[philiprbuttall]

In a previous post, but not specific to the 9780, which is the first BB I've had, I asked about the possibility of being able to synch my new BB Contacts to my PC, but not using Outlook (which is my main email/contact programme) because I don't want my phone to gain all the extra contacts should I synch back from my BB.

Two suggestions were kindly given - one was to use Outlook Express purely for this only, so that the BB contacts would be kept separate.

Another solution was by way of an app which might do the same thing.

I have tried synch to Outlook Express, and it does work, although when I looked at the list it had produced on the PC, there was a large section of blanks - these I could delete, so all 100+ contacts appeared there - the picture which I associated with every entry on the BB didn't, of course, transfer across.

I don't want to try to synch back to the BB, in case it screws up the list I took a long time making - my previous phone wasn't a BB, and while saving the contacts on its SIM, and then transferring them, wasn't ideal, as it used different fields, and the names needed a lot of tweaking!

However, with the software that came both with previous Sony Ericsson and Motorola phones, there was a facility to make a usable backup which had everything there that was also held on the phone - I know the BB is more geared towards total integration with Outlook etc, but for those who want to keep original phone contacts separate, it does seem to be an omission in an otherwise excellent phone.

In terms of available apps, I've seen that some, according to reviewers, don't even work - it would be good to have a recommend of any app which is reliable and might allow me, either by cable or wirelessly, to transfer my contacts to somehwer secure on the PC, and where I can even edit them, rather than having to use the smaller BB keyboard.

As a BB novice, any help/advice would be most appreciated!