Making contacts in public folder the default for "New Contacts"?

[Guest]

Ok, at work we use Outlook and when you open a new contact, it opens a new
contact in your personal contacts. However, in order to ensure we can all use
the same contacts we want to use the public folder.

Problem is this. The only way to enter a new contact into the public folder
is to choose the folder and go through the branches until you find it. Is
there a quicker route via any of the following (many at my works are too
computer illiterate and will just click on "New" and then "Contact" :

1) Can someone tell me some suitable macro code to assign to a new button
which would effectively open up the public folder and then choose a new
contact? It's such a shame that Outlook doesn't have a record macro feature

2) Is there a way to get the public folder to be a default folder?

3) Lastly, a more complex solution invoving the public folder overwriting
our personal folders every day (but this doesn't really fix the problem)

Any help would be much appreciated!!!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Comments inline.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

Ok, at work we use Outlook and when you open a new contact, it opens a new
contact in your personal contacts. However, in order to ensure we can all use
the same contacts we want to use the public folder.

Problem is this. The only way to enter a new contact into the public folder
is to choose the folder and go through the branches until you find it. Is
there a quicker route via any of the following (many at my works are too
computer illiterate and will just click on "New" and then "Contact" :

No, that's not the only way. First of all, if it's a contacts folder you use often, you should put in Public Folder\Favorites. That will make for a lot fewer branches. Second, you can create a new contact and save it in a non-default folder directly by using the File | Move to Folder command instead of Save and Close. (I know that won't help the computer users who have trouble just finding the New button, but it may help others.)

1) Can someone tell me some suitable macro code to assign to a new button
which would effectively open up the public folder and then choose a new
contact? It's such a shame that Outlook doesn't have a record macro feature

Are you aware that Outlook VBA code is for personal use and has no supported means for distributing throughout an organization? If this is for organizational use, VBA isn't suitable. You should be considering using a COM add-in, which is a more complex programming project, instead.

2) Is there a way to get the public folder to be a default folder?

No.

3) Lastly, a more complex solution invoving the public folder overwriting
our personal folders every day (but this doesn't really fix the problem)

See http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.htm for ideas.