Entourage Palm Sync

[Jeff Zienowicz]

With Tiger and the availability of The Missing Sync, there are now two
options for syncing Entourage with Palm devices. Assuming we're talking
about the "newer" handhelds according to the definition Microsoft puts forth
in their conduit documentation, here, as I see it, are some of the pros and
cons of using the Microsoft handheld conduit vs. The Missing Sync/OS X Sync
Services:

Microsoft Palm conduit:
+ Notes sync to Palm memo app.
+ Categories are preserved for tasks and notes.
+ Syncs are very fast
- Event categories don't sync.
- Event locations don't sync.
- Multiple street addresses for contacts don't sync (though you can choose
which Entourage address will sync via the "default" checkbox).
- Street address label in Palm is set to "Work" regardless of which address
in Entourage is chosen as "default" for records created on the Palm during
syncs.
- Several contact fields don't sync between Entourage and Palm (photo, IM,
etc.). Data loss will occur if these fields are populated on the Palm and
synced.

Sync Services/The Missing Sync:
+ More complete mapping of contact fields, including
+ Multiple street addresses.
+ Calendar event locations sync.
- Palm memos sync to Mark/Space MemoPad app, not Entourage.
- Task and calendar event categories are lost (they're flattened to
"Entourage" in the Sync Services truth database).
- Syncs are somewhat slower

What are others' experiences with Palm syncing? Do you find that the more
complete and accurate sync of contacts with Missing Sync outweighs not being
able to sync notes and losing task categories? Has anyone figured out how
to use the Entourage conduit _only_ for notes and tasks and use Missing
Sync's conduits for contacts and perhaps events?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

What are others' experiences with Palm syncing? Do you find that the more
complete and accurate sync of contacts with Missing Sync outweighs not being
able to sync notes and losing task categories?

My experience is somehow the same.
The problem with categories is SYstem-related., iCal doesn't support
categories. Instead it offers support for multiple calendars. Most users
use the multiple calendars in iCal exactly as categories in Entourage
and I wish Entourage could offer the option to sync ENtourage categories
to calendar in iCal :-\

Despite these shortcomings, I still use TMS through SyncServices instead
of the conduit. I had nasty issues with the Palm software that all went
away once I started using TMS.
Syncs also don't appear to take longer on my Mac.

Has anyone figured out how
to use the Entourage conduit _only_ for notes and tasks and use Missing
Sync's conduits for contacts and perhaps events?

I never tried, but I don't see why you couldn't.
It sounds like a good option.

Corentin

 

[Jeff Zienowicz]

My experience is somehow the same.
The problem with categories is SYstem-related., iCal doesn't support
categories. Instead it offers support for multiple calendars. Most users
use the multiple calendars in iCal exactly as categories in Entourage
and I wish Entourage could offer the option to sync ENtourage categories
to calendar in iCal :-\

A nice Entourage enhancement would be for the Edit Categories window to be
expanded to include a "map this category to which iCal calendar?" field (a
dropdown populated from the iCal calendar list). I think that would solve
the whole categories vs. calendars issue for most users.

Despite these shortcomings, I still use TMS through SyncServices instead
of the conduit. I had nasty issues with the Palm software that all went
away once I started using TMS.

I suspect that the problem was the Palm Desktop software's Hot Sync Manager.
The Entourage conduit has worked very reliably for me via TMS -- just was
well (within its design limitations) as the M/S conduits. I'd say that --
even if one wants to use the Entourage conduit rather than the Mark/Space
ones -- TMS is still worth the money due to its increased stability over Hot
Sync Manager.

I never tried, but I don't see why you couldn't.
It sounds like a good option.

I've done a bit of research on this, and it seems you can't. The Entourage
conduit detects that it's not the only conduit syncing contacts, etc. and
refuses to run. The alternative is to do two separate syncs in TMS, using
two different sync profiles -- one to the Entourage conduit and the other to
the Mark/Space conduits. That didn't work well for me though. Besides
doubling the sync time, it made some data disappear. I had hoped that I
could use the Entourage conduit to sync Notes and Tasks, and the Mark/Space
ones to sync everything else.

I agree that the TMS sync to Sync Services works extremely well. It's a
shame that the consequences for Entourage users are no notes and no task
categories (as you may know, the former is due to the fact that the Sync
Services API doesn't provide a schema for notes).

Jeff

 

[Al1947]

Does anyone know if there is any possibility of an improved entourage
conduit? Or revised support for sync services that includes categories?

Since the current one will not sync multiple emails or both home and
office addresses, I have been using the fairly clunky process of using
Paul Berkowitz's calendar and address book sync scripts, then running
missing sync. Works well and preserves categories and much more, but it
is time consuming

 

[Al1947]

Does anyone know if there is any possibility of an improved entourage
conduit? Or revised support for sync services that includes categories?

Since the current one will not sync multiple emails or both home and
office addresses, I have been using the fairly clunky process of using
Paul Berkowitz's calendar and address book sync scripts, then running
missing sync. Works well and preserves categories and much more, but it
is time consuming

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

A nice Entourage enhancement would be for the Edit Categories window to be
expanded to include a "map this category to which iCal calendar?" field (a
dropdown populated from the iCal calendar list). I think that would solve
the whole categories vs. calendars issue for most users.

I could not agree more!!!!!!

I suspect that the problem was the Palm Desktop software's Hot Sync
Manager. The Entourage conduit has worked very reliably for me via TMS --
just was well (within its design limitations) as the M/S conduits. I'd
say that -- even if one wants to use the Entourage conduit rather than the
Mark/Space ones -- TMS is still worth the money due to its increased
stability over Hot Sync Manager.

I agree too. The Palm software is horendous and hasn't been updated in
ages (and as far as I can tell from the recent statements Palm made
about the Mac platform, it doesn't look like it will be any time soon).

[...]
I've done a bit of research on this, and it seems you can't. The Entourage
conduit detects that it's not the only conduit syncing contacts, etc. and
refuses to run.

Thaks for letting me know. I wish we could dismiss these conflict
warning :-\

Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Does anyone know if there is any possibility of an improved entourage
conduit? Or revised support for sync services that includes categories?

I syspect that the limitation is in the Palm Sync software. Since Palm
seems more than reluctant to do anything for us, Mac users these days
(future versions of Palm OS won't come with a Mac sync app as far as I
heard), I wouldn't hold my breath.

I have far more hope with the Sync Services. I hope categories could be
synced through them (and with the System address book and iCal).
The problem is that I'm not so sure the underlying architecture supports
categories and in this case, we would have to wait for an update from
Apple (Leopard maybe??) before we could see an improved sync through
Entourage.

Since the current one will not sync multiple emails or both home and
office addresses, I have been using the fairly clunky process of using
Paul Berkowitz's calendar and address book sync scripts, then running
missing sync. Works well and preserves categories and much more, but it
is time consuming

If you have Tiger, you can sync through SyncServices to the System
address book.
I use an additional trick for categories: I use an AppleScript to copy
the name of the category in Entourage to the Notes. THe notes sync
without any problem to the System address book so all I have to do after
that is a simple search for the name of the category to get all contacts
for this category. I can then drag them in the proper category inthe
System address book as well.
A little complicated, but it does the trick for me.

http://cortig.free.fr/wordpress/?p=113

Paul's script do a pristine job too actually (but the Sync through Sync
Services is fast, in the background and automatic).

Corentin

 

[Al1947]

Corentin,

Thanks for the tip on the category scripts. I will give them a try. I
gave up on Sync Services because of the categories issue and this looks
like a good workaround.

BTW, seems to me that a faster way to set up categories in the Apple
Address Book, though, would be to set up Smart Groups.

Al

 

[Michel Bintener]

BTW, seems to me that a faster way to set up categories in the Apple
Address Book, though, would be to set up Smart Groups.

Hi Al,

as far as I know, a smart group is not recognised as an actual group, i.e.
you cannot tell iSync to synch only items in a specific smart group with
your mobile device.

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

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

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

BTW, seems to me that a faster way to set up categories in the Apple
Address Book, though, would be to set up Smart Groups.

Absolutely, but you're not really using the categories thenn but rather
a filter based on the notes.
If you want to re-categorize contacts there you need to manually edit
the notes.

But I agree, it's a pretty good approach,

Corentin

 

[Kerry]

Does anyone know if there is any possibility of an improved entourage
conduit? Or revised support for sync services that includes categories?

Since the current one will not sync multiple emails or both home and
office addresses, I have been using the fairly clunky process of using
Paul Berkowitz's calendar and address book sync scripts, then running
missing sync. Works well and preserves categories and much more, but it
is time consuming

I've used Paul Berkowitz's script to keep the Apple's ical and
addressbook sync'd with Entourage and then used Missing Sync to sync
with my Palm, hoping to retain all field mappings. The problem I
encountered, for some reason, is that Paul's script seemed to make
errors with Entourage. The two never were accurate. He advised me that
it wasn't a problem with his script but Apple's sync services. Since I
could never get them to accurately line up, I just reverted to keeping
everything up to date in ical and addressbook. I'd prefer to use
Entourage but the conduit there creates too much work for me on the
Palm manually adjusting entries (e.g. Changing work to home where
appropriate). Using Entourage sync services isn't the answer either as
everything comes over under the calendar item Entourage so you loose
all your categories. I think and am hoping Entourage 2008 will have a
more robust conduit for the Palm but I have the sneaking suspicion that
Microsoft is going to want you to use sync services and then sync
either via isync or Missing Sync. However the lack of categories then
will rest in whether sync services will support that and at this time
it doesn't.