The email system lets you share access to mail folders with other people.

In addition, we can create specific shared mailboxes which have their own email address, for special purposes such as workshops, conferences, etc. You access the mailbox using your regular physics mail account, rather than having a separate username and password.

You can share your own folders, or change access to other shared mailboxes which you control.

The simplest way to do this at present is to install the Thunderbird Imap-ACL-extension (ACL stands for “Access Control List”).

Open the “plugins” menu in Thunderbird; then searching for “ACL” should find the correct plugin to install.

Once installed (and after restarting thunderbird), right click on a folder and choose “Properties”. There's now a new “Sharing” tab, which lets you change the folder permissions.

Another menu entry, “Edit → Imap-ACL → List of all ACLs”, lets you see (and optionally change) all ACLs defined on your folders.

More information to follow/

<note> Shared mailboxes are a feature of the Physics email system. You cannot access them using gmail. If you don't normally use Physics email, you will find webmail (roundcube) the easiest way to access any shared folders. </note>

To setup roundcube webmail so it displays your shared mailboxes:

• Click on the Settings button on the top of the main window
• Under the Settings column click on Folders
• Once in the folders menu you may check/uncheck the Subscribed button to manage your shared mailboxes

By default, Thunderbird doesn't display available (but unsubscribed) shared mailboxes. If you only want to make specific folders visible, follow these directions:

• Right-Click your Inbox, then click the Subscribe option
• Expand the user folder by clicking on the + sign to the left of its folder icon
• Check all the shared mailboxes (folders) you want to use
• Click OK
• Your new items will now appear in the (left hand) folder tree in thunderbird.

The shared mailboxes should now appear in the tree view under your private Inbox in the user folder.

Alternatively follow these directions to make all your available folders visible.

1. Go to “Tools”
2. Select “Account Settings”
3. Under your account name, select “Server Settings”
4. Near the bottom of that box, select the “Advanced” button
5. Uncheck “Show only subscribed folders”
6. Select “OK” twice to exit out of the prompts and save changes

To setup squirrelmail (the older webmail system) so it displays your shared mailboxes:

• Click on the Folders link at the top of the main window
• Go to the bottom of the Folders page to the Unsubscribe/Subscribe area
• Select all desired mailboxes on the right hand side (use CTRL to select more than one) and click Subscribe

The shared mailboxes should now appear in the left pane under Inbox.