How do I sync Outlook 2003 Business Contact Manager with Pocket P.

[Fran-Mike]

Syncing my Outlook 2003 Business Contact Manager contact info with my
handheld has frustrated me for 8 months (i.e. I can’t seem to figure out a
way to do it), and Microsoft seems not to be of much help because they say
they don't support Beta Versions (which is interesting because I received it
when I purchased my Office 2003 Upgrade from Office 2000).

Some system info:

Computer Operating Software: MS Windows XP Professional
Program: Outlook 2003 with Business
Contact Manager
Handheld: HP IPAQ 4155
HH Operating Software: Pocket PC 2003 Premium w/Outlook 2002
Syncing Software: Microsoft Active Sync Version 3.7
(Build 3083)

Not being able to sync my business contacts to my IPAQ 4155 is not working
anymore for me. At this point, I would rather not just throw up my hands and
buy another package—Outlook has worked well for everything else I’ve needed.
I don’t believe there is (i.e. haven’t found) a way to sync the Outlook
Business Contact Manager directly with my handheld. I then wondered if there
could be a way of exporting the contact info (without the contact history) to
my Outlook Contacts. Unfortunately, I’ve been stymied a bit because they
have different database file formats, and I really am not sure how to do the
conversion (if in fact it is even possible).

Your guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Fran

 

[JohnC]

The lack of sync-ing from BCM to Pocket PC's is a big oversight IMHO. The
only 3rd party tool that I'm aware of that might work is Intellisync -
www.intellisync.com.

You could just manually copy your BCM contacts to the generic OL Contacts
folder, which would then sync with your Ipaq. Select all the BCM contacts
(ctrl-A) and then ctrl-click drag them to your generic contacts folder. Note
that OL doesn't do any duplicate checking in this case, so if you do it
multiple times you will end up with multiple duplicate contacts. It would
probably be worthwhile to assign all your BCM contacts to a category - say
'BCM' - so you will know who's who in your default contacts folder. If your
business contacts don't change much, that would work. You'd also need to
remeber to copy new BCM contacts as you create them.

Aside from that I guess you'll just have to wait with the rest of us until
MS fixes the whole mess, probably with the next version of the Pocket PC
s/w...

John

 

[fmhensen]

I figured out how to use the import/export function to move the contacts en
masse from BCM to the Outloook Contacts folder!!!!!!!! Here it is:

1. Export to My Documents the BCM Contact File as an Excel file and name it
"BCM Contacts Export File" or something like that.
2. Export to My Documents the Outlook Contact File as another separate
Excel file and name it "Outlook Contacts Export File" or something like that.

At this point I decided to just move columns of data around in the Excel
files because I'm pretty familiar with Excel, instead of trying to use the
Data Mapping function in the Outlook Import Wizard (although when I finally
got tho this point, it seemed that this would have been relatively easy). To
do this I did the following:

3. Insert a row below the title row of the "BCM Contacts Export File".
4. Cut and Paste the data in each column to it's proper column noted my the
title in the second row.
5. Reduce the Categories names in the Categories column to a single
category if you have assigned mutliple categories to a contact (I chose to do
this because I was unsure it would assign multiple categories during the
actual importing of the function).
6. Delete the BCM Contact File column titles by highlighting the first row,
clicking on Edit and then Delete.

The final thing in Excel you need to do is to name the range that you want
to import:

7. Highlight the whole data table by pressing Shift-Control-End.
8. Click in the box farthest to the left of the function/formula line.
9. Type BCM and press Enter.
10. Click Save and then exit Excel.

The only thing left is to go back into the Contacts file in Outlook and do
the following:

11. Click File-Import and Export-Outlook.
12. In the Import Wizard, Click on "Import from another Program or File".
13. Click the button for "Allow Duplicates" if it is not clicked.
14. Click Browse, Click on the Business Contact Manager Export File Excel
file, and Click Next.
15. Click on the Contacts in the Personal Folder if it is not already
highlighted, and click Next.

The next dialogue box should say "Import BCM to Outlook" with a checked box
next to it. Before you finish the Import process, check the Mapping to
ensure that the data titles are properly mapped (they should already be set
if you moved the data around in Excel as instructed above and deleted the BCM
titles row).

16. Click Map Custom Fields.
17. In the Right-hand side "To: Microsoft Office Outlook Contacts box,
Click on the "plus signs" to the left of the Field Names to display and check
the full mapping (it should all match).
18. Click OK.
19. Click Finish.

All of your BCM Contacts should be in Outlook!!!!!!!! Now sync with your
handheld, ensuring that the syncing option Rule is set "Leave item
unresolved" or "Always replace the item on my device", whichever you prefer
(if you have a Pocket PC handheld).

Happy Importing and Exporting!!!!!!

--Fran