[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV ROM Development] hansch:
It involves using PIM Backup, Notepad++, Outlook and Activesync. Very long process though. I'll try to list the steps below. Also, please note that it highly depend on how you keep you phone numbers and other details. If you have commas in your addresses, it may not work. If your phone number is not formatted correctly, it may not work. This is because when you import the contacts from your edited file to Outlook, Outlook changes the phone number format and also files the name as Lastname, Firstname. I found some workarounds but not very straightforward. One last thing, contact pictures will need to be removed in the steps below and cannot be backed up. If you are still interested, read on.

I haven't done any guides or tutorials before so I apologize if the instructions are not well organized or presented. Also, please have a quick read through and if this is not not what you are ready to spend time and effort in doing, then I suggest you follow Yoz's suggestion - still import using PIM Backup but delete and recreate the contacts that you send a lot of sms to. Also, do it at your own risk. I'm not responsible for any loss of details... or sleep. :P

1. Backup your contacts using PIM Backup with the BINARY option UNCHECKED.

2. You should get a xxx.pib file. Using WinZip/WinRAR/7-Zip to extract the content to a separate folder. After extraction, you should have a file that looks like xxx.csc

3. Install Notepad++ if you haven't. Make a copy of the xxx.csc file for backup. Rename the file as xxx.csv. Then right-click on the xxx.csv file and click "Edit with Notepad++". You will see lots of double quotes and semicolons. Basically the xxx.csc file is another variation of the csv - comma separated values. I this case the values are separated using semicolons and text are enclosed by double-quotes.

4. Firstly, in Notepad++ go to file menu "Format" (or press Alt-M) and click "Convert to ANSI". If you don't do this step, Outlook won't import it. (well, at least for me. If it works for you, cool)

5. If you use pictures for your contacts, here's an extra and tricky step. This step will remove all contact pictures from the file. This step is required because Outlook cannot read the file if they are not removed. Press Ctrl-H, then under 'Search Mode' select 'Regular Expression'. For 'Find What', type in "0xff.*0xd9" WITH the double quotes. This step searches for the Hex representation of the contact picture, I think. Then for 'Replace With', type in "" (2 x double-quotes). Instead of replace all, click find next to check whether the search works properly. If it does, click replace. Repeat until all pictures are removed.

6. Then you search for " (one double-quote) and replace with nothing, basically getting rid of the double-quotes so that they do not get imported into Outlooks. Remember to replace all. The use the same process to replace all ; (semicolons) with commas. Save the file and make sure it is a csv file.

7. If you phone number have country codes with "+" then you may need to edit them to have a space in the number or else Outlook with remove the "+". Also, an extra step required is found here. http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversation.aspx?messageid=33956189&threadid=33562417

8. After step 6, the csv editing should be done. Now start MS Outlook. If you are already using outlook for your contacts, please backup your contacts. What I did was create a new PST file and create a new contact folder. Then I cut and pasted all contacts in the contacts folder of the default PST to the new 'backup' PST contact folder. Once you have done this, you should have an empty contacts folder in your default PST. This is required because activesync syncs only the contacts in the main or default PST contact folder.

9. With your contact folder in the default PST selected, go to File>Import & Export. Select "Import from another program or file" and click next. Select "Comma Seperated Values (Windows)" and click next. Browse for the xxx.csv file that you edited and click next. make sure the contact folder in the default PST is selected and click next. Make sure 'Import "xxx.csv" into folder: Contacts' is checked or ticked and click Finish. (you can play with "map custom fields" if you want to).

10. Change the view to phonelist and you should be able to check whether the contacts are imported properly. If you did step 7 properly, your number should be ok. If you use "Firstname Lastname" like me, you will notice that Outlook imported and formated the File As names as "Lastname, Firstname". You will need to run a script to reformat the File As naming. Press Alt-F11, expand Project 1 till you get to ThisOutlookSession. Double-click ThisOutlookSession and copy and paste the following code and then click the 'Play' button. I googled and found the code on this site: http://www.slipstick.com/contacts/file-as.htm

This should format the File As to Firstname Lastname.

11. If you are happy with the details in Outlook, then the next step is just to use activesync to sync your contacts to your phone. If you are not satisfied, you can continue to play around with your csv file and reimport until you are happy with it.

That's pretty much it. If you run into problems, don't hesitate to use Google. Google is your best friend. :) I hope this helps. I know its time consuming but I did it because I'm a bit of a perfectionist and wanted everything done properly. Anyway, best of luck.

Woooh... that was tiring... time for my fingers to rest... :D