Sharing Microsoft Outlook Calendar and Contacts

For many offices, the most frustrating experience related to Microsoft Outlook is finding out that, unless you are using Microsoft Exchange Server, there is no simple, built-in, reliable method for sharing contacts and calendars. That's right, there's no "magic wand" you can wave to enable people to easily share Outlook data without Exchange.

One reason that this goal of sharing is so elusive is that standalone users store data in Personal Folders .pst files. However, two people cannot work from the same Personal Folders .pst file at the same time, because these files are not designed for shared access. The same problem occurs if two people try to look at the same Personal Address Book. Of course, if two people share the same computer at different times of the day, they can share data. A relatively recent development is the advent of a few products that can bypass the shared access limitations of PST files. See Other Solutions - General below.

If you have Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000, Microsoft provides a feature called Net Folders that transfers information among a group of people with special e-mail messages; this feature is more stable in Outlook 2000, but still not 100% reliable. However, this feature doesn't exist at all in Outlook 2002.