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Revision as of 21:53, 10 October 2008

Microsoft Entourage
Developer(s)Microsoft
Stable release
12.1.0 (2008) [1] / May 14, 2008
Operating systemMac OS X
TypeEmail client
LicenseProprietary
WebsiteMicrosoft Entourage: Mac 2008

Microsoft Entourage is an e-mail client and personal information manager developed by Microsoft for Mac OS 8.5 and higher. Microsoft first released Entourage in October 2000 as part of the Microsoft Office 2001 office suite; Office 98, the previous version of Microsoft Office for Mac OS, included Outlook Express 5. The current version is Entourage:Mac 2008, released as part of Microsoft Office:Mac 2008 on January 15 2008.

Overview

Entourage provides email, a calendar, address book, task list, note list, and project manager. With Entourage 2004, Microsoft began offering a Project Center, which allows the user to create and organize projects. Information may come from within Entourage or outside the program. Entourage supports retrieving email using POP, IMAP[2], and (for Microsoft Exchange servers) WebDAV[3].

Entourage 2008 features a new "My Day" utility, which assists in organizing one's day, and cites (in the welcome message) improvements to search speed, "to do" flags, improved junk mail and fishing (phishing) protection, as well as quick navigation via favorites and customizable toolbars.

Features

Entourage supports some Mac OS technologies, like the Spotlight search engine and AppleScript, however the use of a monolithic database makes it difficult to back up incrementally with Time Machine. Entourage also maintains a separate Address Book, but allows synchronization of contacts and calendar events through Sync Services[4].

Comparison to Outlook

Unlike the other applications in the Mac version of the Microsoft Office suite, Entourage does not share a name with its Microsoft Windows counterpart. Microsoft claims that Entourage was intended "to address an entirely different audience"[5]. Entourage had its origins in Outlook Express 5 on the Mac, as well as Claris Emailer[6] and contained "no ported code, and no Office code"[7]. Nevertheless, Microsoft itself has positioned Entourage as a "similar" product for Macintosh customers on Exchange servers[8].

As a client for Microsoft Exchange

Entourage has included support for Microsoft Exchange servers since August 4, 2003, when the Exchange Update for Entourage X was released. This early release required the use of IMAP for mail connectivity and WebDAV for address and calendar functionality. (Subsequent versions have dropped the requirement for IMAP and rely solely on WebDAV.) Users complained of the lack of a variety of functions present in Outlook for Windows and Outlook 2001[9].

Subsequent versions of Entourage have added some of the missing functionality. However, full parity with Outlook as an Exchange client is still not available in Entourage 2008[10]. Synchronization of tasks and notes with an Exchange server is still not available. Many Exchange users have been vocal[11] in denouncing Microsoft's omission of these features [12]. Microsoft claims to have prioritized "reliability" over expanded Exchange support in Entourage 2008[13].

Entourage import/export limitations

Entourage cannot natively read Outlook Personal Folder files and cannot read Outlook archived emails without first re-importing them back into the main Windows Outlook database.[citation needed] As a result, this makes it impossible to directly transfer email data from Outlook (Windows) into Entourage (Mac).

Although Microsoft has released a PST Import Tool for Entourage 2004 for Mac, this does not solve the problem of exporting data from Windows to Mac, because this utility can only import PST files from Outlook 2001 for the Mac.[citation needed] It is incompatible with any PST files created with Outlook for Windows.[citation needed] In other words, the Import Tool only allows transfer from Mac to Mac, not Windows to Mac.[original research?]

One can import a Windows Outlook 2000 compatible PST to Mac Outlook 2001, and then use the utility to import into Entourage, however, that route is not feasible for most users who do not have access to the obsolete Mac Outlook 2001 software.[original research?]

Macworld indicates that Windows Outlook messages can be transferred to Mac Mail or Entourage by using Mozilla Thunderbird as an intermediate agent. Thunderbird on Windows is used to import the mail from Outlook. Then the converted mail file is moved from the Windows Thunderbird directory to the Mac and the import feature is used on Mac Mail or Entourage[14].

Little Machines, a third party supplier, claims to have a product that will convert Outlook mail and folders into files that can be imported into Entourage.

Weird Kid Software, another third party supplier ships a product called Emailchemy which will convert Outlook mail and folders into an Entourage .rge file which can be then imported.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0)". MacWindows.com. 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
  2. ^ "Accounts". Microsoft MVPs: The Entourage Help Page. 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "FAQs for Exchange 2004". Microsoft: The Entourage Help Page. 2008-08-17. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Negrino, Tom (2008-01-21). "Microsoft Entourage 2008 - Superior depth of features bests Apple competitor". Macworld. {{cite magazine}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Bintener, Michel (2008-08-17). "Entourage is not Outlook". Microsoft: The Entourage Help Page. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Ross, Dianne (2007-05-20). "In the Beginning". Microsoft: The Entourage help Page. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Shahine, Omar (2004-04-04). "Entourage: A journey to becoming an Office application". MSDN Blogs. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Working with Exchange Server". Microsoft. 2004-08-04. Archived from the original on 2005-02-07. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "Using Entourage with Exchange Server Special Report". MacWindows.com. 2003-08-06. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Welch, John C. (2008-01-21). "How Entourage 2008 fares with Exchange - Update improves Mac-Exchange relationship, though some features still undone". Macworld. Retrieved 2008-08-26 One major shortcoming of Entourage is its inability to handle complex HTML. While messages can be received and viewed correctly, they cannot be forwarded without all formatting being stripped out. As an example, an airline confirmation received from, say, Southwest Airlines, will not be able to be forwarded without all of the pictorial information being reduced to links, rendering the e-mail unreadable. An additional, annoying limitation is the inability to attach what is referred to as an "Item" in Outlook to a message while it is being composed since there is no menu choice to allow this. Instead, a user needs to find the item to be forwarded, i.e., a Contact, select it, then choose Forward as vCard from the menu.. {{cite magazine}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); line feed character in |accessdate= at position 11 (help)
  11. ^ Smith, William M. (2008-01-17). "Prioritize your Exchange Needs!". Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Flynn, David (2008-01-17). "Office 2008 for Mac fails to deliver full Exchange support". APC Magazine. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite magazine}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Keizer, Gregg (2008-01-14). "In Mac Office 2008, reliability trumps Exchange support". Computerworld UK. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Breen, Christopher (2008-04-30). "Evade E-mail Exasperation - You've got e-mail problems. We've got answers". Macworld. Retrieved 2008-08-26. {{cite magazine}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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