Is there a way to use a google calendar and outlook exchange without completely mixing the two and can they be synced differently on different computers?

January 21, 2008 7:12 AM

Is there a way to use a google calendar and outlook exchange without completely mixing the two and can they be synced differently on different computers?

I have a work computer and a home computer (both Windows XP). At home I use google calendar. At work they use outlook exchange. I am now in the market for a PDA phone. I am looking at both WM6 Pro and Palm. I will probably end up with the palm but I am not sure at the moment. (I have unlimited data on my phone if that makes a difference.) Ok... those are all the background details.

Here is the question: I want the PDA to only partially sync with my work computer and completely sync with my home computer. Meaning I want my calendar/schedule from work to upload to the PDA but I don't want my personal address book or other information to be saved to the work computer. At the same time, when I sync at home, I want my personal calendar on the PDA also. I want both calendars to be visible on the PDA but when I go back and sync it at work, I don't want my personal calendar to be synced with my office computer. Is there a way to do this? Can calendars be kept separately? Also, to do this, is it preferable to use WM over Palm OS or vice versa?

posted by D Wiz to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Do you need to be able to add/edit Outlook appointments from your PDA? If not, then you can explore the various sync tools in this thread to do a one-way sync from Outlook to Google Calendar. Then just sync your PDA to the Google Calendar.
posted by junesix at 10:13 AM on January 21, 2008

Thanks. That might work, though I'm not sure. My main problem is that I want two separate calendars and I want them to stay separate. I want them to both be viewable (and preferably editable) on the PDA but as far as syncing them, I want them to sync with separate sources. I'm not sure if those solutions will do that or not. I'll have to spend a day or two trying to figure it out.

(Another problem is that my google calendar is actually made up of multiple calendars. If I could sync them all that would be great. However, I would be happy if I could figure out a way to at least sync my main google calendar.)
posted by D Wiz at 11:02 AM on January 21, 2008

Per comments in Junesix's link, and this previous MeFi thread, GSyncit can do the syncing.
posted by tdischino at 11:30 AM on January 21, 2008

I use Plaxo to sync Outlook and GCal, then spanning sync to get gcal to my powerbook, and gcal sync on my blackberry to get it there.
posted by senseigmg at 12:13 PM on January 21, 2008

tdischino-

A number of people including yourself (in the other thread) complain about gsyncit not working correctly. Is this still the case?
posted by D Wiz at 12:47 PM on January 21, 2008

D Wiz,

Great point. I was about to throw this software out the window when I posted in that thread (theres a pun in there, window(s), software, aw forget it), but the last few versions have improved dramatically and seem much more stable. From my experience, Dave seems very attentive to reported issues, and he will usually release a new build relatively quickly. Although, I would probably not rely on it for anything mission critical until I experienced stability for a few more months.

Take a gander at the release notes to get an idea of the issues that have come up.

FWIW, i'm using OL2003.
posted by tdischino at 4:48 PM on January 21, 2008