T
Tim Capps
A little over a year ago, I made the decision to switch from PCs to
Macs for my law practice. Everyone liked the the stability the new
computers brought. We were way ahead in things like producing
chaptered DVDs for trial. (Being able to go to exactly where you want
when it comes to video in a trial is wonderful.) Appleworks was okay,
Word and Excel were better. There was MYOB or Quicken to handle
accounting tasks. Things like Circus Ponies notebook and Omni
Outliner proved perfect for organizing information in cases.
There was one thing missing: group calendaring.
In the PC world, we had had it made. Time and Chaos, for instance, or
Agendus. Relatively cheap programs that were true groupware, stable,
easy to use.
So here we are, with brand-spanking new Macs, and asking the question:
how do we schedule various hearings, appointments, etc. for a couple
of lawyers plus assorted paralegals and clerks?
iCal? Pretty, but it lacks categories (which we use to be able to
tell what lawyer has responsibility for what event). No linking to
clients, either. Worse, when we tried it, every once in awhile,
appointments would just disappear. Plus, Address Book is entirely
separate, which doesn't help. Oh, and forget about automating any
documents.
Fine. There are all of, what... TWO groupware solutions for calendar
and contact management. Now Contact / Up to Date and Group Organizer.
We tried both. Bought multiple licenses for both. I can't imagine
NUTD being used to handle critical data. When it didn't just quit
right after making an entry, 75% of the COURT DATES and other
important stuff simply disappeared one day three months into using it.
Now, that might be a great program for people who really don't throw
a lot of critical data at it, but it wasn't great for us. It was a
disaster.
Group Organizer? Maybe, in some alternate universe, there are beings
that can solve the puzzles (i.e. "features") presented by Group
Organizer. However, in my office, when we need to sync a Palm or
consult a calender, we don't want to start a three-hour session of
Myst or some other puzzle-solving game. People hated it. You
couldn't sync a Palm without getting duplicates, triplicates,
quadruplicates.
Time and Chaos? Everyone loved it. It "just worked" (sound
familiar?) Agendus for Windows? It just worked with style. Oh, but
those don't run on Macs.
So what's left? Why, Entourage. I liked Entourage X a lot. In my
island universe, where I didn't have to share anything, and didn't
care about what anyone else was doing in my office, it was great. Oh,
but, unfortunately, I didn't live in that island universe. We are all
working on the same projects, or handling different things at the same
time, and I needed to know what was going on. Exchange support was
long-awaited, and finally came to Entourage X, and then after reading
what that really meant, NOT WORTH THE EFFORT was imprinted on my brain
in 100-foot high letters.
Finally, there was Entourage 2004. With "new and improved" Exchange
support. Well... turns out there is some mystery about that. The rep
at Microsoft that I spoke to on the phone said it was complete, "just
like Outlook." I had already read enough to be sceptical, so I was
upgraded to a "grace" technical support call. To be fair, the guy I
spoke to was very nice, and seemed more familiar with the product. He
said I could download Outlook 2001 for free, and use it to set up
something that would allow Exchange Server to display one calendar for
everyone, which could be viewed, written to, etc. Assuming this
complicated "solution" was indeed accurate, it was not only over my
head (an admitted small leap when it comes to Exchange 2003), but the
people who installed my network greeted my inquiries with blank
stares.
I guess it's my fault for (a) not being well-versed in Exchange 2003
as well as OS X, Office 2004 for Mac, and criminal procedure and (b)
living in southern Illinois, where Mac experts are a little thin on
the ground. But, unless I have misinterpreted everything I have read
about Entourage 2004, this program will STILL not give me the
functionality I need, and could obtain in my sleep for (God forgive
me) Windows XP. Even if I am entirely wrong, and Entourage 2004 will
allow all of us to share calendars and contacts, the functionality is
STILL inaccessible unless you have access to people who are experts in
both Exchange 2003 and Entourage 2004 (and, if the Microsoft guy was
to be believed, Outlook 2001 as well).
So the utility to "small businesses" of Macs remains a cruel joke
until someone produces a stable, easy-to-use program that allows a
handful of people in a single organization to reliably manage a shared
calendar, shared contacts, and projects. Until then, as much as I
hate to say it, Macs should be relegated to the graphics department,
and allow PCs to handle the serious work of making the trains run on
time.
I love my Macs. That's why we switched. I just feel that I -- AND MY
BELOVED MACS -- have been let down by software producers who cant' be
bothered with writing programs that are worthy of the platform and
fulfill the actual needs of real businesses. Simple question: does
the Entourage+Exchange combo offer the same features and useability of
what is available on the PC? If the answer is "no," how are small
businesses supposed to react? Does anyone really think it is okay to
provide less usability for Macs because Mac-users are all a bunch of
graphic artists who don't live in the real world, or what?
So here I am, contemplating exiling my Macs to some sort of
graphic-arts ghetto, and bringing in PCs to handle the real work of
running a business. That's a shame.
Macs for my law practice. Everyone liked the the stability the new
computers brought. We were way ahead in things like producing
chaptered DVDs for trial. (Being able to go to exactly where you want
when it comes to video in a trial is wonderful.) Appleworks was okay,
Word and Excel were better. There was MYOB or Quicken to handle
accounting tasks. Things like Circus Ponies notebook and Omni
Outliner proved perfect for organizing information in cases.
There was one thing missing: group calendaring.
In the PC world, we had had it made. Time and Chaos, for instance, or
Agendus. Relatively cheap programs that were true groupware, stable,
easy to use.
So here we are, with brand-spanking new Macs, and asking the question:
how do we schedule various hearings, appointments, etc. for a couple
of lawyers plus assorted paralegals and clerks?
iCal? Pretty, but it lacks categories (which we use to be able to
tell what lawyer has responsibility for what event). No linking to
clients, either. Worse, when we tried it, every once in awhile,
appointments would just disappear. Plus, Address Book is entirely
separate, which doesn't help. Oh, and forget about automating any
documents.
Fine. There are all of, what... TWO groupware solutions for calendar
and contact management. Now Contact / Up to Date and Group Organizer.
We tried both. Bought multiple licenses for both. I can't imagine
NUTD being used to handle critical data. When it didn't just quit
right after making an entry, 75% of the COURT DATES and other
important stuff simply disappeared one day three months into using it.
Now, that might be a great program for people who really don't throw
a lot of critical data at it, but it wasn't great for us. It was a
disaster.
Group Organizer? Maybe, in some alternate universe, there are beings
that can solve the puzzles (i.e. "features") presented by Group
Organizer. However, in my office, when we need to sync a Palm or
consult a calender, we don't want to start a three-hour session of
Myst or some other puzzle-solving game. People hated it. You
couldn't sync a Palm without getting duplicates, triplicates,
quadruplicates.
Time and Chaos? Everyone loved it. It "just worked" (sound
familiar?) Agendus for Windows? It just worked with style. Oh, but
those don't run on Macs.
So what's left? Why, Entourage. I liked Entourage X a lot. In my
island universe, where I didn't have to share anything, and didn't
care about what anyone else was doing in my office, it was great. Oh,
but, unfortunately, I didn't live in that island universe. We are all
working on the same projects, or handling different things at the same
time, and I needed to know what was going on. Exchange support was
long-awaited, and finally came to Entourage X, and then after reading
what that really meant, NOT WORTH THE EFFORT was imprinted on my brain
in 100-foot high letters.
Finally, there was Entourage 2004. With "new and improved" Exchange
support. Well... turns out there is some mystery about that. The rep
at Microsoft that I spoke to on the phone said it was complete, "just
like Outlook." I had already read enough to be sceptical, so I was
upgraded to a "grace" technical support call. To be fair, the guy I
spoke to was very nice, and seemed more familiar with the product. He
said I could download Outlook 2001 for free, and use it to set up
something that would allow Exchange Server to display one calendar for
everyone, which could be viewed, written to, etc. Assuming this
complicated "solution" was indeed accurate, it was not only over my
head (an admitted small leap when it comes to Exchange 2003), but the
people who installed my network greeted my inquiries with blank
stares.
I guess it's my fault for (a) not being well-versed in Exchange 2003
as well as OS X, Office 2004 for Mac, and criminal procedure and (b)
living in southern Illinois, where Mac experts are a little thin on
the ground. But, unless I have misinterpreted everything I have read
about Entourage 2004, this program will STILL not give me the
functionality I need, and could obtain in my sleep for (God forgive
me) Windows XP. Even if I am entirely wrong, and Entourage 2004 will
allow all of us to share calendars and contacts, the functionality is
STILL inaccessible unless you have access to people who are experts in
both Exchange 2003 and Entourage 2004 (and, if the Microsoft guy was
to be believed, Outlook 2001 as well).
So the utility to "small businesses" of Macs remains a cruel joke
until someone produces a stable, easy-to-use program that allows a
handful of people in a single organization to reliably manage a shared
calendar, shared contacts, and projects. Until then, as much as I
hate to say it, Macs should be relegated to the graphics department,
and allow PCs to handle the serious work of making the trains run on
time.
I love my Macs. That's why we switched. I just feel that I -- AND MY
BELOVED MACS -- have been let down by software producers who cant' be
bothered with writing programs that are worthy of the platform and
fulfill the actual needs of real businesses. Simple question: does
the Entourage+Exchange combo offer the same features and useability of
what is available on the PC? If the answer is "no," how are small
businesses supposed to react? Does anyone really think it is okay to
provide less usability for Macs because Mac-users are all a bunch of
graphic artists who don't live in the real world, or what?
So here I am, contemplating exiling my Macs to some sort of
graphic-arts ghetto, and bringing in PCs to handle the real work of
running a business. That's a shame.