Anyone here *really* using Entourage Projects?

[tbatst]

One of the features I was most excited about in Entourage 2004 was
Projects. It looked like the holy grail of everything wanted in
coordinating the concepts of GTD by David Allen, as well as everything
else I've studied on management. But after a year of trial and error,
I have to finally admit that I don't use it. At all. I get the feeling
that it's because I don't get its UI, or that I haven't figured out how
to wrap my brain around its ways.

So, I'm really curious if anyone out there is totally ecstatic about
Projects and are using this feature every day to further your business
and life. If so, I'd love to hear about that passion for it, and
exactly how you're using it to get stuff done better than you were
before it existed.

 

[bobinsky]

Hi. Well, I don't know if "ecstatic" or "passionate" are the words I'd
use, but I have to give Microsoft straight-A's for both Entourage and
Project. Like many self-employed people who used to do dot-com
consulting full-time, I now do a number of totally different kinds of
projects. These include freelance trade-journal writing, business
consulting, engineering consulting and I'm also working on work of
historical fiction. Prior to buying MSO2004 (which I had to do because
a client insisted on native Excel format), I was using a number of very
good-- but not integrated-- apps to keep track of everything. And it's
very easy to keep using most of my indispensible apps (e.g. CopyWrite
and SuperNoteCard) right along with Projects via links.

Frankly, I switched to a Mac to get away from all things Microsoft and
had no intention of using anything but Excel (and Word and PPT when I
absolutely *had* to), but I figured I might as well use Entourage Mail,
Contacts and Calendar rather than pay to upgrade my Eudora (and I've
never like iCal and Address Book). Migration was relatively painless
(with the help of some people on this forum) and everything worked;
then I got a bit curious about the little briefcase icon.

I started using Project regularly about a month ago, so I may not be
using it to my best advantage-- yet-- but I must say it's been easy to
create projects for everything I do and the fact that they're
automatically kept up to date (w/emails, particularly) is wonderful. I
can dive in at any time and get a snapshot of what's going on, quickly
add task or answer an email, then jump out. This is particularly
useful for group work in which I'm often very active for a day or two,
then away from it for a few weeks, then back again.

I'll be interested to see how others use Projects, as well.

 

[Phyber Quest]

I actually use it to share calendars and contact with my spouse. But that is
all I use it for.

Cheers!

 

[mmurray]

We've tried them here only to abandon them - probably more because of
the staff dynamic and work flow characteristic here more than anything
else. Personally I found checking project folders (specifically having
to leave my inbox) too time consuming (I know I'm talking one or two
clicks here but..) -

I may give it another try I'll see - suggest you try it and decide for
yourself.

 

[tbatst]

A belated thanks for this reply, and the others. Interesting: I don't
think most people use Projects. I also think that this is part because
no one knows quite how to use it, and because it's kind of a beta
add-on, and will mature in the next updates.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Well, he didn't post on this thread, but I have seen at least 1 person post
that the Project Center has completely changed his workflow for the better
and in his opinion, it alone was worth the upgrade price for 2004.

What I've used of them I like, but I think you are right about it/us having
to mature into it--I keep intending to spend a few minutes sorting it out
and really taking advantage and never getting around to it. For instance, I
think a main value of Projects beyond just using Categories is in keeping
track of files on the hard drive, but that means I need to coordinate my
harddrive organization with Projects, and that's going to take me some time,
though I've begun a little bit. Lots of other things I know I could do but
haven't expended the energy to make them one-click solutions, which is what
they need to be for me to change the ways I'm set in.

 

[Allen Watson]

One of the features I was most excited about in Entourage 2004 was
Projects. It looked like the holy grail of everything wanted in
coordinating the concepts of GTD by David Allen, as well as everything
else I've studied on management. But after a year of trial and error,
I have to finally admit that I don't use it. At all. I get the feeling
that it's because I don't get its UI, or that I haven't figured out how
to wrap my brain around its ways.

So, I'm really curious if anyone out there is totally ecstatic about
Projects and are using this feature every day to further your business
and life. If so, I'd love to hear about that passion for it, and
exactly how you're using it to get stuff done better than you were
before it existed.

Check out these articles:

Tutorial: Entourage 2004 Project Center: Project Management 101
Microsoft KB Details about how to share projects in Entourage 2004 for Mac
The link on that second article should be:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;842884&Product=Mac04Entour

--


Allen Watson
MVP for Office (Entourage, Word)
http://homepage.mac.com/allen_a_watson/
HELP for Entourage: http://entourage.mvps.org