Administration and Finance

Understanding when to use Outlook delegates and folder permissions to share Outlook calendars will help avoid a lot of confusion.  Information Technology Services recommends that faculty and staff only use ‘Delegates’ when a person will need to receive and process meeting requests on someone’s behalf.  If they would just like to share an Outlook Calendar, Tasks, Inbox, Contacts, Notes, or Journal with other Outlook users, using "folder permissions" works better than Delegates.

Questions about this tip may be directed to the ITS Support Center at ext. 4357.

Summary:

Use Folder Permissions to Share a calendar (or other item) when someone needs to view your calendar, tasks, inbox, contacts, notes, or journal.

Use Delegates when someone will be receiving and responding to meeting requests on your behalf.

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Use Folder Permissions to Share a Calendar or Other Item:

Select Go | Folder Lists |

Locate the item you wish to share - in this example, we will be sharing a calendar. Right click on Calendar and select Sharing...

Select the Permissions Tab and click the Add button (or you can click on Share my Calendar link if it is present)

Select the person who you want to share your calendar and add them.

On this step, yo will grant the specific rights you want the person to have. Select the person's name in the list, and then use the drop down menu to select the appropriate permission level.

Note  If you want the person to be able to change items, select Editor. If all they need to do is view, select Reviewer.

When you are done, click OK.

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Directions for Configuring a Delegate:

From within Outlook select Tools | Options and click on the Delegates tab.

On the "Delegate Permissions" screen, select permissions for each of your folders (Calendar, Tasks, Inbox, Contacts, Notes and Journal).

Choose from the following Permission levels:
None - Delegate has no access to the folder
Reviewer - Delegate can read items in the folder, but can't make changes
Author - Delegate can read items and create new items in the folder
Editor - Delegate has full access to read, create, and modify items in the folder

Note: If you want your delegate to receive copies of your meeting-related notifications (so that the delegate will also be notified of any new meetings and can "Confirm" or "Decline" meetings on your behalf), grant Editor permissions and click the check box Delegate receives copies of meeting-related messages sent to me.

Note: If you want to send a notification message to your new delegate, click the check box Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions.

Note: If you want your delegate to be able to see your private items, click the corresponding check box.

Click on the OK button.
Verify that you have added all of the people you wish to give delegate access to and click on the OK button.

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Accessing Another User's Folder

Follow these steps if you are a delegate on someone else's Outlook account or if someone has shared their calendar or other Outlook item with you.

Note: Before you can access another Outlook user's folders (Calendar, Tasks, Inbox, Contacts, Notes, or Journal) the user must share their folders with you (set permissions) or add you as a delegate (complete the steps above).

1. Select File | Open and then select Other User's Folder.

2. Click on the Name button and from the Global address Book, enter the person's name (e.g., Doe, Jane) who has given you delegate access, and then click the OK button.

3. Click on the Folder type: pull-down menu to select the folder for which you have been given access (e.g., Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, etc.) and click the OK button.

4. A new window displays the contents of the folder you have permission to view.

Note: Depending on the access you have been given, you may or may not have permission to make changes to the folder. For example, if you have delegate permissions to someone's calendar, you can open the shared calendar, create or open a proposed meeting and either Accept or Decline the meeting as the Delegate.

5. Each time you launch Outlook, you may need to re-open the user's folder. After the first time you open a calendar folder, you will see the person's name listed under Other Calendars. Simply check the name of the calendar you wish to access.

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