Change formats

Change the format of addresses and phone numbers

By default, iCloud Contacts formats addresses and phone numbers according to the information you provided when you signed up for your iCloud account. For example, if you live in the United States, Contacts automatically uses U.S.-style formatting. You can change these settings at any time.

Note: These types of format changes don’t update to all the devices where you turned on iCloud Contacts. You must change the formatting in preferences for the contacts app on each device: On a Mac, in Contacts (or Address Book in OS X v10.7.5), and on a Windows computer in Microsoft Outlook.

Change the format of addresses and phone numbers

  1. In iCloud Contacts, choose Preferences from the Action pop-up menu in the sidebar.

  2. Choose an option (for example, United States, Argentina, Greece, or Japan) from the Address Layout menu.

    You can also change the address format for a single contact. When you create or edit a contact, select the country name in the address portion of the contact card, then type a new one. The other address fields change to accommodate the address format of the country you entered.

  3. To have Contacts automatically add hyphens and other symbols in phone numbers, select “Automatically format phone numbers.”

    If you select “Automatically format phone numbers,” you don’t have to type hyphens and other symbols in phone numbers. If you want to be able to enter phone numbers in any format (for example, if you have contacts from both the United States and Europe), don’t select this option.

  4. Click Save.