How to sync IMAP address books - please help a newbie!

[Andrew White]

I'm afraid I just do not get it, how the SyncKolab extention for 
Thunderbird is meant to sync my IMAP email address books. I've spend 
several hours on this and am more and more desperate to get it working 
and get on with the rest of my life!

Background: I'm changing the email on my website from POP to IMAP so as 
to access the emails by webmail and on 2 laptops using Thunderbird. IMAP 
does a great job of syncing folder and emails, but it does not sync the 
address books.

Thunderbird help says to use SyncKolab. Maybe I just do not understand 
something simple, but I cannot make this work.

What SyncKolab does, is to create a new server folder called "contact" 
and then when I upload the address book from Thunderbird, it places 
email-form records in this folder, one per email address. But it does 
not change the server address book, and I cannot see any way to import 
addresses from "contact" folder on the server into the server address book.

Clearly I am missing something, because everyone seems to regard 
SyncKolab as the all-singing, all-dancing answer to address book sync. 
But what? How to get the 3 address books all the same?

Help MUCH appreciated ....

Andrew