Merge Public Contact with Personal

[Lotusecho]

Hi. I'll try to explain this as clearly as possible:
We are using Exchange Server and Outlook 2003. We have a Public Contacts
folder and every individual on the system has a personal contact folder. What
my boss wants me to do is merge all of lists together. The hard part is, he
wants the personal contact folder to automatically 'sync' with the Public
Contacts Folder, so that our users won't have to browse as much to bring up
the master contact list. Right now we're running into problems where everyone
has a few contacts folders (I don't know how they're even doing this!) and
adding names on their personal accounts so no one else can see them. I am not
a system admin, I'm just the graphic designer, so I am pretty lost at all of
this.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Hi. I'll try to explain this as clearly as possible:
We are using Exchange Server and Outlook 2003. We have a Public
Contacts folder and every individual on the system has a personal
contact folder. What my boss wants me to do is merge all of lists
together. The hard part is, he wants the personal contact folder to
automatically 'sync' with the Public Contacts Folder, so that our
users won't have to browse as much to bring up the master contact
list.

Does he want the public data to flow to each person's personal contacts? If
so he's nuts to want to create such massive duplication of the data.
There's no reason why people can't use a public Contacts folder as is. If
he wants personal contacts to flow to the public folder, silly to have
someone's Aunt Mabel's contact information publically available.

That said, there are folder synchronization tools you can buy. Start here:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.asp#tools . "Public SyncTool" is one
tool that can do the job, according to its description. "ShareO" may as
well (http://shareo.4team.biz/?pcode=409220071fmbb2r) . I'm sure there are
others, too.

 

[Nikki Peterson [MVP-Outlook]]

Another option is to make the Public Folder Contacts show
in each of the clients address book. This only costs time.

- Now, right click on the Contacts folder.
- Select the Properties command from the resulting context menu.
- When you do, you’ll see the folder’s properties sheet.
- Now, select the properties sheet’s Outlook Address Book tab.
- Verify that the Show This Folder As An E-Mail Address Book
check box is selected.

The final phase of the configuration procedure must be performed
for each user.
- Select the Services command from Outlook’s Tools menu.
- When the Services properties sheet appears, select the Addressing tab.
- The Addressing tab allows you to configure which address list you
want the user to see by default. The default choice is the
global address list, but you can specify your public folder instead
if you like.
- While you’re on the Addressing tab, you must also add the public
folder to the list of address lists by using the Add button.
- After adding the public folder to the list, you can use the up and
down arrow icons to arrange the order of the list. By doing so, you
can control the the order that Outlook checks address lists in when
sending out mail.

Nikki