What is the best way to sync Entourage with iCal and Address Book?

M

Michel Bintener

Hi Michael,

well, "nothing" is slightly vague, isn't it? ;-) Can you give us some more
details? Which methods have you tried so far? Which version of Mac OS X are
you using? I find Entourage 2004's support of Mac OS X Tiger's Sync Services
really useful, and that's how I synchronise Entourage with iCal and Address
Book. But there are other options available, so please specify what exactly
you are trying to do and which methods do not seem to be working.

In the meantime, see if the information on the following page gets you any
further:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/sync_services.html>


Nothing here seems to work...
Click to expand...

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
 
M

Michael Jardine

Michel,

Thanks for the response. I'm using OSX 10.4.8 on a MacIntel.
I clicked on the options for sync services (Preference > Sync Services) but
to tell you the truth, I can't find any documentation as to WHAT TO DO NEXT!
I did a search in Help and apparently it has something to do with the .Mac
account, which I do not use because my needs for backing up cannot be
fulfilled over the internet.

I did try opening iSync. It shows only .mac, and my Palm (Treo650). When I
try to click on Add Device, a window pops up and says "searching" then "no
device found."

There is an Entourage conduit in my HotSync Software Setup, but (a) that
sync does not work, and (b) I do not really need to sync with my Palm, as
long as I can sync with the calendar and address book.

Interestingly, my address book did import into Entourage using the standard
File > Import dialog.

Hope this helps.
Michael
 
M

Michel Bintener

Hi Michael,

if Sync Services are activated, Entourage syncs with Address Book and iCal,
or at least it should do. Address Book will automatically display
Entourage's contacts, and Entourage's calendar items will show up in iCal as
part of a special calendar called "Entourage". What is so confusing to many
users is that after turning Sync Services on, "nothing" seems to be
happening, i.e. iCal events do not automatically show up in Entourage, but
there's a reason for that. Entourage can only sync with the "Entourage"
calendar in iCal; in order for an iCal event to show up in Entourage, it has
to be in the "Entourage" calendar. Can you check if there is an "Entourage"
calendar in iCal; while you're at it, try adding a calendar entry to the
"Entourage" calendar in iCal and see if it shows up in Entourage after a
couple of minutes.


Michel,

Thanks for the response. I'm using OSX 10.4.8 on a MacIntel.
I clicked on the options for sync services (Preference > Sync Services) but
to tell you the truth, I can't find any documentation as to WHAT TO DO NEXT!
I did a search in Help and apparently it has something to do with the .Mac
account, which I do not use because my needs for backing up cannot be
fulfilled over the internet.

I did try opening iSync. It shows only .mac, and my Palm (Treo650). When I
try to click on Add Device, a window pops up and says "searching" then "no
device found."

There is an Entourage conduit in my HotSync Software Setup, but (a) that
sync does not work, and (b) I do not really need to sync with my Palm, as
long as I can sync with the calendar and address book.

Interestingly, my address book did import into Entourage using the standard
File > Import dialog.

Hope this helps.
Michael
Click to expand...

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
 
K

Kerry

Michel said:
Hi Michael,

if Sync Services are activated, Entourage syncs with Address Book and iCal,
or at least it should do. Address Book will automatically display
Entourage's contacts, and Entourage's calendar items will show up in iCal as
part of a special calendar called "Entourage". What is so confusing to many
users is that after turning Sync Services on, "nothing" seems to be
happening, i.e. iCal events do not automatically show up in Entourage, but
there's a reason for that. Entourage can only sync with the "Entourage"
calendar in iCal; in order for an iCal event to show up in Entourage, it has
to be in the "Entourage" calendar. Can you check if there is an "Entourage"
calendar in iCal; while you're at it, try adding a calendar entry to the
"Entourage" calendar in iCal and see if it shows up in Entourage after a
couple of minutes.




--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
Click to expand...

I've tried Paul Berkowitz's sync scripts and although they do work and
keep categories related to calendars and addressbook categories
rerlated to groups, I often find a sync causes a mismatch between the
two and sometimes the deletion of a good item. I'm told by the
developer that this is not a problem with the script but rather sync
services. I'd like to use Entourage as my front end and ical and
Addressbook using Missing Sync to sync my Palm so that I can keep my
item details but I find that this sync mismatiching causes too much
work. I am, for the time being, just working in iCal and Addressbook
but I loose the extra functionality available in Entourage e.g linking.
 
M

Michael Jardine

That solved the problem. Unfortunately you have to create a new calendar in
iCal and name it Entourage (or just start filing out your calendar in
Entourage, and it creates the new "Entourage" calendar for you in iCal. So
if you want to migrate iCal info over, you have to manually select it all
and copy it into the newly created Entourage calendar in iCal (you cannot
change the name of an existing iCal calendar to "Entourage." If you do, it
will not synch.

I find it interesting that this is not mentioned anywhere in the help files
- or did I miss it?

Anyhow, thanks again. This works for my purposes. I don't have any need to
synch multiple calendars between iCal and Entourage.

Best Regards
Michael
 
M

Michel Bintener

I find it interesting that this is not mentioned anywhere in the help files
- or did I miss it?
Click to expand...

I don't think so. I was very surprised that nothing happened when I turned
on Sync Services for the very first time, as I expected my iCal calendar
items to show up in Entourage. It took me a while to find out what really
happened, and you're right, it's either not documented at all, or very badly
so if it is.
Anyhow, thanks again. This works for my purposes. I don't have any need to
synch multiple calendars between iCal and Entourage.
Click to expand...

Glad I could help.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
 
R

R. Barre

Then is the only way to get my iCal calendar to show up in Entourage?
To manually copy the whole calendar into iCal's Entourage calendar? And
if so, how does one actually do that? Ive tried and can't seem to find
a way.
 
A

Abdul Abou-Samra

First time I used entourage and the sync feature activated in preferences
entourage was doing synchronization with iCal.

However, now they do not synchronize any more. Whatever is done on iCal
does not show in entourage and vice versa.

All the steps mentioned below tried and entourage would not synchronize
with iCal any more.

Any suggestion?
 
D

Diane Ross

Then is the only way to get my iCal calendar to show up in Entourage?
To manually copy the whole calendar into iCal's Entourage calendar? And
if so, how does one actually do that? Ive tried and can't seem to find
a way.
Click to expand...

In order to see events created in iCal in Entourage, you'll have to assign
these iCal events to the "Entourage" calendar that shows up in iCal itself.

See the sync services faqs for more help:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/sync_services.html>

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
R

R. Barre

Diane said:
In order to see events created in iCal in Entourage, you'll have to assign
these iCal events to the "Entourage" calendar that shows up in iCal itself.
Click to expand...

And is there some way to do this all at once, and not one event at a time?
 
M

Michel Bintener

And is there some way to do this all at once, and not one event at a time?
Click to expand...

I'm not too familiar with iCal and its AppleScript capabilities, so I don't
know if it is possible to batch-change calendar items like that. What you
could do, however, is use iCal's search feature (the white box at the bottom
of the window) to search for events that have elements in common, such as
parts of the title or so. The results will be displayed as a list, and you
can select all the list items and right-click to assign them to the
"Entourage" calendar.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***
 
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