A better USB method
I think Phil Rodgers has the right idea. The only way I could ever find of moving data from my office desk machine to my laptop was the export-then-import approach. But to avoid duplicating data I had to open every folder on the laptop and delete everything in it first. Even then, Outlook would do weird stuff. One-day all-day events would somehow inexplicably become two-day events. And just which of those two days is the birthday on? or the trade show? (The work-around is to type the date into the task name, but if you use all-day events for hard landscape tasks and deadlines--as David Allen suggests--you get a real mish-mash). The upshot is that you give up on having your outlook data on more than one computer. (I thought I could use my Palm to sync between the two but even Palm tech support says that you can't do that. The Palm has to sync with one dedicated computer.) I don't know why Microsoft has never made it easier to synchronize Outlook data between two computers; something many of us would find very useful. Perhaps there is a way and I'm just not savvy enough to know how to do it, but I've looked and never found one.
Mr. Rodgers has the right idea. But an even better idea would seem to be one of the Migo USB thumb drives that I read about in Newsweek a few days ago (4migo.com). They're pricey, but they have embedded software to synchronize Outlook files (and presumably any other files). So all of your Outlook files remain on your home base computer and map to the Migo. You can then insert the Migo into any other computer that has Outlook and it becomes a virtual copy of your home base computer. Do whatever work you need to do, remove the Migo (it will leave no traces behind) and when you plug it back into the home base computer it will synchronize your Outlook files. Perfect!
The panel went out on my old Compaq laptop last week and since the cost of a new panel is nearly as high as a new laptop, it will not be repaired. But I will probably never own a laptop again. After reading Marc Ochant and Michael Hyatt here and elsewhere, I believe that a tablet PC would be a much more useful portable computer for my needs. But before I buy one of those, I can--for a fraction of the cost of a tablet or laptop--buy a new desk computer to put at the house, with a full-size keyboard and enough muscle and a monitor large enough to do serious graphic work. My wife can have her e-mail, calendar, contacts, and whatever else she wants in Outlook; and when I plug in a Migo it will become my machine, with all of my Outlook files... plus a duplicate set of all of the critical files from my business. (I've been using re-writable CDs as my only backups but recently learned how fragile they can be.)
