Syncing Outlook 2003 and 2007 a problem?

[corvid]

I have MS Office/Outlook 2003 on my home laptop. The work PC will soon go from 2003 to 2007. I want to sync my Bold with Outlook on both computers as I use the calendar for personal and work purposes. It will remain BIS but I'll have special permission to sync at work, no IT support provided.
My question is - will syncing the calendar/contacts/tasks get messed up using these 2 different versions of Outlook?

[stevetaz]

Hi corvid:

You should be able to sync with both, but are you going to be simply mirroring the same calendar or are you going to try doing scheduling on both PCs and the BB?

You should pick one as the "Primary" source. Generally that would be a person's work PC simply because more scheduling, meeting invites, etc. are usually done using that one.

The "Secondary" one will be the other and it will be more like a back-up.

If you start to experience errors or conflicts, in the Synchronization Configuration section highlight Calendar and choose Advanced. In the Conflict Resolution menu choose Microsoft Outlook Wins on your Primary and Device Wins on your Secondary.

The only other potential issue may be if the newer 2007 version uses updated or additional fields not found in the 2003 version. If you are only moving current Contacts and Calendar items over it should be fine. If you begin to add new Contact or Calendar items on the Primary using new fields not available in 2003 I am not sure how the sync to 2003 will deal with them.

Just make sure you do a couple of data backups in a few places to be sure you can restore if needed.

Since it is only 2009 my company is still using Outlook and Office 2003 and I will be interested in hearing your thoughts and experiences when you make the change.

[corvid]

No need worry about 2003 vs 2007 it seems. Talked to the division's new and chosen IT support. Outlook 2007 lives on their servers which I will logon to. They will install 2007 on my laptop PC along with the desktop. I will sync with Outlook from either computer through a Microsoft Exchange set up. I'm not sure how this will all work but their only requirement is that my BB is password protected. This is not a usual business but a large medical academic institution with various and unrelated IT support departments within. As long as it works. I'll let you know what happens.

Anything I should watch out for? The IT guy was a bit fuzzy about the BB.

[stevetaz]

The Exchange setup should be fine and you really shouldn't have any major issues. An IT Guy fuzzy about BlackBerrys?

Hmmmm....

I am assuming you will not have to worry about IT Policies since they aren't installing a BES server and that is good for your personal device.

Since you will be connecting to the same Exchange server with both machines the source for both will be the same and the issue of 2003 vs 2007 is also gone so you should be good to go....