Dirty Tricks for MS Outlook !.

1) BackUp

Backup is easy . Everything is kept under a single .pst file . In WinXP installation it resides to:

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft

You can export / import every folder as a single .pst file . You can also load more than 1 file at a time . So managing folders is very easy . 

2) LAN

To make Outlook work as a multi-user organizer inside a LAN , you need MS Exchange Server . However you if you can avoid Exchange Server if you set it up as a normal e-mail client (like Outlook Express) from:  Options -> Mail Delivery -> Reconfigure Mail Support ... -> Internet Only . All the users inside the LAN must have an internal (intranet email) . So the only thing you need is a email server . Most of times you already have one installed with some other applications like together with a Proxy Server , or software router . If you haven't install anything , InetServ3 is a free small mail server .

Smtp server of outlook must be the mail server (i.e. 10.0.0.10) . Now go yo your mail server and set a virtual (fake) domain name ( i.e. mike.net ) . Also set up the Smtp relay to the actual ISP smtp server ( i.e. mail.myisp.com ) .

Now suppose you send an email to john@mike.net . Since the domain is the 'mike.net' the mail server treat it as internal and try to find the user john . If there is no such user then it send it out to Internet . Make some tests if the intranet emails works OK before proceed further .

After assigning email for each user , you can use Outlook 'Net Folders' feature . You can share whatever folder you like of Outlook via email .