From Public Folders to SharePoint: A Modern Approach to Shared Contact Management
For years, public folders have been the go-to solution for sharing contacts across teams and organizations - whether for maintaining client lists, managing shared employee directories, or keeping vendor information organized. But as the way we collaborate has evolved, so has the need for a more modern, integrated approach to shared contact management. SharePoint now provides a powerful, fully connected alternative that brings your shared contacts into the heart of your Microsoft 365 ecosystem. In this post, we'll walk you through why SharePoint is the natural next step for your shared contacts and give you a step-by-step guide to get started. Why SharePoint for Shared Contacts? Instead of managing shared contacts in public folders - which operated separately from the rest of your collaboration tools - SharePoint brings your shared contact lists, documents, project plans, and team resources together in one centralized, always-accessible hub. It’s the natural next step for organizations that have relied on public folders, and it comes with powerful capabilities that go well beyond what was possible before: Single source of truth - No more wondering which version of a shared contact list is current. SharePoint provides a single, authoritative repository that everyone on your team can access and trust. Rich collaboration - Multiple team members can view, edit, and manage shared contacts simultaneously with real-time updates, version history, and granular permissions. Powerful integration across Microsoft 365 - Shared contacts in SharePoint connect naturally with Teams, Power Automate, and other Microsoft 365 tools, enabling workflows that were never possible before. Imagine automatically notifying your team when a key client contact is updated, or syncing shared contacts into a Power App for your field sales team. Enterprise-grade security and compliance - SharePoint’s robust permissions model, audit logging, and compliance features ensure your shared contact data meets even the most stringent organizational requirements. Access from anywhere - Whether you’re on desktop, mobile, or the web, your shared contacts in SharePoint are always just a click away. For teams currently using public folders for shared contacts, the transition to SharePoint is straightforward and immediately rewarding. You’ll gain richer collaboration, tighter integration with the tools you already use every day, and a modern experience that scales with your organization. Your shared contacts move from an isolated repository into the heart of your Microsoft 365 collaboration ecosystem - connected, secure, and always up to date. Getting Started: How to Manage Shared Contacts in SharePoint Ready to move your shared contacts to SharePoint? Follow this step-by-step guide to set up, organize, and share your contact lists with your team. Step 1: Create a SharePoint Contacts List Navigate to the SharePoint site where you want to store your shared contacts (e.g., your team site or department site). Click New in the top-left corner and select List. Choose the Contacts template from the available templates. This gives you a pre-built structure with columns for name, email, phone, company, and more. Give your list a descriptive name (e.g., "Sales Team Contacts" or "Vendor Directory"). Click Create - your new contacts list is ready to use. Step 2: Add and Organize Your Contacts You have several ways to populate your contacts list: Add contacts manually: Click "+ New" in the list toolbar to add individual contacts one at a time. Fill in the contact details and click Save. Import from Excel or CSV: Have an existing contact list? Click "Import" from the list toolbar, select your Excel or CSV file, map the columns, and import all your contacts in one go. This is the fastest way to migrate contacts from public folders. Customize columns: Add custom columns to track information specific to your team's needs, like "Account Manager," "Contract Renewal Date," or "Region." Click "+ Add column" in the list header to get started. Step 3: Share with Your Team Once your contacts list is set up, sharing it is simple: Set permissions: Click the gear icon, then List settings, then Permissions to control who can view, edit, or manage the list. You can grant access to individuals, Microsoft 365 groups, or security groups. Share a direct link: Click "Share" at the top of the list to send a link to specific people or copy a shareable link for your team. Grant appropriate access levels: Choose between "Can view" (read-only), "Can edit" (add/modify contacts), or "Full control" (manage permissions and settings) depending on each person's role. Step 4 (optional): Pin to Microsoft Teams for Easy Access Make your shared contacts instantly accessible from where your team already works: Open Microsoft Teams and navigate to the channel where your team collaborates. Click the "+" (Add a tab) button at the top of the channel. Select "SharePoint" from the app list and choose your contacts list. Your shared contacts now appear as a tab in Teams. Everyone on the channel can view and manage contacts without leaving Teams. Step 5: Automate with Power Automate Take your shared contacts to the next level with automation: Change notifications: Create a flow that notifies your team via email or Teams whenever a contact is added, updated, or deleted. CRM sync: Build a flow to sync contacts between your SharePoint list and your CRM system (Dynamics 365, Salesforce, etc.) so your data stays consistent across platforms. Scheduled reports: Set up a recurring flow that emails a summary of new or changed contacts to stakeholders on a weekly or monthly basis. Pro Tips Create custom views: Use SharePoint's view options to create filtered views like "Active Clients," "Contacts by Region," or "Recently Updated" so team members can quickly find what they need. Enable versioning: Turn on version history in list settings to track every change made to your contacts. You can see who changed what and when, and restore previous versions if needed. Set up alerts: Subscribe to alerts on the list to get notified by email whenever changes are made, great for staying on top of updates without constantly checking. A Modern, Unified Contact Management Experience Beyond these major innovations, the new People in Outlook brings a complete refresh to how you manage your contacts every day: Modern multi-column table view - See all your contacts at a glance with a clean, customizable table layout. Sort, filter, and scan your contacts faster than ever. Quick actions at your fingertips - Email, call, or chat with any contact directly from the contact list. No need to open a contact card first. Multi-select and bulk operations - Need to categorize, email, or manage multiple contacts at once? Select them all and take action in a single step. Categories for flexible organization - Organize your contacts with color-coded categories that work across Outlook. Tag contacts as “Key Clients,” “Project Team,” “Vendors,” or anything that fits your workflow. Import and export - Easily bring contacts in from CSV files or export your contact data whenever you need it. Consistent experience everywhere - Whether you’re using Outlook on the desktop, Outlook on the web, or Teams, the People experience is the same - modern, fast, and reliable. Built for Performance and Reliability The new People in Outlook was built from the ground up with performance at its core. After extensive testing and feedback from thousands of users within Microsoft, we’ve delivered an experience that is not only feature-rich but also fast, stable, and reliable - even with large contact lists. Every interaction is designed to feel instant and responsive. Get Started Today The new People experience is available on the New Outlook for Desktop, and is rolling out now across for Outlook on the web for all Microsoft 365 users. To explore it: Open Outlook and click the People icon on the left navigation rail. Start searching for anyone - by name, title, location, or any keyword. Explore your contacts in the new table view and try out quick actions. We’re incredibly excited about what the new People in Outlook means for how you connect and collaborate. This is just the beginning - we have even more innovations in the pipeline that we can’t wait to share with you. We’d love to hear from you! Share your feedback directly within Outlook by selecting Help > Feedback, or join the conversation in the Microsoft Tech Community. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The People in Outlook team is committed to building the best contact management experience in the world - and we’re just getting started.The New People Directory Search Experience in Outlook: Smarter, Faster, and More Connected Than Ever
Managing contacts has always been central to how we work - but the way we work has changed dramatically. Today, we're excited to unveil a completely reimagined People experience in Outlook that makes finding, organizing, and connecting with your contacts faster and smarter than ever before. Whether you're reaching out to a colleague across the globe or managing your most important business relationships, the new People in Outlook is designed to get you there in seconds, not minutes. Instant People Directory Search: Find Anyone in Seconds We’ve heard you loud and clear: navigating complex organizational trees and deeply nested directory hierarchies to find a single contact takes too long. So we built something better. The new People in Outlook features a powerful, intelligent search experience that puts every contact at your fingertips - instantly. Simply start typing a name, location, job title, department, or even a personal note you’ve added, and People in Outlook surfaces the right person immediately. No more drilling through layers of org charts or scrolling through alphabetical lists. Just type, find, and connect. Here’s what makes it work: Lightning-fast keyword search - Search across names, email addresses, job titles, locations, departments, and even your own notes and tags. A few keystrokes is all it takes. Smart suggestions - As you type, People in Outlook intelligently surfaces the most relevant matches based on your communication patterns and organizational context. One search, every contact source - Whether the person is in your organization’s directory, your personal contacts, or a linked account, search brings them all together in one unified result set. Instant action - Once you find who you’re looking for, you can email, call, or start a Teams chat directly from the search results - no extra clicks required. This is contact discovery reimagined. What once required navigating through hierarchical trees and multiple clicks now happens in a single, fluid interaction. It’s the fastest way to find and connect with anyone in your world. A Modern, Unified Contact Management Experience Beyond these major innovations, the new People in Outlook brings a complete refresh to how you manage your contacts every day: Modern multi-column table view - See all your contacts at a glance with a clean, customizable table layout. Sort, filter, and scan your contacts faster than ever. Quick actions at your fingertips - Email, call, or chat with any contact directly from the contact list. No need to open a contact card first. Multi-select and bulk operations - Need to categorize, email, or manage multiple contacts at once? Select them all and take action in a single step. Categories for flexible organization - Organize your contacts with color-coded categories that work across Outlook. Tag contacts as “Key Clients,” “Project Team,” “Vendors,” or anything that fits your workflow. Import and export - Easily bring contacts in from CSV files or export your contact data whenever you need it. Consistent experience everywhere - Whether you’re using Outlook on the desktop, Outlook on the web, or Teams, the People experience is the same - modern, fast, and reliable. Built for Performance and Reliability The new People in Outlook was built from the ground up with performance at its core. After extensive testing and feedback from thousands of users within Microsoft, we’ve delivered an experience that is not only feature-rich but also fast, stable, and reliable - even with large contact lists. Every interaction is designed to feel instant and responsive. Get Started Today The new People experience is currently available on the New Outlook for Desktop, and is rolling out now for Outlook on the web for all Microsoft 365 users. To explore it: Open Outlook and click the People icon on the left navigation rail. Start searching for anyone - by name, title, location, or any keyword. Explore your contacts in the new table view and try out quick actions. We’re incredibly excited about what the new People in Outlook means for how you connect and collaborate. This is just the beginning - we have even more innovations in the pipeline that we can’t wait to share with you. We’d love to hear from you! Share your feedback directly within Outlook by selecting Help > Feedback, or join the conversation in the Microsoft Tech Community. ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── The People in Outlook team is committed to building the best contact management experience in the world - and we’re just getting started.Embracing the future: Transitioning to new Outlook for Windows
As technology moves forward, so do the ways we communicate. The world is rapidly changing with cloud computing, hybrid ways of working, and generative AI. To keep up with all these changes, Outlook is getting a makeover too. The updated Outlook for Windows is built to meet the needs of modern email and time management, with agility, consistency, and manageability. Since I last connected with you in November 2024, Outlook for Windows has evolved rapidly - delivering dozens more capabilities from classic Outlook, key improvements for Shared Mailbox, Offline and PST, and many new experiences to enhance productivity. This update shares examples and details on how Outlook for Windows is: Agile: Built to be responsive to your emerging needs Consistent: Streamlined across Windows and web Manageable for IT: Faster resolutions with less effort Agility: Built to be responsive to your emerging needs Every month you will see us deliver top requested capabilities from classic Outlook, new Copilot innovation, and improved stability and performance. Outlook for Windows is packed with capabilities designed to boost your productivity and make your day-to-day tasks easier. Innovation built in Outlook for Windows' new agile codebase has made it easier for stability, performance and security by design. We deliver features that were never implemented in classic Outlook. Now, you can enjoy top-requested features in Outlook like pinning important emails, tabbed search to find people, files and Teams messages more easily, iCal sync, scheduled mail, new themes and colored mailbox folders, and more. We've updated meeting experiences to support hybrid and global participation with capabilities such as support for up to 21 time zones and hybrid RSVP, sorting and search for tracking attendees, and the ability to follow meetings to be aware of what happened without needing to attend. These new time management features are ideal for our most dedicated users, including delegates. New shared mailbox capabilities We heard you! One of the top experiences we are improving is working with shared mailbox experiences. Outlook for Windows blends classic Outlook capabilities for shared mailboxes with new capabilities to address your long-standing needs. You can now add shared mailboxes as accounts alongside shared folders. With the new “Shared with me” page you can now view permissions on shared folders or mailboxes to identify and resolve access issues. You can control how the shared mailboxes and folders will be displayed in the Folder pane. The Folder pane also gives a clear visual distinction to shared mailboxes compared to dedicated email accounts, making them easy to access and use throughout your day. More functionality is coming soon, including Archives in shared mailboxes and more (available in Targeted Release and coming to Standard Release in July). Copilot agility For those aiming to maximize productivity with Copilot, we are adding Copilot features into Outlook every month. With Outlook for Windows' agile codebase, you will find the latest Copilot enhancements first, including the Chat side pane, Summarize, Drafts, Schedule from email, and more. Commercial users will value the new “Prioritize my Inbox” that helps users stay on top of their highest priority mail (rolling out gradually). Prioritize capabilities in Outlook for Windows and web Newsletters Communications through Outlook continue to evolve to meet user needs. The new Outlook Newsletters experience lets you quickly and easily create and send structured, professional, and richly formatted internal email newsletters within Outlook. This capability helps you keep your team informed and engaged. Each newsletter acts as a home for subsequent editions, making it easy to browse past issues and view aggregated analytics across the series. Readers can discover and subscribe to newsletters shared within your organization to stay informed on key topics and projects. While in Public Preview, admins can enable it for some or all users in an organization, and General Availability will follow in a few months. Newsletters are coming to Outlook for Windows and web first, and we plan to bring them to other Outlook clients. Copilot support for Newsletters is on the way, unlocking new ways to create clear and compelling communications with ease. Newsletters in Outlook for Windows and web Consistency: Streamlined across Windows and web The updated Outlook for Windows is all about delivering modern and comprehensive communications and time management experiences. We continue to balance delivering more of your favorite capabilities available in classic Outlook and innovation to meet your needs based on your feedback and requests. In-app feedback and upvoting are key to helping us prioritize what to work on next. For instance, Offline and PST support are top requests, and we have a stream of capabilities rolling out for these critical features, shown below. Offline capabilities Outlook for Windows already supports core offline capabilities to read and compose emails and boot while offline. Here’s a look at the latest Offline capabilities including Search (available now), attachments, event creation, updates, deletion, and RSVP (rolling out). Search email: Open an attachment: Create and delete an event: PST capabilities For users who store their content in PST mailboxes, we have many recent improvements to share. Now Outlook for Windows supports reply and forwarding emails in the PST, adding PST folders to Favorites, and dragging and dropping emails from the PST to the mailbox (or vice versa). The ability to export an entire mailbox or set of folders to a PST is now in Targeted Release. Importing from a PST, auto-export (aka auto-archive), people details in Profile cards, and support for read-only Calendar is coming later this year. Integrations across Windows and Microsoft 365 Outlook is deeply integrated with the Windows operating system to bring functionality that users expect of a rich, native app. This includes opening attachments in the native default app users choose, dragging and dropping attachments to the desktop, windowing, notifications, and more. Outlook for Windows is also seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Teams, without the need to install a separate add-in. More seamless switching across devices Outlook users are constantly on the move, switching between different devices and contexts throughout their day. When you add a new device, you do not need to reconfigure your settings. This focus on consistency is something our commercial customers have been asking for, and we're excited about delivering it. Plus, thanks to the common codebase, web users also enjoy most of the innovations and classic capabilities arriving in Outlook for Windows. Manageability: Faster resolutions with less effort For IT admins, Outlook for Windows deploys updates similarly to Outlook for web and Microsoft Teams, offering service-backed delivery that ensures predictable changes with Targeted Release and roadmap notifications. This means less time spent on build management. Plus, with changes delivered as a service, you should see a reduction in deployment costs. Both Outlook for Windows and web use Mailbox policies to manage the client experience. These policies help standardize settings, like attachment settings, for specific groups of users. This means users have a more consistent experience across platforms, as the policies are applied to a user's mailbox. IT admins can learn more about which policies from classic Outlook map to Outlook for Windows policies here and review the new security whitepaper here. Admins have a growing set of documentation in learn.microsoft.com and adoption.microsoft.com. We're making sure the transition to Outlook for Windows is as smooth as possible with migration aids such as the admin-controlled migration policy and you can now track new and classic Outlook usage in either the M365 or Exchange Admin Centers. M365 Admin Center with Outlook for Windows and classic Outlook usage reporting Transition to new Outlook for Windows The transition to Outlook for Windows is intended to be gradual, allowing you ample time to explore and become comfortable with its new capabilities. We recommend using the toggle in classic Outlook to try the updated Outlook for Windows experience. This will copy your settings, forward your protocols, and provide a welcoming experience. If you encounter a situation where the new Outlook experience lacks a critical function for your workflow, you can easily toggle back to classic Outlook. Don’t forget to provide feedback to let us know what’s missing. A great way to facilitate the transition is to run Outlook for Windows side-by-side with classic Outlook. However, we encourage you to spend as much time as possible working in the updated Outlook experience. This will help you fully experience its enhanced capabilities and discover new, efficient ways of communicating. Thousands of organizations have started migration with pilots and are working towards full-scale migration. Many organizations have already migrated, including some very large-scale organizations already surpassing 50% migration to Outlook for Windows. For more details on the timeline: New Outlook: Guide to product availability | Microsoft Learn What’s next? We continue to bring more classic capabilities and innovation every month. We encourage you to try the updated Outlook for Windows experience. If a needed capability is missing, let us know. To submit your feedback, go to the Help tab and select Feedback. You can track the progress we are making through four different resources: Resource Description Location Microsoft 365 Roadmap Features that we are rolling out http://aka.ms/newOutlookRoadmap Feature Comparison article Comparison of features across new and classic Outlook https://aka.ms/newOutlookFeatureComparison What’s new A user-focused monthly blog of top capabilities that have been added, also displayed in-app https://aka.ms/newOutlookWhatsNew Release notes Weekly changes including bug fixes, classic capabilities and innovation https://aka.ms/newOutlookReleaseNotesWhat’s new and coming to Microsoft Outlook – Ignite 2024
Since its launch, Copilot in Outlook has helped you manage and triage your email, providing drafting assistance, summaries, and insights to help you save time. Whether you need help drafting the appropriate email response, schedule meetings in a few clicks, find key information in an email thread, or make sure your message has the right tone and clarity, Copilot can help you achieve your goals. During Ignite, we added to our efforts to help you manage your inbox, and showed you how you can manage your meetings easier using Copilot, and also dived into the latest updates to the new Outlook for Windows and what to expect in the coming year. Let’s take a look at the capabilities we announced this week! Manage meetings easier with Copilot in Outlook We spend a lot of time in meetings during our work hours, sometimes as high as 60% of our time can be spent between meetings, emails, and chats. Even scheduling a meeting can take up to 15 mins, but Copilot can make this a little easier. Copilot now helps you schedule 1:1s and focus time, just ask Copilot to find some time with someone in your org and it will find the optimal time. Because Copilot is grounded on your organization’s data, it knows who your close collaborators are so you can ask Copilot something like “Schedule a meeting with my manager for next week” or “Schedule a meeting with Caitlin for next week” and Copilot will know to whom you are referring. Do you need time to finish a project? No problem – Ask Copilot to find reserve focus time for next week, “Find 3 hours of focus time next week before Wednesday”, and done! Now you can focus on your project. Schedule one-on-one meetings using Copilot in Outlook Meetings can make it easier to make decisions, iron details, or discuss ideas but sometimes it’s hard to keep them on track and focused. Making sure your meeting has an agenda can help you stay on track and make sure you are tackling the important points – Copilot can draft an agenda for you based on your input, just open the meeting invite, select “Draft with Copilot”, and provide some input like “Review the Contoso project, introduce a new team member, and discuss sales plan”. Copilot creates an agenda which you can easily edit. Once you are ready, just remember to send the invite. Use Copilot in Outlook to draft an agenda for your meeting Sometimes, you need to schedule a meeting with more than one person, but have you had to schedule a meeting to bring a long email to a conclusion? Reading and summarizing long email threads is time consuming and finding time between multiple people can be challenging, unless you have Copilot. Without leaving the conversation, Copilot can help you schedule a meeting to bring that long email thread to closure – Just select the “Schedule with Copilot” button and Copilot will get you ready for that meeting, it will i) Summarize the entire thread, ii) Create an agenda, and iii) find a time that works. Quick and easy, schedule a meeting in just a few clicks. Get help from Copilot to schedule a meeting based on an email conversation A new way to draft emails We all need some help sometimes writing an email, whether you are having writer’s block to start or you want to rewrite some parts of it – The new drafting with Copilot experience can help. We’ve updated the drafting experience to make it native to the compose window in Outlook, added suggested prompts so you can kick off your draft without even typing, and allow you to rewrite parts of your message with Copilot. Is it hard to choose which draft iteration is the best one? No worries, we’ve added the ability for you to review and choose between all the suggested drafts. So, whether you need a little help to get started or a lot of help to make sure you have the best message, Copilot has you covered. New Outlook for Windows showing the new drafting with Copilot experience What is new and coming to the new Outlook for Windows The new Outlook for Windows is a reimagined experience designed to be more agile and innovative. With faster feature deployment and availability, it brings the latest Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities and delivers a consistent experience across Windows. As we continue to work on your feedback to bring you the best experience for the new Outlook for Windows, there are some updates we want to share. Where we are We reached General Availability for commercial customers this year and are still in opt-in phase with optional policies for organizations that want to move their users into new Outlook. To see all our adoption content please visit https://aka.ms/newOutlookAdoption and continue sending us your feedback at https://aka.ms/newOutlookFeedback to help us prioritize our work. What to expect Over the past few years, we have been in an opt-in phase for the new Outlook. As we plan to transition to an opt-out model, some organizations have already begun migrating on their own. We anticipate that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with Microsoft 365 for business plans will begin to be moved into this phase starting in January 2025, and with customers with Microsoft 365 for enterprises licenses following in 2026. Importantly, there will still be an option to revert to the previous version if needed. In the coming year, we expect more organizations to expand their piloting and planning efforts for the new Outlook. During this phase, we encourage you to file DCRs and submit feedback both within the app and through your account teams. Graph showing the current state and estimated timelines What to do next The new Outlook migration journey has 3 main steps. Pre-migration, migration, and post-migration. Pre-Migration: During pre-migration, admins and their IT teams should learn as much as they can about the migration - What the migration entails and the implications for their organization. This also involves early migration piloting. Migration: The migration step is when the migration is executed. Piloting continues and the migration process evolves and becomes more extensive. Post-Migration: Finally, in post-migration, IT is wrapping up the activities from the second step. They’re also decommissioning the previous experience and learning to improve subsequent migrations. Graph showing the migration stages for the new Outlook for Windows Plan your migration Review the migration kit - https://aka.ms/newOutlookAdoption Admin control options - https://aka.ms/newOutlookControlRelease Learn about policy management - Policy Management - Deploy Office Prepare to manage updates and set up early adopters on Targeted Release Transition from COM to web add-ins - Migrate from COM to web add-ins and review a list of available web add-ins. We hope all these updates help you be more productive, save time, and plan your migration to the next phase. Please, keep sending us your feedback – It really helps us focus our work. Thanks!Join us as Ignite 2024 to learn more about Microsoft Outlook
In this year's Ignite, you'll have the opportunity to learn from leaders like Nicole Herskowitz, Derek Snyder, and Mark Grimaldi as they showcase how Copilot and other Microsoft 365 tools can transform your workflow. From organizing information and managing projects to enhancing collaboration and optimizing workspaces, these sessions are tailored to provide valuable insights for business leaders, IT professionals, and end users alike. Register now to secure your spot and stay updated with the latest innovations in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft 365 apps. See you at Ignite 2024
