Setup Contacts and Notes in Outlook to Sync

Last updated - January 31, 2002

How to assign Contacts and Notes folders in Outlook to sync to the REX 6000

Network user's reminder: "When you are configuring the sync software you have to be connected to your Outlook and be online. If you working in Outlook offline you cannot configure. Because if you plan to this on the plane, at home, in the couch... it will not work." (From Phillip)

It should be easier than this, but it ain't, unfortunately. Follow the steps below.

Inesrt your REX 6000 into your cradle or PCCARD slot.
Start Intellisync for REX. Looks like this:
Select the "Configure" button. The following screen will appear. In this case, many settings are already in place, as I have already set up syncing previously.
You first select the types of items you want to sync by clicking in the check-boxes on the left of the above dialog next to each item type. (Note - In this case, I have already selected all item types for syncing to the REX 6000 in a previous session.) For each item type (Contact, Memo, etc.) you will need to select the "Choose" button to tell Intellisync which application to get that information from. In this case (since I've already done all of this setup previously), below the "Choose" button on the dialog below you can see "MS Outlook" and the phrase "1 Folder(s) Mapped." That means that for the highlighted item (Contact) I have selected Outlook as my sync source. But let's assume you are doing this for the first time, or adding additional Outlook folders to your sync. So to do that your next step would be to select the "Choose" button on the Configuration dialog above.
The "Choose Translator" dialog (below) appears. Strange name - all they really want to know is "What PIM do you want us to get the contact information from, and sync to, in the future." Since I've installed Yahoo Intellisync for Yahoo (more on that here on our web site) I have several options. In this case I use Outlook so I selected that.
If you simply select a PIM and click "OK" on the above dialog, only the primary Contacts folder from Outlook would be sync'd to the REX - in most cases that would mean that your "Contacts" folder would sync, but any other contacts sub-folders you have created in Outlook would not be sync'd to the REX. To get those other folders to sync you need to select the "Browse" button after selecting your PIM. That brings up the "Map REX6000 Contact Folder(s)" dialog.
The above dialog displays. In this case it reads "Contacts <-> 3 folder(s) Mapped" since I've already done this before. If you were working with adding Notes folders from Outlook, the line would say "Notes <-> x folders mapped." In either case, the "X" tells you how many folders you currently had mapped for that item. Now you need to double-click on the "Contacts" line, or select the "Browse" button again. That brings up the "Choose Contacts Folder(s)" dialog below. Yeah!! Pay dirt - we've struck gold (finally)
When this dialog first appears the directory tree is collapsed - all it says is "+" next to "Personal Folders." You click on the "+" signs on next to the folders to expand the tree to view all your folders. Then click once on the folder you want to add (in this case you would be adding Contacts folders) and then select the "Add" button to add them to your sync. In the dialog above the folder that is bolded in the "Selected Folders" list is the default folder. That's the folder where Intellisync for REX will place any new contacts you created on the REX. This is important - see below.

Intellisync for REX has no way of knowing what Outlook folder you want new contacts or memos placed in the first time they are sync'd from the REX to Outlook. Intellisync for REX sets the first folder you select as your default folder. You can change that setting by highlighting any of the folders in the "Selected Folder(s)" section of the dialog and clicking on the "Default" button. Intellisync for REX sets a default folder for all types of objects (calendar entries, notes, tasks, contacts) that are setup to sync with the REX.

The default folder concept is important for Outlook users, because that is where Intellisync for REX will place any new items that are created on the REX. So in case above, if I create a new contact on the REX, it will be placed in my "Contacts" folder, since that is my default folder. So this means that if you sort contacts using folders in Outlook, and create new contacts on your REX, you may have to move them from your default Outlook folder to the correct Outlook folder after sync. For example, if I created a new work contact on my REX and sync'd to Outlook, the work contact would go in my "Contacts" folder, where I keep my personal contact records. After sync I would need to find and move that record to my "Work" folder manually. Once in the correct folder, Intellisync for REX will keep it there.

Whether this is a big or small deal depends on whether you use folder in Outlook, how often you create new contacts and memos on the REX, and how important is is that they are organized in the correct folder. At the least it is an inconvenience, at the worst it could be quite a pain in the rear to keep things organized as you wish.

After you have selected your folders you can "OK" your way out of the dialogs. Repeat this operation for each set of subfolders you want to add to your sync (for Notes or Tasks, for example), and you're done!

An important addition to the steps above (thanks, Karl!):

"...I think I may have failed to clearly highlight the fact that even after doing the steps described on your Help site I wasn't successful synching with Outlook until I accidentally stumbled onto one other incremental step. After which the synchronization with Outlook seemd to behave as expected. I don’t have any calendars, contact, memos or tasks in sub-folders; i.e. the only instance of each are children of the parent "Personal Folders". Thus in going through the steps described on your site, I had only one entry in the "Selected Folders" list, and it was bold. Further, the "Default" button was not active / available (i.e. it was 'grayed out'). By all indications, the one folder shown was the default folder. But, the synch didn't work. So, I tried repeating everything. And, just for fun I double-clicked on the single bolded entry in the "Selected Folders" list. When I did that, a message box with an [Okay] button appeared. The message displayed on the box said “In selecting this as the Default folder, you are choosing to transfer records originating in the Rex6000 xxxxx folder to this folder during synchronization” (where xxxxx contained the name of the respective Rex application - Calendar, Contacts, Notes or Tasks). For some strange reason, Outlook synced okay (except on the calendar - see below) after the described extra step. The calendar did get further along in the synch process after the double-click exercise but crashed on record 167 of 631. I never figured out just which of my older calendar entries caused it to crash. After deleting over 300 old meetings and events it synched up fine. I would have liked to have known just which one was the problem but I wasn't patient enough to delete them one by one and retry synching each time (grin)."

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