Here's what I want to do:

Make resource calendars VIEW ONLY so our folks can pull them up under "Other
Calendars" and look at them without editing them in any way. It seems that
the default access for resource calendars is Author permission. This is
what's required to allow direct booking. The problem here is that when you
view the actual calendar as a shared calendar, it lets you book over
reservations that are already there. I've tried educating users, but they
just don't get it.

Is this possible? If it's not possible, can I prevent people from even
viewing the calendar as a shared calendar by unchecking "folder visible" in
the permissions tab and will making the folder not visible cause problems
when they are booking it as a resource on their meeting request?

Unfortunately, our company rolled out Outlook 2003 (replacing Lotus Notes
R5) without providing any training to IT Support or Exchange Administrators,
so we are all floundering when issues come up that aren't addressed in the
knowledge base.

This forum has been a great help. I found some very helpful information on
resource scheduling that at least confirms that email confirmation doesn't
exist! I'll never understand why Microsoft didn't make this feature more user
friendly. It's really the only major gripe I have with Outlook.

It certainly wasn't perfect in Lotus Notes, but it did at least generate
emails and allow users to view availabilty without letting them double book.
Some of our problem is user error and I'm trying to address it with training
(we all know how that goes), but it's still very frustrating as this tool
seems pretty uninspired.

Does anyone know if MS plans to revisit this feature in future releases?
With just a few tweaks, it could be a great tool.

Thank you!
Bryan