| Q. | How long are public folders to be supported? |
| A. | Public folders are part of Exchange Server and will be supported according to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy. For an explanation of the product support durations for your version of Exchange Server, visit the Microsoft Support Lifecycle site. |
| Q. | What is the roadmap for Exchange Server public folders? |
| A. | The Exchange Server product team continues to support public folders in Exchange Server. However, for new collaborative applications, you should consider other solutions such as Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. |
| Q. | How do I migrate public folder contents and applications to SharePoint Products and Technologies? |
| A. | There are partner services and solutions that can do this. To locate a partner, visit the Exchange Server Partners page and search the Microsoft Office System Solutions Directory. |
| Q. | Are there tools or guidance to help migrate public folders from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange Server 2003? |
| A. | Yes. For the steps for migrating public folders, read Upgrading Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange Server 2003. For a discussion about tools such as pfMigrate, new administrative interfaces, and replication enhancements for public folders, readWhat's New in Exchange Server 2003. |
| Q. | What advantages do SharePoint Products and Technologies have over Exchange Server public folders? |
| A. | For content collaboration and Web portals, SharePoint Products and Technologies offers many new and improved features: - Document management. Get version control with check-in and check-out abilities.
- Browser-based client support (public folder access is available in Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access).
- Automatic notification of content changes.
- Creation of Meeting Workspace sites through Microsoft Office Outlook 2003.
- Integration with Office applications such as Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 for instant messaging and presence information. Presence is the status, such as online, away, or busy, displayed by your instant messaging program when you pause on your contact's icon.
- Portal and site administration.
- Linking a document library to a public folder in Exchange 2000 Server or later to a SharePoint site.
- Cross-site search capability. SharePoint Portal Server can be set up to search indexed public folders and other shared databases.
For a complete list of features and capabilities, visit theMicrosoft SharePoint Products and Technologies site. |
| Q. | Can you link a document library in a SharePoint site to a public folder? |
| A. | With Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies, you can link a document library to a public folder in Exchange 2000 Server or later. SharePoint Products and Technologies can automatically insert any document attached to a message into a document library. The document library then displays the document, the From address, the Subject, and the date and time that the attachment was inserted into the document library. The body text of the e-mail message remains in the public folder, but it is not transferred to the document library. When a user sends an e-mail message to the public folder with an attached document, the document is automatically added to the correct document library on the associated SharePoint site. For example, if you use an XML template to store invoice information, a user could fill out the XML invoice and e-mail it to the public folder. The XML file is then added to the document library and is available for easy retrieval or for roll up into an invoice report. |
| Q. | What's the difference between Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Portal Server? |
| A. | For a complete list of feature differences, review Deciding When to Deploy Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003. |