D
David Blaymires
To start off, I want to say that I think that Entourage X 10.1.4 is a HUGE
step up from Outlook 2001 in many ways. Just being able to work natively in
MacOS X is big. Better yet is being able to synch with my Palm V in less
than a minute, having multiple accounts (POP, IMAP, etc) all in one,
searching that allows you to find things easily, Views (RIPPER when you know
how to use them).
However, getting this to work against our Exchange Server has not been fun.
I have posted a few times about the issues that we have been having. In
particular, Entourage has not handled old data from my Exchange account at
all well. It would crash all the time - the dreaded beach ball... Issue 1,
2 and 3 cover what we have found to be the problem, and how we got around
it.
Issue 1 - Handling old data
===========================
We had previously created a new account and exported all information out of
the old account into the new account, but still we ended up with Entourage
crashing all the time. Entourage was crashing so often that in desperation
we created a new account in Active Directory, and did not import anything
into it. That pretty much cured the problem, but not completely. Read on
for issue number 2.
A few notes about Old Data and our Exchange server:
---------------------------------------------------
We had migrated from an Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 in May 2003.
We also changed our domain name at this time, so that all users ended up
with a new email address. As all users would have incoming mail for some
time we also created their old email address in their Active Directory
account. We exported all information out of the old Exchange 5.5 accounts,
and imported it into the Exchange 2000 accounts.
Outlook 2001 had no problems handling most things, except calendar events
that had me as the organiser using my old account/email address - we could
not move or modify those in any way so we had to trash and create new ones.
Issue 2 - Recurring meetings and appointments
=============================================
Creating a new account basically cured the continuous crashing problem, but
as soon as we started using recurring meetings and appointments, the damn
beach ball was back. So we have stopped using those.
A Note about crashes
++++++++++++++++++++
We still get crashes occasionally, but we can fix this by "resetting the
synchronisation" in the Exchange Account under the Advance Tab. The process
we have to follow is:
1. When you get the dreaded beach ball, wait for at least one minute. If
it doesn't clear by then, click and hold down your mouse on the Entourage
icon in the Dock, and check what it says in the menu that pops up. If it
says "Application not responding" select Force Quit.
2. Open Entourage again, and immediately select Work Offline under the File
menu. Quit out of Entourage immediately, else you will crash again.
3. Open Entourage, under the Tools menu, select Accounts. Open your
Exchange Account, and under the Advanced tab, select "Reset
Synchronization". Click on OK.
4. Under the File menu, select Work Offline (it will have a tick against
it, selecting it will remove the tick and have you working online again).
Issue 3 - Recurring Birthdays, public holidays etc
=================================================
Entourage hated these - I would end up with 24,000 public holidays, which
was great if I could take them... Had to trash everything like this from my
account, but still had to set up a new account to get any form of stability.
Issue 4 - when not connected to the Exchange Server, halt Send/receive on
the Exchange Account
============================================================================
I have a number of POP accounts, and I work from home a lot. I have a G4
PowerBook so everything goes with me. I only have one identity. When I'm
online at home, my Send/Receive schedule is always trying to connect to the
Exchange Server even though I am not connected to the office network. I can
be connected if I create a VPN connection to the office, but mostly I'm not
on the VPN. I would LOVE Entourage to recognise that I am not connected to
the Exchange server and ask if I want to suspend send/receive for the
Exchange account until I am back in that environment.
Issue 5 - Public Address and Calendar Folders
=============================================
These are used a lot here, and in just about every other corporate
environment that I have seen. This needs to be added to the feature set of
Entourage.
Issue 6 - Access to other user's data (inboxes, calendars, etc)
===============================================================
Heavily used here, and elsewhere. When someone is out, sick or on holidays,
other users are charged with checking that person's inbox, rescheduling
meetings, answering email on their behalf. Critical function.
I hope someone benefits from our experience, and I hope someone from
Microsoft is listening. Yes, I have also submitted these to the Mactopia
website.
step up from Outlook 2001 in many ways. Just being able to work natively in
MacOS X is big. Better yet is being able to synch with my Palm V in less
than a minute, having multiple accounts (POP, IMAP, etc) all in one,
searching that allows you to find things easily, Views (RIPPER when you know
how to use them).
However, getting this to work against our Exchange Server has not been fun.
I have posted a few times about the issues that we have been having. In
particular, Entourage has not handled old data from my Exchange account at
all well. It would crash all the time - the dreaded beach ball... Issue 1,
2 and 3 cover what we have found to be the problem, and how we got around
it.
Issue 1 - Handling old data
===========================
We had previously created a new account and exported all information out of
the old account into the new account, but still we ended up with Entourage
crashing all the time. Entourage was crashing so often that in desperation
we created a new account in Active Directory, and did not import anything
into it. That pretty much cured the problem, but not completely. Read on
for issue number 2.
A few notes about Old Data and our Exchange server:
---------------------------------------------------
We had migrated from an Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 in May 2003.
We also changed our domain name at this time, so that all users ended up
with a new email address. As all users would have incoming mail for some
time we also created their old email address in their Active Directory
account. We exported all information out of the old Exchange 5.5 accounts,
and imported it into the Exchange 2000 accounts.
Outlook 2001 had no problems handling most things, except calendar events
that had me as the organiser using my old account/email address - we could
not move or modify those in any way so we had to trash and create new ones.
Issue 2 - Recurring meetings and appointments
=============================================
Creating a new account basically cured the continuous crashing problem, but
as soon as we started using recurring meetings and appointments, the damn
beach ball was back. So we have stopped using those.
A Note about crashes
++++++++++++++++++++
We still get crashes occasionally, but we can fix this by "resetting the
synchronisation" in the Exchange Account under the Advance Tab. The process
we have to follow is:
1. When you get the dreaded beach ball, wait for at least one minute. If
it doesn't clear by then, click and hold down your mouse on the Entourage
icon in the Dock, and check what it says in the menu that pops up. If it
says "Application not responding" select Force Quit.
2. Open Entourage again, and immediately select Work Offline under the File
menu. Quit out of Entourage immediately, else you will crash again.
3. Open Entourage, under the Tools menu, select Accounts. Open your
Exchange Account, and under the Advanced tab, select "Reset
Synchronization". Click on OK.
4. Under the File menu, select Work Offline (it will have a tick against
it, selecting it will remove the tick and have you working online again).
Issue 3 - Recurring Birthdays, public holidays etc
=================================================
Entourage hated these - I would end up with 24,000 public holidays, which
was great if I could take them... Had to trash everything like this from my
account, but still had to set up a new account to get any form of stability.
Issue 4 - when not connected to the Exchange Server, halt Send/receive on
the Exchange Account
============================================================================
I have a number of POP accounts, and I work from home a lot. I have a G4
PowerBook so everything goes with me. I only have one identity. When I'm
online at home, my Send/Receive schedule is always trying to connect to the
Exchange Server even though I am not connected to the office network. I can
be connected if I create a VPN connection to the office, but mostly I'm not
on the VPN. I would LOVE Entourage to recognise that I am not connected to
the Exchange server and ask if I want to suspend send/receive for the
Exchange account until I am back in that environment.
Issue 5 - Public Address and Calendar Folders
=============================================
These are used a lot here, and in just about every other corporate
environment that I have seen. This needs to be added to the feature set of
Entourage.
Issue 6 - Access to other user's data (inboxes, calendars, etc)
===============================================================
Heavily used here, and elsewhere. When someone is out, sick or on holidays,
other users are charged with checking that person's inbox, rescheduling
meetings, answering email on their behalf. Critical function.
I hope someone benefits from our experience, and I hope someone from
Microsoft is listening. Yes, I have also submitted these to the Mactopia
website.