Calendar app questions, help a noob out :)

Another few noob questions for you folks....

I'm using an 8330 Curve on VZ BIS. My primary email address is a hotmail address. I also have all my contacts listed in there. Is there a way to merge the contacts in the BB and the contacts in hotmail?

My next question has to do with calendars... I would like to take advantage of the calender function on the BB but I want to be able to type stuff in online and then sync it to the BB. I have tried to research GoogleSync but I don't get it, does that sync a Google Calendar with Outlook and then to the BB? Do I always have to use Outlook or is there another all encompassing program?

Years ago I had a Handspring and the desktop SW had it's own calendar program that you could use but I don't see one within the DM. I have some stuff (birthdays and such) in my hotmail/msn calendar, does that sync with the BB?

I'm not tied to anyone calendar program at this time, I can start fresh but I just want some help. All I want to do is to be able to type in appts and stuff online, then sync it with the BB. Suggestions? TIA.

BlackBerry 101 How-To Lecture Series | CrackBerry.com

did you try reading this?

Originally Posted by kstoutdog

BlackBerry 101 How-To Lecture Series | CrackBerry.com

did you try reading this?

I am about half way thru the Lecture Series, lots of great info there! The only heading I saw that might give some insight into this issue is the How to Sync With Outlook title but I'm not sure that will help me. I'm not currently using Outlook and I think I only have Outlook Express on my laptop.

So will I always be bound to Outlook or is there some other program? Anyone know if Outlook Express functions the same way?

I don't even have Outlook on my laptop and I use googlesync...I just type in my appts on my google calendar and then on my BB I go into googlesync (I downloaded it) and just hit sync.

I use google sync for both my calendar and my contacts. If ever my phone loses the calendar and contact information, at least I can do a google sync and get everything back instead of rushing back to my computer. I LOVE IT and I wouldn't trade it for anything!:D

Yes, google sync is good. The calendar sync is excellent - 0 complaints. It messes up some contact fields a little but I can live with that. Its nothing earth shattering. I've noticed that it makes come "office" addresses into "home" address as a single field (i.e. Street, city, state & zip are in a single field vs individual fields as they were before I synced them).

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My follow-up question to this is: I currently have a list of contacts in Google and I also have the contact list on my phone. If I set up Google sync to sync my contacts will it add the Google contacts to the same "address book" on my BB with all my phone contacts? Second part to that question; what if I have a Mike Jones contact on my phone, with his phone number, and Mike Jones in my Google contacts with his email address and address, etc. Will it merge the two or will I end up with duplicates? Is there an easier way to merge all of this stuff? TIA.