Creating common Address Book w/out ES

[Curtis Vaughan]

The posts below are provided in chronological order (oldest at the
bottom working up). I would really appreaciate any insight anyone might
have on this issue:

Curtis Vaughan


Post2
Here's my original post back in August about the problems with LDAP. I
remember somebody replied that I could not do what I wanted to do. But
I can't seem to find that response.

We have Outlook 2003 which is set up to query an outside LDAP server.
Many email clients when querying this server will begin to show you
possible names as you enter the person to whom you wish to send the
letter. That is, say I wish to send a letter to John Downing. I don't
know John's email address, but I know it's on that LDAP server. So I
start typing in Joh.. and I get a list of all names and addresses that
have the combination of joh in them.
I have never seen Outlook (any version) be able to do this. In fact in
my case even if I enter joh, it won't show me possible options from the
LDAP server, even if I click on the Check Names icon. Only if I entered
the full name John Downing will it then show me his entry in the LDAP
server. That's absurd.
I can of course query the LDAP server another way. I have to go to
address book, choose the LDAP server, click on Advanced, then Find, then
enter the letters to query by. The search will then pull up a list of
possibilities.
Also, a lot of email clients will let me enter an asterick in order to
query the entire LDAP database, but Outlook won't.

Is there any way to get the functionality that I am referring to in Outlook?

Curtis

What didn't work with LDAP? That's the only native, real-time

solution in the environment you describe.


---------

Post1
We have a number of users using Outlook 2003 on a W2K Advanced Server
through Terminal Services. I need to create some address books that can
be accessed by everyone, but only modified by the administrator (myself)
but without an Exchange Server.

Although we have an LDAP server, Outlook doesn't work well with it.
I also tried sharing out a Contact Folder that I created, but that won't
work, as I understand, when there is no Exchange Server.
So, here is one solution I have been pursuing, but which solution
doesn't seem to work well.

I created the Address Book. Then I exported it to a Template folder that
everyone has access to. Then I copied those files over to the Briefcase
on each person's Desktop. From there I entered them as Archived Folders
for each person. The idea being that if I make any changes to the
Address Book, I save it to the Template folder, then when a user needs
to update their Address Book (which is in an Archive Folder), they chose
to update it in the Briefcase and then open Outlook. It works, but this
is a very clumsy solution.

I would really be interested in ideas people have to resolve this problem!

Thanks!

Curtis

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The LDAP server will be used to resolve names only if you set it up in the
address book options as one of the address lists used for name resolution:
Tools | Address Book, then Tools | Options. It's worked for me.

 

[Curtis Vaughan]

Believe me. It's in there and it works. But it works only in the way I
have described earlier.

The other unfortunate matter is that users want to see an immediate list
when they click on the To: button when composing a letter. LDAP doesn't
provide such an instant listing in Outlook. I've also found that if I do
a search on the LDAP and come up with a couple of names, then I can get
a listing of those cached(?) names when I bring up the Address Book and
chose the LDAP server from the list, but in order to find other people I
have to again submit a query.

Of course, I can enter information about the user in the To: line and
then click the Check Names icon, but this seems too convoluted for our
users (as I have explained this to them time and again, but they just
keep forgetting, or just don't want to use it).

So, I know return to the other option which is to create an address book
that is either synchronized or shared by everyone.

Do you have any ideas?

Curtis

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Other approaches are listed at
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/groupcontacts.htm for starters.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Curtis Vaughan]

Which is exactly where I got the idea for using Briefcase as the solution.

 

[Curtis Vaughan]

Sue,

I see on your website suggestion for using an Access database. This
seems plausible and interesting. If this will work then I will pursue
the idea. All I want to be sure of is that it will solve the problem at
hand.

I want the clients to be able to access the data: (First and Last Name,
Position, Company, Tel. numbers, Email address, etc.) but not able to
change it. Only the administrator should be able to change the
information. Also, the contacts should pop up immediately when pushing
the To: button when compose a letter.

If not an Access database, perhaps you know of some other solutions?

Curtis

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Other shared address book solutions are listed at
http://www.slipstick.com/addins/groupcontacts.htm