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Email Sharing Walk-through

In this walk-through, we'll show you how to create an Email Folder and share it with other users in your account. We'll then show you how to control which users in your account can see the Email Folder, and which can work with it. Once you've mastered sharing Email Folders, you should be able to work the sharing system for Contact Groups, Diaries, and Task Lists and Planners, as they work according to the same principles.

Step 1 - Create a Shared Email Folder

Run the MyOffice Windows Desktop version as per normal. If you've got MyOffice configured to show the Email window on startup, then you'll already be in the right place. If not, then click the "Email" button on the toolbar, or select "Email" from the "Window" menu to show the Email window.

With the Email window now showing, open the Shared Folders Admin window. This can be accomplished by selecting "Shared Email Folder Admin" from the "Tools" menu, or by right-clicking in the Shared Email Folder list in the bottom left corner of the main Email window and selecting "Shared Folder Admin" from the context menu.

If you can't see the Tools > Shared Email Folder Admin menu item it means that you don't have Email Folder Admin capability and you need to speak to your System Administrator who can give you this capability.

 

Your Shared Email Folders Admin window will look something like the above screenshot, with the obvious difference that yours will contain different Shared Email Folders. All Shared Email Folder admin functions are performed through this window, so it's well worth remembering how to get to it if you're likely to be altering your Shared Email Folders on a regular basis.

To create a Shared Email Folder, either press the "New" button in the top right corner of the Shared Email Folders Admin dialog, or right-click in list, then select "New" from the context menu. The following dialog - the Shared Email Folder Details dialog - will now appear.

 

Now enter your preferred name for this Shared Email Folder in the "Folder Name" field. Before you click "OK", take a look at the text in the middle of the dialog, below the "Folder Name" field. This shows that the Shared Email Folder you are about to create will be shared with all the users in your account, and those users will be able to both "read" from it and "write" to it. For those not familiar with permissions systems, "Read" (or "Read Only") means a user will be able to see the data in the Shared Email Folder in question, but will not be able to alter it. "Write" (or "Read\Write") means a user will be able to be both see the data, and also change it. Now, click "OK".

The Shared Email Folder you've created will now appear in the Shared Email Folder list in the Shared Email Folder Admin dialog. If you now close the Shared Email Folder Admin dialog (click "Close" in the bottom right corner), you'll see that the folder has appeared in the Shared Email Folder list in the bottom left of the  main Email window, with a small green tick on it's icon. The green tick on the icon means you can write to the folder. If the icon was red, it would mean you could only read the folders, but were not allowed to alter its contents.

Because this Shared Email Folder was set up to allow all users on your account to have read and write access to it, all other users in your account should be able to see this Shared Email Folder and work with it. If you want to test this, close MyOffice, and log on as another user in your account. You should see the Shared Email Folder you created in exactly the same place as you created it. If you want to continue to work with your Shared Email Folders' permissions, close MyOffice and log on with the user you were using initially.

Tip - If you're not sure which user you've connected to MyOffice with, open the "Help" menu and select "Who am I?". This will show you which user (and account, if you have more than one) you are currently connected to MyOffice with.

Step 2 - Controlling Shared Email Folder Permissions

Now we've created a Shared Email Folder,and we've got it shared with all the other members of the account, it's time to restrict which members of the account can work with the Shared Email Folder's contents.

First, open the Shared Email Folder Admin  window again, then open the folder for editing. This can be done by double-clicking on the Shared Email Folder in the list, selecting the folder in the list and pressing the "Edit" button, or by right-clicking on the folder in the list and selecting "Edit" from the context menu.

Once the Shared Email Folder Details dialog is open, select the "Permissions" tab. You'll see a checkbox at the top of the tab page called "Assign security permissions to this Shared Email Folder". It is currently unchecked. When there is no check in this checkbox, all the users in your account have read and write permission for the folder in question.

To begin assigning security permissions to this Shared Email Folder, check this checkbox. This can be accomplished by left clicking the checkbox.

 

With the checkbox checked, three lists appear on the Permissions tab. These are named "No Access", "Read and Write Access", and "Read Only Access". Users listed in the "No Access" list are unable to see this Shared Email Folder, those in the "Read and Write Access" list can see the Shared Email Folder and move emails to and delete emails from this folder, and those in "Read Only Access" can see the emails in this folder, but cannot add to them or delete them. As we can see, when we first check the "Assign security permissions to this Shared Email Folder" checkbox, all the users in the account are in the "No Access" list, so if we press "OK" now, no-one will be able to see the folder.

To change the permissions for a given user, the user in question should be moved to the appropriate list. This can be accomplished either by dragging the user to the desired list (select the desired user, hold down the left mouse button, and move the cursor over the desired list, and let go of the left mouse button), or by selecting the desired user and pressing the arrow button that points towards the desired list.

 

In the example above, the user called "Admin" (which, in this example, is me) has been moved to the "Read and Write Access" list, and the user called "David Gentry" has been move to the "Read Only Access" list. When "OK" is pressed, this Shared Email Folder will not be visible to all the users in the "No Access" list, David Gentry will be able to see the folder and any emails therein, but will not be able to alter the emails or add new ones to the folder, and the Admin user will be able to see this folder and add emails to it, and delete it emails from it.