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David Overton's Blog » How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact

I was recently asked by someone how to do this.  Considering the fact that there are pre-defined public folders in SBS, including those for contacts I thought it was worth sharing this with a wider audience.  Set this up for a customer using SBS and they can easily share contacts across the whole business.  Add the contacts folder to the favourties list and they are also cached offline :-)

I found the answer by experimentation, but then this article describes it well too.  The magic tab in Office 2007 (and 2003) is pictured below from my system.

 

How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books

First thing you need to make sure that the public folders has a contact list created. Also, double check the permissions so that your users can view the contact list.

  1. To setup the Contact List in the Address Book navigate to your public folder and find the contact list you want to add.
  2. Right-click on the Contacts Folder and click properties.
  3. Click on the Outlook Address Book tab.
  4. Check the box next to “Show this folder as an email address book.

If the check box is unavailable you need to add the Outlook Address Book to your profile.

  1. Click on the Tools menu and then click on Email Accounts.
  2. Click Add a new directory or address book, and then click next.
  3. Click Add additional Address book, and then click next.
  4. Click Outlook Address Book, and then click next.
  5. Click OK and restart outlook.

After this is complete you can go back to the contact list and then follow the steps on adding the contact list to your address book.

Source: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books - AppRiver

 

ttfn

David

 

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Posted Mon, Apr 9 2007 11:49 PM by David Overton
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Comments

Patrick O'Connor wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Wed, Apr 11 2007 7:28 PM

Cool post learned something new about adding to favorites and viewing it offline but here is food for thought.

I am running Exchange 2003 and Outlook 2003.

If a desktop is NOT running in Exchange cached mode, you can make the Public Folder contact list show in the address book list by right clicking the contact folder, then properties, outlook adress book tab and then check "show this folder as an email address book".

BUT if you ARE running in Exchange Cached mode and

If you want to add it to your favorites so it will synchronize and be available offine, you want to check the "show this folder as an email address book" on the FAVORITE contact and not on the Public Folder Contact.

My laptop was already set to run in Exchange Cached mode and I had to tell it to "download Public Folder Favs" by going to Tools, Email Accounts, select view or change existing accounts, next, change, more settings, advanced and then check box "download Public Folder Favs"

David Overton wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Wed, Apr 11 2007 7:35 PM

Patrick,

thanks for the update - we both learned something new today :-)

ttfn

David

Mark wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Thu, Apr 26 2007 4:55 PM
Is there a simple way to have the "Show this folder as an email address book" checked by default?
Andy wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Thu, May 10 2007 10:10 AM

Hi, That's great, is there any way to have this done automatically? We support a customer who uses roaming profiles over a dozen PC's and 20 users. but when ever they replace a PC it takes for ever to talk each user through adding the contact list.

Hope that makes sense

David Overton wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Sun, May 13 2007 10:38 PM

Mark, Andy,

Not so I can tell - it is possible to use a script to do this, but it is not trivial.

thanks

David

Jason wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Thu, Nov 15 2007 11:47 PM

This did not work for me.  When I go into my Contacts folder it does not show the Public contact list, only mine.  Some in our office have a section under their Contacts called Other Contacts that shows the Public address book, but I am unable to figure out how to add it to people who don't have it.

JoeyD wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Thu, Feb 14 2008 4:43 PM

Adding it to the Favorites then clicking "show this folder" worked perfectly.  Thanks muchoness.

Kenneth Lau wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Mon, May 5 2008 10:09 AM

I need this being made automatically too. There are nearly hundred PCs in my client's office and they have also nearly hundred of contacts folder in the public folder. They need all these contacts folders to be set as Outlook address book by default in all PCs' Outlook client.

Though I know making the script thing is nothing trivial, is there any source I can refer to?

Jason K wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Thu, Oct 23 2008 9:48 AM

Thanksso much for the info... After a bit more research OI found this page regarding scripting the whole process.

www.experts-exchange.com/.../Q_21578801.html

Rana wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Mon, Apr 27 2009 3:31 PM

I need to know how to change settings so the + on phone numbers appears automatically

David Overton wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Tue, Apr 28 2009 7:07 AM

Hi Rana,

I don't think this is possible out of the box. You would need to write a macro to change the information or put it into OUtlook with the + showing.

Thanks

David

Gil wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Mon, Jun 22 2009 10:49 AM

Hi David - I am going to set up a contact list in public folders so everyone is working off the same contact list.  My question is how do I import my teams existing contacts into the one list without it creating separate contact lists each time I do it?  Also, is it possible to have each team members contacts colour coded so we know who added the contact? Thanks!

Clint wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Wed, Oct 28 2009 3:14 PM

Thanks you so much! I've been trying to find this for a little while, but with no instructions on what to do if the check box in 'Show this folder as an email address book" was unavailable.

Again, thank you so much!

miss k wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Tue, Apr 20 2010 3:36 PM

You are a genius and cute too. Thanks for your help.

tabitha wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Thu, Sep 30 2010 6:29 PM

ahh thanks so much worked like a charm!

BlackmillOscar wrote re: How to add Public Folder Contacts to the list of Address Books in Outlook so anyone can send e-mail to a shared contact
on Mon, Sep 10 2012 2:31 PM

Thanks - worked a treat for me

(c)David Overton 2006-23