Hello all. I found a post with the title 'No "Outlook Address Book"
tab?' dated February 14, 2006 that appeared to address the issue I am
having. I tried to post a reply but apparently you can't reply after
six months, so I am creating a new post.

First, let me explain what I am trying to accomplish. I am a network
administrator in a department of around sixty people. We are using MS
Outlook 2003 on Windows XP SP2 and our Exchange email is outsourced. I
am assuming they are using Exchange 2003.

Up until recently, we were using NT 4.0 with Outlook 2000 and an old HP
product for the email server. Our department has quite a few
distribution lists, as well as cell phone and pager lists. Also, we are
part of a larger corporate campus here so we also need to maintain
lists of a large number of distribution lists containing email
addresses outside our department. Each month we would update our
contact lists, create a .pst file and then have each user wipe out
their old contacts and re-import the new .pst file. Obviously, this is
not a good way to do things.

I asked our email administrators for a way to centrally manage one set
of distribution lists/contacts where each user would automatically see
the updates in their address book. The email administrator set up a
functional mailbox and told me to go to each user computer and open
this mailbox as an additional mailbox. For the most part, this works
but with one major exception-- although the users can see the contacts
from this mailbox once this additional mailbox is opened, the contacts
do not appear in the address book. Normally, you need to go to the
"properties" for a contact folder, select the "Outlook Address Book"
tab and click the checkbox to make the list show up in the address
book. The problem is that when the users open these distribution lists,
only two tabs appear: "General" and "Home Page".

The only way the users can use these shared distribution lists is to go
to "Contacts", navigate to the distribution list they want to use and
right-click and select "New message to contact". Although this works,
the users would like to be able to select a distribution list from the
"To:" box or the address book.

In the February 14 posting from Sue Mosher that I referred to above,
the following solution is given:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" The process of adding another user's Contacts folder to your own
address
book display is more involved than a simple check box. You will need to
be
able to create -- at least temporarily -- an Outlook profile that opens
another user's mailbox as the primary mailbox. Proceed with these steps
while logged in under your own Windows account, not the other user's:

1. Create an Outlook profile that connects directly to the other user's
mailbox, not your own, and start Outlook with that profile.

2. On the Properties dialog for the other user's Contacts folder, make
sure
that it's set to display in the Outlook Address Book and give it a
display
name other than contacts, such as Joe's Contacts.

3. Close Outlook.

4. In Control Panel | Mail, edit the *same profile* (i.e. the one from
Step
1) to change the mailbox from the other user's to your own.

5. Still working with the same profile, on the Advanced tab of the
Exchange
Server service, add the other user's mailbox as a secondary mailbox.

6. Restart Outlook, and you should see the Joe's Contacts in your
Outlook
Address Book as well as your own Contacts folder. "

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While this solution works for the most part (sometimes it takes
multiple attempts due to other profile issues), I find it hard to
believe that this is the only way to accomplish the centrally managed
distribution lists. One specific question I have is why is it necessary
to create that profile on each machine and then edit that profile? Why
can't I just open the additional mailbox in each user's current profile
and have the distribution lists show up in the address book? There is
no good reason that we should have to go through all this just to get
the lists to appear in the address book. This method creates a huge
volume of work. For each user, it is necessary to create a new profile
and then redo all the user's personal ".pst" files, etc.

If anyone has any suggestions for a better way to accomplish the shared
distribution lists I would appreciate them. Also, any explanation of
why it is necessary to create and then edit that profile for the above
method would also be appreciated.

Thanks.
Bill

First of all, distribution lists have limited usefulness. They make sense only for very small, static distributions.

Second, the better solution would have been to create a public folder, not another mailbox. All the hosted Exchange services that I know can handle that.

Third, the procedure for adding another user's Contacts folder to a profile's address book is complicated because of the architecture of the Outlook Address Book service. And that procedure won't work at all in Outlook 2007.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

wrote in message ups.com...
Hello all. I found a post with the title 'No "Outlook Address Book"
tab?' dated February 14, 2006 that appeared to address the issue I am
having. I tried to post a reply but apparently you can't reply after
six months, so I am creating a new post.

First, let me explain what I am trying to accomplish. I am a network
administrator in a department of around sixty people. We are using MS
Outlook 2003 on Windows XP SP2 and our Exchange email is outsourced. I
am assuming they are using Exchange 2003.

Up until recently, we were using NT 4.0 with Outlook 2000 and an old HP
product for the email server. Our department has quite a few
distribution lists, as well as cell phone and pager lists. Also, we are
part of a larger corporate campus here so we also need to maintain
lists of a large number of distribution lists containing email
addresses outside our department. Each month we would update our
contact lists, create a .pst file and then have each user wipe out
their old contacts and re-import the new .pst file. Obviously, this is
not a good way to do things.

I asked our email administrators for a way to centrally manage one set
of distribution lists/contacts where each user would automatically see
the updates in their address book. The email administrator set up a
functional mailbox and told me to go to each user computer and open
this mailbox as an additional mailbox. For the most part, this works
but with one major exception-- although the users can see the contacts
from this mailbox once this additional mailbox is opened, the contacts
do not appear in the address book. Normally, you need to go to the
"properties" for a contact folder, select the "Outlook Address Book"
tab and click the checkbox to make the list show up in the address
book. The problem is that when the users open these distribution lists,
only two tabs appear: "General" and "Home Page".

The only way the users can use these shared distribution lists is to go
to "Contacts", navigate to the distribution list they want to use and
right-click and select "New message to contact". Although this works,
the users would like to be able to select a distribution list from the
"To:" box or the address book.

In the February 14 posting from Sue Mosher that I referred to above,
the following solution is given:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" The process of adding another user's Contacts folder to your own
address
book display is more involved than a simple check box. You will need to
be
able to create -- at least temporarily -- an Outlook profile that opens
another user's mailbox as the primary mailbox. Proceed with these steps
while logged in under your own Windows account, not the other user's:

1. Create an Outlook profile that connects directly to the other user's
mailbox, not your own, and start Outlook with that profile.

2. On the Properties dialog for the other user's Contacts folder, make
sure
that it's set to display in the Outlook Address Book and give it a
display
name other than contacts, such as Joe's Contacts.

3. Close Outlook.

4. In Control Panel | Mail, edit the *same profile* (i.e. the one from
Step
1) to change the mailbox from the other user's to your own.

5. Still working with the same profile, on the Advanced tab of the
Exchange
Server service, add the other user's mailbox as a secondary mailbox.

6. Restart Outlook, and you should see the Joe's Contacts in your
Outlook
Address Book as well as your own Contacts folder. "

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While this solution works for the most part (sometimes it takes
multiple attempts due to other profile issues), I find it hard to
believe that this is the only way to accomplish the centrally managed
distribution lists. One specific question I have is why is it necessary
to create that profile on each machine and then edit that profile? Why
can't I just open the additional mailbox in each user's current profile
and have the distribution lists show up in the address book? There is
no good reason that we should have to go through all this just to get
the lists to appear in the address book. This method creates a huge
volume of work. For each user, it is necessary to create a new profile
and then redo all the user's personal ".pst" files, etc.

If anyone has any suggestions for a better way to accomplish the shared
distribution lists I would appreciate them. Also, any explanation of
why it is necessary to create and then edit that profile for the above
method would also be appreciated.

Thanks.
Bill

Sue,
Thank you for your reply.

Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] wrote:
First of all, distribution lists have limited usefulness. They make sense only for very small, static distributions.


I don't understand this-- why do distribution lists have limited
usefullness? What besides a distribution list would I use to send email
to specific groups of people?

Second, the better solution would have been to create a public folder, not another mailbox. All the hosted Exchange services that I know can handle that.


I can look into this. As long as the distribution lists in the public
folders can be used in the address book _and_ the distribution lists
can have permissions set on them then I assume this solution will work
fine. Unfortunately, I don't know a lot about Exchange. At this company
as well as where I worked before, we network folks are kept isolated
form the Exchange side of things and we need to ask the outsourcing
company for every modification. I had called them and asked the best
way to share distribution lists amonst our engineers and this
"functional mailbox" solution was the one I was told is the best way.

Third, the procedure for adding another user's Contacts folder to a profile's address book is complicated because of the architecture of the Outlook Address Book service. And that procedure won't work at all in Outlook 2007.


For now, that's not a problem for us. Our company is so far behind we
only converted from NT 4.0 and Outlook 2000 this year. ;-)

Thanks.
Bill

I don't understand this-- why do distribution lists have limited
usefullness?

The amount of effort involved in maintaining a distribution list of even moderate size can be considerable (and tedious).

What besides a distribution list would I use to send email
to specific groups of people?

a) Mail merge
b) Select contacts, choose Actions | New Message to Contact

Second, the better solution would have been to create a public folder, not another mailbox. All the hosted Exchange services that I know can handle that.


I can look into this. As long as the distribution lists in the public
folders can be used in the address book _and_ the distribution lists
can have permissions set on them then I assume this solution will work
fine.

Only distribution lists in Active Directory (i.e. what you see in the Global Address List) can have permissions set on them. Folders get folder-level permissions, not item-level permissions.

I had called them and asked the best
way to share distribution lists amonst our engineers and this
"functional mailbox" solution was the one I was told is the best way.

They must not know much about how users actually use DLs.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] wrote:
I don't understand this-- why do distribution lists have limited
usefullness?

The amount of effort involved in maintaining a distribution list of even moderate size can be considerable (and tedious).

This is my whole point. If each user has to maintain their own
distribution lists, they will mostly be out of sync. It's not that big
a deal for myself or another network admin to add new employees or
remove them when they leave. It only amounts to a couple of additions
and deletions per month. And if the lists are shared, it only has to be
done once and all the users automatically have the correct lists.


What besides a distribution list would I use to send email
to specific groups of people?

a) Mail merge
b) Select contacts, choose Actions | New Message to Contact

Unless I am not seeing something here, you apparently do not understand
how things are done at businesses in the real world. If I tell our
users that each time they need to send an email to a particular group,
they will need to go into contacts and select each person in the list
or they need to maintain their own lists I can assure you that I will
soon be out of a job.

As for mail merge, well, where is the list supposed to come from and
who maintains it?



Second, the better solution would have been to create a public folder, not another mailbox. All the hosted Exchange services that I know can handle that.


I can look into this. As long as the distribution lists in the public
folders can be used in the address book _and_ the distribution lists
can have permissions set on them then I assume this solution will work
fine.

Only distribution lists in Active Directory (i.e. what you see in the Global Address List) can have permissions set on them. Folders get folder-level permissions, not item-level permissions.

I had called them and asked the best
way to share distribution lists amonst our engineers and this
"functional mailbox" solution was the one I was told is the best way.

They must not know much about how users actually use DLs.

This I agree with.

Bill

It's not that big
a deal for myself or another network admin to add new employees or
remove them when they leave.

Do you mean that you're creating a separate folder of contacts that duplicate the employee list that is already in the GAL? That sounds like a lot of duplication. DLs of employees should be maintained in the GAL where the original data is. If your host provider can't handle that, I bet there are others who can.

If I tell our
users that each time they need to send an email to a particular group,
they will need to go into contacts and select each person in the list
or they need to maintain their own lists I can assure you that I will
soon be out of a job.

I suggested neither. Categories make it easy to select an entire group of people from a shared contacts folder.

As for mail merge, well, where is the list supposed to come from and
who maintains it?

Same place as it is now - a shared contacts folder, or better yet, a public contacts folder, which doesn't have the same limitation related to the address book.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx