Creating and using public folders in Outlook 2016/19

This guide assumes someone has properly created your Public Folders and assigned appropriate permissions. If these instructions lead to an error for you, assuming you've followed the steps carefully, you may need your administrator to check the permissions on the folders you're trying to manage.

In order to display all folders and see the Public Folders in your list, press CTRL+6 and scroll down in your folder list to find Public Folders.

Some background on folder types:

Public Folders support several types of content so when you create a folder it is imperative that you select the type of folder to the content you intend to store in it.

Once decided the content type, right click on the root (top folder) of the Public Folder you want to create and select New. Give the folder a relevant name- keep it short and precise. Select the content type, either calendar, contact, notes, mail...etc.

Now that the folder is created, you need to set the permissions for people to access it (and possibly other not to access it). Right click on the folder you create and expand share and then select permissions. A new window will open with the existing permissions set on that folder. Here you can modify existing permissions such as removing access for staff that should no longer have access or add new staff. The View permission is probably all you'll ever need since you're the one managing it but if you want others to add you'll need to grant them at least contributor. The details surrounding all the permissions and how they work is beyond the scope of this document so if you need assistance please ask. Better safe than sorry!

Once the permissions are set as you want them, any user who has been granted access should automatically see this new folder. If not, simply have that person close and reopen Outlook. If that doesn't work you will need assistance to review the process to ensure the folder was created properly and the permissions are set correctly.