Dialing out using GrandCentral, Firefox, and a Mac

For a while, I’ve sought a way to dial out using my GrandCentral number. It’d be great to have an option to do this from my phone (which, lacking a real web browser and data plan, can’t take advantage of m.grandcentral.com), since logging into the GC address book every time is slow and not particularly intuitive. Finally, though, I hit upon a partial workaround.

1. The main thing is to simply install this wonderful extension, “Click to Call.” Configuration is straightforward, but make sure that you set your “forwarding number” to your physical phone (with no spaces or punctuation), not your GC number. Now, you can click on any phone number in Firefox and get GrandCentral to call your phone! But how will you remember all your contacts’ phone numbers?
2. That’s where Address Book comes in. If your phone has Bluetooth, you should be able to sync your contacts to your Mac.
3. Then, have a look at the script published here. This will export your contacts into a well-formatted local web page. Put the whole “website” directory somewhere (maybe ~/Sites/?).
4. Open the web page in Firefox (should be something like “file:///Users/~/Desktop/HTMLize/website/index.html”), and bookmark it.

Viola — now you have a clickable address book, and you can talk to your entire phonebook for free. I’d still like to see a phone-based solution come down the pipe (I don’t spend all my time interacting with a lifeless machine!), but for now this is a nice way to take advantage of GrandCentral without the confusing two-number issue.