Dear Mr. Berkowitz et al... a number of problems. Please help!

A

alanpotashnick

Hello

I hope you can help me. I have recently 'converted' my wife to Mac OS
after her being a lifelong Windows user.
She was a power Outlook user and is seriously disappointed by
Entourage, and I cannot solve her problems. We appeal to you and anyone
else for help.

She is using a G4 PB, OS 10.3.9
Entourage 2004

She has almost 3900 contacts- she is an international film Sales Agent
and has contacts from countries world wide. I didn't think this number
would be a problem, but...

The problems are:
1. She receives all mail twice. How can she end this?

2. Entourage is incredibly slow.
a. When choosing a window in the Address Book, it takes an
unbelievably long time to initiate
b. When switching a column view, it takes an unbelievably long time to
initiate

3. When you open a contact, she cannot see all the main info like in
Outlook. Is there any way to see the complete "Notes" section? This is
very important for her

4. The search tool in contacts: Not only is it painfully slow, but it
does not have an method (as she had in Outlook) using 'Find' to search
any field.

5. When she sorts by country, the results are jumbled. Is there a way
to have results of a search open alphabetically? (If she open a search
with all 'Germany' buyers, can it open alphabetically?)

6. She needs to use groups extensively- once she creates a group, how
can she modify/change them and easily find them?

Can anyone recommend a great tutorial to read???

Many thanks,
Alan
 
C

Craig Deutsch

For what it's worth to some here (perhaps not many), I absolutely concur
with Mr. Potashnick's wife's concerns. A while back, when there were some
heady exchanges on this newsgroup over Outlook vs. Entourage, it was these
kinds of things to which I referred. I got plenty of answers along the
lines that Entourage and Outlook are different products with different
markets and different functional goals -- and that they shouldn't be
compared. Well, to a Windows/PC Office user (probably a healthy percentage
of new Mac sales), that's simply an absurd premise for evaluation of
Entourage.

I still stand behind my opinion that people used to Outlook are GOING to
compare the products, and there ARE some significant differences between
Outlook and Entourage -- some of which fall to the latter's disfavor.

As a former Outlook user, I concur that the things enumerated below are not
insignificant issues that MS and Apple should clearly address, particularly
if MS wants to continue wooing "professional level" Office users who make
the switch to Apple's OS.

Also, Apple should be very interested in making these things work,
too...regardless of what it plans to do with its own iLife/iWork suite. The
more choices Apple provides its customers, the better off the entire
platform will be.

My hat's off to the Mac BU for recent improvements to Office, and I respect
those here that headily defend MS and the Mac BU and their efforts. I can
only hope that were I running a company I'd have similar zealous people on
the front lines. Yet for Mac Office, there is clearly room for humility
(regardless of how one chooses to compare them, Entourage is NOT the product
that Outlook is), and there is much work to be done. I trust there
continues to be a market for it.

Were I a programmer, I'd happily consider putting my money where my mouth is
and joining the Mac BU -- if they'd have me. Meanwhile, on balance I like
the product and am happy to pay for upgrades...but if Apple is going to win
over the minds of Windows (Office) users, Entourage and OS X must continue
to share beds *exceptionally* well.

Just my unsolicited 2¢.
 
B

Boettcher, Scott

I think there's plenty of room for people to ask for improvements from both
Apple and the MS MacBU, as long it's done in a productive manner - which the
below is.
There is simply no way to NOT compare Entourage to Outlook - whether you're
a Mac or PC person.
If there's something that's technically not possible, MS needs to state
that.
But for things we need/want to survive in a corporate (mostly) MS IT
environment, we need the support of all those involved to better Entourage.

I hope people do use this space to point-out shortcomings and to work with
these good folks to make Entourage a flagship for those of us using Macs in
a non-Mac working environment.

I appreciate all the MSFT volunteers here and others that have helped me fix
or understand better this essential product.

SB
 
M

Mickey Stevens

Hello

I hope you can help me. I have recently 'converted' my wife to Mac OS
after her being a lifelong Windows user.
She was a power Outlook user and is seriously disappointed by
Entourage, and I cannot solve her problems. We appeal to you and anyone
else for help.

She is using a G4 PB, OS 10.3.9
Entourage 2004

She has almost 3900 contacts- she is an international film Sales Agent
and has contacts from countries world wide. I didn't think this number
would be a problem, but...

The problems are:
1. She receives all mail twice. How can she end this?
Click to expand...

Do you have the account set up twice in Tools > Accounts, either the same
account or aliases? If so, delete one.
2. Entourage is incredibly slow.
a. When choosing a window in the Address Book, it takes an
unbelievably long time to initiate
Click to expand...

Try sorting the Address Book by "Name". Some fields aren't indexed and thus
take longer to sort.
b. When switching a column view, it takes an unbelievably long time to
initiate

3. When you open a contact, she cannot see all the main info like in
Outlook. Is there any way to see the complete "Notes" section? This is
very important for her
Click to expand...

No, you have to move to the proper tab.
4. The search tool in contacts: Not only is it painfully slow, but it
does not have an method (as she had in Outlook) using 'Find' to search
any field.
Click to expand...

Use Advanced Find (Edit > Advanced Find).
5. When she sorts by country, the results are jumbled. Is there a way
to have results of a search open alphabetically? (If she open a search
with all 'Germany' buyers, can it open alphabetically?)

6. She needs to use groups extensively- once she creates a group, how
can she modify/change them and easily find them?
Click to expand...

Go to File > New > Custom View, and create a view like this:
NAME All Groups
ITEM TYPES Contacts
LOCATION All Address Books
CRITERIA Match if any criteria are met
Is group

Click OK. Then you can access a list of all groups by going to the Address
Book, and selecting "All Groups" under the "Address Book Views" folder in
the Views list.
Can anyone recommend a great tutorial to read???
Click to expand...

The Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/> has a wealth of
information about Entourage.
 
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