H
Henry Seiden
Hi All,
Sharing has been a bug-a-boo for me since I began with Entourage. Maybe it's
me.
Projects keep contacts, appointments, tasks and other files current,
synchronized you might say, between two networked machines- one a desktop
and the other a laptop. So I share a lot of info. I find it handier that one
large common database because I want a subset of data on my laptop. Plus the
syncing of data using a PDA is ridiculous! I won't go further into all the
reasons to use Projects. They really are handy, though the implementation by
M$ leaves a lot to be desired.
I sync my desktop (only) with an Entourage conduit using Missing Sync for
Palm. This part is just mentioned for completeness and does not seem to be
part of the Sharing equation. I find the Entourage way powerful yet
difficult and without any kind of detail instruction, it's easily confusing.
If you want to learn about it and explore Projects in Entourage fully read
on. If you want to manage Projects, timelines, etc., then you're thinking of
something else- the Office program Project Manager from an entirely
different era at Microsoft.
Here's how I think Sharing really works. Please correct me and amplify on
this if you have other ideas, but keep in mind that this is based on only my
experiences using Entourage and lots of trial and error. The info from
Microsoft is way too confusing for me to understand.
It is assumed that the reader(s) already know the basics of using Entourage
to share Projects. If not you can look under the File Menu for the options
Share and Subscribe. Check the documentation (if you dare).
1. Sharing a project creates a new file in the folder you specify during the
creation "wizard". You can share contacts, tasks, files, and events. Some of
the items to share must be individually (or by grouping) selected even
though the wizard says otherwise.
2. If you pick the Microsoft User Documents(MUD) folder on a root server
machine for this sharing and the folder name of the Shared information
exists, then a number will be appended, like so- 'Personal Contacts[2]'. The
original folder and all the info in it (an .rge file and one other) is kept
untouched. Therefore the number of folders in MUD can grow.
3. If you choose a MUD in your User Folder for sharing Project, you get
warnings from the wizard about how shared projects there (in User Folders'
MUD) won't be visible to others on the network. This may be a bogus warning
depending on how your server is configured. Regardless of where the shared
information is, Entourage is not smart enough to always find the shared
files so you can do it by discovering the shared drive manually. This is
true after installing OS updates like 10.1.4.
4. There is a time delay between Entourage synchronizing a project and it's
being open.
5. More than one user cannot _Share_ a set of contacts, tasks,
schedule/calendar, etc. Microsoft does say (and indeed this is obvious when
you think about it) that items (selected to be) shared get copied to the
share destination. What they don't say is that when you _Subscribe_ to a
folder, your local items that are selected to be shared get appended to the
folder. And further, they don't say (BUT IT'S TRUE) that if you want to see
the shared folder from another user with that info in it, you must Subscribe
to it.
6. The categories (even if they match) in contacts, and certain other
information doesn't move over to the shared folders either by Sharing or
Subscribing.
7. When sharing projects, you will get constant disk activity while the
shares are updating. There will be screens popping up showing this activity,
don't be alarmed. If in fact that doesn't happen, you'd better close and
reopen Entourage real soon.
What about Subscribing? Here's the deal with that.
1. If you don't Share your data and want to see other's (whether it's your
own laptop) data combined with the info on your local machine, you must
Subscribe to common data file. For instance, (in Entourage terminology) I
have a calendar of personal events, maybe some contacts too, that I want to
Share from my laptop to the desktop Entourage at work, yet I want to keep
them separate from my work schedule and contacts. To do this you use
subscribe and select the .rge file in the Subscribe menu 'wizard'.
2. Share them as a Project on the laptop and copy to the desktop server
location. Then subscribe to the shared file. That's the method I use. I must
subscribe to the correct file that was stored complete with appended number.
This can be a great source of confusion if you don't keep multiple names
weeded out. Entourage doesn't do it for you!
3. Those shared items eventually show up as the project on my desktop
version of Entourage. Any changes made get reflected to the shared file.
Sharing has been a bug-a-boo for me since I began with Entourage. Maybe it's
me.
Projects keep contacts, appointments, tasks and other files current,
synchronized you might say, between two networked machines- one a desktop
and the other a laptop. So I share a lot of info. I find it handier that one
large common database because I want a subset of data on my laptop. Plus the
syncing of data using a PDA is ridiculous! I won't go further into all the
reasons to use Projects. They really are handy, though the implementation by
M$ leaves a lot to be desired.
I sync my desktop (only) with an Entourage conduit using Missing Sync for
Palm. This part is just mentioned for completeness and does not seem to be
part of the Sharing equation. I find the Entourage way powerful yet
difficult and without any kind of detail instruction, it's easily confusing.
If you want to learn about it and explore Projects in Entourage fully read
on. If you want to manage Projects, timelines, etc., then you're thinking of
something else- the Office program Project Manager from an entirely
different era at Microsoft.
Here's how I think Sharing really works. Please correct me and amplify on
this if you have other ideas, but keep in mind that this is based on only my
experiences using Entourage and lots of trial and error. The info from
Microsoft is way too confusing for me to understand.
It is assumed that the reader(s) already know the basics of using Entourage
to share Projects. If not you can look under the File Menu for the options
Share and Subscribe. Check the documentation (if you dare).
1. Sharing a project creates a new file in the folder you specify during the
creation "wizard". You can share contacts, tasks, files, and events. Some of
the items to share must be individually (or by grouping) selected even
though the wizard says otherwise.
2. If you pick the Microsoft User Documents(MUD) folder on a root server
machine for this sharing and the folder name of the Shared information
exists, then a number will be appended, like so- 'Personal Contacts[2]'. The
original folder and all the info in it (an .rge file and one other) is kept
untouched. Therefore the number of folders in MUD can grow.
3. If you choose a MUD in your User Folder for sharing Project, you get
warnings from the wizard about how shared projects there (in User Folders'
MUD) won't be visible to others on the network. This may be a bogus warning
depending on how your server is configured. Regardless of where the shared
information is, Entourage is not smart enough to always find the shared
files so you can do it by discovering the shared drive manually. This is
true after installing OS updates like 10.1.4.
4. There is a time delay between Entourage synchronizing a project and it's
being open.
5. More than one user cannot _Share_ a set of contacts, tasks,
schedule/calendar, etc. Microsoft does say (and indeed this is obvious when
you think about it) that items (selected to be) shared get copied to the
share destination. What they don't say is that when you _Subscribe_ to a
folder, your local items that are selected to be shared get appended to the
folder. And further, they don't say (BUT IT'S TRUE) that if you want to see
the shared folder from another user with that info in it, you must Subscribe
to it.
6. The categories (even if they match) in contacts, and certain other
information doesn't move over to the shared folders either by Sharing or
Subscribing.
7. When sharing projects, you will get constant disk activity while the
shares are updating. There will be screens popping up showing this activity,
don't be alarmed. If in fact that doesn't happen, you'd better close and
reopen Entourage real soon.
What about Subscribing? Here's the deal with that.
1. If you don't Share your data and want to see other's (whether it's your
own laptop) data combined with the info on your local machine, you must
Subscribe to common data file. For instance, (in Entourage terminology) I
have a calendar of personal events, maybe some contacts too, that I want to
Share from my laptop to the desktop Entourage at work, yet I want to keep
them separate from my work schedule and contacts. To do this you use
subscribe and select the .rge file in the Subscribe menu 'wizard'.
2. Share them as a Project on the laptop and copy to the desktop server
location. Then subscribe to the shared file. That's the method I use. I must
subscribe to the correct file that was stored complete with appended number.
This can be a great source of confusion if you don't keep multiple names
weeded out. Entourage doesn't do it for you!
3. Those shared items eventually show up as the project on my desktop
version of Entourage. Any changes made get reflected to the shared file.