Please Help! Outlook Advice Needed

[DalesWife]

I've had the 6800 for nearly two years, but I'm afraid I don't use it to it's full capacity...just a bit technically challenged. This site is a wealth of information - I come here before ever even trying to call Sprint! You're all so smart - so please forgive my ignorance here:

PPC 6800 w/wm6.1
Syncs to HP laptop w/XP & Outlook 2007

I just don't understand OUTLOOK at all. I mean, I know it's a calendar/contacts/tasks "list" of sorts, but I don't get the benefit of running your email through it. Then, if your computer crashes, all your emails are stuck in Outlook, right? Rather than just going directly to the website and accessing your emails? Seems like a lot of work to me.

So, I sync my 6800 to my laptop simply to keep Contacts/Tasks/Calendar and Programs consistent. As far as my email, I have a paid POP3 from my own website with GoDaddy. For the past two years, it's been great, I hook the 6800 up to the laptop and all my contacts/appointments/programs, etc syncs to the phone.

But I never ran my email through the phone, since on my laptop I don't run my email through Outlook - I go directly to my GoDaddy account and check it/delete it as I need to. Problem is, I would end up having to put every email address in separately, enter it once in my GoDaddy EMail Address Book and then into my Outlook contacts area. Then, in order to send/receive emails, I would have to run them through a separate Sprint email address, which wasn't a hassle because everything worked by sending/receiving automatically once it was set up. Nobody knew I had the Sprint email because it was masked as my GoDaddy email and anybody who replied, it relayed there.

Now I hear that Sprint is eliminating all thier email address in December so I'm not going to be able to do it that way any more. I'm told I have two options, just have GoDaddy EMail come directly to my phone, which is easy enough, but then I still have to enter contact email addresses twice.

Or I can run my email through Outlook. But the problem is I know NOTHING about Outlook, I only use it as a Contacts List and a Calender. I've tried googling, yahooing, everything and I can't find any articles about this. I guess I just don't know if the benefit of only having to enter email addresses once outweighs potentially losing emails if your laptop/desktop crashes/is stolen/is lost, or if there are any other benefits to actually USING Outlook at all. Are there any special add-ins/programs that will make my 6800 more useful to me?

Does this even make sense? Like I said.....just a bit technically challenged. *apologies*

[Geekcop]

Quite a few questions here...anyway, it seems you've been doing twice the work necessary to manage your email. If you use a service such as GMail or Hotmail, then not only can you send/ receive email on your phone, but can also store your contacts on line and only enter them once. Additionally, your email is stored on line. You are correct in that if you store your email in Outlook on your PC, you stand a chance of losing it if the computer crashes. That's yet another good reason to use your phone to manage email. You can then back up your entire phone with programs such as SPB Backup and not worry about your email being lost

[DalesWife]

Thanks so much for helping! I've been researching XP, Vista, WM6.1 and Outlook all day trying to find the answer!

I was told there was no difference in my GoDaddy and Hotmail or GMail - that they are all three POP3. Not that I understand that terminology at all, but that's what I was told! The only reason I chose to pay GoDaddy rather than Hotmail or GMail is that I have a website and my email address is me@mywebsite.com which helps for business purposes.

If I do use Hotmail or GMail, I would assume I'd still have the same problem - I'd enter John Doe's email in the Address Book of my Hotmail, then still have to Add John Doe as a contact (which is the same as using Outlook, entering name, phone, birthday, email, etc). Right?

[frazell]

A proper reply will take a long time so if this isn't long I might have run out of time and will return, at your request, to expand upon any wear areas for you.

There are two widely supported E-Mail Access standards and I'll give a light overview of each one.
POP3 = Post Office Protocol Version 3.0
-Designed for single computer use
-Any email downloaded would (by default) be deleted from the server upon downloading to the computer/phone/etc.

IMAP = Internet Message Access Protocol
-Designed for the modern multiple computer/device world
-Access across all devices are "synced" so you have a consistent experience on all devices.

If you want access to your E-Mail on both your cell phone and your computer you should setup your Outlook as well as your Phone to access GoDaddy's servers via IMAP (if supported).

There is no need to switch to GMail (which I wouldn't trust with any real information) or any other email provider as long as GoDaddy supports IMAP.

[DalesWife]

This answer really, really helps! I always thought it was a pain to have to delete the message from my handset then go to my computer to delete the email message.

I can change to IMAP, where ever I delete a message, the first time, that's it - it's deleted. Correct?

Simply changing my email to IMAP (which is available, and I agree, I extremely dislike both Hotmail and GMail) and NOT running the GoDaddy IMAP email through Outlook will still result in my having to add my email addresses twice, correct? Once in my GoDaddy IMap Address book as well as in the Outlook Contacts area which will be synced to my phone? Without running email through Outlook, there is no way to stop duplicating my work and wasting time, right? If I DO run through Outlook (since my 6800 has bluetooth and my laptop is wireless) will it automatically sync changes or will I still have to sync with a USB? And are there "risks" involved with running my personal email through Outlook on just one computer, which is what seems to be the easiest/most useful way to make use of my "smart"phone?

Sorry for so many questions...I really appreciate you clarifying the difference between these and you've cleared up much of my fogginess as to why I've had to delete the same message so many times. Thanks!

[shannl]

I have a Godaddy email server account and I use Outlook on both my laptop and the Diamond for my email, calendar, and contacts. It is trouble-free if you set it up this way:
1. Laptop POPs email from Godaddy.
2. Laptop Outlook is the contact database master.
3. Diamond Outlook POPs email from same Godaddy account but is set to leave copy of the message on the server. Only last 3 days 500K max.
4. ActiveSync is used to sync contact and calendars with Laptop as master

This way, you never need to use the web account for email or contacts just outlook. The inboxs on both devices will stay in sync. You just need to sync the devices for calendar and contact updates which will be automatic. Just need to make sure you backup the Outlook.pst file in case the laptop crashes.

[DalesWife]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! This is what I will do then. Thanks so much for helping!

PS- sorry for the slow response but i haven't yet set up the email on my phone! now I can finally get that done!

thanks again.