Outlook 2003 Public Folders Content/Cosmetic Changes for All Users

[Deke]

We are running Exchange Enterprise (2003), all clients have Outlook 2003, SP2
and users are creating public folders and having this problem.

Basically an administrator created a Public Folder for Contacts. Permissions
are set so Everyone/Anonymous has default Owner permissions. This public
folder, named FolderX, is being modified by one user.

The types of modifications are column/field name changes (such as from Full
Name to Test Name, custom categories names, etc.). The problem is that when
one person makes these changes, they are not reflected to other users who are
looking at it.

The same goes for when a user changes a field from text to numerical, etc.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

To force users to see a custom view when they open a public folder:

-- Create the custom view, choosing the "On this folder, visible to everyone" option.

-- Choose View | Current View | Define Views. Select the desired view, and click Publish. At the bottom of that dialog, check the box for "Only show views created for this folder."

-- On the folder's Properties dialog, on the Administration tab, select your view as the Initial View on Folder.

ALso, you may want to run a macro to set the LockUserChanges property to True for each custom view you create. That will prevent users from keeping their own cached custom copies of the view.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Deke]

Ahh Sue thank you very much. You wouldn't happen to have instructions on how
to create a Macro for: LockUserChanges would you?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

VBA basics are at http://www.outlookcode.com/d/vbabasics.htm . Use a subroutine like this that you can call from the Immediate window or another subroutine to pass the name of the view.

Sub LockView(viewName as String)
Dim objFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim objView As Outlook.View
Set objFolder = GetFolder(<path to folder>)
Set objView = objFolder.Views(viewName)
If Not objView Is Nothing Then
objView.LockChanges = True
objView.Save
End If
Set objView = Nothing
Set objFolder = Nothing
End Sub

where GetFolder() is the function described at http://www.outlookcode.com/d/code/getfolder.htm. Usage also described there.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers