I love Entourage but don't trust it to get all emails: dealbreaker

[Bill Weylock]

Entourage routinely does not get email from my company¹s POP server (not
Exchange) that shows up in Outlook or on my Windows 6 PDA.

It has happened many times, and I can see no pattern to it. It simply means
that I am being forced away from the Mac platform, which I HATE!

I don¹t want to become a Windows guy, but when I can¹t trust my email and
have to go to Outlook in order to be sure that my business doesn¹t suffer
through missing a crucial client correspondence, I have to start using
Office 2007 for everything. Attachments open in Windows. Switching back and
forth between Fusion and 2008 Office becomes a stupid annoyance.

I¹m being weaned away from the Mac side, and I have been using Macs since
the first MacII with a glorious 16mhz clock speed and an unheard of 5 MB of
RAM!

No MVP has offered any solution or even any acknowledgment that this is a
problem. Every time I have posted this, however, another user/lurker has
added to the thread saying he/she has noticed the same thing. It¹s not my
imagination. Entourage is a business saboteur.

Now if anyone has a workaround for this or knows how to anticipate what will
or won¹t be retrieved, maybe I can adapt somehow. Failing that, I am very
very very very very sadly moving to Windows. It¹s that or screw up my
business because Entourage is a toy and not a serious program.

Mind you, I don¹t like Outlook. Entourage is superior in several important
ways. I don¹t care about embedded hyperlinks, even though I agree it¹s
absurd not to support them. But Entourage downloads email at least twice as
fast as Outlook on the same connection. And it searches so much faster it¹s
truly astonishing. I won¹t enable instant desktop searching in Outlook
because it continually scans the drive and slows everything down.

I¹ve been a MS fan and a dedicated Mac user and even sometimes a contributor
in these groups.

Is there anyone who can give me a reason to stay?

And this, by the way, does not respond to rebuilding the database. Been
there, done that, no change.

Thanks, I guess, in advance.



Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2007 - Windows XP Pro SP2

 

[Bill Weylock]

Forgot to update product and OS info. We¹re talking about all updates as of
today. I¹ve repaired permissions as well, and I recently trashed the
preferences to stop the apps from crashing all the time. Seems as if that¹s
required every couple of months now?

Oh well, at least I don¹t have to run Conflict Catcher.

Entourage routinely does not get email from my company¹s POP server (not
Exchange) that shows up in Outlook or on my Windows 6 PDA.

It has happened many times, and I can see no pattern to it. It simply means
that I am being forced away from the Mac platform, which I HATE!

I don¹t want to become a Windows guy, but when I can¹t trust my email and have
to go to Outlook in order to be sure that my business doesn¹t suffer through
missing a crucial client correspondence, I have to start using Office 2007 for
everything. Attachments open in Windows. Switching back and forth between
Fusion and 2008 Office becomes a stupid annoyance.

I¹m being weaned away from the Mac side, and I have been using Macs since the
first MacII with a glorious 16mhz clock speed and an unheard of 5 MB of RAM!

No MVP has offered any solution or even any acknowledgment that this is a
problem. Every time I have posted this, however, another user/lurker has added
to the thread saying he/she has noticed the same thing. It¹s not my
imagination. Entourage is a business saboteur.

Now if anyone has a workaround for this or knows how to anticipate what will
or won¹t be retrieved, maybe I can adapt somehow. Failing that, I am very very
very very very sadly moving to Windows. It¹s that or screw up my business
because Entourage is a toy and not a serious program.

Mind you, I don¹t like Outlook. Entourage is superior in several important
ways. I don¹t care about embedded hyperlinks, even though I agree it¹s absurd
not to support them. But Entourage downloads email at least twice as fast as
Outlook on the same connection. And it searches so much faster it¹s truly
astonishing. I won¹t enable instant desktop searching in Outlook because it
continually scans the drive and slows everything down.

I¹ve been a MS fan and a dedicated Mac user and even sometimes a contributor
in these groups.

Is there anyone who can give me a reason to stay?

And this, by the way, does not respond to rebuilding the database. Been there,
done that, no change.

Thanks, I guess, in advance.



Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.1
Office 2008/2007 - Windows XP Pro SP2

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.3
Office 2008 12.1.1/2007 - Windows XP Pro SP3

 

[William Smith]

I feel for you on losing email. However, I don’t think that Entourage
screwing up is a reason to mvoe to Windows if you like the MAC. Outlook,
quite frankly, has its own problems, as does Windows.

100% agree. One application's frustration points shouldn't reflect on
the whole platform.

Bill, if you feel you must use Outlook, at least try running it in
CrossOver Mac or Parallels. For me the Mac platform is the best of all
worlds because of what I can run on it (Mac OS, Windows, various UNIX
flavors and all the applications that go with them).

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[Diane Ross]

I¹m curious as to what people here like about Entourage. I like the interface,
and having my calendar, notes, email all in one place. Entourage is also
pretty good at managing IMAP accounts, and certainly better than Outlook for
that, but it¹s still pretty lacking, especially since I can¹t import Windows
data (PST).

I should use this as a blog article for people to just sound off about
Entourage. Both the good and the bad.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[Guest]

Well if you do that post here and I¹ll add to it. I really am curious as to
what people like about it. Especially for those of us that really hate
something about it, but keep using it. Like I said, the interface of
calendar, contacts and communications in one place. Some comparative notes
might also be interesting. Like I tried Thunderbird (thanks for the
suggestion Diane) but really don¹t like the way it handles mail forwarding
as an attachment and a few other quirky things. But Thunderbird is a better
news reader, and it¹s a lot easier to track threads.

But the bugs and interop oversights are enough that I have it on my to do
list to find a better program for the MAC.

 

[Diane Ross]

Pros and Cons of Using Entourage

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/07/pros_and_cons.html>

 

[Bill Weylock]

I don¹t believe that an MVP just hijacked my thread!

Thanks a lot!

I will repost and will hope to get someone addressing this incredibly
serious primary functional defect that no one seems to care about.

I should use this as a blog article for people to just sound off about
Entourage. Both the good and the bad.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.3
Office 2008 12.1.1/2007 - Windows XP Pro SP3

 

[Bill Weylock]

Bill -


I use Fusion now. I don¹t need Mac advocacy. The whole point of the posting
is to SAVE my Mac use. If I can¹t rely on Entourage, using other Mac
programs becomes annoying. I hate using Windows except for the better
functions in some 2007 programs. This is all about fixing a core problem.
But it is absolutely going to drive me to Windows. This is too annoying and
too dangerous to tolerate.

Please see the reposting I have just sent. I had to rescue my own thread
from the dread Mac/PC claptrap.

I¹ve been a Mac advocate and Office power user since the mid 80s (before
there was an Office). I¹m on your side. I just want Entourage on my side.

Thanks!

By the way, I¹m not using Exchange. These are all POP server accounts.


Best,


- Bill

100% agree. One application's frustration points shouldn't reflect on
the whole platform.

Bill, if you feel you must use Outlook, at least try running it in
CrossOver Mac or Parallels. For me the Mac platform is the best of all
worlds because of what I can run on it (Mac OS, Windows, various UNIX
flavors and all the applications that go with them).

Best,

Bill
Imac 2.8Ghz -10.5.3
Office 2008 12.1.1/2007 - Windows XP Pro SP3

 

[Guest]

I understand you¹re not using exchange. But, as I said before, you might try
setting up those POP accounts as IMAP. Many POP accounts will work with both
POP and the IMAP protocol, and this may very well solve your problem.

-s