Sharing Contacts

There are a couple of ways to share contact information with others. The easiest method to share any Outlook item or folder is through use of Exchange Server. But if you don't have access to Exchange Server, there are still several ways to share contact information with others.

For more information about sharing with Exchange Server, see "Using Public Folders to Share Information," p. 696.

Sharing a Contacts Folder

If you use Outlook as an Exchange client, you can share information in any folder with another Exchange user. You can grant any Exchange user permissions to view, edit, and add information to any of your Outlook folders. You can assign permissions to individual users or distribution lists. To allow another user to access your Contacts folder, take the following steps:

1. From the Navigation Pane, click Share My Contacts to display the Contacts folder properties dialog box.

2. Click the Permissions tab (see Figure 10.48).

   Figure 10.48. Use the Permissions tab to grant access to your Contacts folder.

   

3. Click Add to display the Add Users box.

4. Select the person you want to allow to share your Contacts folder and click Add. You can add as many users as you want. When you're done, click OK.

5. In the Name box, select the first person you added to configure that person's individual permission level.

6. You can select a permission level from the drop-down list or create a custom permission level by checking the various boxes that describe allowable operations. To view the detailed permissions for any level, choose that level in the drop-down box. The applicable check boxes check themselves so that you can see what each permission level entails.

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each additional person to fully configure permissions.

8. Click OK to save permission changes.

Sharing Individual Contacts Using vCards

The Internet standard method for sharing contact information is through the use of vCards. You can share vCards with other individuals or attach them to your email signature.

A vCard is an electronic business card based on an open standard that allows any supporting application to interpret the information. vCards can carry information such as name, address, telephone numbers, email addresses, Web page addresses, geographic, and time zone information. vCards support graphics and other multimedia types such as the inclusion of company logos, audio clips, and photographs. vCards support multiple languages.

NOTE

Outlook has limited support for vCards. You can use them to transfer information between users, but some of the advanced features such as audio clips and pictures might not translate properly.

You can share individual contacts by sending the contacts to other Outlook users or through the use of vCards. You can send a contact item directly to another Outlook user by simply right-clicking on a contact item and selecting Forward. This creates a new email message with the contact attached. You can select multiple contacts using the Ctrl or Shift keys and attach them to an email message all at once using the same method.

You can create a vCard from any contact item. After you create a vCard, you can attach it to an email message to share it with another person.

For more information about creating vCards, see "Importing Contacts from vCards," p. 211.

You can also include a vCard with your email signature. To attach a vCard to your signature, use the following steps:

1. Create a contact entry for yourself. Include any information you want to share with others, such as your phone numbers, mailing address, email addresses, birthday, and anniversary.

2. Select Tools, Options and click the Mail Format tab.

3. Click the Signatures button.

4. Click New and enter a name for your signature.

5. Choose Start with a blank signature.

6. Click Next to display Figure 10.49.

   Figure 10.49. Use this dialog box to create your signature and attach a vCard.

   

7. Create the text portion of your signature. You can enter your name, email address, phone number, and Web site address.

8. Click New vCard from Contact to display the Select Names dialog box.

9. Select your Contact record, click Add and then OK.

10. Click Finish to create your signature.

Now when you create a new email message, as in Figure 10.50, your vCard will automatically be attached to the email.

Figure 10.50. Your emails can automatically contain your vCard.