Office for Mac, Snow Leopard, and Exchange 2003

[shortell]

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I just bought my first Mac (13" MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard) last week, and I couldn't be more pleased. My workplace, however, is a PC shop, and I need compatibility. We use Microsoft Office, with Outlook for mail/task/calendar/contacts management, and sync data with Exchange 2003.

The Mactopia website has a page that says Office 2008 for Mac will work with Exchange 2003 (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/itpros...rget=5dc552e3-ea74-4bba-a647-afaabe7dee531033), but I have read that Snow Leopard is only compatible with Exchange 2007. I also read on various forums that a new version of Office for Mac, Business Edition, is being released on September 15th.

My question is: what version of Microsoft Office must I buy to sync mail/task/calendar/contacts with Exchange 2003? What is the difference between the current version of Office for Mac and the September 15th Office for Mac, Business Edition?

 

[Rob Schneider]

What if you keep things simple. Buy VMWare Fusion with XP and get your
office to give you Office for Windows (they probably have a license that
allows them to do this?) and run Outlook from there back to the office.
I'm thinking this a good way as it my keep you inside of "support"
from the IT guys aback at the office. If you are *completely*
different, they won't be as helpful/useful to you when the inevitable
thing goes wrong.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[shortell]

Thanks, Rob. Unfortunately, I have to buy the Office suite anyway to edit the documents I create at work.

Basically, I would like to be able to do exactly the same things that I already do with my iPhone - sync mail/contacts/calendar/tasks using ActiveSync with Exchange 2003.

I'm just confused as to which Microsoft Office for Mac product will accomplish this.

 

[Rob Schneider]

I'm not trying to steer you away from Office for Mac ... I like it. I'm
just saying that you can also use the entire Office for Windows,
including Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPpoint -- just like the office
-- on your Mac. I'm picking up on your need to be "like the office".
Can run Office for Windows on the Mac. So *be* like the Office and the
benefit for you is that you can get help/support from the Office.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Rob Schneider]

I'm not trying to steer you away from Office for Mac ... I like it. I'm
just saying that you can also use the entire Office for Windows,
including Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPpoint -- just like the office
-- on your Mac. I'm picking up on your need to be "like the office".
Can run Office for Windows on the Mac. So *be* like the office and the
benefit for you is that you can get help/support from the office.

You can be *exactly* like the office which I see is what you want. Same
exact software. No need to buy, setup, and futz with new Mac software
right now.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Rob Schneider]

I'm not trying to steer you away from Office for Mac ... I like it.

I'm just saying that you can also use the entire Office for Windows,
including Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPpoint -- just like the office
-- on your Mac. I'm picking up on your need to be "like the office".
Can run Office for Windows on the Mac. So *be* like the office and the
benefit for you is that you can get help/support from the office.

You can be *exactly* like the office which I see is what you want. Same
exact software. No need to buy, setup, and futz with new Mac software
right now.

Maybe you already have Office for Windows ... just install it on your
Mac (on XP running on VMFusion).

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi,

if you buy Office 2008, you can use Entourage to connect to Exchange 2003. A
newer version of Entourage, Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition, can be
downloaded for free, and it offers much better support for Exchange, but it
will only work with the latest Exchange 2007 server.

Entourage does not use ActiveSync to connect to Exchange, but WebDAV, so
some features may not be supported. Long story short: Entourage 2008 will do
the job.

 

[Bobroch]

I've had Office 2008 for about a year - and we have Exchange 2003 at work.
Yes, Entourage will work - but there are lots of "quirks", some things that
are still mysterious or intermittent, and some genuinely frustrating. I've
used Outlook 2007 on Windows for last few years. One of the obvious
shortcomings is in calendar invitations: OL2007 has a button in the
invitation that takes you to that day of the calendar; in OL2008/Mac, you
have to open another window, navigate there, and check 'manually'. Many
many things like that. Bottom line, I got VMWare/Fusion, and I'm "back" in
OL2007.

The other architectural thing that ended up being a show stopper for me was
that Entourage keeps everything - mail, calendar, even other 'folders', in
one mega-database. Contrast with OL2007 which allows separate "personal
storage .pst" files. The monolothic structure makes storing any
significant history impractical. And the database seemed to need care &
feeding via MS/utility about every few days.

If and when my workplace upgrades to Exch 2007, I'd try again - but I'd
likely try native Mac Mail & iCal before Entourage.

Bob

 

[Michel Bintener]

If and when my workplace upgrades to Exch 2007, I'd try again - but I'd
likely try native Mac Mail & iCal before Entourage.

Depending on how long the upgrade process takes, you might be able to use
Outlook for Mac to access the server (Microsoft have announced that they are
going to drop Entourage in favour of a Mac-native version of Outlook in the
next version of Microsoft Office for Mac).