[Joemero]

Hi there! I’m the proud new owner of a BB 8830 WE from Sprint. I’ve been drooling over getting a BB for a very long time and finally got one yesterday.

Coming from using a Palm device for about 8-9 years…can you believe I owned a b/w screen Handspring Visor? I am very used to the Palm OS interface. I particularly liked the Palm Desktop software, especially because it came with its own desktop organizer software, i.e. calendar, contacts, tasks, memos, etc. The reason I liked this so much is that I extensively use my laptop provided by the company I work for, and I am not interested in intermingling all my personal contacts and calendar items the corporate Outlook contacts and calendar items.

I was a little disappointed to see that the BB Desktop Manager doesn’t come with a desktop organizer. What do most of you use, when not using Outlook? I managed to sync some contacts with my Yahoo email account, but I would prefer a desktop application rather than an online.

One more thing, I was unable to transfer my Palm Data to my BB via Switch Device Wizard, according to prerequisites I’m out of luck because my Palm OS is Ver. 4.2 which according to Blackberry Desktop Ver. 4.2.2.12 [Mar 19 2007] is not supported. Please help me sync my data!!!

[lmiddag]

Wow, Joe. Welcome. I'm brand new too, so take anything I say with a grain of salt

My Visor Edge (also black and white just died, and I too am a new BB user missing my Palm Desktop. Let me know what you find out about the desktop program. Some folks recommended google and yahoo, but I'm not fond of the internet-based calendar programs (like my privacy).

I was able to import my Palm data by syncing my BB to my laptop (where I had already sync'd my Visor before it died. I downloaded the new BB desktop from RIM (v. 4.3) maybe that made the difference? Don't know if it works with your model, but it worked for my Pearl (8100). There's a "switch device wizard" that made it work for me.

Good luck!!!

Best,

Lisa

[lmiddag]

p.s. my palm os was 4.01 fwiw...

[JSanders]

I'll be completely honest guys (and Lisa), Outlook really is the best desktop option for the BB to sync with. The other options are lik Lotus and Act.

it's been discussed here numerous times, but since your both new, I'll repeat and condense: Since BB came from corporate beginnings, and so many users did use Outlook, RIM just simply never tried to recreate the wheel and force users to learn yet another application (like the Palm Desktop app). Outlook does work seamlessly with the BB and options in each work well together (like creating and syncing recurring appoitments,).

[lmiddag]

p.p.s. I still have a zipped version of it if you want to try to install it (the palm desktop 4.01 for windows)--it might be backward compatible with your data (although I would definitely back it up first in the Palm Desktop)....

[JSanders]

And Joe might want to use DM version 4.3, I believe it will sync with the Palm 4.2

[lmiddag]

Thanks, JS, for the gentle treatment. We newbies really need it. I guess I got turned off by Outlook back in the days when everyone's email viruses used to be able to grab your contacts out of it--didn't want to lose my friends . Any chance my anxieties have been allayed by stronger security measures by MS in recent years? I have Outlook 2003, which I could switch to, if I really HAD to

Best,

Lisa

[Joemero]

JSanders
I'll be completely honest guys (and Lisa), Outlook really is the best desktop option for the BB to sync with. The other options are lik Lotus and Act.

it's been discussed here numerous times, but since your both new, I'll repeat and condense: Since BB came from corporate beginnings, and so many users did use Outlook, RIM just simply never tried to recreate the wheel and force users to learn yet another application (like the Palm Desktop app). Outlook does work seamlessly with the BB and options in each work well together (like creating and syncing recurring appoitments,).

Thanks, I'm wondering if there is anyway to create a new account in my existing work Outlook so that I can have personal contacts & calendar on it. I do not want to sync my BB with the existing Outlook account that has work contacts and appointments. In other words I would like a calendar on my work outlook that shows my Superbowl party this weekend, but does not show up on my corp outlook calendar.

I appreciate the warm welcome to this forum...thanks for having patience with this newbie.

[aiharkness]

I'm late to say hello, but welcome to the group!

Can't help with the calendar issues. I keep all of my lives on the same calendar, but my blackberry is my personal device and I sync and backup to my personal desktop computer.

Good luck. And ditto what JS said about Outlook.

[lmiddag]

Not sure if this will do the trick, Joe, but you can set Outlook events and contacts as "Private". In my world, that means in theory that while it would show up on your own calendar, none of your coworkers would have access/be able to see it when they look at your calendar. Of couse that won't stop a crafty IT person who also happens to be nosey, but I think they have to work at it a bit. This presumes of course you won't be putting "stop to get beer for my underage nephew" in there or anything else that might trigger unexpected repurcussions should someone happen to snoop....

I've officially loaded up my Outlook 2003, and I'm sync'd up now. One big bad: all my category designations are gone Let me know if you have any better luck. Had great experience with Duplicate Killer though in cleaning up my contacts list.

All best,

Lisa