Workgroup Sharing of MS Outlook Task Function

[Publius1776]

Apologies if this has already been discussed; I did a search and didn't find anything exactly related.

In my office we are trying to centralize a tasking log, i.e. who was assigned what, due date, etc. I originally thought Outlook would be ideal, charging one person as the "list master" and using Outlook's "Open Other User's Folder" option so that everyone could access the master list, update status, etc.

However, (surprise surprise), MS Outlook's online collaboration functions are far from seamless. It seems if the list master creates new categories or fields, those changes do not transfer to other users. In other words, each and every user must reconfigure "Customize Current View" in order to have access to the same information.

Has anyone had experience with this problem and how have you dealt with it?

Thanks very much,
Publius

[webagogue]

New outlook fields should be seen by everyone. It may have something to do with the way the form is published.

Categories, however, specifically are not transferrable. There is no such thing as a public master categories list. Categories are stored locally (read this about a week ago).

This is unfortunate. I've been wanting Outlook to be more like Lotus Notes (in a groupware sense) for years.

[Anonymous]

You should be able to use public folders if you are MS Exchange as the mail server as well as Outlook as the client.

You can set up a public folder to hold tasks - then assign tasks to individuals. This will keep a central task list but also allow people to control tasks that have been allocated to them through there local task list.

Hope this helps.