How To Use Address Lists to Organize Recipients in Exchange 2003 (319213)

SUMMARY

You can use address lists to group your users according to a number of different criteria. This step-by-step article describes how to use address lists to benefit your organization by making it easier to find mail recipients in Microsoft Outlook.

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Requirements

The following list outlines the recommended hardware, software, network infrastructure, and service packs that you need:

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 3 (SP3)
• Active Directory
• Exchange Server 2003

This article assumes that you are familiar with the following topics:

• Exchange System Manager

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How to Plan Address Lists

An address list is a folder that contains a dynamic listing of the Exchange 2003-enabled objects in an organization. You can define address lists based on attributes in Active Directory, such as country, city, and department. For example, if you define a particular country, city, or department on a user account, the user is automatically made a member of that address list.

You can nest address lists, for example, you can organize the top-level lists by country, the next level by city, and the bottom level by office. When you plan address lists, you must think about the best way to group the Exchange 2003-enabled objects in your organization to make it easier for people to find the person or the distribution list to which they want to send an e-mail message. Consider the following issues when you plan address lists.

• There are four default address lists in addition to the global address list:
  • All Contacts
  • All Groups
  • All Users
  • All Public Folders
  
  
  
• You can create address lists that display any combination of users with Exchange 2003 mailboxes, users with external e-mail addresses, groups, contacts, and Exchange 2003 public folders.
• You can create new address lists based on almost any Active Directory attribute, such as Manager, Office Location, Department.
• You can make the address lists server- or mailbox store-specific. This configuration may be useful if you are hosting multiple virtual organizations.
• The membership of address lists is dynamic. If the value for an object in Active Directory is changed and that value is for an attribute that is used for an address book search, the object moves from one address list to another.
• Microsoft recommends that you target address list search variables against fields where the variations in value are not large. For example, address lists that organize people by their office number may not be effective for large offices. However, address lists that organize people by location or department are more effective because people often send messages to people in their own department.
• To make your address lists easier to use, name your address lists to match their content.

NOTE: Address lists are only displayed on the Outlook client computer. To view changes that you make to the address book structure, log off and restart Outlook.

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How to Configure Address Lists

For the example described in this section, you create an Address Book to find all users who work in the company headquarters. To configure this Address Book view:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
2. Expand the Recipients object, right-click the All Address Lists object, point to New, and then click Address List.
3. Type a name that describes the list that you are creating, for example, type Department.
4. Click Filter Rules.
5. On the General tab, click the types of Exchange 2003 objects that are displayed in a particular Address Book view.
   
   For example, click to clear either the Users with external e-mail addresses check box, the Groups check box, the Contacts check box, or the Public Folders check box to exclude these groups from the address list.
6. To configure address lists that are specific to a particular Exchange 2003 computer, click the Storage tab, click Mailboxes on this server, click Browse, click the server that you want to use, and then click OK.
   
   Alternatively, click Mailboxes in this mailbox store, click Browse, click a mailbox store, and then click OK.
7. Click the Advanced tab, click Field, and then click one of the following attributes that you want to use for your address book filter button:
   
   
   • User
   • Contact
   • Group
   • Public Folder
   
   
   For this example, click User, and then click Department.
8. Under the Condition label, click one of the following settings depending on the information that you are trying to find:
   • Starts with
   • Ends with
   • Is(exactly)
   • Is not
   • Present
   • Not present
   
   
   
9. If you click either Starts with, Ends with, Is(exactly) or Is not as your condition, type a value in the Value field.
   
   For example, click Is(exactly), and then type Headquarters to find all of the employees who work at headquarters.
10. Click Add.
    
    NOTE: You can add further conditions, but remember that the logic is "AND". Therefore, all conditions must be true for a match to be displayed.
11. After you have finished adding conditions, click Find Now.
    
    Matches to the conditions are displayed in the new list that is displayed at the bottom of the Find Users, Contacts, and Groups dialog box.
12. Confirm that the list displays the correct users for the Address Book view, and then click OK.
    
    The new address list is displayed in Exchange System Manager.

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How to Manage Address Lists

Nesting Address Lists

You can create nested address lists that are located under the address list that you just created. However, note that in the subordinate address lists you must specify the conditions that you used to create the parent list and add any extra conditions to distinguish the child list from the parent list. Nested address lists do not inherit their rules from the parent address list.

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Using Empty Address Lists

To create empty address lists, do not define any filter rules. Empty address lists are useful for organizing nested address lists because the empty parent address list does not have any members. The default "All Address Lists" list is an example of an empty list.

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Using Permissions to Limit Access to Address Lists

All users can access all address lists by default. However, if you want to deny users access to particular address lists, for example, if you want to use department-specific address lists that are only available to members of those departments, configure permissions on individual address lists:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
2. Expand the Recipients object, and then double-click All Address Lists.
3. Right-click the address list for which you want to set permissions, and then click Properties.
4. Click the Security tab, and then click to clear the Allow inheritable permissions from parent to propagate to this object check box.
   
   NOTE: Address list permissions are inherited by default.
5. Click Copy to copy the current permissions from the parent object.
   
   Do not click Remove. If you do so, system permissions may be affected.
6. To grant a recipient access to the address list, click Add, click either a recipient or group in the Select Users, Computers or Groups list, and then click to select the Allow check box next to Read permissions.
7. To deny a recipient access to the address list, click a recipient in the Select Users, Computers or Groups list, and then click to clear the Allow check box next to Read permissions.
8. Click OK.

NOTE: Always exercise caution when you use the explicit Deny permissions, particularly with groups. Deny permissions override Allow permissions, which can cause unexpected issues when you view the Address Book.

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How to Confirm That You Configured the Address Lists Correctly

To confirm that you configured address lists correctly:

1. Log on to a workstation as a user, and then start Outlook.
2. Click New, click Mail message, and then click To.
3. Click the down arrow in the Show Names from the box.
   
   The new Address Book is displayed under All Address Lists.

If you restricted permissions on an address book, log on as a member of the restricted group, and then confirm that you cannot view the contents of the address list. Log on as a user that has permissions to view the address list, and then confirm that you can see the contents of the list.

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Troubleshooting

If you change the address lists, these changes are not applied until the Recipient Update Service runs. By default, the Recipient Update Service is set to run continuously. There is little delay from the time that you either add an address list or change the value of the attribute on which the address list search is based to the time that this change is reflected in Outlook. However, you should check your Recipient Update Service configuration.

For additional information about how to check the Recipient Update Service, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: back to the top