Entourage X & Windows XP - .ics /.vcf file formats

[Don]

I have two problems. One is that I like to send .ics Calendar events
from my work/home PC's to my .mac account, so that I can have them on
my Powerbook. I use Entourage X for my Email client. When I open up
the attachment in Entourage, iCal automatically launches and accepts
the .ics file and posts it to iCal. Try as I might, I cannot drag/drop
or post any type of attachment I receive in Entourage as an .ics file
into Entourage - meaning I then have to manually update my calendar in
Entourage. Creating an .ics file with the event and then importing it
back into Entourage doesn't work either.

Second, is that any .vcf (Virtual Card File format) I send from
Outlook to Entourage, only shows up as a Win.dat file and nothing in
Apple software will convert or open it up so that I can insert it into
my Entourage Contacts files. My only workaround has been to save all
of my Outlook contacts into a text-delimited file and then import that
file (field mapped) back into Entourage.

Windows does not behave this badly on any account - so I'm surprised
that there isn't a bigger amount of posted comments on this issue.
Any ideas out there? I'd appreciate them. P.s. - why so much reliance
on Apple scripts, when the software design should be doing this
automatically?

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I have two problems. One is that I like to send .ics Calendar events
from my work/home PC's to my .mac account, so that I can have them on
my Powerbook. I use Entourage X for my Email client. When I open up
the attachment in Entourage, iCal automatically launches and accepts
the .ics file and posts it to iCal. Try as I might, I cannot drag/drop
or post any type of attachment I receive in Entourage as an .ics file
into Entourage - meaning I then have to manually update my calendar in
Entourage. Creating an .ics file with the event and then importing it
back into Entourage doesn't work either.

Drag one of those .ics attachments to your desktop. Control-click (or
right-click) on it, and select "Get Info" or select it and press command-I.
In the Get Info window choose "Open with". Change the popup to Microsoft
Entourage 10. Then click the "Change All" button. From now on, all .ics
files should have the Entourage icon, not iCal, and double clicking them
will enter them in Entourage calendar, not iCal. Even in Entourage
attachments, that should be the case. (If it isn't, just drag them to
desktop first.)

Second, is that any .vcf (Virtual Card File format) I send from
Outlook to Entourage, only shows up as a Win.dat file and nothing in
Apple software will convert or open it up so that I can insert it into
my Entourage Contacts files. My only workaround has been to save all
of my Outlook contacts into a text-delimited file and then import that
file (field mapped) back into Entourage.

No. The solution is not to send your messages from Outlook in the default
RTF format but as either plain text (which is how the RTF messages arrive in
Entourage anyway) or as HTML (if you need the formatting). Then you will not
get winmail,dat attachments, and real attachments will appear correctly. In
the Outlook Address Book (Contacts folder), you can even set your own
contact and other Mac users you know to be sent plain text messages by
default, in case you forget about this. Unfortunately, you can't them to
HTML by default - but you can always do it manually per message.

Windows does not behave this badly on any account - so I'm surprised
that there isn't a bigger amount of posted comments on this issue.
Any ideas out there? I'd appreciate them. P.s. - why so much reliance
on Apple scripts, when the software design should be doing this
automatically?

Outlook does a lot of things its own way, without regard for internet
protocols. (Apparently there's someone on the Outlook team who doesn't like
when I say this, but it's true.) Entourage religiously follows protocols.
That puts certain things out of kilter. Hopefully, Outlook will become
better behaved in the future (your guess is as good as mine.) The "Opens
With" issue is an Apple thing: naturally they set file extensions to map to
their own apps such as iCal and Address Book, but it's easy to change them
to Entourage.


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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