Most useless thing I've seen...

[Mark R. Holbrook]

I'm new to the powerbook G4. I've used macs in the past and loved them.
But I work in a world where Windows abounds... I've taken a big step buying
a powerbook and planning to force myself back into the mac world. I've
purchased Virtual PC which will do for my development needs but I had really
hoped to use all mac stuff other than that.

So office was a requirement as I need excel and word. Entourage seemed like
a wonderful idea. I could use it instead of Outlook and still get
appointment/task/email syncing with my exhange server based blackberry and I
would have all the wonderful/hopeful integration with the mac stuff.

Well basically as far as I can tell Entourage sucks...

It will not stay connected, is often HOURS before it will reconnect and sync
up the mail AND the tasks do not sync. Well that I could have lived with
but the lack of connection is unacceptable.

I have tried almost everything I could think of and gleen from the web on
how to keep this piece of trash connected and syncing mail. It just has a
mind of its own while right next to it, my outlook on my windows laptop just
hums away.

Now don't get me wrong... I really was never an outlook fan but the bottom
line is it works and so far WAY BETTER than this piece of trash.

Entourage is also not well integrated into the mac. Virtually every
application in the mac when you "send email" will bring up the default
mail.app no matter what I do.

I guess my only option at this point is to continue using Outlook in a VPC
window (slow) and hope that someday MS gets their act together and fixes
this thing.

Oh well...

Mark

 

[Alan Schaevitz]

I'm new to the powerbook G4. I've used macs in the past and loved them.
But I work in a world where Windows abounds... I've taken a big step buying
a powerbook and planning to force myself back into the mac world. I've
purchased Virtual PC which will do for my development needs but I had really
hoped to use all mac stuff other than that.

So office was a requirement as I need excel and word. Entourage seemed like
a wonderful idea. I could use it instead of Outlook and still get
appointment/task/email syncing with my exhange server based blackberry and I
would have all the wonderful/hopeful integration with the mac stuff.

Well basically as far as I can tell Entourage sucks...

It will not stay connected, is often HOURS before it will reconnect and sync
up the mail AND the tasks do not sync. Well that I could have lived with
but the lack of connection is unacceptable.

I have tried almost everything I could think of and gleen from the web on
how to keep this piece of trash connected and syncing mail. It just has a
mind of its own while right next to it, my outlook on my windows laptop just
hums away.

Now don't get me wrong... I really was never an outlook fan but the bottom
line is it works and so far WAY BETTER than this piece of trash.

Entourage is also not well integrated into the mac. Virtually every
application in the mac when you "send email" will bring up the default
mail.app no matter what I do.

I guess my only option at this point is to continue using Outlook in a VPC
window (slow) and hope that someday MS gets their act together and fixes
this thing.

Oh well...

Mark

I think your reaction to Entourage is a bit extreme due to some problems you
are encountering.

On your last item, to make Entourage your default e-mail client, open Mail
and in Preferences set Entourage as the default client.

On your problems regarding keeping Entourage connected, more information is
need to help you. I, for one, use Entourage as to thousands of others and
have not problem staying connected, having Entourage check e-mail (in my
case, every 10 minutes) and newsgroups (every 30 minutes).

So, maybe with more info as to your problem, we collectively can help you
wean yourself from (ugh) Outlook - and as a side benefit all those viruses!

 

[Mark R. Holbrook]

Alan,

I would love to solve the problems rather than dump it. As you can tell I'm
frustrated but not unwilling to try solving the issues.

I have tried setting Entourage as the default mail client. This works for
the apps that came with OS X. However sporadically Mail.app will pop up
when I select email a page from Safari or Firefox. About 25% of the time.
The rest of the time it will be Entourage.

As far as my connection problems I'm not sure how I can help to get it
connected. I'm using a company called "Link2Exchange" as my exchange server
and they do not support macs specifically however on their support site they
have a document on how to setup Entourage to talk to their server.

Here is there setup document which seems to be for an earlier version of
Entourage:

http://www.link2exchange.com/kb/index.php?documentid=299&srch=Entourage

I have followed this setup religiously (as best I can being that it seems to
reflect an older version) and the sporadic connections continue.

What other info would you need? I can do screen shots or whatever will
help.

Thanks again...

Mark

 

[Alan Schaevitz]

Alan,

I would love to solve the problems rather than dump it. As you can tell I'm
frustrated but not unwilling to try solving the issues.

I have tried setting Entourage as the default mail client. This works for
the apps that came with OS X. However sporadically Mail.app will pop up
when I select email a page from Safari or Firefox. About 25% of the time.
The rest of the time it will be Entourage.

As far as my connection problems I'm not sure how I can help to get it
connected. I'm using a company called "Link2Exchange" as my exchange server
and they do not support macs specifically however on their support site they
have a document on how to setup Entourage to talk to their server.

Here is there setup document which seems to be for an earlier version of
Entourage:

http://www.link2exchange.com/kb/index.php?documentid=299&srch=Entourage

I have followed this setup religiously (as best I can being that it seems to
reflect an older version) and the sporadic connections continue.

What other info would you need? I can do screen shots or whatever will
help.

Thanks again...

Mark

I'm going to have to pass you on to other experts (MVP's or others) on this
newsgroup. I know nothing about Exchange usage. Sorry.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Re the sending issue quoted below--

The Send Link commands in Firefox and Safari call Entourage here with no
problem. The Safari one I had to install myself and I don't see a Send Page
command anywhere, so I'm not entirely sure what you are referring to,
exactly, but--

I suspect you may be running into this problem when you use Safari Menu,
Services> Mail > ?

That menu accesses some structure of the OS called Services, designed to let
apps interact more easily. Entourage is semi-plugged into Services, but
that menu command is not designed to call Entourage. The word "Mail" refers
to the program, not the act of sending something. That is a specific Service
that the app Mail provides.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Daiya, you're still on Mac OS X 10.3, if I remember correctly?

In 10.4, there's a new feature in Safari which allows you to send an entire
webpage as the body of an email message, and that feature requires the use
of Apple's Mail app. There's also a Send Link option, which works with any
email client.

 

[Mark R. Holbrook]

Alan and others...

Thanks for the help... It took some serious digging but I found out that my
provider has a VPN. When I installed that the connections improved to
almost 100%. I think it must have been some kind of validation issue rather
than an actual connection issue.

It's a shame that my provider doesn't support Macs... All of this could have
been solved much quicker.

I have set all of my apps to point to Entourage as the default mailer.
Still once in a while Mail.app will pop up. I can live with that.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I have set all of my apps to point to Entourage as the default mailer.
Still once in a while Mail.app will pop up. I can live with that.

Try repairing Permissions on the Mac (through Dick Utility). It might
help,

Corentin

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Ah....thanks, Michel. Yes, still sticking with Panther here.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Try repairing Permissions on the Mac (through Dick Utility). It might
help,

Corentin

Call me childish and immature, but your spelling of "Disk Utility" made me
laugh...

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

Call me childish and immature, but your spelling of "Disk Utility" made me
laugh...

Always glad to oblige...

You're childish and immature.

;-)

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Call me childish and immature, but your spelling of "Disk Utility" made me
laugh...

Yeah... Unfortunately, spell checkers don't pick up these typos :-\

Corentin