROBULACK  I'm going to have to back up globetrotter on this one, that last version of Plaxo had some bugs. The menu bar item was also unquittable, even if you quit it, it kept coming back, and during syncs I would get screen-height growl error messages full of XML code. It was very frustrating. I'm gonna give this new version a try, but Plaxo obviously considers Mac users second class citizens and the software is much less powerful (i.e. no selective calendar syncing) and buggier than its Windows counterpart.  
(Version 3.11 v636)

DCOLACE  We are completely committed to developing Plaxo for Mac to be the best solution available to Mac users to keep their data in sync across the web, and more. I use and depend upon it myself on my three home Macs.

Our Plaxo for Windows software has a couple of years head start as far as features and performance/reliability work. We started from scratch with the Mac software so that we could provide a custom solution that would integrate seamlessly with the Mac.

I'm sorry for any peculiarities you've run into in using Plaxo for Mac over the past months/years, but I think every release has marked steady progress in features and reliability. I hope that your experience with the updated release will bear this out.

Keep a look out for our coming release as it is one of the most significant releases we've done in quite a while in terms of new capabilities and reliability improvements.  
(Version 3.11 v636)

TEXINICK  What you describe is true to a point. I was in fact a .mac subscriber for a couple of years, but this year I let that drop. Mainly because I didn't like being 'forced' into the @mac.com email address. I have my own email address, and for some insane reason, .mac does NOT let you specify this as the sending/reply to address. I think you could do it manually, but no one wants to set it everytime they send an email. It made me realise that if I couldn't afford to renew, or they suddenly jacked the price up, I would lose all access to my email, and would require the whole tedious process of letting everyone know again.

I never really used the idisk, and I had stopped using iWeb in favour of RapidWeaver. There wasn't really much else I used, or at least, nothing that I felt was worth paying the money for.

I tossed this all up, and decided to go with a gmail account as that could pick up every email account I had, and lets me send from any of them. There are no lock-ins to use their mail service (even Yahoo make you pay if you want to access via POP or forward the email to another address!).

So for me, Plaxo is a reasonable alternative that integrates nicely into the address book at a nice price :^)   
(Version 3.7v527)

TYCHAY  I forgot to mention that it’s still free. :-)  
(Version 1.0)

MEATMCGUFFIN  After i installed the new plaxo with mail intergration, mail.app crashed within thirty seconds of launching.

Just a heads up  
(Version 3.0v447)

CHINARUT  I went to use Address Book this morning and the menu was enabled. I don't know what I did other than sleep my mac and wake it up. I tried clicking around to see if it's particular selections and the Plaxo menu continues to be active.

Any insight into the circumstances that cause the menu to be greyed out would be great. glad to be going again.

be happy to help troubleshoot the issue if need be - just contact me.

thanks!  
(Version 1.0b2)

CHINARUT  I got a kind response from Drew Colace, Plaxo Developer and got permission to post this known issue on his behalf:

In b2 v159, syncing your data with Plaxo Online no longer locks up the

Plaxo menus as it always did in previous versions - so, now when

Plaxo for Mac is busy communicating with Plaxo Online, we disable

menu commands that could cause problems during a sync. We do disable

many of the menu choices during sync, but there still are a couple of

options available to you which makes the responsiveness of the menu

during sync better than in previous versions.

One situation, that is looks like you've encountered, is when Plaxo

for Mac exits a sync operation with an unexpected error it may get in

a state where it believes it is still synching data even when it is

not. In this case, generally just quitting Plaxo for Mac and

restarting it sets things right again. We've made further effort for

the coming update to Plaxo for Mac to guard even more against this

case so hopefully you will not encounter this situation again once we

release the next update.

But, depending on the size of your address book and what might have

been going on, it could have just been possible that Plaxo for Mac

was doing its job fine and was just busy for awhile syncing quietly

in the background when you went to use one of the Plaxo menus. ( I

guess it's okay for me to hope, after all, that it was working

correctly) I am hopeful this is the case given your report that you

just put the Mac to sleep and upon awakening it, Plaxo for Mac's

menus were once again responsive. This would not have been the case

if Plaxo for Mac was confused about its sync status.

I hope this sheds some light on what you encountered even if it

doesn't give a definitive answer.

Thanks again for your report!

Kind regards,

Drew Colace

Plaxo, Inc.  
(Version 1.0b2)

TYCHAY  I am not the developer but I do work for Plaxo.

The entries for your AIM account should now be correctly delivered to your address book. To import them into your iChat, you just add them from your iChat via the "Add Buddy…" menu (Cmd-Shift-A). Scrolling down the right side will show you which of your Address Book contacts have AIM accounts attached to them.

I'll ask the developer if there is a way to automate this process.

I'm not sure about Skype since I haven't installed it since my system crash. I'll ask the developer to look at that.

BTW, if you use Windows, download the AIM beta client ("Triton"). Plaxo is built into it and you can use it to link up with all the AIM users who have e-mails attached to their AIM ID. That's pretty cool. :-)

Take care,

terry  
(Version 1.0b2)