shared docs in Public Folders

[dpowell1]

In Exchange 2003 is there any way to put some docs (Word, Excel, etc.) in a Public Folder so that users can access the info from Outlook rather than from our file server?

 

[58sniper]

That's called Freedocs. You can drag files right into a PF. But a better solution would be SharePoint. SharePoint is really designed for this, and PFs are going away.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[dpowell1]

I saw another post indicating that Shrepoint is free. That can't be, correct?

 

[mofusjtf]

Sharepoint Services is free! Sharepoint Server is not.

 

[ShackDaddy]

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) that integrated heavily with Office and has lots of advanced features is not free.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is free, and probably includes the functionality that you need.

SharePoint stores data in SQL, Exchange stores it in a variation of JET. If you don't feel like managing SharePoint , you could do what you want in Public Folders, as long as you are willing to allow your mailbox database to swell in size. Exchange 2007 supports public folders, but the version after that probably won't, so your solution should also include some sort of plan for how long you want to use it.

If you store the stuff in SharePoint, you will still be able to access it in Outlook, since Outlook 2007 allows you to access SharePoint libraries in much the same way that Outlook accesses Public Folders.

Dave Shackelford
Shackelford Consulting

 

[58sniper]

Keep in mind that SharePoint supports versioning and checkout.

I'd recommend against Public Folders.

To add to what Dave says in his last sentence, you can actually even access SharePoint data from Outlook Web Access 2007 as well.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/