Is there a better way to keep work contacts and personal phone number seaparate other than through use of the SIM card for personal numbers?

Also, if I add personal contacts to the address book in the Pearl and then sync with my Outlook (which is my work Outlook), will my personal contacts be added to there?

Lastly, is there a shortcut for getting to the SIM card for making calls? It seems burried and I have not found a way to access numbers stored there quickly at all. It doesn't appear like the SIM card phone numbers are at all integrated with the dialing feature, i.e. they aren't in the list when you start dialing, only the contacts from the address book are.

This phone is a work and personal phone for me (so I only have to carry one device) but I am finding it a bit of a challenge to keep the two separate. Any answers to these questions are appreciated along with any other tips, tricks and advice anyone in the same boat may have.

Thx

bump

Have you received an answer ? .... I too would like to access some of the numbers on my SIM card. Please advise - Thanks !

The address book provides you with an option to filter between business and personal contacts.

select address book > menu > filter

You can classify each name as business or personal under the categories section for each contact. You can also classify contacts through outlook and then sync the updated information to your bb.

As for the outlook sync question, it's my understanding that all names in your address book will sync to your bb. But if you classify them between business and personal contacts, it shouldn't be a problem.

Remember, the SIM card only houses phone numbers and can't handle home or email addresses. I use the SIM card function in my address book solely to back-up my phone numbers in case my bb crashes. But being able to sync to your computer, you can back-up all of a persons contact info, not just the phone number, to your computer.

sman has it right. using the filters is the easiest way. i don't beleive there is another way. but it is kinda pain bc if you want to change filters you have to go in and unclick one and click the other. you can also keep em both checked though if you'd like

So if I just want to keep phone numbers of friends and family and don;t need a complete contact profile, either they still have to be added as contacts or they are on the SIM, which is buried - there is no easy way to access numbers thewre and quickly make a call.

Also, I don't really want all my personal numbers dumped into Outlook at work but that is exactly what is happening.

you could filter out the personal/family contacts during the sync. The desktop manager allows you to filter by field name. You could instruct the sync to only pull business contacts, labeled as business under the "category" field". Simply open the desktop manager > synchronize > configuration tab > configure sync. Highlight address book field and click on the configure button at the bottom left corner and select advanced settings. Choose the filter tab and create a new filter.

This should only pull names that have "business" in the category field every time you sync.

Thanks sman, I will give that a try. As my company uses wireless sync, will these settings apply for that as well? I added some contacts to the BB and they appeared almost immediately in Outlook.

I don't know about BES since I don't use it, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't filter categories as you can on BIS.

This does not work for me. I just set up a new filter and then added a personal contact. It immediately appeared in Outlook. As it's wireless sync, it seems you cannot apply those filters through Desktop Manager; they are for wired sync only I guess.

This is a real inconvenience because there is no way to keep my personal contacts out of my work Outlook and by storing personal phone numers on the SIM card, it is a pain to actually get to them and place a call.

I've searched a bit but not come up with this specific answer--how do you copy phone #'s from your address book onto your sim card?

I think I know what you're trying to do, and I'm trying to do the same thing...

You want to keep your WORK contacts separate from your PERSONAL contacts. However, because your BB is on your company's BES, anything you add to your address book gets sync'd to your company's Exchange server.

I've been looking at how to do this for the longest time and I can't find anything.

Anyone figure out how to do this yet?