Sharing Microsoft Outlook on One PC

Outlook doesn't have identities, but it does have "profiles" in Outlook 97, Outlook 2002 or later, and Outlook 98/2000 in Corporate/Workgroup mode. In Internet Mail Only mode, each person will need to log on with a separate Windows user profile. See Create Separate Outlook 2000 Accounts for details on how to set that up. In either situation, it is possible to keep mail accounts separate, but share other information.

If you're mainly interested in setting up Outlook so that each person keeps their own mail separate, you don't need to use the third PST file for shared information. Also, you can extend this technique to any number of users, simply by creating additional Outlook profiles or Windows logons.

Configuration | Notes | More Information

Configuration

The His profile looks like this:

Internet Mail
Microsoft Fax
His Personal Folders (pointing to His.pst) -- primary
Our Personal Folders (pointing to Ours.pst)

The Hers profile looks like this:

Internet Mail
Microsoft Fax
Her Personal Folders (pointing to Hers.pst) -- primary
Our Personal Folders (pointing to Ours.pst)

If you are using Outlook 98/2000 in Internet Mail Only mode, you don't have two profiles, but can use the two separate Windows logons to configure two different His and Hers PST files. See Create Separate Outlook 2000 Accounts

Notice the names of the Personal Folders. When you add Personal Folders to your profile, the dialog gives you the change the name of the folders, as displayed in Outlook. This doesn't affect the file name. I strongly recommend doing this whenever someone plans to use more than one .pst file in a profile. My personal folders, for example, are named Sue's Personal Folders as I see them in Outlook.

The files His.pst and Hers.pst could be password-protected to keep them private. Just don't forget the password!

Important: Add the His.pst or Hers.pst file to the profile before you add Ours.pst. This will make His.pst or Hers.pst the primary information store. When you then add Ours.pst, create a new .pst file for the common information, rather than use a previously existing .pst. When you add a new .pst, it contains only a Deleted Items folder.

Once you've set up the profiles as described, start Outlook with one of them. Choose File, New, Folder and create folders in Ours.pst for just the item types you want. For example, you might want Our Contacts, Our Tasks, Our Calendar, etc. Once you've set up the folders, you can drag them to the Outlook Bar if you like. You might also want to add the Our Contacts folder to the Outlook Address Book.

To switch to the other profile, use the File | Exit and Log Off command to quit Outlook, then restart with the other profile.

Finally, if you have other .psts that already contain data, add them temporarily to your profile with File, Open Special Folder, and drag the information to the folders in the new profile. (You could also use File, Import, but I like dragging so I can be selective in what I move over.) When you're done, use Tools, Services to remove those older .pst files from the profile.

Notes

The reason this works so well is that the Outlook Bar settings are associated with particular profiles through .fav files kept in your Windows folder. These files use the same names as profiles, so, in this case, you'd find Hers.fav and His.fav. It's a good idea to back up these files, when you back up other Outlook data.

If you have a single mail account with multiple e-mail addresses, Outlook does not provide any easy way to download just the mail for me@domain.dom, but leave the mail for you@domain.dom.  In Outlook 97, Outlook 2002, or Outlook 98/2000 in Corporate/Workgroup mode, you can download message headers and select which messages to download and delete from the mail server. But there's no way to keep each person's mail private if you're all sharing one e-mail account. If privacy is important, you should have separate mail accounts.

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