[Macworld]

Post your comments for Microsoft Entourage 2008 here

[henryhbk]

One major shortcoming (at least I haven't found a work around) is the ability to synchronize the notes with the exchange server. We keep our internal phone lists as text files up on the exchange server as notes, and they don't come down as entourage notes. I don't know why not, as they are simply text.

[alypius]

One little annoyance that has a big affect on my Entourage 2004 experience is that it doesn't make hyperlinks without running scripts. Does 2008 automatically make hyperlinks like email programs in the Windows environment?

[jeffisme]

Does it do smart mailboxes either the same way Mail does or similarly?

[achrd1]

If you are using Leopard, the notification sounds will only work once when the application is opened. After that they stop working. Microsoft admits the bug and hopefully will be issuing a fix.

[Michael]

well, there's
- extended character set issues between Outlook and Entourage
- potential time zone issues between Outlook and Entourage
- no rich text in calendar body
- no Outlook pst import
- no direct address book exchange between Outlook and Entourage
(assistant sends you addresses from Outlook)
I don't want to be negative - but there are issues for big companies ;-)
P.S.
For the time zone issue it is said that there exists a hot fix, which our IT didn't apply

[aestival]

I think this article plays down the Time Machine issue too much -- Microsoft has not created an e-mail application that works well with Leopard. While I have found Entourage fine for e-mail up to OSX 10.4, I'm in the process of switching to Mail for OSX 10.5 -- the continual load on my backups is ridiculous. Microsoft could have simply (trivially?) split the database into sub-files to be more Leopard-friendly, but instead -- as usual -- they just thumbed their nose at the Mac community and assumed we'd all just grin and bear it.
2008 will probably be the year I finally manage to go 100% Microsoft-free -- after 24 years using Macs :-)

[hallohallohola]

I found that using the @ character in a Mail Rule makes Entourage 2008 ignore the Rule.

[Kwamster]

Also, be careful adding events on your iPhone if you sync through iCal. Sometimes they sync with Entourage, sometimes they just disappear. It seems to be a problem with options on iPhone (such as 2 reminder alerts) that Entourage doesn't have. So, Entourage just ignores them. Next time it syncs with iCal, those items just disappear.

[leicaman]

It does smart mailboxes in a sense. They call it "Mail Views."

[Walt_Basil]

Nice welcomed interface changes and universal re-write. I own it, but I'll continue to use my Leopard's Mail, iCal and Address Book. Just because of the pure zero hassle with synchronizing with everything from .Mac to my iPhone. Other than that sync issue, I'd be torn as to which to use.

[JScott]

I wish the article would talked more about using Entourage with Exchange. It was only mentioned in passing.

[alansky]

I don't know why some reviewers insist on thinking of Apple Mail as suitable only for users with "lighter" email needs. It's true that Mail can't help you if you need access to Exchange servers, but other than that I have never discovered anything earthshaking that Entourage does but Mail doesn't. I will say that Entourage's "categories" can be useful in some situations, but one of Mail's real strengths (in fact, one of the strengths of most Apple software) is that the layout looks simple (thanks to clean, straightforward design) but all the necessary features are there when you look for them. Microsoft software (in the past, at least) has given the impression of power by cluttering its interface with a gazillion buttons. It's a difference in design philosophy, not a difference in capability. As far as robustness goes, I remember seeing Steve Jobs demo Mail in OS X 10.3 with 30,000 messages in his inbox. and I have never seen a case of Mail slowdown no matter how overstuffed the database had become.
I've been urging my clients for years to wean themselves from Entourage so they can stop worrying about the ever-present spectre of database corruption. Microsoft may claim that Entourage 2008's database is less fragile, but they said Vista was "better" too.

[bushman]

Why do so many people not see the advantage of My Day? Leveraging Spaces and placing My Day next to my browser let's me see what is going on without having to go back to Entourage.
My only complaint about it is that it isn't very configurable...color, sizing doesn't stick, etc.