Global Address List / Address Lists in Exchange 2003

[Robert Stokes]

Hi. I've recently installed Small Business Server 2003 and have been testing
clients with Outlook 2003 connecting to Exchange 2003. What I would like to
do is have an address book stored on the server with all of the company's
contacts, that anyone internally can add to and edit. I know that the GAL is
already populated with all of the company employees who have mailboxes (from
the Active Directory) but the GAL seems like it can only be viewed in the
style of clicking "To" on a new email. What we would like to do is have ALL
company contacts (both internal and external) in one place and let them be
viewed within the "Contacts" section of Outlook - ie. we want to be able to
see all their details - addresses, phone numbers, departments, etc.

Is this possible?

We've tried creating a dummy user in Active Directory and creating some
contacts, then sharing their Contacts, but when you shut down Outlook and
restart it, you have to open the shared contacts again.

I don't fully understand GAL or Address Lists or the Outlook Address Books
but surely there must be a fairly straightforward way of doing this?

Hope someone understands this better than me! Many thanks in advance,

Rob

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

Unless the site is planning on delegating the right to users to
create/modify/delete external contacts in Active Directory, I would say make
a public folder on Exchange that holds external contacts and assign
permissions to that folder via Outlook of who has the ability to do what.

What is nice about the public folder approach is that the public folder can
be marked by the end user to be used as an Outlook Address Book and doesn't
require modify (or delegating) Active Directory rights.

Just leave the GAL manage the users that have an Exchange mailbox. (The
Global Address List can store business phone, address, department, .etc. It
is all part of the user object in AD. This information is edited via Active
Directory Users and Computers and users can modify their own records by
using the Windows Address Book. Any modifications with Outlook would
require a programming.)

 

[Robert Stokes]

Hi - thanks for replying! I'm still struggling with this and don't fully
understand what you are saying - I'm very new to Exchange and have only used
Outlook 2003 in a "stand-alone" situation.

I have created an Address List within:

Server Management > Advanced Management > ServerName (Exchange) > Recipients

All Address Lists > Public Folders

Is this what you mean? On my client machine with Outlook I can now see this
address list when I click on Address Book but it's still just showing
contacts from the Active Directory - ie. internal contacts. How do I add any
old contacts' details?

Also, I'm not sure if you understood but I don't want to be viewing my
contacts through this Address Book view. I would like to be able to see them
(both internal contacts with mailboxes on Exchange and a collection of
external contacts) in the "Contacts" section like I can my own personal
contacts stored on the local machine from the Contacts button in the
Navigation Pane. Ideally I suppose it would be like clicking another link
under "My Contacts" in this section which would hold all of the company
contacts on the server.

I appreciate I may not be explaining this very well due to my lack of
knowledge - it's a lot harder to describe in text that pointing to a screen!


Thanks for your help so far - hope you can help further!

Regards,
Rob

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

No apology necessary, we are all new to something at one time or another.
Just happy to see that you are not afraid to speak up and ask for additional
help.

If you open Outlook and bring up the folder list (folder icon in lower left
of outlook window), you should see Outlook Today - <username> and Public
Folders. Expand Public Folders and select All Public Folders. If you right
click on All Public Folders, do you have the option to create a new folder?
If yes select it and create a new folder that holds contact items (e.g.
create a folder named "External Contact [Test]")

Right click on External Contact [Test] and select properties. Go to the
Outlook Address Book tab to enable the folder to be used as an Outlook
Address Book. Go to the permissions tab to set rights of who should be able
to access the folder and work with items. OK out to return to mail outlook
interface. (Hint: when setting permissions, you can use individual names or
groups. use groups whenever you can since it makes it easier to administer
a group rather than a bunch of individuals. However, you can use
individuals at this point so you can get used to "roles" that you can assign
to a user and what they would or would not be able to do.)

At this point you should be able to highlight the new folder and create a
contact or personal distribution list. You can even copy contact items into
this folder from other contact folders. (I'll assume that you have some of
these if you had been working in stand-alone mode before. Just highlight
the ones you want to copy and select Edit | Copy. Go to public folder
created above and select Edit | Paste)

Now you are probably wondering, what does Server Management > Advanced
Management > ServerName (Exchange) > Recipients > All Address Lists > Public
Folders do? Believe it or not, public folders can be enabled to recieve
e-mail directly. (e.g. when composing a message, you can select the "To"
button and address a message to a public folder). This folder is just a
container that has a definition attached to it that will inform Outlook that
when this list is picked in the address book drop down that it show only
show public folders that have been enabled to receive e-mail. (This folder
in Exchange System Manager (ESM) will never be populated.)

 

[Robert Stokes]

Thank you so much!! That is exactly what I was after and thanks for
explaining it so clearly! I know understand how all this works and can get
it to do what I need - nobody else has been able to figure it out! Really
appreciate your help!

Best regards,
Rob

No apology necessary, we are all new to something at one time or another.
Just happy to see that you are not afraid to speak up and ask for additional
help.

If you open Outlook and bring up the folder list (folder icon in lower left
of outlook window), you should see Outlook Today - <username> and Public
Folders. Expand Public Folders and select All Public Folders. If you right
click on All Public Folders, do you have the option to create a new folder?
If yes select it and create a new folder that holds contact items (e.g.
create a folder named "External Contact [Test]")

Right click on External Contact [Test] and select properties. Go to the
Outlook Address Book tab to enable the folder to be used as an Outlook
Address Book. Go to the permissions tab to set rights of who should be able
to access the folder and work with items. OK out to return to mail outlook
interface. (Hint: when setting permissions, you can use individual names or
groups. use groups whenever you can since it makes it easier to administer
a group rather than a bunch of individuals. However, you can use
individuals at this point so you can get used to "roles" that you can assign
to a user and what they would or would not be able to do.)

At this point you should be able to highlight the new folder and create a
contact or personal distribution list. You can even copy contact items into
this folder from other contact folders. (I'll assume that you have some of
these if you had been working in stand-alone mode before. Just highlight
the ones you want to copy and select Edit | Copy. Go to public folder
created above and select Edit | Paste)

Now you are probably wondering, what does Server Management > Advanced
Management > ServerName (Exchange) > Recipients > All Address Lists > Public
Folders do? Believe it or not, public folders can be enabled to recieve
e-mail directly. (e.g. when composing a message, you can select the "To"
button and address a message to a public folder). This folder is just a
container that has a definition attached to it that will inform Outlook that
when this list is picked in the address book drop down that it show only
show public folders that have been enabled to receive e-mail. (This folder
in Exchange System Manager (ESM) will never be populated.)

Hi - thanks for replying! I'm still struggling with this and don't fully
understand what you are saying - I'm very new to Exchange and have only used
Outlook 2003 in a "stand-alone" situation.

I have created an Address List within:

Server Management > Advanced Management > ServerName (Exchange) > Recipients

Is this what you mean? On my client machine with Outlook I can now see this
address list when I click on Address Book but it's still just showing
contacts from the Active Directory - ie. internal contacts. How do I add any
old contacts' details?

Also, I'm not sure if you understood but I don't want to be viewing my
contacts through this Address Book view. I would like to be able to see them
(both internal contacts with mailboxes on Exchange and a collection of
external contacts) in the "Contacts" section like I can my own personal
contacts stored on the local machine from the Contacts button in the
Navigation Pane. Ideally I suppose it would be like clicking another link
under "My Contacts" in this section which would hold all of the company
contacts on the server.

I appreciate I may not be explaining this very well due to my lack of
knowledge - it's a lot harder to describe in text that pointing to a screen!


Thanks for your help so far - hope you can help further!

Regards,
Rob



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