david52-ga:
You might find the following collection of methods interesting:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.htm
Allow me to point out that there is a difference between
synchronization and duplication. Duplication simply means having one
Contact list be the 'master', and the other one being the 'copy';
whenever you make a change in the 'master', you want the change to
appear in the 'copy', but the 'copy' is otherwise read-only. If you
make a change in the 'copy', it will not appear in the 'master', and
the changes effectively disappear the next time the 'master' list is
copied to the 'copy'. This is not really a practical method for most
people.
'Synchronization' is when changes to one list eventually are
duplicated into all other copies of the list... so changes on your
work computer's Contact list are reflected in your home computer's
Contact list, and vice versa.
The best way to accomplish this is with intelligent synchronization
software, that will connect between your two lists, spot the
differences, and let you choose which overwrites which.
The simplest approach for this, that can be used regularly and easily,
is the new Sync feature of Yahoo! Address Book:
http://address.yahoo.com
http://help.yahoo.com/help/intsync/
==================
NOTE: BEFORE PROCEEDING, MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF YOUR CONTACT LISTS. You
can do this by creating a new Outlook Data File (File>New>Outlook Data
File...), then copying all of your Contacts over to the new Data File.
This new data file can be closed and saved as a backup.
==================
There's a couple of steps needed here to get things started. First,
you need to set up a Yahoo! identity for yourself, in order to have a
Yahoo! Address Book. The simplest way is to go to
http://address.yahoo.com and sign up. If you already have a Yahoo!
identity, just use it to sign in at that page.
After setting up your Yahoo! Address Book, look for the Sync hyperlink
in the top-right area of the browser window, next to Import/Export.
Click on it, then click on Install Now (a button at the bottom left of
the subsequent screen).
After you install Intellisync for Y! Address Book, you can use it to
synchronize all of your Outlook Contacts to your Y! Address Book. Make
sure you configure the settings to copy everything FROM your Outlook
Contact list TO the Address Book, and not the other way around, this
first time. You can change this later after the first upload is
complete... but we'll get back to that.
Next, you'll have to download and install Intellisync on your other
computer... but this time, instead of configuring it to copy
everything to the Y! Address Book, you will want to use the
synchronize approach instead, and resolve the conflicts manually.
Finally, after you have populated Y! Address Book with the unique
entries from both of your Outlook Contact Lists and resolved any
conflicts (ie. same name but different details), you will have to
settle into a routine of running Intellisync for Yahoo! periodically
(such as whenever you make several changes to your Outlook Contact
list on one of the machines) to first synchronize the change to your
Yahoo! Address Book, then from the Yahoo! Address Book to your other
computer.
Now, I personally use a PocketPC to synchronize my data between two
installations of Outlook, but before I bought the PocketPC, I was
using Intellisync for Yahoo! as well. So, I know that it works for the
majority of the data contained in my Contacts. Like any
synchronization method, though, some of the fields do not map through
completely (for example, I used to have a Palm Pilot that could not
handle some of the stranger Outlook fields). For the primary data
fields that are normally used, this method works quite well.
I hope that this helps!
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher |
Clarification of Answer by
aht-ga
on
25 Oct 2004 17:35 PDT
Actually, an easier way to make the backup of your Outlook Contact List is:
1. In Outlook, select File>Import and Export...
2. Select "Export to a file"
3. Select the "Personal Folder File (.pst)" option
4. Select the 'Contacts' folder
5. Choose a location and name for the backup
6. Click Finish to export
Also, if you happen to be behind a firewall at work, and cannot get
Intellisync for Yahoo! to work through the firewall, you can emulate
the effect of Intellisync by using File>Import and Export...>Export to
a file>'Comma separated values (Windows)' to export the contacts to a
CSV file, then use the Import/Export feature of Yahoo! Address Book to
import the contents of the CSV file into the Y! Address Book. Note,
though, that this method does not allow you to resolve conflicts or
duplicates.
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Answer by
aht-ga
on
25 Oct 2004 21:17 PDT
Intellisync does sell their software commercially, focused on
synchronizing mobile devices with personal information management
software installed on a PC. Their venture with Yahoo!, namely the
Intellisync for Yahoo! application, is their first synchronization
tool that was designed for synchronizing something other than a mobile
device... in this case, the 'mobile device' has been replaced by the
web-based Yahoo! Address Book. If you think of the Yahoo! Address Book
as taking the place of a PDA, you would be using it for the same
purpose: to move your contact list, and any changes you make to it,
between two PCs.
You can view Intellisync's other offerings at
http://www.intellisync.com/index.cfm ; as you'll see, the rest of
their software is focused on mobile devices.
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
