Exchange Public Folders

If a Public Folder for your department or unit does not exist

Departmental folders can be created to allow faculty and staff within a department to share documents, calendars, contacts, etc. Before creation, departments need to designate one or two users who will "own" the departmental folder. These owners then assign permission for other users in their department to create subfolders underneath the departmental folder. To request a public folder for your department please send email containing the department name and owner information to pfadmin@mail.ku.edu.

Assigning Permissions

The easiest way to assign permission is to use an Exchange distribution list. A distribution list can be created for everyone in your department. This list is automatically updated as people come and go in the department. More information on requesting an Exchange distribution list.

All public folders should have at least two owners. If you assign owner permission to the Exchange Public Folder Admin account then we can assist you with any problems you encounter with this folder. (Some folders already show this account as an owner.) To assign permissions for any public folders you own:

1. Right click on the new public folder (CTRL-click for Mac).
2. Select Properties.
3. Click on the Permissions tab.
4. If you want to add additional users, click on the Add button and select individuals from the Global Address List.
5. Double-click your selection or click on the Add button to move the listings to the field on the right of the dialog box.  You can also Remove anyone who does not need access to this folder.
6. Click OK.
7. To change permissions for the existing distribution lists or for anyone you add, make sure the names are highlighted.
8. Select the appropriate roles from the list or check the boxes to give the permission level you want. There are many options available. Here are a couple you might find useful:
   • Reviewer role - allows read only access.
   • Contributor role - allows users to drop an item in a folder but not see it after they drop it.
   • Author role - allows creation of messages and editing of their own items.
   • Owner role - assign only to users who need to administer the folder.

Folder Management

Once the departmental folder has been created and permissions have been assigned, faculty and staff may create subfolders under their departmental folder. The owner of each folder will control access to his/her folders by assigning permissions for that folder. More detailed instructions for using Public Folders can be found in the Using Public Folders section of the Outlook Folder Management (pdf) handout for Windows.

Disk Quotas

Disk quotas for Public Folders will be set to allow reasonable use as determined by the department and the Exchange project coordinator.

Data Restoration

Items stored in individual Public Folders can only be restored within 72 hours of being deleted. After that time there is no way to recover these items. Users should take precautions when deleting items from Public Folders. Outlook for the Mac does not have the Recover Deleted Items menu option shown below, but a folder deleted from a Mac can be recovered using the Windows client.

To recover the deleted item you must have full read/write/delete permissions on the public folder. To do this, set permissions on the folder to Editor. To recover the deleted items:

1. Select the public folder from which the item was deleted.
2. On the Tools menu in the Outlook client, click Recover Deleted Items.