Public Folders - Client Management of subfolders shown as Address

[Jason]

I am in the planning stage of setting up the client workstations in my office
to use public folders. (A feature of our Exchange server that has gone unused
for too long!) One of the uses for this will be multiple shared contact
lists, and I am trying to figure out the best way to accomplish this.

I know that a workable method is to configure each client by opening the
public folders, right-clicking each folder containing contact items, and
checking the box that says show folder as an Address Book. But what I want to
accomplish is being able to have one parent folder, list each individual
folder as a subfolder, and configure it once on each client to automatically
add any new subfolders. The goal of course is to set it up so that we can add
new contact lists and have them automatically appear in everyone's address
books. Also, ideally, I would like the parent folder to not show up in the
address books.

Any advice on how best to accomplish this is appreciated.



Thanks,

Jason Samuels

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

My advice is that you should avoid making many Contacts folders and rather
use Categories to separate different "types" of contacts.

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook

www.judygleeson.com
www.deskdoctors.com

Are you sick of bad email practice? Get a copy of my paper "Implementing
Email Policy" from the Desk Doctors website.

 

[Jason]

Wow, hadn't thought of that!

You've got me going down an entirely different path and I'm trying to wrap
my head around this now. We can use categories to segment within one contact
folder - that way everyone has access and the metadata can be used to assign
single contacts to multiple categories without duplicating them. I like that
idea!

Then the issue becomes how people see them by category. I'm looking at doing
that by going into views and checking the box that says Only show views
created for this folder. Then I can create the custom views - first one being
all contacts grouped by category, then individual business card views
filtered by category.

As far as people being able to click "To" and select a group to send to -
setting up a distribution list for each category should do the trick.

In theory I think that'll work, but have been stymied in the past by Outlook
responding one way for me as the folder owner - and another way on the client
workstations. How does it sound to you?

My key consideration here is I have to make it user friendly. The staff in
my office get easily frustrated by technology - and new procedures that
require too many steps won't fly.



Thanks again,

Jason

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

You are on the right track UNTILyou mention Distribution Lists. They are not
a good idea and unnecessary.

If you make those filtered views, you just select all, right click, new
message. Or better still, select all and mailmerge to them. Can't do that
with a DL.

--

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook

www.judygleeson.com
www.deskdoctors.com

Are you sick of bad email practice? Get a copy of my paper "Implementing
Email Policy" from the Desk Doctors website.

 

[Jason]

I don't get why Distribution Lists aren't a good idea.

In this small office, most of my co-workers are pretty resistant to changing
technology - and it is absolutely essential to make it as user friendly as
possible. They are not going catch onto this by having to go into the folder
list, public folders, contacts, filtered view, select all, right click,
create, new message to contact. That's too many steps and just won't work. My
co-workers want to be in their e-mail (where they're comfortable), click New,
and click To. If they can feel accomplished with that, then some might
venture into the contacts folder and learn more about how it's structured.

So my original method to structure this was to create individual folders for
each group we need. Such as this:
http://www.ncfr.org/images/pic1-MSForum-20081216.JPG

I posted to this forum looking for a solution that could automatically
propogate new groups to all of the users. Such as, is it possible to have one
directories folder with subfolders that get added automatically?

Instead though you showed me another way, putting one directory folder in
and organizing contacts by categories. I like this idea, because it seems
like a more efficient way of managing things. But then those customized views
I'm setting up are only available if people venture into the contacts folder.
When they click New and To, all they're seeing is one directory folder and
all of the contacts. Is there any way to make the filtered views appear
there? Or even to add Category as a column there?

Because otherwise, Distribution Lists based on the categories can be setup
to appear at the top - like so:
http://www.ncfr.org/images/pic2-MSForum-20081216.JPG

In terms of striking a balance between usability and managability, I don't
see why this is a bad idea. What am I missing here?

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

DLs are well known to be unstable.

You cannot do a merged email or letter or labels to a DL.

Read some of Russ Valentine MVP Outlook's posts about DLs.

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook

www.judygleeson.com
www.deskdoctors.com

Are you sick of bad email practice? Get a copy of my paper "Implementing
Email Policy" from the Desk Doctors website.

 

[Jason]

I see the posts about how they are unstable, thanks for the heads up!

I'm going to just go with the original plan to create individual folders for
each group. It's not the most manageable solution, but simplicity for the end
user is a greater concern.


Thanks for your input!


Jason