Shared Contacts in exchange 2003 environment

[Joe Pena]

I have a little problem. Our CEO has a huge contact list of about 4000
contacts. I have granted his assistant the proper permissions so she can add,
modify, etc. Here is the problem: There are times when she needs to email
someone from his contact list, how do I get a shared contact to display as an
outlook address book in her profile? When I right-click the CEO contact list
and go to properties, the tab "outlook address book" is not there. If I go
to the CEO desktop its there, but not from "the assistant desktop", even
though she has FULL rights to his contact list.

Please help

Joe Pena

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The process of adding another user's Contacts folder to your own address book display is somewhat involved. You will need to be able to create -- at least temporarily -- an Outlook profile that opens another user's mailbox as the primary mailbox. Proceed with these steps while logged in under your own Windows account, not the other user's:

1. Create an Outlook profile that connects directly to the other user's mailbox, not your own, and start Outlook with that profile.

2. On the Properties dialog for the other user's Contacts folder, make sure that it's set to display in the Outlook Address Book and give it a display name other than contacts, such as Joe's Contacts.

3. Close Outlook.

4. In Control Panel | Mail, edit the *same profile* (i.e. the one from Step 1) to change the mailbox from the other user's to your own.

5. Still working with the same profile, on the Advanced tab of the Exchange Server service, add the other user's mailbox as a secondary mailbox.

6. Restart Outlook, and you should see the Joe's Contacts in your Outlook Address Book as well as your own Contacts folder.


--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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

 

[Joe Pena]

AWESOME! I just tried that with my profile and his and it worked! Thank you
so much! Going to make the change now for the CEO assistant

 

[Numbskull 1974]

Exchange 2003 (active directory)
Outlook 2003

I am getting much closer to a resolution. Ultimately I would love to
have the contacts folder in every users mailbox potentially the same.
It would be great to have a centralized contacts folder and sub folders
that I could apply permissions to. Admin sees all, sales staff only
sees company and sales contacts etc.

The resolution that seemed to work for you has not for me.

I created a new profile on my workstation, and attached it to the
user's profile contaning the contacts folder I wish to use.
I then started with that profile went to the properties of his contact
folder, set it to display in address book and renamed it George
Clients.
I closed outlook and went back to the control paney > Mail.
I clicked on "Show Profiles" and hi-lighted George's profile and
clicked on Email accounts
I then selected view or edit chose the account and selected "change"
and put the user name back to my mailbox.
I then clicked on "more settings" then advanced and added George's
account.
I retstarted outlook, chose the new profile and everything is the same
except 2 things.

1. My address book only had offline contacts and George Clients, the
originals were gone.
2. I had a new mailbox folder for george under my own which cannot
open. The contacts folder is the same as it was before.

If I open the original profile, my address book is there without George
Clients and #2 as above is the same.

Any help is much appreciated. Also, if you have a better way to share
all of our contacts in each mailbox's contact folder that would be
great.

PS Public Folders are not an option as people do not use them or even
notice them.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Display the Properties dialog of the Contacts folder in your own mailbox, and check the Outlook Address Book box to display it in the Address Book dialog. Do the same with any other contacts folder you want to display from your mailbox or the Public Folders hierarchy.

If you have a complex set of contacts folders you want people to share, Public Folders would be a better place to put them than in an individual mailbox.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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