Two PCs "steal" rule from each other when sharing a PST one at a time

[Jack Morow]

I am aware of dual posting being bad manners, but wonder
if leaving anonymous as my email identity is also poor
form. So I am posting one more time with a working
address (if modified in the obvious way).

On a home LAN, 2 PCs both using Win XP Home Edition &
Outlook 2002, latest SP. Only one user at a time opens
Outlook. I wrote a rule to move messages arriving
through "(e-mail address removed)" to a folder "user2". Rule works
fine on one PC or the other, but I have to re-check
the "Apply Rules in the following order:" and re-enter
the "specified folder" whenever I move from one machine
to the other.

The PST is shared by mapping it's location on the primary
machine as a network drive on the secondary machine.
Mail delivery & all folders are available as intended,
but whichever PC was set to run the rule last takes away
the run setting from the other machne. Since rules are
stored in the PST itself, what is preventing the sharing
of identical folder names? I tried mapping the folder to
a drive "o:" on both machines, so that the location is
defined as o:\outlook.pst on both machines, but it didn't
help.

Jack Morrow
..

 

[Brian Tillman]

On a home LAN, 2 PCs both using Win XP Home Edition &
Outlook 2002, latest SP. Only one user at a time opens
Outlook. I wrote a rule to move messages arriving
through "(e-mail address removed)" to a folder "user2". Rule works
fine on one PC or the other, but I have to re-check
the "Apply Rules in the following order:" and re-enter
the "specified folder" whenever I move from one machine
to the other.

True statement. The information stored in the rule contains more than just
the folder name. It also contains an indication of what machine created the
rule. You change this information when you reset the folder name. While I
don't know this will work, why not have two rules that do the same thing,
creating one on one machine and one on the other? Perhaps then one or the
other will work, depending on which machine is running the rule.

 

[jpmwizard]

I tried your suggestion, Brian, and the last machine to have control still
knocks toe other one out. There are 2 rules, which appear opn both machines,
but were each created on the machine they are intended to serve. Getting
back into operation isn't terribly hard - just open tools, rules wizard,
select the check box for the machine rule I'm using, then select the account
and the folder to save the files in. But if we forget, then I have to
explicitly run the ruls on the inbox to get recent messages moved to the
alternate folder.

I am thinking of upgrading to Outlook 2003, hoping something will be better
- but of course the User interface will change a bit, so there is another
learning curve.

Thanks for trying.

Jack

 

[Brian Tillman]

I tried your suggestion, Brian, and the last machine to have control
still knocks toe other one out.

Well, it was worth a shot.

I am thinking of upgrading to Outlook 2003, hoping something will be
better - but of course the User interface will change a bit, so there
is another learning curve.

I'm not sure Outlook 2003 will help in that regard.