Calendar / contacts woes

[MrVegas]

I just bought a G5 for home use.

I was using a PC at home with MS Outlook and an iPaq, which synced calendars and contacts with the PC through Active Sync software.

I also have a PC at work Outlook and I sync a Blackberry to it.

I plan on keeping my PC at home but the G5 will become my primary computer.

I would like to sync my iPaq with the Mac.

Is there any way to tie all this stuff together??? Help!

 

[mkrishnan]

Just to make sure I understand, is the the complete list of stuff you want to keep sync'd together?

- Work PC / Outlook / Exchange Server
- Home PC / Outlook (which I am guessing does not use Exchange Server for its calendar and contacts?)
- Home Mac / iCal / Address Book
- Blackberry
- iPaq

I think this actually *is* feasible. It will probably not be *easy*... but it is feasible. I did something similar, albeit with less hardware (1x PC on Exchange Server, 1x Mac, 1x Nokia 3650).

One option is as follows:

There is conduit software (Missing Sync) that will get the iPaq talking to the Mac. Assuming that the level of detail retention in the iPaq is acceptable, I would recommend using it as the "carrier" -- you sync it with all three computers separately, and you sync the Blackberry with the work computer only. The iPaq carries data between the computers. As long as you regularly sync it with all three, then any event you create on any of the five devices (three computers, two handhelds) gets sync'd to the iPaq, and in turn will make its way to all of the computers. The only hassle of this is that you will have to remember to do two independent syncs at home.

 

[MrVegas]

mkrishnan you are a genius. Thank you!

I never could have thought of that. Yes, the iPaq will be the carrier. What about "priority" settings? Sometimes I get confused in ActiveSync about which device has priorty over the other when there are supposed conflicts between them.

 

[mkrishnan]

Hehe, thanks. I remember the priority thing only vaguely. I think what MacOS' iSync does is to try and combine within an object, and use the newer version when it can, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure what would happen if you had a contact for Mr. X, and you added his phone number in your iPaq and his e-mail in Address Book, and then sync'd. Let me try and see.

I think the basic idea is that you would want to give priority primarily to your iPaq, but I think an exception would be in the case of your office computer, if you're using Exchange Server. If you are, I think I would put Outlook > iPaq on that computer only, and the opposite for all other relationships, so that information runs downstream from the Exchange Server to the other computers, and you don't accidentally overwrite an entry with a copy from another computer that doesn't have details Exchange needs. But I'm not 100% sure about that. The software I used on my Wintel had a merge sort of option.

 

[mkrishnan]

I just tried this, and at least for the combination of iSync and my Nokia, it seems to handle merging correctly. I added a field to my own contact in Address Book (my new pager number), and I modified a field slightly on my phone, and then upon sync, the entry had both changes. And there are no configurable options associated with this in iSync. I don't know if MissingSync makes this more complex or not, though.

And eep! I just noticed at the markspace site that Missing Sync hasn't been updated for Tiger yet! I'm surprised I hadn't heard anyone kvetch about that!