One set of contacts for two profiles?

[BudV]

WinXP Home SP2, Outlook 2003.
When I'm in one profile, I'll need to look in the other profile's contacts,
and vice versa. Is there a way to have a consolidated set? If not, what's
the easiest way to make both sets identical?

 

[Oliver Vukovics [Public Shareware]]

Hi Budy,

you could share the same PST file in both profiles.

Have a look on this sites:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/olshare1.htm

Maybe it helps.

 

[BudV]

The Slipstick document looks like a good start for me, but it assumes
wa-a-ay too much about what I know about Outlook. Can someone help me with
a couple of basic questions, just for starters?

1) What is the "Outlook Bar"? They say "...right-click the Outlook group
heading at the top of the Outlook Bar and choose Rename Group..." The words
look familiar, but I can't relate them to what I see on my screen.

2) In their discussion about profiles in Control Panel | Mail, they talk
about creating a new .pst file, but I don't know how to do this.

3) I had hoped to be able to access the combined contacts by clicking the
big Contacts button, but I get the impression that I will have to access
them through a subordinate item under personal folders. Am I right?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Brian Tillman]

1) What is the "Outlook Bar"? They say "...right-click the Outlook
group heading at the top of the Outlook Bar and choose Rename
Group..." The words look familiar, but I can't relate them to what I
see on my screen.

The Outlook Bar is the OL 97-2002 equivalent of the OL 2003/2007 Navigation
Pane. It is the space vertically along the left hand side of the main
Outlook window. Since you are using Outlook 2003, you have the Navigation
Pane, not the Outlook Bar.

2) In their discussion about profiles in Control Panel | Mail, they
talk about creating a new .pst file, but I don't know how to do this.

See this: http://www.howto-outlook.com/faq/newprofile.htm

3) I had hoped to be able to access the combined contacts by clicking
the big Contacts button, but I get the impression that I will have to
access them through a subordinate item under personal folders. Am I
right?

Outlook 2003's Contacts button at the bottom of the Navigation Pane should
show all of the Contacts folders you have created no matter where they are
in the folder hierarchy.

 

[BudV]

Brian,

Thanks for all the help. You're a handy guy to have around. But...

To review my case, I have two profiles, but right now they have different
Contacts. I want to consolidate all contacts into a single folder which
gets referenced regardless of which profile is loaded. Oliver (post #2)
suggested "Sharing Microsoft Outlook on One PC" at the following Slipstick
site:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/olshare1.htm . In it they discuss creating
a third .pst file. Your reference talks about Adding/Recreating a Mail
Profile, which I did successfully when I copied stuff from Outlook Express
to my second Outlook profile. They seem to have a lot of opportunities to
make mistakes. What do you think of exporting contacts from Profile B to
Profile A, (MS's Help and Support article 286044) and then changing the
Profile B Contacts pointer to point to the same folder as that of Profile A.
Assuming I'm fully backed up before doing this, I have no need to keep the
original contents for either profile. If I get your OK on this, then please
tell me how to change that pointer. Along these lines, I had no success
with your answer to my question #3 below.

Also, in the Slipstick write-up, they talk about changing the name of the
Personal Folders group to something that would distinguish one profile from
another. I get the impression that this opportunity exists only when
creating a Personal Folders group, and that it's unchangeable after that.
Am I right on this? To get around this, I created dummy folders with
alphabetically low-order titles to make the distinction.

 

[Brian Tillman]

To review my case, I have two profiles, but right now they have
different Contacts. I want to consolidate all contacts into a single
folder which gets referenced regardless of which profile is loaded. Oliver
(post #2) suggested "Sharing Microsoft Outlook on One PC" at
the following Slipstick site:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/olshare1.htm . In it they discuss
creating a third .pst file.

You can share even the main PST between profiles, but that sort of negates
the reason for separate profiles.

Your reference talks about
Adding/Recreating a Mail Profile, which I did successfully when I
copied stuff from Outlook Express to my second Outlook profile. They
seem to have a lot of opportunities to make mistakes.

That's for sure. Outlook causes a lot of people fits. It is a complex
program.

What do you
think of exporting contacts from Profile B to Profile A, (MS's Help
and Support article 286044) and then changing the Profile B Contacts
pointer to point to the same folder as that of Profile A.

No reason to use export or import and when transferring data Outlook to
Outlook, every reason to avoid import and export. Just add Profile B's PST
to Profile A and copy the contacts. Alternatively, just use Profile B's PST
in Profile A and leave those COntacts where they are. Make enable added
PST's Contacts folder as an address book and you'll have simultaneous access
to both at address resolution time.

Also, in the Slipstick write-up, they talk about changing the name of
the Personal Folders group to something that would distinguish one
profile from another. I get the impression that this opportunity
exists only when creating a Personal Folders group, and that it's
unchangeable after that. Am I right on this?

You can change the display name of the PST (i.e., how it's root appears in
the Navigation Pane), but once Outlook creates the default folders when a
PST is made the delivery location, the default folder names become
immutable. Each of the two PSTs you have have been the delivery location of
a profile, so you won't be able to modify the default folder names in
either. You can, however, create your own PST, create the names you want,
then copy the contents of the folders(not the folders themselves) in one or
both PSTs to the third PST, closing the source PST(s) when finished to
remove it from the Navigation Pane. As long as that PST is not made a
delivery location, the default folders won't appear.

 

[BudV]

Brian,

Please put up with me for a little longer. Although I don't have my
solution yet, I am getting smarter. I regret that my 55 years as a
mainframe programmer didn't prepare me for the complexities of the PC world.

You said:

"No reason to use export or import and when transferring data Outlook to
Outlook, every reason to avoid import and export. Just add Profile B's PST
to Profile A and copy the contacts. Alternatively, just use Profile B's PST
in Profile A and leave those COntacts where they are. Make enable added
PST's Contacts folder as an address book and you'll have simultaneous access
to both at address resolution time."

I need to parse this to make sure I understand it. Did you mean:

Just add profile B's PST to Profile A and copy ...
OR
Just use profile B's PST in Profile A and leave ...
AND REGARDLESS OF WHICH YOU DO, THEN
Make enable added PST's Contacts folder as an address book...?

I started taking the online help course on becoming an Address Book Expert,
but quit after it looked like the address book would give me simply a
four-column single-line entry for each contact. This whole venture is for
my daughter, and she wants to be able to look at the same consolidated list
of contacts regardless of which profile she's in, and have available the
same various fancy screen and print formats that she is used to. In
addition, "Make enable added PST's Contacts folder ..." looks like there
are some words missing, and I don't understand it.

In attempting to execute your "Just add" procedure, I got into Control Panel
| Mail | Data Files (it defaulted to Profile A) and added Profile B's .pst
file, but that resulted in Profile A showing only Profile B's contacts. Even
if it worked, doing only this would give her a consolidated list only while
she was in Profile A, but while she was in Profile B she would only get its
original list of contacts. So I'm doing something wrong with the "Just add"
procedure.

The "Just use..." procedure smacks of what I was suggesting in a prior post,
namely combining everything in Profile A, and setting Profile B to point to
Profile A. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how I would "copy the contacts" or
how I would set up the "Just use..."

So I'm still messed up, but I'm getting closer! Please see me through to
the end of this!

 

[Bud Vitoff]

Brian, you're going to want to kill me...

I spent a lot of time taking the course, experimenting, and drafting the
post below, much to the exasperation of my daughter. She says she asked me
to do it and didn't think it wouldn't take me that long. Why didn't I just
copy (merge) Profile A's contacts into Profile B's contacts, and then copy
(replace) B's back to A? This is something she could have done herself! I
pointed out my concerns about double disk usage, and the risk of duplicate
maintenance getting the two out of synch. She didn't mind, because the
lists are pretty static and copy/paste minimizes the risk of the occasional
change. A-a-a-r-gh!

But just to show you how stubborn I am, would you mind answering one last
question on this topic? I said in the letter below, "In attempting to
execute your "Just add" procedure, I got into Control Panel | Mail | Data
Files (it defaulted to Profile A) and added Profile B's .pst file, but that
resulted in Profile A showing only Profile B's contacts." If I did combine
everything into B (and then deleted all of A's contacts), would that
solution work, or are there other concerns that would shoot me down?

Thanks for everything,

Bud

 

[Brian Tillman]

I need to parse this to make sure I understand it. Did you mean:

Just add profile B's PST to Profile A and copy ...
OR
Just use profile B's PST in Profile A and leave ...
AND REGARDLESS OF WHICH YOU DO, THEN
Make enable added PST's Contacts folder as an address book...?

Delete the word "Make". I switched thoughts after I typed "make" but forgot
to delete it. If you copy profile B's contacts to the profile A PST, you
don't need to enable A's Contacts folder as an address book because it
should already be enabled. Once the contacts are copied, you can close the
added PST by right-clicking on its root and choosing Close. If you add B's
PST to A and do not copy the contacts, but just use the added PST as a
separate set of folders, then you'll need to enable the added PST's Contacts
folder as an address book.

In attempting to execute your "Just add" procedure, I got into
Control Panel
file, but that resulted in Profile A showing only Profile B's
contacts. Even if it worked, doing only this would give her a
consolidated list only while she was in Profile A, but while she was
in Profile B she would only get its original list of contacts. So
I'm doing something wrong with the "Just add" procedure.

While logged into profile A, click File>Open>Outlook Data File, browse to
profile B's PST, select it, and click OK. While logged into profile B,
click File>Open>Outlook Data File, browse to profile A's PST, select it, and
click OK. Now each profile will be able to access the other's PST.

The "Just use..." procedure smacks of what I was suggesting in a
prior post, namely combining everything in Profile A, and setting
Profile B to point to Profile A. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how I
would "copy the contacts" or how I would set up the "Just use..."

Copy the contacts from one PST to te other by selecting the Contacts folder
in the added PST, pressing Ctrl-A to select them all, then clicking
Edit>Copy to Folder, specifying the Contact folder in the main PST for that
profile for the destination.

 

[Brian Tillman]

I spent a lot of time taking the course, experimenting, and drafting
the post below, much to the exasperation of my daughter. She says
she asked me to do it and didn't think it wouldn't take me that long.
Why didn't I just copy (merge) Profile A's contacts into Profile B's
contacts, and then copy (replace) B's back to A? This is something
she could have done herself! I pointed out my concerns about double
disk usage, and the risk of duplicate maintenance getting the two out
of synch. She didn't mind, because the lists are pretty static and
copy/paste minimizes the risk of the occasional change. A-a-a-r-gh!

See if my most recent answer to your prior post helps. If not, let me know.

 

[BudV]

Brian,

Okay, let's face it. I don't know enough about Outlook to discuss it
intelligently, or to understand everything you're telling me. no matter how
hard you try. I really appreciate your efforts, but I think we should take
a break, while I study Poremsky's "...Outlook in 24 hours" that just came in
the mail. After I master that, if I can't do this on my own, I'll open a
new thread. BUT...

If you're willing to take one last look before we break, I'm still concerned
about the following items:

1) Adding profile B to profile A. When I tried that, both Profile A and
Profile B showed only the old B Contacts.

2) I admit I've been avoiding Address Book concerns, because for some stupid
reason I was visualizing the Phone List view. I'm beginning to understand
that "address book" is an attribute that can be applied to folders -- or
something. (There's still hope!)

3) I harbor a certain fear that combining contacts by adding .pst files will
also combine (or otherwise foul up) mail messages, because of the
description under Control Panel | Mail: "Mail Setup: Change Settings for
the files Outlook uses to store e-mail messages and documents." Again, I
want the two profiles to be unique in all respects except for having a
single Contacts file that can be updated from either profile.

4) I don't know (yet) how to enable a folder as an address book, I think I
came close in a Contacts | Properties checkbox for "Show this folder as an
e-mail Address Book."

5) "Now each profile will be able to access the other's PST" sure sounds
like it defeats my intent for each profile to be unique except for a common
Contacts folder.

6) It goes on...

Thanks, Bud

 

[Brian Tillman]

If you're willing to take one last look before we break, I'm still
concerned about the following items:

1) Adding profile B to profile A. When I tried that, both Profile A
and Profile B showed only the old B Contacts.

Showed then where? If you mean in the Address Book interface, you must
right-click the other Contacts folder, choose Properties, select the Outlook
ADdress Book tab, and check the box labeled "Show this folder as an e-mail
Address Book" before the Address Book interface will display it.

2) I admit I've been avoiding Address Book concerns, because for some
stupid reason I was visualizing the Phone List view. I'm beginning
to understand that "address book" is an attribute that can be applied
to folders -- or something. (There's still hope!)

See above.

3) I harbor a certain fear that combining contacts by adding .pst
files will also combine (or otherwise foul up) mail messages, because
of the description under Control Panel | Mail: "Mail Setup: Change
Settings for the files Outlook uses to store e-mail messages and
documents." Again, I want the two profiles to be unique in all
respects except for having a single Contacts file that can be updated
from either profile.

You're not combining anything. You're making both data stored available
simultaneously but you're not mixing the contents of them together. As long
as you pay attention to what you're doing, they'll remain distinct.

4) I don't know (yet) how to enable a folder as an address book, I
think I came close in a Contacts | Properties checkbox for "Show this
folder as an e-mail Address Book."

That's correct.

5) "Now each profile will be able to access the other's PST" sure
sounds like it defeats my intent for each profile to be unique except
for a common Contacts folder.

When you add a PST to a mail profile, you'll be able to access all the data
in that PST, There's no way to hide or include only specific folders. If
you want to create a PST with only a Contacts folder in it, you can do that.
Using one profile, create the PST and copy the Contacts folder to that PST.
Open that PST in the other profile and you'll see only a Contacts folder
(since that's all the PST contains). That adds the issue of keeping that
Contacts folder in sync with the default Contacts folders, but there are
third-party tools that can help with that. See
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.asp and
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.asp

 

[BudV]

We're on the home stretch!

Showed then where?

Outlook's Window. "... 24 Hours" says (in Figure 1.6) "Internet shortcuts
open the Web Page in Outlook's Window", so that's as good a name as any for
the pane that displays contacts data, for example. Your term "Address Book
interface", I'm sure, refers to the same pane and, along with the rest of
your answer, is finally starting to make this whole thing come together for
me. I don't want to backtrack over the entire topic, for fear that I'll
find that you've said this a couple of times already!

You're not combining anything. You're making both data stored available
simultaneously but you're not mixing the contents of them together.

This statement applies more to what I started out with, namely Contacts A
different from Contacts B; i.e., not consolidated and identical as they are
now. So far, I'm with you.

When you add a PST to a mail profile, you'll be able to access all the
data in that PST, There's no way to hide or include only specific
folders. If you want to create a PST with only a Contacts folder in it,
you can do that. Using one profile, create the PST and copy the Contacts
folder to that PST. Open that PST in the other profile and you'll see only
a Contacts folder

Okay, so I create this "Consolidated_Contacts.pst" file, and make it
effective for both profiles. It sounds as though I have to be in one
profile to create it and make it effective for that profile; then go into
the other profile and open it to make it effective there as well. (I'm
missing a couple of steps here, it seems, but I'll figure it out).

That adds the issue of keeping that Contacts folder in sync with the
default
Contacts folders, but there are third-party tools that can help with

that.

I checked the links you gave me and they seem to be concerned with
synchronizing simultaneous multiple users and/or PC's. Unless I'm mistaken,
that doesn't apply to me, since I'm only dealing with multiple profiles in a
single PC. The very nature of how Outlook handles multiple profiles (by
forcing you to exit and re-enter to get to a different profile) guarantees
that all I/O will be flushed and closed before re-opening. If, on the other
hand, you're talking about synchronizing *data*, I shouldn't have a problem
there because I intend to have all my contacts *only* in that single
Consolidated_Contacts.pst file, and I will have deleted all the entries from
the default Contacts folders. If I'm still wrong here, then I don't know
what kind of synchronization you could be talking about.

I realize that I may have a tricky timing problem with what, how, and when
I delete, but I'll be fully backed up, and my programming experience should
help out a little. Probably delete all contacts after creating the new .pst
file, but before making it available.