The University of Leeds Eclipse Project Good Practice Guide

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
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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:
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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).
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