Outlook 2003 and 2007 sharing E-Mail contacts

Outlook 2003 and 2007 sharing E-Mail contacts - requires an Exchange Server account -
Cannot be done if you have a POP or IMAP account.


To provide access to sub-folders of your contacts the person sharing the contacts
must grant "folder visible" permission to the root of the mailbox.
That would be where your name is by default.
Example "Mailbox - Your Name" - which would be your actual first name & last name.

Right Click on "Mailbox - Your Name", and choose "Properties".
Click on the permissions tab (or you can right click on the root "name" folder and
left click on "change sharing permissions" to go directly to the sharing permissions tab.

This is where you will need to click to make the folder visible, otherwise the
person or people you are sharing with will never see the shared contacts sub-folders but will be able to see your main contacts list - with the name of "contacts" and only that one.

You would then need permissions of at least Reviewer -- on the shared contact sub-folders, if you need the ones you are sharing with to edit the contacts you would need to choose publishing editor - on the permissions tab dialog box -
that will enable them to add contacts and remove contacts that you have created, or you can give them permissions of "editor" where you can add and remove all contacts and add / remove sub-folders as well.

The last step the users that the contacts are shared with must take
to be able to see your contacts in Outlook is - With Outlook open -
Click on Tools > E-mail Accounts > select the Advanced tab, add the mailbox name for the person sharing their account.

Viewing the shared contacts:

Now youi as the shared contacts 'viewer or editor' can now go to your contacts, click on
"Open Shared Contacts" below the folder list, enter the name of the person sharing their contacts and you should see their contact folders as well as your own contacts.