[Mark Rejhon]

Hi,

Not often I ask questions like these, but I am reconfiguring my whole BlackBerry synchronization setup.

I've got a dilemma about synchronizing birthdays. I'd like to be able to update birthdays in Microsoft Outlook and on my BlackBerry for my personal addressbook. Since the Birthday field in Outlook cannot be mapped to a user field.

Birthday reminders can be added by Outlook (annual recurring reminder), however, I'd like to be able to look them up on my BlackBerry too, a little more easily.

I lost my birthday data once, when I had to restore Outlook from the BlackBerry, but I would like to be able to backup the birthday information.

Has anybody here come to a solution for this?

Perhaps third party utility or Outlook VBScript to synchronize between Outlook birthday field and Outlook user field? (user fields are supported on both BlackBerry and Outlook, but the birthday date must be converted to text for storage into a user field)

[dyzs]

Set the birthday as a recurring event in your calendar. It will be searchable, and when you open the event it will say when the start of the event was i.e. the year of birth.

Secondly, if you go into advanced setting in configure PIM in BB desktop it allows you to map the birthday field to any field of your choice. Where are you having a field mapping issue with this?

[Mark Rejhon]

I can't. It says "User Defined Field _ cannot be mapped to field Birthday".

Birthday fields are a different data type (DATE format) than User Defined Fields (STRING format).

Are you saying there is a workaround?

Alternatively, is there a way to tell Outlook to automatically setup the recurring reminders for all people who have a birthday?

[Nsupporter]

edited

[dyzs]

Originally Posted by Mark Rejhon

I can't. It says "User Defined Field _ cannot be mapped to field Birthday".

Birthday fields are a different data type (DATE format) than User Defined Fields (STRING format).

Are you saying there is a workaround?

Alternatively, is there a way to tell Outlook to automatically setup the recurring reminders for all people who have a birthday?

1) First drag the user defined field of your choice down the list until it hovers over birthday. It will then swap fields giving you birthday in your user field.

2) As far as setting up recurring reminders in your calendar, this can easily be accomplished.
In outlook 2003, go to calendar, click new, type the name of the person you want for the birthday, set the event label to birthday (optional), click recurrence, set it to yearly, set the start date of recurrence to the year of birth, no end date, set any other parameters such as start time etc, and there you have a searchable birthday entry in your calendar.

[kirson]

Does option no.1 posted by dyzs actually work? Over the years, since this issue first cropped up with one of the later releases of OS3.7.1, it has not been possible to map birthdays and anniversaries to the user defined fields (humorous note below). I have always tried dragging the birthday field UP ONTO the user defined field. Since I haven't yet escaped from the dark side (still using my much hated Treo650) I can't check this out myself - is it actually possible to drag the user defined field DOWN ONTO the birthday field? This would be a fantastic result, though I must admit I am very skeptical.

Humorous note: in the Blackberry literature for the 7100t, one of the selling points to the masses was that you could sync contacts - and they specifically mentioned that you could even map such events as birthdays and anniversaries to the user defined fields. This was the only example given of using the user defined fields...also turns out those are the only two fields that could not be mapped. Well, it seemed kind of humorous to me...

Ian

[kirson]

I have recently tried the process of dragging the field opposite the User Defined Fields DOWN onto the Birthday field, and the two fields are in fact transposed - however, when you try to click on the space between the User Defined Field and the Birthday in order to add in the syncronizing two headed arrow, the dreaded error message crops up again.

So, it was in-fact too good to be true.

Anyone figure out a good way to sync birthday and anniversary data?

Thanks,
Ian

[Ideasmiths]

Originally Posted by Mark Rejhon

Birthday reminders can be added by Outlook (annual recurring reminder), however, I'd like to be able to look them up on my BlackBerry too, a little more easily.

Has anybody here come to a solution for this?

Perhaps third party utility or Outlook VBScript to synchronize between Outlook birthday field and Outlook user field? (user fields are supported on both BlackBerry and Outlook, but the birthday date must be converted to text for storage into a user field)

Updated on 17 July 2007
I have created a solution to this problem and the guide is at my blog

I have a custom contact form that has all the programming in vbscript added in. Once Outlook 2007 is stablised, I will consider releasing it if anyone wants to take a look

Thanks

[absolved]

I'm very interested in that form! I have a question though, I followed the steps on your blog even tested with the new contact and it works fine, however does this only apply to new contacts?? Aw that would suck if I had to go ahead and enter everyone in all over again. =X

[Ideasmiths]

Originally Posted by absolved

I'm very interested in that form! I have a question though, I followed the steps on your blog even tested with the new contact and it works fine, however does this only apply to new contacts?? Aw that would suck if I had to go ahead and enter everyone in all over again. =X

Sigh, unfortunately that's the best I can do for 'layman' guide. The technical issues with outlook means that yes, it only work for new contacts created. Old information are not 'updated'. This is for a good reason, you don't want to unknowingly change past outlook data (ALL pass data) with something new right? Some people may have used User1 to keep other information.

I did write a program in outlook that can update all the custom user1 with the existing birthdays.

I'll do that project this weekend and post it in my blog. It's a bit tricky to send it to anyone using emails as you need to install the outlook code, outlook will complain about secutiy issues etc. It will be simple enough to follow my guide and do the programming itself (and understanding which code do wat).

Will update this post soon

Updated 17 July 2007
- I have an updated blog, see message 8

[thorny]

How to do it in outlook 2003? Thanks

[Ideasmiths]

Originally Posted by thorny

How to do it in outlook 2003? Thanks

I started out with 2003 last year and now is using 2007. The buttons and toolbars are more or less the same between the 2 versions, they are just slightly different in appearance.

I would suggest that you print out the steps in my blog and then follow it. When each steps come to a button or toolbar to press in 2007, look for something similar in 2003 and it would work the same way.

My apology I don't have 2003 anymore, so I can't put up any pictures here. In my updated blog (2007 version) there is a link to my older blog (2003 version), that may give you some clues where the same buttons are.

[thorny]

Okay, i finally did it. It worked when i add birthday info on PC, which will sync to BB. While if i add birthday info on BB, it will only sync to the user filed in "All fileds" tab, not the "birthday" in Details.

Thanks anyway!

[Ideasmiths]

Just to report guys!

The new Desktop 4.3 has synchronisation for birthday AND anniversary. But still won't show up in BB contact application.

Do a google search and download the new 4.3 from one of the kind guy who are hosting it at 121K/s instead of the official sites at 19k/s

[msingewald]

Originally Posted by Ideasmiths

Just to report guys!

The new Desktop 4.3 has synchronisation for birthday AND anniversary. But still won't show up in BB contact application.

Do a google search and download the new 4.3 from one of the kind guy who are hosting it at 121K/s instead of the official sites at 19k/s

What about the BES users? We are on BES 4.1.0.38 and there is no birthday field in the PIM section. Has this been added to a newer version BES?