User-managed shared views of contacts with common attribute?

[Steve Barker]

Environment:

Exchange 2003 (albeit on SBS2003), XP-Pro Desktops with Outlook 2003

What I’m trying to do:

When creating a message and using the “Select Names†window to find/pick an
addressee, how do I create an entry in the “Show Names from the:†dropdown
list that only lists external (to the org) contacts that share a common
attribute (e.g. I tag them in some way to indicate that they are all
“supplier contactsâ€) AND where the desktop users can add/amend/delete
contacts in this list themselves?

I conceived an approach whereby the server administrator could add such
contacts to AD and the desktop users could see and use these views (via
Address Lists) but the server administrator wants to place the responsibility
for maintaining the contacts in these views on the users. After much reading,
trawling and head scratching, I’m a bit stumped. All suggestions and guidance
welcome!

Thanks, SteveB

 

[Steve Barker]

Guess I wasn't thinking this through...

Now I have simply created a Public Folder holding Contact items and with the
appropriate permissions and have marked this to be shown as an e-mail address
book in Outlook. The users can see and use this entry from the dropdown list
and can also add/modify/delete contact listed there too.

If anyone has any further observations or comments, I would still be pleased
to read them.

Thanks, Steve