People + Services

This topic enables you to man­age all the infor­ma­tion for the ser­vices you use and those who pro­vide them.

Key fea­tures of the Peo­ple + Ser­vices topic

  • abil­ity to track infor­ma­tion for all of your ser­vices and ser­vice providers, and to group your contacts
  • abil­ity to view all peo­ple ref­er­enced in all Life­Topix items
  • auto­matic reminders through inte­gra­tion with your device’s Calendar
  • touch­points to all other topics

Using Peo­ple + Ser­vices touchpoints

Touch­points allow rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion to be shared seam­lessly between Peo­ple + Ser­vices and other top­ics. Exam­ple: If you have ser­vices you want to use for events you are plan­ning, you can spec­ify the ser­vices directly from within Events and that infor­ma­tion will auto­mat­i­cally be avail­able from within Peo­ple + Ser­vices. The same is true for project ser­vices that you define in Tasks + Projects, ser­vices you receive for your home and other pos­ses­sions defined in Home + Assets, ser­vices you con­sume for your learn­ing activ­i­ties in Edu­ca­tion, online ser­vices you access, and so on. You can even spec­ify your health­care ser­vice providers from within Health + Lifestyle and the estab­lish­ments you like to fre­quent from within Travel + Places.

How do I use Peo­ple + Services?

The Peo­ple + Ser­vices topic view pro­vides these sections:

  • Groups — col­lec­tions of con­tacts in LifeTopix
  • Peo­ple in Life­Topix — all peo­ple ever ref­er­enced in LifeTopix
  • Ser­vice Providers — ser­vice providers defined in all subcategories
  • All Ser­vices — all ser­vices defined in LifeTopix
  • Cat­e­gories for Ser­vices — all cat­e­gories of ser­vices defined in LifeTopix

Groups

A “group” is a con­ve­nient way to main­tain a log­i­cal col­lec­tion of related peo­ple from your device’s Con­tacts appli­ca­tion as well as peo­ple you have added to Life­Topix with­out con­tact infor­ma­tion. For exam­ple, you may choose to cre­ate a group for your din­ner club, study group, or vol­ley­ball team. In this release of Life­Topix, groups can be used as co-hosts or invi­tees for events.

Tap Groups to go to its view. The Groups view shows all the groups sorted alpha­bet­i­cally. If you have not defined any groups, only the pre­de­fined groups for Fam­ily and Friends appear. Each con­tact group item dis­plays the num­ber of mem­bers in that group.

Tap  in the title bar to define a new group. To edit a group, tap it, mod­ify the set­tings, and tap Save. To delete a group, tap it and then tap  at the bot­tom of the view.

Peo­ple in LifeTopix

Tap Peo­ple in Life­Topix to go to its view. If there are no peo­ple listed, help appears in order to get you started. If there are peo­ple listed, the Peo­ple in Life­Topix view shows all of them, sorted alpha­bet­i­cally. For each per­son listed, their use within Life­Topix is indi­cated. If that per­son is no longer asso­ci­ated with any Life­Topix item, (No spe­cific Life­Topix asso­ci­a­tions) is dis­played.  means that per­son is also in your device’s Con­tacts.  means that per­son is not in your device’s Contacts.

Tap  in the title bar to define a new per­son. To delete a per­son, tap their name and then tap  at the bot­tom of the view. Note that delet­ing a per­son here will not delete them from your device’s contacts.

Tap on a per­son to view their con­tact infor­ma­tion (if set) and the items in Life­Topix with which they are asso­ci­ated. On the detail view of a per­son, you can set or mod­ify their con­tact infor­ma­tion, then tap Save.

Ser­vice Providers

“Ser­vice providers” are com­pa­nies, orga­ni­za­tions, or indi­vid­u­als from whom you receive a ser­vice. For exam­ple, AT&T may be the com­pany that pro­vides your mobile tele­phone ser­vice. Or, per­haps All­state insures your car, you rent DVDs from Net­flix, or Dr. Welby is your per­sonal physi­cian. These are all exam­ples of ser­vice providers.

Tap Ser­vice Providers to go to its view which con­tains two sections:

All Ser­vice Providers

This item shows you, at-a-glance, the num­ber of ser­vice providers defined in all cat­e­gories and sub­cat­e­gories. Tap All Ser­vice Providers to go to its view.

If you have not cre­ated ser­vice providers, only pre­set ser­vice providers are listed. If you have cre­ated ser­vice providers, each of those and all the pre­set ser­vice providers are listed, sorted alpha­bet­i­cally by default. Tap Sort to alter­nate between sort­ing ser­vice providers by date mod­i­fied (with the most recently mod­i­fied one first) and alpha­bet­i­cally by title.

Each ser­vice provider includes the provider’s name, its con­tact infor­ma­tion, and either its cat­e­gory or update time, depend­ing on which sort mode is cur­rently active. Tap Add in the sec­tion header or  in the title bar to define a new ser­vice provider.

Cat­e­gories for Ser­vice Providers

Cat­e­gories are avail­able for use with ser­vice providers. You can cre­ate, mod­ify, hide, or delete cat­e­gories via Life­Topix Set­tings or directly from the Cat­e­gories for Ser­vice Providers sec­tion by tap­ping the Edit but­ton. When a ser­vice provider cat­e­gory is deleted, it is com­pletely removed from Life­Topix. When a ser­vice provider cat­e­gory is hid­den, it no longer appears in the Cat­e­gories for Ser­vice Providers sec­tion, but it remains defined in Life­Topix and is still avail­able in the cat­e­gory list when you are defin­ing a new ser­vice provider. Note that ser­vice provider cat­e­gories that are in use or serve as touch­points to another topic can­not be deleted or hidden.

To cre­ate a new ser­vice provider cat­e­gory, go to the Quick Menu and tap , and then tap Man­age Cat­e­gories. Tap Ser­vice Providers in the list.

To mark a Ser­vice Provider cat­e­gory hid­den, or to mod­ify its name or descrip­tion, tap the category’s , then tap OFF for to tog­gle it to ON.

To delete a Ser­vice Provider cat­e­gory, swipe to delete in the Man­age Cat­e­gories view.

Tap a cat­e­gory in the Cat­e­gories for Ser­vice Providers sec­tion to go to the ser­vice provider view for that cat­e­gory. If there are no ser­vice providers and no sub­cat­e­gories defined in that cat­e­gory, help appears in order to get you started. If there are ser­vice providers defined in that cat­e­gory, they are all shown in a sec­tion whose behav­ior is described in the All Ser­vice Providers sec­tion above. If there are sub­cat­e­gories defined in that cat­e­gory, they are all shown in a sec­tion whose behav­ior is described imme­di­ately above.

All Ser­vices

“Ser­vices” are prod­ucts or labor you receive from com­pa­nies, orga­ni­za­tions, or indi­vid­u­als. House­hold util­i­ties, yoga instruc­tion, lawn care, and news­pa­per sub­scrip­tions are all exam­ples of services.

This item shows you, at-a-glance, the num­ber of ser­vices defined in all cat­e­gories and sub­cat­e­gories. Tap All Ser­vices to go to its view.

If you have not cre­ated ser­vices, only pre­set ser­vices are listed. If you have cre­ated ser­vices, each of those and all the pre­set ser­vices are listed, sorted alpha­bet­i­cally by default. Tap Sort to alter­nate between sort­ing ser­vices by date mod­i­fied (with the most recently mod­i­fied one first) and alpha­bet­i­cally by title.

Each ser­vice item dis­plays the ser­vice title, ser­vice provider, and either its update time or cat­e­gory, depend­ing on which sort mode is cur­rently active. Tap Add in the sec­tion header or  in the title bar to define a new service.

Cat­e­gories for Services

Cat­e­gories are avail­able for use with ser­vices. You can cre­ate, mod­ify, hide, or delete cat­e­gories via Life­Topix Set­tings or directly from the Cat­e­gories for Ser­vices sec­tion by tap­ping the Edit but­ton. When a ser­vice cat­e­gory is deleted, it is com­pletely removed from Life­Topix. When a ser­vice cat­e­gory is hid­den, it no longer appears in the Cat­e­gories for Ser­vices sec­tion, but it remains defined in Life­Topix and is still avail­able in the cat­e­gory list when you are defin­ing a new ser­vice. Note that ser­vice cat­e­gories that are in use or serve as touch­points to another topic can­not be deleted or hidden.

To cre­ate a new ser­vices cat­e­gory, go to the Quick Menu and tap , and then tap Man­age Cat­e­gories. Tap Ser­vices in the list.

To mark a Ser­vices cat­e­gory hid­den, or to mod­ify its name or descrip­tion, tap the category’s , then tap OFF for to tog­gle it to ON.

To delete a Ser­vices cat­e­gory, swipe to delete in the Man­age Cat­e­gories view.

Tap a cat­e­gory in the Cat­e­gories for Ser­vices sec­tion to go to the ser­vice view for that cat­e­gory. If there are no ser­vices and no sub­cat­e­gories defined in that cat­e­gory, help appears in order to get you started. If there are ser­vices defined in that cat­e­gory, they are all shown in a sec­tion whose behav­ior is described in the All Ser­vices sec­tion above. If there are sub­cat­e­gories defined in that cat­e­gory, they are all shown in a sec­tion whose behav­ior is described imme­di­ately above.

10 Comments


  1. Alyix
    Apr 06, 2013

    Hello! I’ve replaced numer­ous apps with this one, and with each update it just gets better…thank you! I am won­der­ing though about the My Peo­ple / My Ser­vice Providers sec­tion. When I put in a busi­ness con­tact, such as Ani­mal Ark Vet for exam­ple, it shows up under My Peo­ple. How can I keep busi­ness con­tacts out of that area and just use My Peo­ple for indi­vid­u­als? What am I doing wrong?
    Also, I have made a weeks worth of indi­vid­ual notes and decided after the fact to make a sub­cat­e­gory for them. I can’t fig­ure out how to move the notes into the sub­cat­e­gory, is that even pos­si­ble? Thanks!

    (reply)

    • LightArrow
      Apr 06, 2013

      Hi Alyix,
      You might want to add busi­ness con­tact, such as Ani­mal Ark Vet, as a Ser­vice Provider instead of a per­son.
      Also, if you open an exist­ing note, you can change the cat­e­gory in the detail view by tap­ping on Cat­e­gories.
      We hope that makes sense.
      Best regards,
      Team LightArrow

      (reply)

      • Alyix
        Apr 06, 2013

        Actu­ally, I did place the Ani­mal Ark Vet under Ser­vice Provider, how­ever, when I added con­tact info Life­topix also put it under My Peo­ple. When I click Add Con­tact in the Ser­vice Provider area, the con­tact page says Per­son at the top. How can I keep the con­tact info for busi­nesses out of My Peo­ple cat­e­gory and still have con­tact info for the vet? All con­tacts seem to be rec­og­nized as peo­ple, I would like the option to rec­og­nize a con­tact as a busi­ness.
        Would it be pos­si­ble to have a topic by itself (just like the other 12 top­ics) just for con­tacts with group­ing options such as fam­ily, friends, busi­ness, etc. I can­not find a decent con­tact app. Would it be pos­si­ble to add con­tacts to the quick add options? I have needed that sev­eral times.
        Also, when I open my exist­ing note, under cat­e­gories it says Bible Stud­ies, but when I go to note cat­e­gories and click on Bible Stud­ies there are no notes.

        (reply)

        • LightArrow
          Apr 07, 2013

          Hi Alyix,
          Your obser­va­tion is cor­rect — once you assign a con­tact, a Per­son is cre­ated in Life­Topix for the con­tact (even if the con­tact is for a ser­vice provider). And the detail view for the per­son says that as the asso­ci­a­tion for the per­son. We under­stand what you’d like –we do plan to enhance the per­son topic in our 6.1 1update in late April, and the 6.2 update in May. We’ll add the con­cept of a Busi­ness (instead of a Per­son). Also, the Peo­ple + Ser­vices topic is sup­posed to be the topic for man­ag­ing My Peo­ple and does sup­port for Groups — you can add new groups by tap­ping on Add to the right of the title Groups. We’ll add the abil­ity to add a Per­son and a Group to Quick Add. We are plan­ning to sig­nif­i­cantly enhance con­tacts man­age­ment due to pop­u­lar demand, so keep send­ing us your needs.
          In order to see all the Notes under your Cat­e­gory called Bible Stud­ies, you’ll need to Notes + Files, scroll down to see your cat­e­gory under Cat­e­gories for Notes, and then tap on the cat­e­gory. We assume you are look­ing for the notes from the My Set­tings (under Set­tings) and Man­age Cat­e­gories view? That is where you can man­age cat­e­gories them­selves, not the things under them.
          We hope this helps.
          Best,
          Team LightArrow

          (reply)

          • Alyix
            Apr 07, 2013

            Thank you so much! I am excited about the upcom­ing enhanced con­tact sec­tion and addi­tion of con­tacts to quick add.
            I’m not explain­ing my cat­e­gory dilema very well because I am get­ting myself con­fused, I think I may be try­ing to over-categorize every­thing. My Bible Study notes are under “all notes” but I can’t move them to “bible studies(category)” under the “cat­e­gories for notes” that I had cre­ated later to sep­a­rate them from my other non-Bible Study notes. I hope that makes sense :)

            (reply)

            • LifeTopix Support
              Apr 07, 2013

              Hi Alyix,

              You can set/change the cat­e­gory of a note by open­ing the note detail and, under the “Cat­e­gories” field, set the cat­e­gory. You can change the cat­e­gory value at any time. You can even give the note more than one cat­e­gory if you wish.

              Best regards,
              Team LightArrow

              (reply)

  2. Jayne
    Feb 18, 2013

    I dis­cov­ered this app today and it is great. My ques­tion is: if I update a con­tact in my iPad native con­tact app, does it update in the group in Life Topix? Keep up the good work! Look­ing for­ward to future enhance­ments and updates.

    (reply)

    • LifeTopix Support
      Feb 18, 2013

      Hi Jayne,

      Thank you for reach­ing out to us with your ques­tion and for your kind words.

      When a device con­tact is asso­ci­ated with a per­son in Life­Topix (whether they are group mem­bers, task own­ers, project par­tic­i­pants, event invi­tees, trip com­pan­ions, etc.), Life­Topix always shows the lat­est con­tact info for that per­son from the device Con­tacts app.

      Best regards,
      Team LightArrow

      (reply)

  3. Chris Gould
    Sep 29, 2012

    Sim­ple ques­tion, and i apol­o­gise if this has been cov­ered elswhere.
    Is it pos­si­ble to merge groups, or send an email to mem­bers of more than one group?
    Great app, thanks again for cre­at­ing it?

    (reply)

    • LightArrow
      Sep 29, 2012

      Hi Chris,
      Thanks for the ques­tion and the kind words! We do plan to sup­port the abil­ity to add groups to the mem­bers area of another group. We hope to do that either in 5.1 (Octo­ber) or 5.2 (Novem­ber). Since the abil­ity to send emails or mes­sages to the mem­bers of a group is already pos­si­ble (right side pan­cel of the group detail view), that abil­ity would work when a group con­tains other groups as well.
      Best regards,
      Team LightArrow

      (reply)

Leave a Comment, Question or Request