Comments on In The Eye Of The Storm ...: Entourage 2008 - Not Ready For Prime Time

You're right Robin. you've got to use a mac as a m...

2008-05-15T10:46:00.000+01:00

You're right Robin. you've got to use a mac as a mac, not as a pc. so outlook under vmware/parallels is a non starter for me. i also tried apple mail but couldn't get on with it. the good news is entourage is working fine now, as long as my mail db doesn't get too large - i'm no fan of folders or archiving (that's what search is for, and search in entourage is strong).

Change is never easy, but going Mac-wards is worth...

2008-05-09T09:30:00.000+01:00

Change is never easy, but going Mac-wards is worth it in the end (I recently switched after 15 years of building & supporting Windows machines for a living).

I desperately wanted to like Mail.app but finally gave in and went with Entourage 2008. It's still functionally inferior to the Outlook 2007 I was used to but I just found Mail.app way too simple. I did think of running Outlook 2007 on the Mac under VMWare Fusion but that would have been overkill ;-)

In the end I found that a change of attitude got me through. Rather than try and migrate 5 years worth of accumulated mail to the Mac, I decided to start afresh. I archived my Outlook mail so it's there in Outlook/Fusion, but I figured I didn't really NEED all that baggage. Took a while to make that decision but I'm glad I did, and Entourage 2008 has been mostly fine (I say mostly because we all know Microsoft always build a few irritations into their software) ;-)

I looked at it a bit like those people you always encounter when there's office moves. You know, the ones that must have their cupboards, old manuals, cuddly toys and pen holders in the new desk - exactly as they were in the old desk. I decided to abandon that approach, so now so long as I've got a chair, desk, a power outlet and a network port - I'm happy!

Enjoy the Mac!

Thanks for the ideas James. Try as I might I have...

2008-04-21T13:50:00.000+01:00

Thanks for the ideas James. Try as I might I haven't managed to click with Apple's own Mail programme. Maybe it's a dozen years of outlook, but Mail just doesn't work for me. Gmail I really ought to spend time with; but my new masterplan is an exchange server that will sync to my iphone and keep all my mail in the cloud. i live in hope.

Wow, you are having some bad luck. I have had stra...

2008-04-18T21:27:00.000+01:00

Wow, you are having some bad luck. I have had strange problems with Entourage as well but my issue is trying to make it work like gmail. Like you I just archive everything and if I need it later, search. Gmail is better at this than anything I have used.

As far as the other office:mac programs, they seem to work better that the Windows version.

You might try the native mac apps like Mail, Address book and iCal. They are rock solid.

Mail even connects to my Exchange server:)