Outlook Question - I think

[rraehal]

I have a friend. At work he uses Outlook to send and receive e-mails. His Outlook software also has all of his contacts in the address book.

When he is at home, he can access his mail via a web interface. He can not access his address book. If he does open the address book it is blank.

How can he access the address book in both locations?

In lotus notes we have to replicate our main address book to the local PC for access while remote (if not connected to our domino system). In the case of the individual address book, the user must synchronize the address book to the domino server. Is this also true for outlook?

I am currently assuming that my friend uses an exchange server. I have asked for more information and will post it when available. What other information might you folks need to help?

thanks.

[Steve R Jones]

Need to look and see if the Web App has an Import function.

[chriswhitelaw]

what version of Outlook Express is it? not that it matters but it should have a import address book function when you set it up.

[Sterling_Aug]

what version of Outlook Express is it? not that it matters but it should have a import address book function when you set it up.

He is talking about Outlook, not Outlook Express.

He will need to export the file contacts at work, save the file and send it to his home PC where he will import the contacts to his home Outlook.

Outlook Web Acees OWA is not the same as Outlook. At an old contract I used to work at, they used OWA for remote users. They needed to have the .pst file that they used at the office stored on the laptop, then when they used remote OWA the contacts, etc were already on the laptop and all they could connect to were their in box in Outlook at the office.

Copy the .pst and add it as a personal folder at home. It should work then, but it will be impossible to keep the two separate .pst files synced.

[rraehal]

I will look for an import function on the web application as Steve suggests.

At home the user is not using Outlook but a web based application. Would your suggestion to copy the PST file still apply? I don't know if Office or Outlook is even installed on the home PC.

[Sterling_Aug]

If they do not have Outlook installed, then an import won't work.

Have then check with their company IT department about how the web access is set up.

He may be out of luck with what he wants unless he is allowed to use a VPN client to tunnel into the office PC.

[rraehal]

Have then check with their company IT department about how the web access is set up.


I sent an e-mail yesterday looking for this information. I will see what gets sent back - if anything. The IT folks for my friends company are independent contractors. They may not give me the information since I am not their client. Security and all that.

[tantone]

This is all dependant on how your friend contacts the mail server at work. If Outlook is connecting via POP or IMAP, chances are he's using a locally stored PST file for his Contacts and Calendar. If this is the case, then OWA will not display them.

However, if he is connecting to an Exchange server, then those Contacts and Calendar entries are, by default, stored on the server and OWA should display them just fine.

That said, if your friend had created a local PST file to store old mail, in addition to the Exchange connection (and possibly OST file), and he created his contact list in there, then he's not going to see them in OWA. In this case, he should be able to simply copy/paste all of the contacts from the PST contact list into the Exchange contact list.