Directory Service

[Bruce]

No idea if this is the right place to ask this. My
company has an e-mail server at another location. The
comapny directory is also located there. When I
configured Outlook 2000 to get addresses from that server,
I found out the server name and other information from the
previous e-mail program and applied those to a new
directory service I added to Outlook through Tools >
Accounts. It works just fine. I tried to do the same
thing on another machine running Outlook 2000, but when I
clicked Tools I could not see Accounts. I saw Services,
which I do not have. We both have Outlook 2000, so I
would expect them to be at least similar. I could not
induce Services to add a Directory Service, perhaps
because I could not figure out what to call it, so could
not select the right thing from the list. Why do two
machines with the same Outlook 2000 have different menus?
I attempted to customize the menu to bring up the missing
command, but could not find it. The only obvious
difference is that I have the old interface and the other
machine has the XP interface (both are XP Professional
machines), but I can't imagine why appearance would change
functionality. Does anybody know what gives? Is this
a "feature"?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

Outlook 2000 has two different mail configuration modes. See
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/choosingmode.htm for information on how to
change and what you'll lose.

 

[Bruce]

Thanks for the input, and thanks also for the link, which
contains a wealth of information. I am sure that the
other computer is in Corporate/Workgroup mode. If I
understand correctly, there is no need to configure a
directory services server in CW mode, as a directory
service (in this case the company-wide directory) is part
of such an installation. I doubt I will lose anything by
switching to the misleadingly named Internet Mail only, as
there are not currently any Exchange folders on display.

 

[Bruce]

Unfortunately I could not make the necessary changes.
When I tried to do so I was told I needed to log on as
Administrator, so I got the administrator to log me on.
However, once there I couldn't start Outlook without all
kinds of error messages about default folders not being
found. I doubt it would have mattered in any case, since
apparently I would be configuring the administrator's e-
mail account. So the problem is that I cannot configure
the e-mail because I am not the administrator, but if I am
logged on as administrator I cannot configure the e-mail
because it is the wrong account. Reinstallation in
Internet Mail mode seems to be the only way out.
Unfortunately the company-wide network was set up some
while ago with Netscape Messenger, which is about as poor
an e-mail program as I have ever seen. I am being too
kind: It is garbage. We waste endless hours manually
archiving messages that need to be saved, but the default
options for installing Outlook preclude using a directory
server, so even when Outlook is installed as part of
Office it is useless in terms of accessing the company
directory because of the CW mode. I have been given more
options than most on my computer, so I forget about these
administrator limitations until I try to make changes.
The administrator, by the way, is no help with this. He
is the administrator by default, and while he manages the
server, etc. well enough, he does not really know how to
configure applications.