New Entourage any good?

[John Wolf]

I am using Entourage 2004. It works for me. What is better about the latest
version? I know its better, but is it MUCH better?
--
The Bible Way to Salvation is to realize that no one is good,(Rm 3:10) you
are a sinner, (Rm 3:23) God has a price on sin, (Rm 6:23) and that price is
death in Hell forever (Isa 33:14). But you can be saved by believing that
Christ died for you, (Rm 5:8) and you must call upon his name and ask for
forgiveness (Rm 10:9-13). Will you call upon him today?

--Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. Please come into my heart and save
my soul from Hell. I'm trusting You, and You alone, to take me to Heaven
when I die. Thank you for saving me, Jesus. In your matchless name Amen.--

 

[Kurt]

I am using Entourage 2004. It works for me. What is better about the latest
version? I know its better, but is it MUCH better?

No compelling reason for me to upgrade Office 2004 for a while.
Truly nothing most people really need.
You can get a free converter for those .docx Word files and all is good.

 

[William Smith [MVP]]

I am using Entourage 2004. It works for me. What is better about the
latest version? I know its better, but is it MUCH better?

This depends on what you like out of an application.

While Entourage 2008's functionality remains mostly the same, it does
have a lot more of the Mac OS X interface than Entourage 2004. It has
customizable tool bars, a Favorites bar and much improved/faster Search.
If you're an Exchange user then you probably want to upgrade because it
has support specific for Exchange Server 2007.

Aside from better usability features, you may want to upgrade so that
you continue to receive support updates from Microsoft. Office 2004 has
a life-cycle of five years. This was published on Microsoft's website
when Office 2004 was released. That life-cycle is slated to end October
2009. Unless Microsoft chooses to extend it, you will receive no more
updates for Office 2004. No security updates, no Daylight Saving
updates, etc.

Should you decide not to upgrade, Entourage and the rest of Office will
continue to work. You'll just be on your own for support with these
forums as your only option to ask questions and receive answers.

Hope this helps!

--

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>

 

[Ed Kimball]

This depends on what you like out of an application.

While Entourage 2008's functionality remains mostly the same, it does
have a lot more of the Mac OS X interface than Entourage 2004. It has
customizable tool bars, a Favorites bar and much improved/faster Search.
If you're an Exchange user then you probably want to upgrade because it
has support specific for Exchange Server 2007.

Aside from better usability features, you may want to upgrade so that
you continue to receive support updates from Microsoft. Office 2004 has
a life-cycle of five years. This was published on Microsoft's website
when Office 2004 was released. That life-cycle is slated to end October
2009. Unless Microsoft chooses to extend it, you will receive no more
updates for Office 2004. No security updates, no Daylight Saving
updates, etc.

Should you decide not to upgrade, Entourage and the rest of Office will
continue to work. You'll just be on your own for support with these
forums as your only option to ask questions and receive answers.

Hope this helps!

What Bill says is true, but there is one other thing to watch out for. If
you are using VBA macros in Word or Excel, those will NO LONGER work in
Office 2008. That's my main reason for sticking with Office 2004, support or
no support.

 

[Diane Ross]

I know its better, but is it MUCH better?

Randy Singer posted this on the Mac-L list recently:

<http://lists.listmoms.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?sub=950106&id=401083267>

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:09:20 -0700
Author: "Randy B. Singer"
Subject: Re: Office 2008

What is the advantage of upgrading to 2008, if they are planning on
bringing
VBA back in 2010? Is there something I am missing - more along if
not broke
don't fix it??

I rarely use any other component of Office other than Word, so my
comments are based on this.

I probably wouldn't have switched from Office v.X if I hadn't gotten
a great deal on Office 2008, as Word v.X was still working great.

That said, Word 2008 has some nice advantages over previous
versions. The biggest one is speed. Word 2008 is fully native.

The second is compatibility. Word 2008 is 100% compatible with the
new Microsoft XML-based file formats...no add-ons required. (You can
still open and save to the old file formats if you prefer.)

The third is the improved interface. I follow the blogs of the folks
in the Microsoft Mac Business Unit, and I know that they took all of
the complaints of Mac users about Word's interface to heart. They
went out of their way to make it as easy as possible to find
features, and to reverse actions or turn off features if you don't
like them. Compare Word 2008's interface and Word 2007 for Win's,
and you will see that the Mac version has a different, and much
better interface.

Finally, not everyone needs Visual Basic. In fact, of the large
number of Word users I know, just about none use VB. You can still
do Macros in Office 2008, but they need to be based in AppleScript or
Automator. Even my favorite Word add-on, MacSimplePrompter, was
ported from VB to AppleScript.

So, the advantage is that you get to use a better, faster, nicer,
more compatible application for the next two years...or more (MS is
known for slipped release dates.) None of that is critical, but it
*is* very nice.

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
___________________________________________

 

[Diane Ross]

I know its better, but is it MUCH better?

The Spotlight search alone makes it a worthwhile upgrade.

No one can really make that decision for you since we all have different
needs and expectations. I suggest you download the try & buy and see for
yourself.

If you don't need Exchange you can get Office 2008 very reasonably. $111.49

<http://tinyurl.com/4ydu2u>