You can configure folders in global and local repositories to be shared. After you designate a folder as shared, you can create shortcuts to objects in that folder. Use shortcuts in any other folder in the repository. If the shared folder is in a global repository, use shortcuts to that folder in any repository in the repository domain.
If a folder is not shared, you cannot create shortcuts to objects in the folder. However, you can still create copies of objects in non-shared folders.
Shared folders are useful when you want to use the same repository objects in several projects within the same repository. For example, each folder within a repository might represent a different development project. However, every project in the repository needs to store bug reports in a consistent format, so you might put the source definition for the BUG_REPORTS table in a shared folder.