Looking for an application

ando

Guys, I was wondering if any of you know of a program that will syncronize Microsoft Outlook folders?

I want to be able to synchronize an Outlook PST calendar on a laptop with the users Mailbox Calendar on the 2000exchange server

Capt'n Midnight

You can use exmerge to export the files from the server in batch mode, and the copy the file to the user's PC during login. Most other options will have problems because Outlook locks the PST and only one user at a time can see it.

and you can't use OST's ?

google says -
Easy2Sync

SynchPst

there was another one I used before - but can't remember what it was called..

ando

yeah i've already tried a few of them apps. This is the situation:

a user has a laptop and uses pst files so that she can access her email offline and when out of the office. She uses the calendar in Outlook (in the pst file on the laptop).

Now she wants her secretary to access and update her calendar, but since the PST file is on her laptop, there is no way that the secretary can change and update the calendar on her laptop... so I've given the secretary the rights to view and change the ladies calendar on her mailbox on the server, so now both of them have access to the calendar on the server in the ladies mailbox.

still with me?

So to make things short, the lady wants to keep using and updating her calendar on her laptop, but also wants her secretary to update it and view it. The secretary is able to view and update the mailbox calendar, now i need to synchronize the calendar on the mailbox with the calendar on the laptop's pst

easy!

seamus

Ugh. Can she not just ring her secretary when she's out of the office and tell her to update the calendar.

How does either one know, when putting in a calendar entry, that the other hasn't already put something in for that date?

Seems pointlessly painful to me, but if that's what the lady wants....

Capt'n Midnight

If you have exm use OST files - these synchronise when you press F9 - and by allowing someone to be a delegate (tick the box to send the email) they can change your calander (outlook file open others users folder)

Outlook - tools -services - exchange - advanced - enable offline use
as for the offline folder path - put it somewhere where you can see it instead of 7 folders deep.

BTW: if you are using PST files because you have limited space on the server - (16GB??) always remember it is not a technical limitation, it just a marketing strategy by m$ to entice (force) you to upgrade to enterprise.

PS. one day that PST file will get lost of damaged - as long as she realises she has NO backup for it. Love the way it's game over when you hit 2GB (there are ways to truncate it - but you don't want to have to do that)

ressem

Have you seen
list of outlook stuff to manage group calendars
http://www.slipstick.com/calendar/scheduleall.htm

Haven't used any myself.

You haven't mentioned how the user accesses mail, pop, imap, is webmail available?

----
Manual way out,
Users is the master copy,
Secretary uses secondary mail
User forwards created/altered .msg schedule requests to secretaries mailbox. Secretary drags attachment into
users Exchange calendar. (edit)

and vice versa.

Probably all sorts of omissions with this that'd have to be manually corrected.

---
Automating isn't trivial afaik
Using Exchange you can have scripts that watch for new items in a folder, and carry out an action based on that
(grab item and mail as attachment/place in imap folder)
This could sync secretary send and secretary receive.

On the user side, cdo program that receives new user created calendar item and mails to a public folder, or uses an user alias on exchange/ posts to exchange calender using web interface.
Also to receive .msg calendar attachments and based on TBD criteria, copy the attachment into the folder Outlook calendar as a new entry.

Though Secretary entries probably should be sent as .ics attachments (which offer the accept/deny), to prevent conflicts, the master set being the users.

----
I.e a diy approach is possible but not unless you've time to spend. Better off with a PIX 501 vpn connection and using mapi online/offline profiles for that effort.

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by ressem
Using Exchange you can have scripts that watch for new items in a folder, and carry out an action based on that

If you go down the Exchange/Outlook rules remind the users that they don't work 100% of the time, say 99% to cover yourself for when they don't synchronise etc.