Abstract: Various entities need to share data among team members working on the same project without investing in specialized server software. To address this need, an existing standard file server is used to host data for sharing among the team. The file server has not been customized to share the data for the particular application. A user creates a special folder for a project at a user specified location on the file server. Data associated with the project is converted to files and stored in a structure of folders used by the file server to represent the data that is shared. Each client that has subscribed to this shared data synchronizes the data on their local computing device with the data on the file server. Security is provided by using the file server's built-in access controls.

Abstract: Described is a system and method that enables project management across application programs, including an email program, calendar program, spreadsheet program, word processing program, note taking program and others. A central project-related view provides access to project-related data items and may display a schedule, a task list of tasks filtered as being relevant to a project, a note page related to a project, and emails relevant to the project. In addition, other application objects (file, documents, presentations and spreadsheets) are also captured in the view and presented for easy access. Metadata including a project identifier is maintained in a database for the various data items, allowing rapid location of the data items related to a project via query techniques. A project palette allows access to the items from within another application program, and a project gallery allows a user alternative access to the files related to a project.