ENTOURAGE STOPPED SYNCING & DOING SIMPLE FINDS - PLEASE HELP

[Subnorry]

I have an Intel iMac running 10.5.5 and Office 2008 fully updated (v.
12.1.4). For the past several months Sync Services worked fine -- I could
Sync replace my Mac Address Book contacts with my Entourage contacts, I
could sync my Entourage calendar events to iCal, I could do simple searches
for emails with certain words in their subjects OR bodies with no problem,
and I could type a contact's name into the search field to bring that
contact's info up straight away.

But recently I had to totally rebuild my computer from my Time Machine
backup (never let your 3-year-old near your computer without supervision),
and even though the Entourage main identity rebuilds and compacts just fine
using the database utility, I've rebuilt the Spotlight index for the hell of
it, I've run Applejack, DiskWarrior, you name the utility and I've run it --
nothing fixes my TWO major problems: 1) I cannot get the Entourage Sync
Services to work (I want it to replace my Address Book contacts, but it just
won't run), and I'd also like to keep Entourage synced to iCal; and 2)
whenever I search for contacts or emails using terms I KNOW should work, it
returns no results.

Please understand that I am a power user and I know what I'm doing, and I've
been using the various versions of Mac Office since they were first created.
Furthermore, I have been using just about every variation of Sync Services
for years.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Subnorry

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Hi Subnorry,

1) I cannot get the Entourage Sync
Services to work (I want it to replace my Address Book contacts, but it just
won't run), and I'd also like to keep Entourage synced to iCal; and 2)
whenever I search for contacts or emails using terms I KNOW should work, it
returns no results.

Please understand that I am a power user and I know what I'm doing,

So you should know that all-caps titles are usually frowned upon... :->
(and I just saw that this is a repost... and that you posted a test in
the group instead of using a test group :-> tsss, tsss, tsss.... ;-) ).

and I've
been using the various versions of Mac Office since they were first created.
Furthermore, I have been using just about every variation of Sync Services
for years.

I don;t remember seeing somethign like that before but there might be a
few things you could test:
- completely rebuild the spotlight index. It's a pain, but it could be
well worth it.
sudo mdutil -E /

- Use Synchrospector from the Developper tools to check on the status of
your sync, eventually force a slow sync or reset sync services
altogether.

Corentin

 

[Subnorry]

Corentin:

Wow, you're pretty serious about your rules, aren't you? I posted the
second message in all caps because nobody responded to my first one. That
has always been my experience with this group, nobody tries to help if they
don't already know the answer. But if I post again in all caps I can
usually get an MS MVP to lend me a hand.

BTW, I said I was a Mac power user, not a newsgroup hound. Not everyone
knows the extraordinary range of rules extant for these newsgroups.

Anyway, today I told Entourage to sync my events to iCal, which it did.
Because it worked, I thought maybe that sync kicked something loose in Sync
Services, so I tried to sync my Entourage contacts to Address Book and
voila! So, I no longer have that problem.

Thanks anyway for your help!

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Corentin:

Hi Subnorry,

Wow, you're pretty serious about your rules, aren't you? I posted the
second message in all caps because nobody responded to my first one. That

Well the group is pretty busy these days. With the influx of new posts
from the Forum front-end on Mactopia, it made the matter worse (and
threading is broken).
With all that, we see more and more posts without any detail (like: It's
broken! Fix it!).

You have to realize that this is a peer support group. We are all
regular users and no one gets paid to answer anything here. We all come
when we have time and do our best not to leave posts unanswered.
Reposts are fairly annoying (especially if they are within a short
timeframe). All-caps are really frowned upon.
I don;t think I'm *that* bad with rules myself. In some of the other
groups, if you forget to say Hi, Please and Thank you, you immediately
get a reply from several users telling you it's rude and no one will
answer your post :->

has always been my experience with this group, nobody tries to help if they
don't already know the answer.

People posting through the forum UI tend to simply check back for their
answer and never participate much in the other threads.

But if I post again in all caps I can
usually get an MS MVP to lend me a hand.

Yeah :-> though I suspect some of us will skip the message *because* it
is in all caps and others like me might answer, but will tell you we
really don't like all-caps messages. I tend to make an effort in this
group, but in others where I spend a little less time, like the Word
group, every minute counts and I simply skip all-caps messages and
questions that have already beed answered 20,000 times.

After all, as I was saying, I don't *have* to answer anything.
Imagine yourself in the opposite situation for a moment. You are trying
to asnwer questions in a crowd full of people. Will you first answer the
nice, polite people who phrase their question with care or the ones from
people shouting at you because you didn't answer fast enough??

BTW, I said I was a Mac power user, not a newsgroup hound. Not everyone
knows the extraordinary range of rules extant for these newsgroups.

Rule number 1: be ncie
Rule number 2: provide all the details you can think of
Rule number 3: see rule number 1 ;-)

Seriously, it's not carved in stone, but if no one makes an effort to be
nice in the group, long-time users and people trying to answer posts
like myself simply won't come back.

Posting back to say whether the solution worked is also really helpful
too actually.

Anyway, today I told Entourage to sync my events to iCal, which it did.
Great!

Because it worked, I thought maybe that sync kicked something loose in Sync
Services, so I tried to sync my Entourage contacts to Address Book and
voila! So, I no longer have that problem.

Thanks anyway for your help!

Wonderful! I'm glad things came back to normal

Corentin

 

[Diane Ross]

Wow, you're pretty serious about your rules, aren't you?

When I see a message subject in all caps I tend to leave them to last. You
might not think rules are necessary, but that's the way the world works. Now
if you want to type in all caps and pay me to help you that's another
matter.

 

[Subnorry]

Corentin & Diane:

I must say, I was completely backward on this one. I hardly ever use this
newsgroup, so I don't know much about it. However, I have always thought
that the MVPs are paid, and this is one of Microsoft's ways of providing
customer support to Mac Office users. I thought this because I once (a long
time ago) tried to solve an Entourage problem through Microsoft's customer
support 1-800 number, and the tech knew absolutely nothing about
Macintoshes, made no effort to help me, and was rude. I wound up getting
help from an IT friend. Over time I heard many similar complaints about MS
customer support, and then someone told me that this newsgroup was run by a
bunch of Mac people who lost their jobs with Apple in the mid-90s when the
company was going down the tubes and all got hired by the MacBU to overhaul
its customer service! Either I was the butt of a joke or it was a case of
the blind leading the blind. Anyway, I only check into the group when I
have a major problem. Up until now, Office 2008 has been an absolute
disaster, so it's a wonder that I've only utilized the group twice since
Office 2008 was released. In both cases I was able to fix the problem on my
own (by re-installing Office & rebuilding my contacts the 1st time, luck
this last time). Nevertheless, it's good to know there are some selfless
folks out there like you and Diane Ross who have the patience to put up with
folks like me just to help us have a better experience with Microsoft
products.

Cheers to you both!

Jay

 

[Kerry]

Corentin & Diane:

I must say, I was completely backward on this one.  I hardly ever use this
newsgroup, so I don't know much about it.  However, I have always thought
that the MVPs are paid, and this is one of Microsoft's ways of providing
customer support to Mac Office users.  I thought this because I once (along
time ago) tried to solve an Entourage problem through Microsoft's customer
support 1-800 number, and the tech knew absolutely nothing about
Macintoshes, made no effort to help me, and was rude.  I wound up getting
help from an IT friend.  Over time I heard many similar complaints about MS
customer support, and then someone told me that this newsgroup was run bya
bunch of Mac people who lost their jobs with Apple in the mid-90s when the
company was going down the tubes and all got hired by the MacBU to overhaul
its customer service!  Either I was the butt of a joke or it was a caseof
the blind leading the blind.  Anyway, I only check into the group when I
have a major problem.  Up until now, Office 2008 has been an absolute
disaster, so it's a wonder that I've only utilized the group twice since
Office 2008 was released.  In both cases I was able to fix the problem on my
own (by re-installing Office & rebuilding my contacts the 1st time, luck
this last time).  Nevertheless, it's good to know there are some selfless
folks out there like you and Diane Ross who have the patience to put up with
folks like me just to help us have a better experience with Microsoft
products.

Cheers to you both!

Jay

I understand what Diane and Corentin are saying and no one needs
answer anything. Being polite of course does help. However, this is
not a moderated tech support forum and really there aren't rules. You
just might not get an answer. That's all. I wouldn't worry that you've
done anything wrong as you haven't.

Secondly, you're right Entourage 08 is a disaster unfortunately. I've
moved off it to the Apple apps as I really had no choice due to the
major sync issues especially when I upgraded my BlackBerry to OS4.5. I
talked to Microsoft yesterday about their update 12.1.5 and it doesn't
resolve this problem. There won't be a near term fix as they are
really stumped on this. I'm actually thinking of now migrating back to
Outlook as the Apple apps don't cut it for me. Plus, I have to use the
BlackBerry Desktop manager under windows for app loads, backups and
even to do the OS upgrade. It is current and robust. I'll just use the
Palm desktop for my Palm but it always worked reliably in Windows.
Finally, Intuit is making no progress on an updated version of Quicken
and although Quicken 2006 is fine for me under OSX it is lame compared
to Quickens 2009 product for Windows.

I utilize 4 other forums extensively for in depth answers: MacFixit,
Apple, Markspace and Brighthand. These are all moderated forums and
there are rules of conduct but and it only happened with me once in
Brighthand, I did something not correct and a moderator just advised
me but corrected what I had done in the background (moved and combined
a duplicate post in another forum) so although there are rules I've
never found there is an issue nor, except in this one case, had anyone
commented on anything I did as incorrect. I do get great feedback not
only to what I pose but to what I answer when I attempt to help so
really I know from both angles that there is assistance from both
myself and others. Try moderated forums.

Finally, I really think that once you've exhausted any forum, its best
to call the company's product tech support. If there is no answer, the
problem usually gets escalated or is closed as unresolved but you'll
find out that there is an issue that can't be resolved till its fixed
in Engineering. Always good to know.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Hi Kerry,


Just to clarify a few points...

I utilize 4 other forums extensively for in depth answers: MacFixit,
Apple, Markspace and Brighthand. These are all moderated forums and
there are rules of conduct but and it only happened with me once in
Brighthand, I did something not correct and a moderator just advised
me but corrected what I had done in the background (moved and combined
a duplicate post in another forum) so although there are rules I've
never found there is an issue nor, except in this one case, had anyone
commented on anything I did as incorrect.

There has been a number of other posts in the groups where people
complained about similar matters. I've seen more and more lately (not so
much from myself) and I suspect that we will see more. The root cause is
that things are getting a bit out of hand.
Since the new MacTopia interface came out and plugged-into the old nntp
newsgroup, the frequency of aggressive posts, posts without details,
posts already answered 10,000 times etc has gone up tremendously.

That wasn't the case here, but All-Caps are something fairly annoying
and I was simply asking not to use it. Reposts are also a bit annoying
as they somehow says "my question is the most important here, answer it
now!".

I know Jay didn't mean anything by that and was probably simply anxious
to get an reply to something affecting him quite a bit: That's not the
issue.
I simply think it's not a bad thing to remind people that if we don't
all make a slight effort in the group, it's going to get uglier and
uglier and people will stop coming back and posting replies.....
(and it also depends on what mood I am in myself - I guess it was one of
my "@!#!@%$! another all caps post / and it's a repost!" days ;-) ).

It's true: there are no official rules. There is no police either (and I
wouldn't want to be part of it), but when things get a little sour, it
could be a good reminder to try and kindly remind people that you can't
attract flies with vinegar ;-) (it's a French expression but I think it
translates well)

I do get great feedback not
only to what I pose but to what I answer when I attempt to help so
really I know from both angles that there is assistance from both
myself and others. Try moderated forums.

It's a nightmare. I agree.
Heavy moderation is not a good thing either as it kills all spontaneity.
I have nothing against a few off-topic posts. I think they show the
group is alive. I simply would like the group to a bit friendlier that
it has been lately,


Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Corentin & Diane:

Hi Jay,

I must say, I was completely backward on this one. I hardly ever use this
newsgroup, so I don't know much about it. However, I have always thought
that the MVPs are paid, and this is one of Microsoft's ways of providing
customer support to Mac Office users. I thought this because I once (a long
time ago) tried to solve an Entourage problem through Microsoft's customer
support 1-800 number, and the tech knew absolutely nothing about
Macintoshes, made no effort to help me, and was rude.

The incompetance of the tech support line is a different issue
unfrotunately. I have never called them in the US, but I had to call
them in France in the Office X days and I wasn't overwhelmingly happy
with the experience :-> Not only was it on a toll-number, but they
didn't resolve anything at all and left me in the cold.
I wasn't a happy camper. It was after that that I came to visit the
English-speaking Mac Office newsgroups and one thing leading to another,
I'm still here ;-)

I wound up getting
help from an IT friend. Over time I heard many similar complaints about MS
customer support, and then someone told me that this newsgroup was run by a
bunch of Mac people who lost their jobs with Apple in the mid-90s when the
company was going down the tubes and all got hired by the MacBU to overhaul
its customer service!

I don't know anybody in the group who ever worked for Apple (or MS)

What MS does to support these groups (beside hosting them) is to watch
people who post frequently and if they like their attitude and the help
they are providing, they give them an award. The MVP award.:


The Mac folks who got nominated are listed here:
http://www.officeformac.com/most_valuable_professionals/

Either I was the butt of a joke or it was a case of
the blind leading the blind.

Either a joke or a simple mistake.

Anyway, I only check into the group when I
have a major problem. Up until now, Office 2008 has been an absolute
disaster, so it's a wonder that I've only utilized the group twice since
Office 2008 was released. In both cases I was able to fix the problem on my
own (by re-installing Office & rebuilding my contacts the 1st time, luck
this last time).

I guess that the newsgroups are nice for functionality issues, and a few
bugs when a solution is known. When it's a bug without a known
workaround, there is nothing any of us can do beside waiting for an
update (read: SyncServices are KILLING ME!!! :-> )

Nevertheless, it's good to know there are some selfless
folks out there like you and Diane Ross who have the patience to put up with
folks like me just to help us have a better experience with Microsoft
products.

Cheers to you both!

It's our pleasure Jay!


Corentin

 

[Kerry]

        Hi Kerry,

Just to clarify a few points...


There has been a number of other posts in the groups where people
complained about similar matters. I've seen more and more lately (not so
much from myself) and I suspect that we will see more. The root cause is
that things are getting a bit out of hand.
Since the new MacTopia interface came out and plugged-into the old nntp
newsgroup, the frequency of aggressive posts, posts without details,
posts already answered 10,000 times etc has gone up tremendously.

That wasn't the case here, but All-Caps are something fairly annoying
and I was simply asking not to use it. Reposts are also a bit annoying
as they somehow says "my question is the most important here, answer it
now!".

I know Jay didn't mean anything by that and was probably simply anxious
to get an reply to something affecting him quite a bit: That's not the
issue.
I simply think it's not a bad thing to remind people that if we don't
all make a slight effort in the group, it's going to get uglier and
uglier and people will stop coming back and posting replies.....
(and it also depends on what mood I am in myself - I guess it was one of
my "@!#!@%$! another all caps post / and it's a repost!" days ;-) ).

It's true: there are no official rules. There is no police either (and I
wouldn't want to be part of it), but when things get a little sour, it
could be a good reminder to try and kindly remind people that you can't
attract flies with vinegar ;-) (it's a French expression but I think it
translates well)


It's a nightmare. I agree.
Heavy moderation is not a good thing either as it kills all spontaneity.
I have nothing against a few off-topic posts. I think they show the
group is alive. I simply would like the group to a bit friendlier that
it has been lately,

Corentin

--
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       http://www.mvps.org      -    http://mvp.support..microsoft.com
    MVPs are not MS employees    -    Les MVP ne travaillent pas pour MS
 Remove "NoSpam" to e-mail me    -      Retirez "NoSpam" pourm'écrire

Hi Corentin, yes I understand. I have noticed this too with this
forum. What I do find most annoying and a touch perplexing is the
frequency of posts with the same question/problem that has already
been answered numerous times. I would say that JR fully agrees with
you on this also. He explained, exactly as you have, how this has
gotten fairly messed up since Microsoft applied it in Mactopia.

I don't find moderated forums lack spontaneity. People can get quite
passionate in these forums around an issue. However, if a flame starts
and gets out of hand, a moderator will probably jump in and close down
the thread. That only happens occasionally and only if the flame
starts turning personal and ugly. Further, if you are using a
manufacturer's forum, they are often watching in background and a
moderator who works for the company sometimes jumps in with an answer.
This can be seen most frequently in the Markspace forums. However,
although you won't see this in the Apple forums, their engineers are
watching the forums for trends in issues or functionality
requirements. They use the forums, a long with calls in to tech
support to prioritize issues for Engineering resolution.

I suppose what I'm suggesting to users is to utilize a broader set of
forums and those forums that might be most specific to an issue.
Unfortunately, for Entourage their is a lack of viable forums but
answers do exist elsewhere e.g. Macfixit, Macworld. Then, if the user
can't find an answer here or elsewhere, I think it is valuable to call
Microsoft Tech Support even if they do lack knowledge. One, they might
have the answer or if they don't an escalation procedure can be
initiated. Finally, the answer might be we're aware of the problem,
we're working on it, there is no information on a fix and no time-
frame. That at least gives the user a better base in terms of a
decision that may be required as to whether he/she can continue
working in say Entourage effectively or whether another solution has
be obtained. Finally, Microsoft is getting direct feedback that there
is an issue and even though they might be aware of it the more people
that present the issue the more pressing they will prioritize this at
a higher level. In my case and yours and tons of others around sync
services, although Microsoft is aware of the issue and its broad
reaching impact, they are unable to solve the problem. This at least,
then again, tells us something significant and once again it allows us
to make a decision as to whether staying with Entourage is viable,
switching to something else in the Mac world is necessary but may or
may not be functional for our needs and whether we might have to think
about something that is available in an alternate environment like
Windows.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Hi Kerry,


[...]

I don't find moderated forums lack spontaneity. People can get quite
passionate in these forums around an issue. However, if a flame starts
and gets out of hand, a moderator will probably jump in and close down
the thread.

That, unfortunately, is something impossible to implement here.
MS can lock a thread on their forum, but it cannot be locked through
usenet (or GoogleGroups).
Similarely, messages can be deleted, even on the MS usenet server, but
the deletion doesn't carry over to the usenet mirrors for these groups.
That is unfortunately the nature of the usenet backend.
(and that's why we have so much spam we can seem to get rid of on the
groups these days).


[...]

They use the forums, a long with calls in to tech
support to prioritize issues for Engineering resolution.

Well MS also has similar mechanisms in place. They do not participate
directly (much) in the groups, but they sure monitor them. They spend a
lot of time going through the groups trying to find new issues reported
there.

[...]

Microsoft Tech Support even if they do lack knowledge. One, they might
have the answer or if they don't an escalation procedure can be
initiated. Finally, the answer might be we're aware of the problem,
we're working on it, there is no information on a fix and no time-
frame. That at least gives the user a better base in terms of a
decision that may be required as to whether he/she can continue
working in say Entourage effectively or whether another solution has
be obtained. Finally, Microsoft is getting direct feedback that there
is an issue and even though they might be aware of it the more people
that present the issue the more pressing they will prioritize this at
a higher level.

To clarify the procedures:
MS monitors the forums looking for new issues.
The Send Feedback command in Office apps really does get to them and
they do use it both for new reports and to prioritize the issues.
MVPs also have a mechanism in place to escalade the issues directly to
the MacBU.
The fact that you don't see a correction to some of the long-standing
issues for Office 2008 for instance doesn't mean that they are not aware
of them. It's just that some things that could appear to be simple
turned out to be extremely complex.
SyncServices comes to my mind immediately. There are obvious flaws
(IMVHO) in the way it is currently implemented in Office, but there are
also serious issues on the Apple side. Other companies (like MarkSpace
actually) have also complained about that again and again.
Maybe MS shoudl co,,unicate more ont he topic of bugs, how they get the
reports and how they work on resolving them, but I fear it might never
happen as most large companies refuse to list the issues they have
identified in fear that it might not really provide good advertisement.

In my case and yours and tons of others around sync
services, although Microsoft is aware of the issue and its broad
reaching impact, they are unable to solve the problem.

As I was saying, I am not 100% sure it is entirely in their hands.

This at least,
then again, tells us something significant and once again it allows us
to make a decision as to whether staying with Entourage is viable,
switching to something else in the Mac world is necessary but may or
may not be functional for our needs and whether we might have to think
about something that is available in an alternate environment like
Windows.

Yeah, I suspect that this sort of comment WILL be blocked with force by
the marketting folks anyway,


Corentin

 

[Ed Kimball]

Hi Kerry,


[...]
To clarify the procedures:
MS monitors the forums looking for new issues.
The Send Feedback command in Office apps really does get to them and
they do use it both for new reports and to prioritize the issues.
MVPs also have a mechanism in place to escalade the issues directly to
the MacBU.
The fact that you don't see a correction to some of the long-standing
issues for Office 2008 for instance doesn't mean that they are not aware
of them. It's just that some things that could appear to be simple
turned out to be extremely complex.

Yes, like providing a high level of support to Mac users without
cannibalizing the market for Windows. ;-)

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

Yes, like providing a high level of support to Mac users without
cannibalizing the market for Windows. ;-)

I'd imagine folks would switch applications before operating systems. ;-)

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

 

[Kerry]

        Hi Kerry,

[...]

I don't find moderated forums lack spontaneity. People can get quite
passionate in these forums around an issue. However, if a flame starts
and gets out of hand, a moderator will probably jump in and close down
the thread.

That, unfortunately, is something impossible to implement here.
MS can lock a thread on their forum, but it cannot be locked through
usenet (or GoogleGroups).
Similarely, messages can be deleted, even on the MS usenet server, but
the deletion doesn't carry over to the usenet mirrors for these groups.
That is unfortunately the nature of the usenet backend.
(and that's why we have so much spam we can seem to get rid of on the
groups these days).

[...]

They use the forums, a long with calls in to tech
support to prioritize issues for Engineering resolution.

Well MS also has similar mechanisms in place. They do not participate
directly (much) in the groups, but they sure monitor them. They spend a
lot of time going through the groups trying to find new issues reported
there.

[...]

Microsoft Tech Support even if they do lack knowledge. One, they might
have the answer or if they don't an escalation procedure can be
initiated. Finally, the answer might be we're aware of the problem,
we're working on it, there is no information on a fix and no time-
frame. That at least gives the user a better base in terms of a
decision that may be required as to whether he/she can continue
working in say Entourage effectively or whether another solution has
be obtained. Finally, Microsoft is getting direct feedback that there
is an issue and even though they might be aware of it the more people
that present the issue the more pressing they will prioritize this at
a higher level.

To clarify the procedures:
MS monitors the forums looking for new issues.
The Send Feedback command in Office apps really does get to them and
they do use it both for new reports and to prioritize the issues.
MVPs also have a mechanism in place to escalade the issues directly to
the MacBU.
The fact that you don't see a correction to some of the long-standing
issues for Office 2008 for instance doesn't mean that they are not aware
of them. It's just that some things that could appear to be simple
turned out to be extremely complex.
SyncServices comes to my mind immediately. There are obvious flaws
(IMVHO) in the way it is currently implemented in Office, but there are
also serious issues on the Apple side. Other companies (like MarkSpace
actually) have also complained about that again and again.
Maybe MS shoudl co,,unicate more ont he topic of bugs, how they get the
reports and how they work on resolving them, but I fear it might never
happen as most large companies refuse to list the issues they have
identified in fear that it might not really provide good advertisement.

In my case and yours and tons of others around sync
services, although Microsoft is aware of the issue and its broad
reaching impact, they are unable to solve the problem.

As I was saying, I am not 100% sure it is entirely in their hands.

This at least,
then again, tells us something significant and once again it allows us
to make a decision as to whether staying with Entourage is viable,
switching to something else in the Mac world is necessary but may or
may not be functional for our needs and whether we might have to think
about something that is available in an alternate environment like
Windows.

Yeah, I suspect that this sort of comment WILL be blocked with force by
the marketting folks anyway,

Corentin

--
            --- Mac:MS MVP  http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/---
       http://www.mvps.org      -    http://mvp.support..microsoft.com
    MVPs are not MS employees    -    Les MVP ne travaillent pas pour MS
 Remove "NoSpam" to e-mail me    -      Retirez "NoSpam" pourm'écrire

Corentin I know Microsoft is aware of the problem. I also said way
back in early Feb 08 when some were saying Microsoft will have this
fixed soon I said and I didn't have a lot of concrete information then
to say this but don't count on it. My suspicion was that this was a
highly complex problem with architectural issues in the Entourage DB.
Yes, for sure there are issues with Sync Services. It is new and
anything new has issues. But, the Entourage issue is separate from
this. No matter what Apple does, Microsoft has some heaving duty work
to do to fix this. The answer is kind of a little more revealing than
looking at ENT08. When they introduced sync services in ENT04 I tried
it and found it didn't work. It had the same problems as ENT08. They
weren't able to fix this from ENT04 to ENT08 although I identified
this to Microsoft shortly after the introduction of sync services in
ENT04. I then quickly switched back to the Palm conduit and was a
happy sync'r till 08. When they released ENT08 without a Palm conduit,
my comment to a senior tech supervisor is well I hope you have fixed
what was wrong within ENT04. They hadn't. It is a moot point now
though as I have a BlackBerry and still use my Palm TX so I need to
use sync services. But, it doesn't work with Entourage and does work
fine with other solutions. The other solutions, in the Mac environment
though, really don't meet my needs but I can sort of live with them in
the hopes that Entourage eventually gets fixed. However, the longer I
live in these other environments, the more difficult it becomes to
switch back to Entourage as now data is becoming discrete between
different environments. Regardless of whether I say just use the Apple
apps or move to Outlook, moving back to Entourage will involve work if
I don't want discrete data which is not necessarily the end of the
world but it is just messier.

 

[Kerry]

I'd imagine folks would switch applications before operating systems. ;-)

--

bill

Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>
YouTalk <http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/youtalk>
Twitter: follow <http://twitter.com/meck>

Fortunately, with the Mac you don't have to switch operating systems.
You can run Windows in Parallel to OSX and use a Windows app without
leaving OSX. Yes, this increases overhead on the system but it works
perfectly fine and as efficiently as working on a Native PC. In fact,
its better as you can just move information between the two
environments fairly seemlessly. The downside is you'd be hard pressed
to find a Windows user who needs to or wants to run an OS alongside
Windows as it isn't really necessary except I would say in the case of
Linux where you might want to develop for that. In terms of backend
systems, such as mainframe apps, the OS is unimportant as Windows will
just uses a front-end to plug in to any backend environment. In that
environment, of course, the interface will be different but you are
simply going through Windows to get there.