Share contact data with others

- [Narrator] A nice feature of Outlook is the ability to share contact data. We have a few options when choosing to share contacts. The first one is that we can share an entire contact folder. I can right-click the contacts folder, hover my mouse over Share, and then choose Share Contacts. It will open up in a new email, in which I can send out a sharing invitation. I can type who'd I like to invite to share my contact data. I'll click the Send button, and it's reminding me that this is in fact going to share my contact folder with Sharon.

It's also letting me know that her permission level will be a reviewer, that is, she can only read my contacts. She can't make changes to them. I'll click Yes, and my sharing message has been sent. Remember, at any time, you can always mark any contact as private by clicking on them and clicking Private. This means that even when you share an entire contact folder, it will not keep any contact that's been marked as private. I can open somebody else's shared contacts by clicking Open Shared Contacts from the Home ribbon tab.

I can put in the name of the person who owns the contact list that I want to see, or I can click Name and choose the person directly. I'll click their name, click okay, click okay again, and either the shared contacts will open, or I'll be told that I don't have permission. If I don't have permission, I can send an email to ask for permission at the same time. I'll click Yes to ask for an invitation to share Sharon's contacts. It's going to open up a new email with the sharing list already populated.

I'll click Send, and Sharon will get the invitation in her inbox. It's also useful instead of sharing an entire folder's worth of contacts, I can also share just one contact directly by forwarding it. I can select their name in the view, I can either choose Forward Contact from the ribbon tab, or I can right-click on the contact and hover my mouse over Forward Contact. I have two options. I can forward it as a business card, which will put it into a universal format so other programs can access it and import it.

Or I can send it as an Outlook contact. If I send it as an Outlook contact, somebody else will be able to import it directly into Outlook seamlessly and not risk losing any data. However, I'll choose as a business card. The business card's contents will get dumped into the body of the email, but it will also send an attachment that's a universal file format that other applications can open. I'll address my email and send it off, and the contact information will be sent. I can also forward an entire group's worth of email addresses this way.

I'll right-click on my tech fest group, select Forward Contact, and I'll choose As an Outlook Contact. This time, I don't get the choice to send it as a business card, as that's not supported. I'll address my email. I can see that I'm sending an Outlook item, and I can send it off.