About public folders

Public folders are an easy and effective way to collect, organize, and share information with other people in your workgroup or organization. You can use public folders to share files or post information on an electronic bulletin board. You can also use public folders to store items, such as calendars and contacts, that are shared by two or more people.

Public folders, which are stored on Microsoft Exchange Server computers, are created and designed by administrators and other people in your organization who have the appropriate access permissions. These permissions determine who can view, create, and modify items in the folders. Anyone who uses your e-mail server can read and post items to your server's public folders and to public folders on other servers.

Note  Depending on the server where a particular public folder is stored, you may be prompted for security credentials, such as a password, when you try to open the folder. For more information, see the Microsoft Exchange Server online documentation or contact an administrator. Also, if you're logged on only to view postings in public folders, you may have to supply security credentials to access your Microsoft Exchange mailbox folders, such as your Inbox.

To open a public folder:

1. In the Navigation Pane, click Public Folders.
2. Locate the public folder you want to open.

   Tip  If necessary, click the plus sign on the folder bar to see the contents of a public folder and any subfolders it contains.

3. Click the public folder to open it.