Sharing Outlook contacts on home PC

Hi,

I'm using Outlook 2003 on a home PC (so not using MS Exchange) and have
three family members as users each with their own email account. Is there
any way I can have a shared contact list so all users can see the same
contacts. Even better would be to have one shared contacts and one for each
individual but that might be expecting too much.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Chris K

Hi Chris,

Are you using different accounts on the same profile, or different profiles?

If you are using the same profile with different accounts, then you just
need to create folders under contacts.

I assume, however, you are using different profiles. In this case, what you
can do is create a new .PST file that everyone is connected to, and store the
contacts in that .PST.

For example, let's say Nathan, Toki, and Pickles all share the same computer
and each has an Outlook profile. Nathan's profile points to Nathan.pst,
Toki's to Toki.pst, and Pickles to Pickles.pst. Follow these steps:
*Create a new .pst, using any of the profiles, by going to File | Data File
Management, then clicking Add.
*Name the new .pst Shared.pst, and named the item Shared Contacts or
something similar.
*You will notice that this user now has access to the Shared set of folders.
*Make a new folder under Shared called "Shared Contacts" or something similar.
*Open the second profile.
*Right click Personal Folders and select 'Open Outlook Data File...'
*Open the Shared.pst you created earlier.
*Now the second profile has access to the Shared Contacts.
*Repeat for the third profile.

Now, Nathan, Toki, and Pickles will all be able to access the Shared
Contacts folder via the share.pst, and they will still be able to use their
own contacts folder within Personal Folders.

Note that this will only work on a single PC setup where the users are not
logged on simultaneously.

Doug

By the way, I was assuming Outlook 2003 in my reply. This would be possible
in other versions, but the steps would be slightly different.

Doug
--
Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen
Office System Solutions Specialist
3Sharp
http://blogs.3sharp.com/Blog/dougv/


"DougieVan" wrote:

Hi Chris,

Are you using different accounts on the same profile, or different profiles?

If you are using the same profile with different accounts, then you just
need to create folders under contacts.

I assume, however, you are using different profiles. In this case, what you
can do is create a new .PST file that everyone is connected to, and store the
contacts in that .PST.

For example, let's say Nathan, Toki, and Pickles all share the same computer
and each has an Outlook profile. Nathan's profile points to Nathan.pst,
Toki's to Toki.pst, and Pickles to Pickles.pst. Follow these steps:
*Create a new .pst, using any of the profiles, by going to File | Data File
Management, then clicking Add.
*Name the new .pst Shared.pst, and named the item Shared Contacts or
something similar.
*You will notice that this user now has access to the Shared set of folders.
*Make a new folder under Shared called "Shared Contacts" or something similar.
*Open the second profile.
*Right click Personal Folders and select 'Open Outlook Data File...'
*Open the Shared.pst you created earlier.
*Now the second profile has access to the Shared Contacts.
*Repeat for the third profile.

Now, Nathan, Toki, and Pickles will all be able to access the Shared
Contacts folder via the share.pst, and they will still be able to use their
own contacts folder within Personal Folders.

Note that this will only work on a single PC setup where the users are not
logged on simultaneously.

Doug

Doug,

Thanks for your reply. Haven't actually tried it yet but sounds like exactly
what I want.

Thanks again.

Chris K

"DougieVan" wrote in message
...
Hi Chris,

Are you using different accounts on the same profile, or different
profiles?

If you are using the same profile with different accounts, then you just
need to create folders under contacts.

I assume, however, you are using different profiles. In this case, what
you
can do is create a new .PST file that everyone is connected to, and store
the
contacts in that .PST.

For example, let's say Nathan, Toki, and Pickles all share the same
computer
and each has an Outlook profile. Nathan's profile points to Nathan.pst,
Toki's to Toki.pst, and Pickles to Pickles.pst. Follow these steps:
*Create a new .pst, using any of the profiles, by going to File | Data
File
Management, then clicking Add.
*Name the new .pst Shared.pst, and named the item Shared Contacts or
something similar.
*You will notice that this user now has access to the Shared set of
folders.
*Make a new folder under Shared called "Shared Contacts" or something
similar.
*Open the second profile.
*Right click Personal Folders and select 'Open Outlook Data File...'
*Open the Shared.pst you created earlier.
*Now the second profile has access to the Shared Contacts.
*Repeat for the third profile.

Now, Nathan, Toki, and Pickles will all be able to access the Shared
Contacts folder via the share.pst, and they will still be able to use
their
own contacts folder within Personal Folders.

Note that this will only work on a single PC setup where the users are not
logged on simultaneously.

Doug

Chris,

No problem. I would appreciate it if you would mark my response as having
answered your question.

Doug
--
Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen
Office System Solutions Specialist
3Sharp
http://blogs.3sharp.com/Blog/dougv/


"ChrisK" wrote:

Doug,

Thanks for your reply. Haven't actually tried it yet but sounds like exactly
what I want.

Thanks again.

Chris K

"DougieVan" wrote in message
...
Hi Chris,

Are you using different accounts on the same profile, or different
profiles?

If you are using the same profile with different accounts, then you just
need to create folders under contacts.

I assume, however, you are using different profiles. In this case, what
you
can do is create a new .PST file that everyone is connected to, and store
the
contacts in that .PST.

For example, let's say Nathan, Toki, and Pickles all share the same
computer
and each has an Outlook profile. Nathan's profile points to Nathan.pst,
Toki's to Toki.pst, and Pickles to Pickles.pst. Follow these steps:
*Create a new .pst, using any of the profiles, by going to File | Data
File
Management, then clicking Add.
*Name the new .pst Shared.pst, and named the item Shared Contacts or
something similar.
*You will notice that this user now has access to the Shared set of
folders.
*Make a new folder under Shared called "Shared Contacts" or something
similar.
*Open the second profile.
*Right click Personal Folders and select 'Open Outlook Data File...'
*Open the Shared.pst you created earlier.
*Now the second profile has access to the Shared Contacts.
*Repeat for the third profile.

Now, Nathan, Toki, and Pickles will all be able to access the Shared
Contacts folder via the share.pst, and they will still be able to use
their
own contacts folder within Personal Folders.

Note that this will only work on a single PC setup where the users are not
logged on simultaneously.

Doug

ChrisK wrote:

I'm using Outlook 2003 on a home PC (so not using MS Exchange) and
have three family members as users each with their own email account.
Is there any way I can have a shared contact list so all users can
see the same contacts. Even better would be to have one shared
contacts and one for each individual but that might be expecting too
much.

See if this helps: http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/olshare1.htm
--
Brian Tillman