Sharing messages & contacts between users

M

mike-s

Hello, my wife and have upgraded from Win98 and Outlook Express to Win2000
Pro and Outlook 2003... what a time warp! My question is, it's nice to have
separate Win2k usernames so she can have a messy desktop and I can have a
simple one with web content on the desktop, etc. But when using Outlook 2003,
I want both of us to see the same email inbox, same list of unread/read
emails, same contacts, same sent items, and so on. I don't want to repeat an
email she's already answered or have two sets of contacts for us both. How
can I configure Outlook to do that with separate Windows 2000 usernames?
 
R

Robert Findlay [MSFT]

The only way I know of to do that would be to have both profiles point at
the same Personal Folder File (.pst). The .pst file would need to be
located in a folder that you both have permission to and not stored in the
default location since by default they are stored in the user's profile.
Create a folder on the C:\ drive that you both have access to and move the
..pst to this location and then go into Control Panel -> Mail icon on each
Profile and set your default .pst file to point at the .pst file you have
on the C:\ drive. As long as you arent both trying to access the file at
the same time this should work.

I hope this information is helpful.

Robert Findlay
Partner Technical Lead -- BizApps
Microsoft Technical Support for Platforms and Business Applications
 
M

mike-s

Thank you Robert, that's a great idea. Sorry, but being new at this w/ Win2k
and Outlook 2003, how do I move the .pst file for both of us to another
place? Thanks again, Mike
 
R

Robert Findlay [MSFT]

First thing you will need to do is locate the .pst file. To do this:
1. Open Outlook.
2. Right click on the personal folder in the Folder List and go to
Properties.
3. Select the Advanced button.
4. Write down the entire path in the Filename: field. (use the arrow keys
to scroll over to see the entire path)
5. Close out of Outlook.

To locate and move the .pst file:
1. Open My Computer.
2. Go to Tools -> Folder Options.
3. Select the View tab.
4. In the window labeled Advanced Settings select "Show hidden files and
folders" and uncheck "Hide extensions for know file types" and Click Ok.
5. Now browse to the location in the path you wrote down above and
highlight the .pst file and go to Edit -> Copy.
6. Now create a folder on the C:\ drive and paste the .pst file into the
new folder.

Now point Outlook in each Windows profile to use the .pst file at the new
location:
1. Open Outlook.
2. Go to File -> Open -> Outlook Data File.
3. Browse to the new location of the .pst file and select the file and then
click Ok.
4. Now you should see the file in Outlook.
5. Go to Tools -> Accounts and select View or change existing e-mail
accounts and click Next.
6. In the drop down box under "Deliver new e-mail to the following
location" select the second personal folder in the list and click Finish.
7. You will need to close Outlook and reopen it and the .pst file in the
new location should now be the default .pst file.
If you have data in the other .pst file that you need to move to the
default you can do that now or you can simply close the old .pst file by
right clicking on it and selecting Close.

I hope this information is helpful.

Robert Findlay
Partner Technical Lead -- BizApps
Microsoft Technical Support for Platforms and Business Applications
 
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