Global Address Book Download (O2K)

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I and a few others work on laptops in a company which has a bolted down environment for its desktop PCs. The laptop is therefore not a well supported configuration.

We have not been very successful in our attempts to pull down the Global Directory from the exchange server into a local, address book/contact list on the laptops – let alone synchronise them.

Is the ability to pull down the directory something which needs setting up on the server? Is an LDAP service involved?

We are using Outlook 2000, with W2K operating system, and believe that we should be using CW mode in order to share calendars and the main company directory when on-line.

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Mike C:

What kind of offline setup are you using? Synchronizing the GAL to a laptop isn’t usually difficult (we have the same configuration you mention)…we manage it with Outlook’s Offline Folders (for offline access to mail, calendar, etc.) and download the GAL as part of that.

The GAL portion is at Tools| Synchronize| Download Offline Address Book–the dropdown menu gives us a choice to download the Global Address List (this needs to be “allowed” on the Exchange Server–if you don’t see the GAL in that dropdown menu, ask your Exchange Admin to allow it). However, it isn’t synchronized in both directions, because users cannot by default make changes to the GAL from the Outlook client. It simply downloads any changes from the server.

The full setup for offline synchronization is in Tools| Synchronization| Offline Folder Settings (or, Tools| Mail Services| Offline Folder Settings). As part of setting up synchronization for folders, you can set that process up to include a regular update of the offline GAL.

If none of those work, you can also use the Exchange Header Tool and Directory Export to create a csv file from the GAL that could be imported into a Contacts folder. However, this option would require significantly more administrative work.

Hope that helps!

klyjen

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Sorry this took so long, but I was prowling around what you said. I now have a “standard” set-up working fine. The GAL problem was at the server end. when they learned what to do it was easy!

Thanks

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