Filtering Address Book Entries During Synchronization with PIM Applications

In Chapter 5, you learned about the BlackBerry desktop software, which uses Intellisync to synchronize information on your BlackBerry with information on your PIM applications, such as Lotus Notes, Outlook, Netscape, and so forth. I won’t repeat the usage information here, but I do want to call your attention to the filtering functions that are available when synchronizing address book data between the BlackBerry and a PIM application.

The filtering feature allows you to prevent the synchronization of some address book field options. For example, let’s say that you are using Lotus Notes, but you do not want some items in your PIM application to transfer to the BlackBerry. You can use the filtering functions to prevent the transfer of this kind of data.

In order to set up filters, you must first configure the BlackBerry Intellisync software to synchronize with the PIM application of your choice. See Chapter 5 for step-by-step instructions. Once the PIM application has been selected, visit the Advanced properties pages. Open the BlackBerry desktop software and double-click Intellisync. Next, click the Configure PIM button. This opens the Configuration dialog box showing which PIM applications your BlackBerry is configured to synchronize with. Select the Address Book option, shown in Figure 8-5, click the Configure button, and then select the Advanced Settings option.

Figure 5: Click Configure

You’ll see the Advanced Settings for Address Book dialog box. Click the Filters tab. As you can see in Figure 8-6, no filters are selected in this window by default. Depending on what PIM application you are using, some option may already be available to you; regardless, you can easily create new filters as needed. Before doing so, make sure you back up your BlackBerry, just in case something goes wrong.

Figure 6: Click the Filters tab

See “How to…Create an Address Book Filter” to learn how to create a new filter.

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Create an Address Book Filter

To create a new address book filter, just follow these steps:

1. On the Filters tab, click the New button.

2. In the Filter Name dialog box, enter a friendly, recognizable name for the filter that you want to create. For example, I do not want body information, or “Notes” as it’s called in Outlook 2000, to be transferred to the BlackBerry. If you’re not sure what fields you want to create filters for, click the Field Mapping button on the Filters tab to see how BlackBerry address book entries are mapped to entries in your PIM application. Enter the name of your filter and click OK.

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3. In the dialog box that appears, make sure the Conditions tab is selected. You have a few actions to perform here:

a. First, click the Field drop-down menu and select the field for which you want to create a filter. The field names will vary, depending on your desktop PIM application. You can see that I have selected Body because I do not want any body text, or notes, to be transferred to the BlackBerry.

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b. Next, choose an operator value for the filter. Your options are “starts with,” “contains,” “does not contain,” “equals,” “does not equal,” “is empty,” “is not empty,” and “is between.” Since I do not want any body information transferred, I am selecting “is not empty.” This setting tells Outlook not to transfer information for entries in which this field is not empty.

c. Depending on your value selection, you may need to enter a value in the Value field as well. For example, if you use the “starts with” operator, you need to enter the value for the filter, which can be a letter or combination of letters, depending on what you want to filter.

d. Click the Add to List button and repeat the process, adding more operators and values as needed for this particular filter.

4. Click the Rules tab to see the options shown next. By default, the “all rules must be met” option is selected, and you see your filter configuration listed. If you have only one operator, you don’t need to do anything here. If you have more than one operator or value, you can determine if all conditions (all operators and values) must be met before the filter is applied, or if only one condition must be met before the filter is applied. Once you’re done, click OK. This returns you to the Filters window, and your new filter is selected for use. You can return to this window and edit or delete the filter at any time.

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