ECLIPSE PROJECT GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE Public Folders The University of Leeds Eclipse Project Good Practice Guide How to Set Up and Use Public Folders Using Microsoft Outlook on Exchange An Academic Planning & Performance Office/ISS production 1 ECLIPSE PROJECT GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE Public Folders About public folders Public folders are a feature of Microsoft Exchange Server that provides an effective way to collect, organise, and share information with others in an organisation. Typically, public folders are used by project teams or user groups to share information on a common area of interest. Public folders can contain any type of Outlook folder item, non-Outlook items such as Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc) or any other type of file except Access databases. This is good idea because:  It’s an alternative to sending large documents by email.  Access to the public folder can be selective.  Many people can access files (although multiple edits are not recommended – see note below*). Read on to find out how to set this up: An Academic Planning & Performance Office/ISS production 2 ECLIPSE PROJECT GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE Public Folders 1. Contact your Exchange Administrator (See below) and provide them with details of the public folder: (what it is to be called, where you want it located, the people who should have access to it and where they are located) Further Information 2. Permissions. Your Exchange Administrator will give permission to you as an Owner so that you manage the access to your own folders. Further Information 3. Place files in the folder. This can be done in various ways:  By dragging them in from My Computer;  From within the file itself by right-clicking and selecting the Sent to option from the short-cut menu.  You can also send a previously private folder to a public folder. Further Information 4. Notify Users: Email the relevant people to inform them that they can access their files via the public folder and include a shortcut to the folder. It’s a good idea to specify the name of the specific file you want them to look at, as the shortcut points to the whole folder. Further Information 5. Trouble Shooting Public Folders: 1. What if two people access the file at the same time? 2. I cannot find the file I’ve been working on which has been saved to a temporary directory. 3. *Further information on files requiring simultaneous edits. An Academic Planning & Performance Office/ISS production 3 ECLIPSE PROJECT GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE Public Folders Create a Public Folder Public Folders have to be set up by someone who has permission to create folders in an existing public folder. The Corporate Services/Central Administration departments have already been created within the Public Folder Structure (see diagram to the right). Each higher level area has a named Exchange Administrator who is the designated Owner of the public folders in that section. The Exchange Administrator (see below) will create the folder that you request. You will need to let the Exchange Administrator know the names and location of the people who will be using the folder and the required permission level. Generally you will be set as an Owner on your own folder. Exchange Administrators Human Resources Students & Teaching Central Offices Research & Knowledge Transfer Finance Angela Chatham Laura Martin Lorna Halson Annette Caplan and Lucy Kear Glenn Cowlam and Anika Huggins The Exchange Administrator’s role is as follows:  Owner for the folders within their area.  Allocation of permissions to people who wish to use the folders in their area.  Creation of additional folders as required by their area.  Generally encouraging appropriate usage of public folders . Back to Step 1 An Academic Planning & Performance Office/ISS production 4 ECLIPSE PROJECT GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE Public Folders Outlook Folder Permissions You can control the amount of access and to whom it is given by setting Permissions: 1. Right-click on the folder in the folder list and select Properties at the bottom of the shortcut menu. 2. Click the Permissions tab. 3. Add or remove people as required and set an appropriate Permission Level (see table below for definitions of the different levels). 4. Always make sure that the Default stays as None otherwise everyone will have the set level of permission as default. If your administrator has set up a public folder, you may have permission to use some or all of the folders within the public folder. The extent of the activities you can perform in a public folder depends on your permission Level (or combination of permissions) in that folder, see below: Permission level You can Owner Create, read, modify, and delete all items and files, and create subfolders. As the folder owner, you can change the permission levels others have for the folder. (Does not apply to delegates.) Publishing Editor Create, read, modify, and delete all items and files, and create subfolders. (Does not apply to delegates.) Editor Create, read, modify, and delete all items and files. Publishing Author Create and read items and files, create subfolders, and modify and delete items and files you create. (Does not apply to delegates.) Author Create and read items and files, and modify and delete items and files you create. Contributor Create items and files only. The contents of the folder do not appear. (Does not apply to delegates.) Reviewer Read items and files only. Custom Perform activities defined by the folder owner. (Does not apply to delegates.) None You have no permission. You can't open the folder. Back to Step 2 An Academic Planning & Performance Office/ISS production 5 ECLIPSE PROJECT GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE Public Folders Post files into folders 1. Locate the public folder in the folder list. 2. Open My Computer or similar application so that you can see the source file and the destination directory. 3. Drag required file into the appropriate folder, this will place a copy of the file on the exchange server. Alternative way to place files on the exchange server. 1. Open the file in question. 2. From the File menu select Send to. 3. Then select Exchange 4. Browse down to the appropriate Public Folder and click OK. Back to Step 3 An Academic Planning & Performance Office/ISS production 6 ECLIPSE PROJECT GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE Public Folders Notify Users Email the relevant people to inform them that they can access their files via the public folder and include a shortcut to the folder within the email. 1. Right-click the appropriate folder in the Public Folder list. 2. Select send Link to This Folder 3. Enter the details of the email. It is a good idea to specifically name the file that you want the recipient to look at as the shortcut points to the whole folder 4. Send the email. Back to Step 4 An Academic Planning & Performance Office/ISS production 7 ECLIPSE PROJECT GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE Public Folders Trouble Shooting Public Folders  What if two people access the file at the same time? When more than one person changes a file in a public folder at the same time only the changes made by the person who first saves the file are saved and the second person to save will see a message similar to this one: Changes made by subsequent users will be saved into a temporary file on the c-drive of their pc at the following location: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet File\OLKxx (you will need to insert your own user name at username and each pc has its own number at xx). Back  I cannot find the file I’ve been working on which has been save in the temporary directory. If when you browse to the location of the temporary file you cannot find the OLKxx directory try the following; 1. Click the Open button in the application of the file that you are looking for (eg Word or Excel). 2. Browse to C:Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files. 3. Type Olk and the directory will show in the File Name box. 4. Click the Open button and you will be able to see the files within that directory. Back An Academic Planning & Performance Office/ISS production 8 ECLIPSE PROJECT GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE Public Folders Files requiring simultaneous edits. Although public folders are a good way of distributing files that many people need to access, if the files are likely to be simultaneously edited, then it is best not to use public folders. The reasons for this are:  If more than one person opens a file simultaneously, no warning is given that someone is already in the file.  When more than one person is in a file only the changes of the first person to saves the file will be saved to the file on the Exchange server, other users’ simultaneous edits will be saved to a temporary directory (see point above in Trouble Shooting Section).  There is no automatic way of merging the files so any changes would need to be manually copied into one of the versions.  If the file has been replicated (due to simultaneous opening) then subsequent openings of the file will result in the file name being incremented (eg budget.xls would then be called budget1.xls). An Academic Planning & Performance Office/ISS production 9