"Beach Ball" Constantly Going

[Jeff]

I have noticed that after I use Enourage for a while, the dreaded
"spinning beach ball" starts appearing anytime I start to send a
message, and it just seems to be worse. If I quit out of Entourage, it
is better for a while and then quickly becomes almost unusable. I have
a Gig of RAM and plenty of disk space, so I don't think a computer
issue. Has anyone else seen this problem? - JH

 

[matt neuburg]

I have noticed that after I use Enourage for a while, the dreaded
"spinning beach ball" starts appearing anytime I start to send a
message, and it just seems to be worse. If I quit out of Entourage, it
is better for a while and then quickly becomes almost unusable. I have
a Gig of RAM and plenty of disk space, so I don't think a computer
issue. Has anyone else seen this problem? - JH

(1) Make sure Spotlight is set not to be able to see the Microsoft User
Data folder.

(2) Use my free MemoryStick app to make sure this is not in fact a RAM
size issue. Watch for the memory filling and for extra swapfiles being
generated (anything larger than "1").

(3) The next time this happens, switch to Activity Monitor and see what
you can learn about is using the CPU. Some other process aside from
Entourage may be involved.

m.

 

[Narendra]

Are you using the latest updates for Office 2004, i.e. 11.2.1

--
Naren

Please always mention the Version of Software

Waiting to know if it works

 

[Jeff]

I do have the latest updates installed. I have made the change to the
privacy setting to prevent Spotlight from searching Microsoft User
Data. I have been using Memory Stick for years, and I have plenty of
free RAM. We'll see if the Spotlight change does the trick. - JH

 

[Jeff]

Changing Spotlight prefs did the trick! Thanks for the suggestion. - JH

 

[Pete]

for those of us who use 0s x 10.3.9 and entourage 2004, could there be
a similar indexing issue somewhere in 10.3 that needs to be dealt with?

i ask because i have the same problem - entourage hangs when i send
mail or switch from mail to address book.

thanks - peter

 

[aRKay]

(1) Make sure Spotlight is set not to be able to see the Microsoft User
Data folder.

How do you make this setting?

I must be the only person that does not like or use the Spotlight. The
thing sucks big time and only use it if all else fails.

 

[Michel Bintener]

How do you make this setting?

I must be the only person that does not like or use the Spotlight. The
thing sucks big time and only use it if all else fails.

In the System Preferences, in the Spotlight section, there's a Privacy tab.
Add the MUD folder to that list; or, if you want to prevent Spotlight from
indexing your Entourage data only (and not, say, your Normal template), just
add your identity folder within the MUD folder.

 

[Pitch]

I must be the only person that does not like or use the Spotlight. The
thing sucks big time and only use it if all else fails.

LOL. No, you are most definitely not alone. I'd give $50 to have the
old Panther Command-F search GUI back (and no, Tiger's Command-F search
is not the same thing). Spotlight is simply the oddest thing in Macs
currently.

That said, it is kind of the version 1, so chances are good that
Apple's trying to improve it.

 

[Scott]

LOL. No, you are most definitely not alone. I'd give $50 to have the
old Panther Command-F search GUI back (and no, Tiger's Command-F search
is not the same thing). Spotlight is simply the oddest thing in Macs
currently.

<http://www.macworld.com/2005/09/features/tigertips2/index.php>

"Do you dislike Tiger¹s default Find window? You want to search for a
file name, so you press Command-F, only to be faced with the Kind: Any
and Last Opened: Any Date search fields, forcing you to manually add the
Name: Contains setting. If you miss the old way of doing things, here¹s
how to turn back the clock.

First, create a new smart folder. Delete the second search setting (Last
Opened: Any Date) by clicking on the minus sign (-) to its right. Then
use the pull-down menus to change the Kind: Any setting to Name:
Contains. In the file-name box, type something short that you know won¹t
appear elsewhere‹for example, use three vertical bars (||| ).While
you¹re at it, set the window¹s size and position. When you¹re done,
click on the Save button, name the smart folder whatever you like
(you¹ll rename it later), and save it to your desktop. Switch to the
Finder and navigate to /System/ Library/CoreServices. Control-click on
the Finder entry, and select Show Package Contents. In the new window
that appears, go to /Contents/ Resources. Drag the file named
default_smart.plist to your Documents folder, or to any location other
than your desktop. This will serve as your backup file, in case you need
to restore the original file later. Leaving the Resources window open,
press Command-N to open a new Finder window, navigate to your desktop,
and rename the new smart folder default_smart .plist. Click on the Use
..plist option when the Finder asks whether you¹re sure you want to make
this change.

Finally, drag your new default_ smart.plist folder into the Resources
folder. The Finder will ask for your admin password and will ask you to
confirm that you want to overwrite the existing file. Once you¹ve
replaced the file, close the window.

To see your changes in action, restart the Finder. The easiest way to do
this is to option-click on the Finder icon in the Dock and choose
Relauch from the pop-up menu. Now when you press Command-F, you should
see your newly customized Find window in all its glory; you¹ll just have
to replace the file-name field with the search text.‹RG"

 

[aRKay]

How do you make this setting?

I must be the only person that does not like or use the Spotlight. The
thing sucks big time and only use it if all else fails.

In the System Preferences, in the Spotlight section, there's a Privacy tab.
Add the MUD folder to that list; or, if you want to prevent Spotlight from
indexing your Entourage data only (and not, say, your Normal template), just
add your identity folder within the MUD folder.[/QUOTE]

Thanks..... I did a double take when I opened the Privacy tab and
noticed three MUD files. I deleted two then realized they were for my
other HD's so I had to add them back.

aRKay

 

[Nick Collingridge]

Spotlight and Finder-Find are very much improved with 10.4.3 ­ hopefully
this is the system version that you¹re using? The one problem that I
definitely do sympathise with is that there¹s no way to switch the find to
only find files with the search text in the filename, not in the content of
the file. That failing results in many more files being returned than
necessary when you know some text that¹s in the name of the file.

 

[Nick Collingridge]

Sorry - what I should have said is "there's no easy/quick way to switch to
only find files on the basis of their filename". A great way of implementing
this would have been to be able to type something like Cmd-Opt-F for find by
name, instead of the full Spotlight monty.

 

[aRKay]

Sorry - what I should have said is "there's no easy/quick way to switch to
only find files on the basis of their filename"

I fired up OS9 in Classic mode and I am sorry to report I could not find
the old Find thing. I guess you have to reboot into OS9 to get the
Finder's Find to work.

I sure would like to see an OSX implementation of Find or Fast Find and
ditch the almost useless Spotlight.

 

[Pitch]

Thanksf for this link, Scott. Good info.