Linking or Synchronizing contacts in different OL Contacts folders

[saturnin02]

Win XP HE, SP1
OL 2002 SP3
Follw-Up to microsoft.public.outlook.contacts

Hi,
Is there a way to sycn or link contacts that appear in different Contacts
folders in OL 2002 (folders and sub-folders) so that when I edit one it will
automatically edit the same contact in the other folder or sub/folder?
Tx,
S

 

[Larry Ricci]

First- think about why you have multiple folders. Most often it is
better to organize your contacts using categories and views. Really
the only reason I can think of for multiple folders is different access
privileges and a need to 'sync' to separate devices.

Lawrence Ricci

 

[Michael Bauer]

Hi ?,

you could add links to each contact in the Contacts field and use then
e.g. the Property- and CustomPropertyChange events for updating each
linked contact.

Why don´t you use the categories instead of duplicating your
(contact)data?

 

[saturnin02]

Hi, I guess because I am not familiar enough with OL.
I am also in need to sync with my cell phone and I only want the personal
contacts and a few business contacts in the sync. I do not think that sync
software would recognize the categories and download only the "cell phone"
categories--I think ( I am not sure) that the WHOLE folder would get sync'ed
and that would create a problem for me.
I am completely open to suggestions and appreciate them....
The link idea you have seems that it would do what I want. Can u tell me
how to implement in more details--step by step? (I am new at this level of
use for OL--beyond the basics.)
Thanks!
S

 

[saturnin02]

Larry, tx for ur reply. I ma probably doing this the wrong way.
Please see my post to Michael Bauer.
Suggestions?

 

[Eric Legault [MVP - Outlook]]

If these Contacts are linked to each other by the Contacts button and field
at the bottom of the form, then yes you have a valid hook for updating the
related Contact when the parent is changed.

To do so, you'd need to use either:

1) A custom Contact form. Add code in the Item_Write event to detect a
change, and use the ContactItem.Links collection to obtain object references
to linked Contacts that you can instantiate and update with related changes.

2) Use a catch-all Contact wrapper class to do the same thing without a
custom form, by using VBA events and properties. My article here (Getting a
Handle on Your E-mails with VBA:
http://blogs.officezealot.com/legault/articles/2224.aspx) illustrates how
you can do this with MailItems, but the technique can be easily adapted for
any Outlook item.

 

[saturnin02]

Eric,
Thanks for the advice.
I have looked at the links u provided but it looks a bit beyond my skill
level....