2010 Replacement

[rda]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel Email Client: Exchange Over half my computer time is spent dealing with emails. On a PC I use Office 2007 and on one computer I have the 2010 beta. I have recently purchased a Mac and am so very disappointed with Entourage. Indeed I often find myself using Bootcamp to boot into Windows and use Office 2007.

The Microsoft Mac team announced in August that there will be an Outlook 2010 release and I really hope that this will be a more equivalent product to the PC version. If it is not I doubt I will upgrade. Given that we are on the cusp of the new year some more communication from the development team as to release dates and beta availability would also be great.

Richard

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi Richard,

MacBU have announced a holiday season release date for the next version of
Office for Mac, which means that it will be released in December 2010 (or
perhaps even later).

 

[rda]

Hi Michel

Thank you for your reply. I had seen the holiday 2010 announcement. A shame that the team is not based in Europe as this would have meant Summer 2010.

I am sure that the team are working hard to deliver a great product and complaining customers don't help. Looking at Mac Mail and Entourage makes me realise how good Outlook is. A year seems an awfully long time to wait to get the functionality that has been available in the PC world for quite a while.

All the best

Richard

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi Richard,

in case you own a version of Office 2008 other than the Home & Student
Edition, you can download Entourage Web Services Edition, which features
much better Exchange support than the regular version of Entourage 2008.
True, this is still Entourage, so many shortcomings remain, but its superior
Exchange compatibility should help make the months until the release of
Outlook for Mac less painful.

 

[Kerry]

Richard

Unfortunately, Entourage isn't the product it should be on more than
one front the most major is its interaction with sync services and the
flakiness of reliable syncs if you don't use a workaround. The product
has been out for two years so I wouldn't expect any improvements.

There are some things though that I prefer in Entourage over the way
at least my Outlook works (2002). However, if you're connected to an
Exchange environment I think Outlook is really the only way to go.
Most IT departments will only support Outlook. I fortunately don't
have to connect to an Exchange environment and I'm so glad I don't
have to as Entourage doesn't sound like a very good Exchange client at
all (just scan this forum).

As for Mail, its alright but its no Entourage. Entourage is, I think,
the best mail client for the Mac. Mail is alright and fast it just
doesn't have the functionality I need but I need a lot of Entourage's
functionality (links especially, categories, projects etc).

Unfortunately some things are much better done on a PC. Two of the
most critical categories, Information Management and Financial
Management are way better handled on a PC. I'm working on the Quicken
beta for the Mac and although the product is getting there it won't
hold a candle on the PC version. However, there are things on the Mac
that are much more easily accomplished. My setup is so Mac centric I'd
not switch back to the PC because of that. I have a Macbook Pro with a
23" Cinema display, AppleTV, I stream music to my stereo using
Airtunes and Airport Express and I have an iPhone which works best
with a Mac (I have a Palm TX which also works nicely with a Mac).
Because of this Mac centricity I'd never try to pull it apart. I do
have Windows 7 installed in Parallels and 7 is nice no doubt. But I
don't like running Parallels continuously to say do Financial
Management as it is very resource intensive. However, this is an
option as some things will maybe never but not for a long time be at
par with the PC.

 

[rda]

Hi Michel and Kerry

Thank you for your comments. I do have Web Services Edition installed so I guess it is as good as it is going to get!

I use Bootcamp on my Macbook Pro as I was advised that Parallels would noticeably slow it down. Bootcamp is fine although the Macbook trackpad does not have a good Win 7 driver and is way too sensitive and thus hard to use. I have also purchased a quad-core iMac and this does not yet support Win 7 with Bootcamp. Given the extra power I will try Parallels.

I think the Macs look lovely and I have been delighted by my iPhone. Hence my recent switch. That having been stated Windows 7 is a huge improvement and staying with it would not have been a problem.