Sharing outlook folders

Topic

New Reply

We have two computers in the office and would like to share outlook on both, so we can both have access to sending and receiving our mail withiut having two different accounts.
Is there a way for us to accomplish this task.
Thank you for your help.

Reply | Quote

Replies

depends on your defination of sharing.

A pst is can not be used by two outlooks at once. you can share a pst only if you only open one outlook and close it before opening the other.

you can set outlook to leave mail on the server and download it from both computers. set up both outlooks using the same.

Reply | Quote

Mary,

That sounds like a solution that would work for us and now I have to ask you how do I go about sharing the pst files between the two computers.
Or is there a third party software that would also do the job for us?
Thanks again

Reply | Quote

first off, are the computers networked? they need to be if you want to share the pst. Put the pst on a drive both computers can see and map the drive. Point outlook to use the pst on the mapped drive.

Reply | Quote

Mary,

Hope you haven’t forgotten bout me?

Thanks for the info, but now I can’t even get Outlook 2000 to load. I did a reinstall but each time I try to open the program it just freezes…..any suggestions

Also you said to point outlook to the pst file on the shared drive but alas I’m not sure what you mean by that.

Thanks again.

Reply | Quote

do any of the other office programs have problems loading? did you install anything besides office recently?

Reply | Quote

MaryJ,

I have just checked all of the other office apps and they all load and work fine.
The only install I have done is to reinstall Office 2000 and the reason I did the reinstall is because of the same problem.
Any more suggestions for me.

As a sideline, what would you suggest for our office (three computers) that would enable us to all access the mail, contacts, subfolders, etc…so we all have identical data on all computers.
Thanks.

Reply | Quote

Just remember that netfolders is dropped from OLXP.

Reply | Quote

and they are buggy in earlier versions.

Reply | Quote

From this, should I assume Netfolders should not be used in preference to other options, we are looking at alternatives to ACT. (Just testing the water really, as Act does what we need very well.)

Reply | Quote

if act meets your needs, use it. netfolders is a poor substitute.

Reply | Quote

Right on. OL is OK as a single user PIM, but doesn’t come close to any contact managers in a workgroup mode without substantial re-working. Smartsales.com offers an OL customization that seems to be better than most that are out there. You might want to look at their demo to get a feel for what can be done.

Reply | Quote

not entirely true – outlook was designed to work with exchange server for collabration.
standalone users are expected to only need a standalone pim, so sharing features were not added.

Reply | Quote

I use Outlook (98 then2000) exclusively on a Peer-Peer Network of 14.
We all share Contacts, Calendar, and Notes.
It has worked VERY well for three years.
Take Care,
Scooter

Reply | Quote

I’ve tried using NetFolders since I can’t get the Exchange Servers administrators to give me a Public Folder. NetFolders is HORRIBLE. Subscriptions drop off and they can be difficult to get resubscribe. The folder lost information, etc., etc., etc. I also found that having users simply open the same .pst file off a network drive had it’s share of problems. In theory only one person can user a .pst file at one time and as soon as that user logged out of Outlook another user could open the .pst file. Oftentimes the next user user COULDN’T open the .pst file and would receive a message that someone else had the file open (and that wasn’t true). While NOT pretty, the only solution I found (without a public folder) was to have a generic Outlook account that we all put information into. Unfortunately that isn’t pretty but it does work. It would be nice to have administrators who let us use the tools that Microsoft provides!

Reply | Quote

Thanks, Loretta.

We’ve settled on the ACT solution. Sounds like it was the right one, I can do without the additional hassles.

Reply | Quote

either find a new way or don’t migrate to xp. the next version of outlook is supposed to include sharing and several utilities are in the works.

Reply | Quote

the one after xp…

Reply | Quote