Can multiple exchange users share same categories?

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Jim Robertson

I'm trying to set up a common calendar for the docs and administrative staff

in my medical practice, so we'll all know who's on-call, who's on vacation,

who has swapped weekend coverage with whom, etc.

I've set the calendar up as a Public Folder Calendar, and (with help)

figured out how to get it listed alongside personal calendars on each of our

user's workstations. I'm the owner, and our Office Manager has "Publishing

Editor" permissions. Everyone else has "Reviewer" permissions. I've created

categories by changing the names of the default color categories; e.g.,

"Blue" is now "On Call", "Green" is now "CME Meeting", "Red" is

"Vacation/Holidays", etc.

When a co-worker views this "Favorite Public Folder" Calendar on his/her

workstation, individual events still have their category assignments, but

they don't display the color attribute I've assigned them on my machine, and

the categories they're assigned are designated as "not in the master

categories list" on the subscribing user's machine..

Can I create a "Color Categories" list that accompanies the calendar when

it's opened on other users' workstations? If not, can I simply replicate my

categories list on every user's account on his/her workstation on our

exchange server? If I do that, will an event such as "Robertson weekend

call" that shows in Blue on Saturday and Sunday as a two-day all day event

on my machine show up with the same color category assignment and color view

on a coworker's workstation?

It seems there should be some way to have the list of categories as an

attribute of the Public Folder Calendar itself, but I've not figured out how

to do this. I've searched through Outlook 2007 Inside Out, the integrated

help in Outlook 2007, and online help, but I've not found this issue

addressed.

Can anyone here offer me suggestions how to accomplish my goal, or point me

to a solution online or in a textbook (I have a Safari Books Online account

that provides rather extensive online access to tech books).

Thanks so much,

Jim Robertson
 
I found a VERY brief discussion of this in "Outlook 2007 Inside Out," which

discusses changing regsitry entries to accomplish Category sharing.

There MUST be another way...

Guess I'll just have to try replicating the Category list on another user's

computer and see if that triggers a match with the Color Category I've

assigned on my computer.

My guess is that this list isn't based on matching text strings, but rather

on some metadata flags that are set when the Category List is created. I'm

fearful that just creating identical lists for multiple users won't work.

I'll report back once I find out, but I'd still appreciate suggestions

regarding how to make it work :)

Jim Robertson
 
Hi Jim,

the colors are stored in each user's mailbox. If you look at an appointment

item in the public folder, Outlook takes the category name from that

appointment item, and searches for its color in your mailbox.

In order to have every user seeing the same color, they must have the same

master category list in their mailbox. While you can deploy the category

names by a group policy, you can't share the colors by that.

You can manually assign the same colors to the same category names on every

computer. Or you can use Category Manager, with which you can automatically

synchronize the master category list and the colors. If you're interested in

trying the tool, please see the link in my signature.

Viele Gruesse

Michael Bauer

Category Manager - Kategorien verwalten & gemeinsam nutzen:

SAM - Der Sendekonto-Manager:

<http://www.vboffice.net/product.html?lang=de
Am Tue, 18 May 2010 18:25:43 -0700 schrieb Jim Robertson:


> I'm trying to set up a common calendar for the docs and administrative

staff
> in my medical practice, so we'll all know who's on-call, who's on

vacation,
> who has swapped weekend coverage with whom, etc.

> I've set the calendar up as a Public Folder Calendar, and (with help)
> figured out how to get it listed alongside personal calendars on each of

our
> user's workstations. I'm the owner, and our Office Manager has "Publishing
> Editor" permissions. Everyone else has "Reviewer" permissions. I've

created
> categories by changing the names of the default color categories; e.g.,
> "Blue" is now "On Call", "Green" is now "CME Meeting", "Red" is
> "Vacation/Holidays", etc.

> When a co-worker views this "Favorite Public Folder" Calendar on his/her
> workstation, individual events still have their category assignments, but
> they don't display the color attribute I've assigned them on my machine,

and
> the categories they're assigned are designated as "not in the master
> categories list" on the subscribing user's machine..

> Can I create a "Color Categories" list that accompanies the calendar when
> it's opened on other users' workstations? If not, can I simply replicate

my
> categories list on every user's account on his/her workstation on our
> exchange server? If I do that, will an event such as "Robertson weekend
> call" that shows in Blue on Saturday and Sunday as a two-day all day event
> on my machine show up with the same color category assignment and color

view
> on a coworker's workstation?

> It seems there should be some way to have the list of categories as an
> attribute of the Public Folder Calendar itself, but I've not figured out

how
> to do this. I've searched through Outlook 2007 Inside Out, the integrated
> help in Outlook 2007, and online help, but I've not found this issue
> addressed.

> Can anyone here offer me suggestions how to accomplish my goal, or point

me
> to a solution online or in a textbook (I have a Safari Books Online

account
> that provides rather extensive online access to tech books).

> Thanks so much,
> Jim Robertson
 
On 5/19/10 12:31 AM, in article 16nlrjiudn9qk.4v79lfcz5ibq.dlg@40tude.net,

"Michael Bauer " <mb@mvps.org> wrote:


> In order to have every user seeing the same color, they must have the same
> master category list in their mailbox. While you can deploy the category
> names by a group policy, you can't share the colors by that.

> You can manually assign the same colors to the same category names on every
> computer. Or you can use Category Manager, with which you can automatically
> synchronize the master category list and the colors. If you're interested in
> trying the tool, please see the link in my signature.

Thank you so much for your prompt reply. I've visited your product site, and

it seems a plausible solution to my issue. I hope you'll indulge a few

additional comments/questions before I download the Category Manager

Enterprise trial:

1. My primary reference source as I've learned Outlook 2007 (I'm a Mac guy)

has been "Microsoft Outlook 2007 Inside Out." On Page 112, it states:


> The Master Category List in earlier versions of Microsoft Outlook has been
> removed in

Outlook 2007. Categories listed in the Master Category List but not
> assigned to any items

are not imported when you upgrade to Outlook 2007.

This book has been wrong in other specifics; e.g., it states that Public

Folders have been deprecated, which is not true. My limited (and possibly

wrong) inference about this is that MS plans to move users who wish such

collaboration to SharePoint, and that some removed features in the "release

to marketing" version of Outlook 2007 were actually reinserted into the

packaged retail version, perhaps with Service Pack 1, but I'm unclear on

that. May I ask if your product depends in some way on the Master Category

List, and if so, whether it's future depends on the future of the Master

Category List? Are they still supported in Exchange 2010 and Office Outlook

2010?

2. I'm an end user, not an IT professional. I was seduced by Microsoft's

descriptions of SBS 2008 as configurable by a reasonably intelligent non-IT

professional, and I've actually managed to set up our environment, starting

with a downloadable time-limited trial version of SBS 2008 that I managed to

make boot natively on my dual Quad Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro at home before

buying a Dell server, reconfiguring 4 of its six SAS-SCSI drives as a RAID

10 array for installation of the "real thing" at work, purchasing and

deploying an SSL certificate for our domain, etc. In other words, I'm not a

complete idiot (except, perhaps, for thinking that I can do all this in my

spare time; on the SmallBizServer web forum some of my questions are

answered with "you should contact your IT support for that," to which I

reply "I ***AM*** IT support for my small business!"). It appears to me that

"under the hood" Microsoft supports two different, and possibly conflicting

ways for Outlook 2007 users to share data -- one for users doing

peer-to-peer networking, the other for users on an Exchange Server. We, of

course, are using Exchange. Will your product work with Exchange 2007 in an

SBS 2008 environment? Also, will the category list in Category Manager

Enterprise deploy to users who access calendar data using Outlook Web

Access? (Your reference to using GPO and its limitation -- not sharing the

color assignment -- makes me believe you already understand my environment,

but I just wanted to be certain).

3. If I go the laborious worstation-by-workstation route, configuring each

user's Category list to have the same assignments, managing not to misspell

any names or assign the wrong colors, but then an individual user adds

another category to HIS list, will that destroy the other mapping of

categories in his list; e.g., must the lists be truly IDENTICAL, or is it

only necessary that they not be in conflict with another user's list?

4. A corollary to the Exchange question: if I use Category Manager

Enterprise, must all client computers be managed as Active Directory

clients?

Again, thank you SO much for your very helpful initial response. Also, I

must tell you that my German is non-existent. I'm guessing that will not be

an issue based on your initial response and the English version of your

website, but I want to be clear about ALL my limitations if I'm to become

your customer :)

Thanks so much,

Jim Robertson
 
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