Manage your Contacts

Most of us have Contacts spread among many systems and it takes a lot of effort to keep them in sync or they're not in sync and you find yourself re-entering contacts in each system. With the help of Outlook (2003), LinkedIn, Gmail, My Digital Life, and Contact Scrubber for Outlook, I was able to sync a majority of my Contacts.

Here are the steps I used:

1. I downloaded and installed the LinkedIn Toolbar for Outlook. With the toolbar app, I was able to add Contacts from LinkedIn into my Outlook Contacts -- the master list.
2. Then I used TeamScope's Contact Scrubber for Outlook to merge any duplicates that Outlook hadn't already picked up.
3. Next with the help of My Digital Life blog, I exported my Gmail Contacts and imported them into Outlook.
4. Again I used Contact Scrubber for Outlook to merge duplicates.
5. Then with the help of My Digital Life again, I exported my Outlook Contacts and imported them into Gmail.

Notes:

• Contact Scrubber for Outlook is a Trial that works with 1000 contacts or less. I also had to try twice before getting it to install on my XP computer.
• My iPhone keeps sync'd with Outlook, so I had no additional work for my phone.
• Over time Outlook and Gmail will accumulate differing new Contacts, but a repeat of the process will bring them back in sync. (With the new LinkedIn Toolbar, those Contacts will keep in sync with Outlook.)