palm to blackberry 8830 conversion

[pncboy]

As a brand new user of the 8830, I am still scratching my head quite a bit. Is there ANYway to transfer my contacts and calendar from my Palm desktop (based on Palm not Outlook) to the 8830? I was hoping there would at least be a calendar conduit to allow me the option of entering the data via my PC. When I opened the Blackberry Device Manager, much to my surprise, I did not see any ability to input anything. Please tell me there is another way to input information into the 8830 besides using the little phone keyboard. Thanks and hopefully.

[ADGrant]

You should be able to sync with Outlook so your best bet would be to sync your Treo with outlook first and then sync the BB.

[pncboy]

1. The conversion is done. I had to purchase Outlook 2007 and Pocket Mirror. Pocket Mirror was a painless and completely reliable transfer process to Outlook. I could not use the Blackberry Desktop mangager as my Palm 700P had died and Verizon reposessed the same. Hence, I needed to transfer from the Plam Desktop to Outlook and from Outlook to the BB.

2. Blackberrys are no Palms but they seem to be a lot more stable. I must say the tech support at Palm and Rimm and Verizon were all less than NO help on this problem. Since the conversion, RIMM is the only one who knows what they are doing. Verizon is pretty much worthless (obviously IMNHO)

[PHibon]

Hello pncboy,

Do you use the BB Enterprise Server?
I currently have a BB 8800. If you use your BB with an Enterprise Server, your BB will automatically sync with Outlook over GPRS or other network. So, you first should sync your Palm with Outlook as ADGrant indicated. The BB Enterprise Server will do the rest.
The BB Desktop Manager is only used for setting up your BB, nothing else. Once your device is configured you will rarely use the Desktop Manager.
Don’t forget to speak to your network admins to get you hooked up to the Enterprise Server. And you’ll need to have the BB services activated on your carrier. Otherwise nothing will happen.

It takes some time to get used to a BB, but you'll love it. Just keep in mind that it is not a PDA. It will do a perfect job with email, agenda and contacts. Don't try any other fancy stuff. I have bought a TX to complement the BB.

[pncboy]

Thanks for your response and advice. I was under the impression that I was NOT to select/use the enterprise server if I was an inidividual user. As such, I did set up my email, a BB account and such but I have NOT yet done anything with the Enterprise server. I have been trying to discern ways to back up my contact information on the SD chip in the event my pc based Outlook crashes. Any other advice or persepctive is appreciated very much.
Thanks.
C. Layfield

[ADGrant]

You will not be able to use a BES server unless you sign up for a hosting service which would cost another $20-$30 a month. Some cellphone companies will also force you onto a more expensive data plan but I don't think Verizon does this.

You should be able to continue using the Blackberry Desktop software to back up your contacts to Outlook. You can backup the Outlook pst file using any PC backup software.