Does Entourage in Mac Office '08 work with Mac Mail or is it a separate mail program?

[parkpointer]

I currently have three email accounts in order to keep interests
separated; although lately it has gotten confusing to do so.
My .Mac account is used to correspond with Apple when I have computer
related issues. My Mac Mail (regular iMac Tiger program) is used for
regular every day correspondence. I also have installed Nova-
Parallels with Windows XP Home on the iMac and I have MS Office 2000
Premium installed and utilize Outlook email for a past time interest
in aviation groups. It is with Outlook that I have questions.
I am interested in updating my use of MS Office and am considering
getting Office for Mac '08; for the purpose of having it on the Mac
side rather than operating separately in Windows XP. I have a
question regarding my mail accounts.
Right now, I can get email to all three at the same time, but recent
changes with my use of MS Office 2000 (Outlook, Word, & Excel) and MS
Digital Image Suite 2006 have produced problems in emailing images to
my aviation related clients.
In the Mac Office 2008 version, does Entourage work as a standalone
email program?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Still a little confused by the way you phrase your questions.

In the scenario you describe, Entourage could replace WinOutlook. You
will not have a problem using Apple Mail to check personal accounts
while Entourage checks business accounts (but that isn't working "with",
that's running side-by-side--they aren't interacting at all.) I run
Mail, Entourage, and Thunderbird here, all open at the same time, for
different types of accounts. If you want Apple Mail and Entourage to
check the *same* email accounts, you can probably do that, but ask
specifically.

I don't know what you mean by Entourage as a standalone email program.
Uh, it checks email all by itself--all you need to enter is the mail
server information. It's not dependent on either having or using Apple
Mail. To me, "standalone" would mean "without the rest of the Office
Suite", but it's not really efficient to use it without the other
programs, or at least Word, because some features exist only with Erage
and Word in conjunction. But it doesn't sound like you are planning to
do that anyhow. So I'm confused by what you meant.

Possible Caveats:

1) if you are planning on using the Digital Image Suite in Windows to
create graphics that you email with Entourage, whether that's easy
depends on what Parallels does to enable interaction between the two
systems. That is, if there is a "Send Image As Attachment" command in
the Digital Image Suite, I have no idea whether that command can be set
to call Entourage for you.

2) many people complain that Entourage is not a full-fledged Exchange
client. If you are planning to switch to Entourage from Outlook, and
you use Exchange, you should read the posts here on the new features in
Entourage:
http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/
and you should read the comments there and also check out the Entourage
newsgroups for the many complaints from people who want more Exchange
features.
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage/topics

hope that's useful,
Daiya

 

[parkpointer]

Still a little confused by the way you phrase your questions.

In the scenario you describe, Entourage could replace WinOutlook. You
will not have a problem using Apple Mail to check personal accounts
while Entourage checks business accounts (but that isn't working "with",
that's running side-by-side--they aren't interacting at all.) I run
Mail, Entourage, and Thunderbird here, all open at the same time, for
different types of accounts. If you want Apple Mail and Entourage to
check the *same* email accounts, you can probably do that, but ask
specifically.

I don't know what you mean by Entourage as a standalone email program.
Uh, it checks email all by itself--all you need to enter is the mail
server information. It's not dependent on either having or using Apple
Mail. To me, "standalone" would mean "without the rest of the Office
Suite", but it's not really efficient to use it without the other
programs, or at least Word, because some features exist only with Erage
and Word in conjunction. But it doesn't sound like you are planning to
do that anyhow. So I'm confused by what you meant.

Possible Caveats:

1) if you are planning on using the Digital Image Suite in Windows to
create graphics that you email with Entourage, whether that's easy
depends on what Parallels does to enable interaction between the two
systems. That is, if there is a "Send Image As Attachment" command in
the Digital Image Suite, I have no idea whether that command can be set
to call Entourage for you.

2) many people complain that Entourage is not a full-fledged Exchange
client. If you are planning to switch to Entourage from Outlook, and
you use Exchange, you should read the posts here on the new features in
Entourage:http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/
and you should read the comments there and also check out the Entourage
newsgroups for the many complaints from people who want more Exchange
features.http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage/...

hope that's useful,
Daiya

You're absolutely right; I am thoroughly confused!
When I first got the iMac it was to replace a very aging un-
upgradeable Dell pc. Office 2000 was working fine, but the computer
was not. I had been looking at so many different pc's that the iMac
was a breath of fresh air. Now having had several months to use it,
I'm glad I made the switch.
My mail programs do work together in as much as I send one another
certain email responses from clients and use results of what I get in
my programs and vice versa. I edit photos taken at certain events and
then email them to clients. I also use the same photos in newsletters
and correspondence with those clients and others. I also track
registered participants for notifications for future events and for
other interests within the groups to which I work.
My concern for mail programs is that the Windows side (MS Digital
Image) is quite useful for both my newsletter and email to clients. I
share the photos within the mail programs as my newsletter editing and
some recordkeeping are done mostly with the Office 2000 side and my
clients get information from the Mac side. Mac's iPhoto isn't as as
comprehensive as MS Digital Image, and therefor another confusing
issue!
I was considering switching from Office 2000 for pc to Office 2008 for
Mac. I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to stay with Mac
programming for all of my editing, photo work, and emailing to
aviation clients from within the Mac and save the pc side of the Mac
for recordkeeping in Excel; although Mac Office has Excel too! Still
confused.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I'm still not totally following--but you know what? Doesn't really
matter. Download the Office 2004 Test Drive, install it, and try using
it. That's really the only way to tell if the proposed workflow will
work for you. Whether you do certain work in Windows or Mac or
integrate it all together is mostly just a matter of personal preference
based on which programs you would rather be using for a particular
task. Only using the programs will let you figure out if there are any
things that will force you to use one or the other.

Just be sure to REMOVE the Test Drive before installing a full version
of Mac Office.

 

[parkpointer]

I'm still not totally following--but you know what? Doesn't really
matter. Download the Office 2004 Test Drive, install it, and try using
it. That's really the only way to tell if the proposed workflow will
work for you. Whether you do certain work in Windows or Mac or
integrate it all together is mostly just a matter of personal preference
based on which programs you would rather be using for a particular
task. Only using the programs will let you figure out if there are any
things that will force you to use one or the other.

Just be sure to REMOVE the Test Drive before installing a full version
of Mac Office.

Able to download trial version of Office 2004 Test Drive. Program
will not install or run, stating trial period has expired? Guess I'll
have to wait till the '08 version is available and see if a trial of
it can install.
Thanks for you help!

 

[CyberTaz]

If you previously had the 2004 Test Drive installed you cannot install it
again - Once the original installation expires you must buy the real thing
or do without.