Can multiple exchange users share same categories?

[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

[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

[Michael Bauer [MVP - Outlook]]

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 - MVP Outlook
Category Manager - Kategorien verwalten & gemeinsam nutzen:
SAM - Der Sendekonto-Manager:
<http://www.vboffice.net/product.html?lang=de>

[Jim Robertson]

On 5/19/10 12:31 AM, in article 16nlrjiudn9qk.4...@40tude.net,

"Michael Bauer [MVP - Outlook]" <m...@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 :-)

[Michael Bauer [MVP - Outlook]]

Am Wed, 19 May 2010 06:43:21 -0700 schrieb Jim Robertson:

Hi Jim,

for sure we won't have any problems due the our different native languages.

1. The citation is correct. Should you have the need to import categories
from the old master category list, and if you still have access to that
registry, you can also use CM for that.

Actually, CM could work independently on the master category list. On the
other hand, if MS were to remove it, Outlook probably would stop showing
assigned categories as it does it now. But as MS, for the first time after
many years, added a new and better categorizer dialog to Outlook, I'm
certain they aren't going to remove it any time soon.

And yes, categories are supported in Outlook 2010. In Outlook 2010
categories work the same way as they do in OL07. The Exchange version
doesn't matter.

2. See above, the Exchange version doesn't matter. As an Addin CM it must be
installed on the client computers, so it doesn't matter at all which server
is running. It would also work without a server.

As far as I know, Outlook Web Access still doesn't support categories. Even
if it would, CM runs in Outlook, not in a web browser.

3. The lists don't have to be identical, every user can have additional
categories.

4. No.

--
Viele Gruesse
Michael Bauer - MVP Outlook
Category Manager - Kategorien verwalten & gemeinsam nutzen:
SAM - Der Sendekonto-Manager:
<http://www.vboffice.net/product.html?lang=de>

> On 5/19/10 12:31 AM, in article 16nlrjiudn9qk.4...@40tude.net,