Problem categorising 2003 contacts in 2007

[susann]

Our company has around 10 users (secretaries) who are using Office 2007. The
rest of the office is using 2003 (due to a special program we run we is not
yet 07-compatible).

We are having problems when the 2007 users try and categorise the 2003
user's contacts. To clarify:
- each user has their own set of contacts
- both the 2003 and the 2007 users can categorise their own contacts without
issue
- the 2003 users give their secretaries (who are on 2007) permission to edit
their contacts by right clicking on contacts, selecting properties /
permissions and adding them as Publishing Editor.
- this works great except when it comes to the categories (which we use
extensively). The 2007 users can see all the categories that the 2003 user
has set up but is unable to add/edit categories because they do not see them
on their category list. If they go to All Categories and try to create a
category, the Add button etc is all greyed out (i.e. they can't do it).

I remember getting this working a couple of months back but I think SP1 may
have changed things, not sure.

Is there any way at all we can get categories working between the 2003/2007
users?? I have tried so many things but nothing seems to work. It's really
important for us as we're not sure when the 2003 users can come up to 2007!

Thanks for any help
Cheers
Susan

 

[Michael Bauer [MVP - Outlook]]

Susan, but the 2007 user is able to assign an existing category to the
contact, isn't it? To get the same set of categories for all of your users,
you might try Category Manager: With that addin it's easy to synchronize
every user's categories with a central file. It doesn't matter which Outlook
versions are running. For a download please see the link in my signature.

--
Best regards
Michael Bauer - MVP Outlook
Outlook Categories? The Tool:
<http://www.vboffice.net/product.html?id=2006063&cmd=detail&lang=en&pub=6>

Am Mon, 4 Feb 2008 16:42:00 -0800 schrieb susann:

 

[susann]

No they can't assign any categories. The categories are showing as "Category
Example - Not on master category list".

We are not bothered about using category manager to set up the same
categories for everyone - everyone has these categories already. It's just
the 2003/2007 interaction that is causing the problem. I even gave the 2007
user "owner" permissions to the 2003 user's contacts and that initially
worked but when I restarted Outlook, had the same problem again...

 

[Michael Bauer [MVP - Outlook]]

Michal Bednarz discovered this:

"When User1 (OL07) has the "Full mailbox access" right to the User2's (OL03)
mailbox (set in AD), then he can create and delete the User2's categories
(but he can't rename them)."

OL07 stores the Master Category List in the mailbox' calendar, but OL03
stores it locally in the registry. That is, the OL07 user cannot access the
categories created from OL03: Instead, from OL07 you'd have to manually add
every category to the mailbox of every OL03 user.

(Sharing categories in a mixed environment is a lot easier with Category
Manager Enterprise.)

--
Best regards
Michael Bauer - MVP Outlook
Use Outlook Categories? This is Your Tool:
<http://www.vboffice.net/product.html?id=2006063&cmd=detail&lang=en&pub=6>

Am Wed, 6 Feb 2008 12:43:00 -0800 schrieb susann:

 

[susann]

Yes I realise that the 2007 user will have to create the categories. But
they can't - the "New" button is greyed out. That's my problem. And the
2003 user has given the 2007 full (owner) access.

We have decided for now to downgrade a couple of people back to 2003 which
is extremely frustrating. I can't believe that interaction between 2007 and
2003 isn't working seemlessly?!

 

[Michael Bauer [MVP - Outlook]]

Susan, it's important that they also have access to the calendar, because
that's where the categories in OL07 are stored. If it's Exchange 03 you
might check that they have SendAs and ReceiveAs permission.

--
Best regards
Michael Bauer - MVP Outlook
Use Outlook Categories? This is Your Tool:
<http://www.vboffice.net/product.html?id=2006063&cmd=detail&lang=en&pub=6>

Am Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:21:02 -0800 schrieb susann: