well, going back to the start..... i had addresses and calendar in Outlook 2000 on my old computer, and i believe earlier this year i saved all data on a cd, w/an outlook.pst file/folder. when i tried to install O2003, i encountered registry problems and, after many attempts, w/the help of justanswer expert, had to do a complete system recovery and started from scratch. voila, i could finally install O2003!

so, what was once Outlook 2000 data, now became Vista's Windows Contacts and Windows Calendar. (i didn't know at the time that I would need O 2003 or I would have imported directly from O2000 to O2003.) i tried to import from both the cd (O2000 data) and from the desktop pc's Windows Contacts into Outlook 2003. i encountered problems w/the cd, it said that my access was denied, needed permission. when i checked under properties, the cd said it was 'read only.' i tried repeatedly to uncheck this and import again, w/no luck. the checkmark kept reappearing. giving up on the cd, i was unable, up until today, to figure out how to export from Windows Contacts into Outlook 2003. i first exported a .csv (Windows)-formatted file from WContacts to my download folder (i think this was per W help). then i imported this file from Outlook 2003. i hope this answers your question (i figured too much info is better than not enough!)

wow, i can't believe how easy that was! unfortunately, i chose to allow duplicates, so now i have to delete, one by one, all the entries from the earlier attempt (!)

to answer your question, yes, i think my 2000 pst file has most of the contacts. i probably should have made an updated cd copy (I still have my old computer and pda set up until all of my computer problems have been solved). i guess if i do that now, if i select the choice that doesn't allow duplicates, i can get any updates to contacts that i may have on my old pda (which i'm still using until i get these kinks solved), right?

now for the secondary question i posted: as i make additions, changes, whatever on my new pda and want to synch to my desktop, is there an easy way i can update both the Vista programs (Windows Contacts and/or Calendar) and the Outlook files?

for some reason, i could not burn another copy of O2000. i tried twice, ea time it said 'error reading file.' so, i may have to go item by item in each file and compare old info to new info to make my O2003 be current. sigh.

pls do answer the other part of my question re future changes, ok? (i assume you're offline now, altho it says the opposite, and that is why you haven't responded)