ReHash: Importing WinXP Outlook 2003 into Mac OS X Entourage 2004

[Treble1957]

Some day, someone is going to go to Redmond Washington and ask, "Why?"
I simply cannot fathom why MS does not have an Import / Export facility
to easily move from Outlook 2003 to Entourage 2004. This is suicidal
for MS in my opinion. Most people I know use Macs because they are
"simple" "don't require lots of skill" etc.. yada, however, reading the
many posts on the importing of Outlook 2003 data (in complete form!)
into Entourage 2004 makes me think that you need to be a CE in order to
accomplish what should be a "walk in the park task". Now, I'm no
software writer. Scripts? I have no clue. Eudora, IMAP, Exchange
Server, ENOUGH! Is someone going to write a REAL conversion app that
works? I blew 40 some bucks on Outlook2Mac and find that it didn't do
squat for this job. I am really frustrated here and am beginnng to
re-think my wholesale switch to Mac. I would pay someone to do this
for me! I could use yousendit.com to send the necessary files if I
thought I could get them back in the format I need for Entourage, and
that no one would steal my stuff in the process! The whole thing is
stupid! HELP!

Thanks,

Bob

 

[T. Wise]

I've had the same frustrations. My guess is that Miscrosoft knows there are
huge numbers of us who would switch to Macs if we could easily transfer all
our Outlook data to a comparably sophisticated Mac program. In fact, the
lack of a really good Mac alternative to Outlook (and the difficulty in even
moving the data over) is the ONLY thing keeping me from switching entirely
to Mac.

I've treied all the comparable programs, from Now to Personal Organizer to
Palm Desktop to Entourage, and frankly they're all toys compared to the
sophistication and flexibility of Outlook. The moment someone comes up with
a better one, I'm gone from Windows. I'm just not counting on Microsoft
being the ones to come up with it.

T.

 

[Treble1957]

I just can't believe that the "simple" workarounds are so complicated!
I don't understand, for example, why you need to "create an exchange
server" for this. I have about a dozen email addresses from about five
ISP's or services. I just don't get it. By the way, I'm curious as to
why you think Entourage is not a good switch from Outlook? It seems to
be roughly the same and in fact, might offer more flexibility. Also,
as I'm using the iMail program from Mac, I'm learning I don't mind it.
I was impressed that it imported my Outlook data (after using
Outlook2Mac first) and arranged everything correctly. It also impresed
me with saving the attachments - and it displays photo attachments that
Outlook didn't. I really like that. One of the best features of the
mac program is the ability to easily increase the size of the text in
the message for these sad old eyes!

Thanks!

Bob