Sync services and Address Book

[Rich Ramos]

I was under the impression that I was supposed to have a group in Address
Book called Entourage that held all contacts that would be sync'ed between
the Entourage and Sync Services. I'm under that impression for 2 reasons:

1) because of the way iCal creates a specific calendar for "Entourage" and
2) from this blog entry that the same thing was supposed to happen in AB:
http://homepage.mac.com/barryw/weblog/weblog.html

Is this not true?

I have just installed the update today and after many problems I finally got
sync'ing working between Entourage and Sync Services but there is no Group
in Address Book with my contacts, ALL contacts are being sync'ed between the
two. So I'm wondering if there if there is still something screwed up or
not.

When I manually created a Group called "Entourage" in AB, the first time
sync'ing seemed to stop happening all together. Then I deleted and re-added
and this time nothing special seems to happen with that group, ie. Nothing
gets added to it automatically.

-Rich

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi Rich,

Entourage accesses the same data as Address Book. Calendar synchronisation
is a different case, largely because of the different philosophies adopted
by Apple and Microsoft. Apple uses multiple calendars in iCal, while
Microsoft uses one single calendar in Entourage alongside the ability to
assign events to different categories. Microsoft decided to avoid the
calendar/category confusion by allowing Entourage to synchronise to one iCal
calendar only, the one named "Entourage". Once the distinction between these
two approaches is clear, it should be easier to understand why there is no
need to have a separate group in Address Book; groups in Address Book do not
represent different address books, like the calendars in iCal, but are only
"views" which use the main address book data. There is only one data source,
so Entourage and Address Book can easily share the entirety of their
contacts.

I'm not sure if this explanation makes sense; it's quite confusing, I admit,
and there are things which might seem obvious to me but not so to others, so
if there are any further questions, do not hesitate to post back. Just to
summarise what I've said: Address Book and Entourage use the same set of
contacts, but because Entourage only uses one calendar, it can only sync to
one calendar in iCal.

I was under the impression that I was supposed to have a group in Address
Book called Entourage that held all contacts that would be sync'ed between
the Entourage and Sync Services. I'm under that impression for 2 reasons:

1) because of the way iCal creates a specific calendar for "Entourage" and
2) from this blog entry that the same thing was supposed to happen in AB:
http://homepage.mac.com/barryw/weblog/weblog.html

Is this not true?

I have just installed the update today and after many problems I finally got
sync'ing working between Entourage and Sync Services but there is no Group
in Address Book with my contacts, ALL contacts are being sync'ed between the
two. So I'm wondering if there if there is still something screwed up or
not.

When I manually created a Group called "Entourage" in AB, the first time
sync'ing seemed to stop happening all together. Then I deleted and re-added
and this time nothing special seems to happen with that group, ie. Nothing
gets added to it automatically.

-Rich

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Word & Entourage)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[Rich Ramos]

So the executive summary is that this statement from the blog is incorrect:

http://homepage.mac.com/barryw/weblog/weblog.html
"... in iCal and all Entourage contacts will go into a single Address Book
group called 'Entourage'."

I like the way iCal works and I would actually prefer Address Book to work
this way too, as I do NOT want ALL my contacts from Address Book in
Entourage, I only want a subset. I only use Entourage for work related
things where as I use Address Book for all my contacts personal and
business, so the functionality as described in the Blog would be nice, but
doesn't sound possible.

-Rich

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

So the executive summary is that this statement from the blog is incorrect:

http://homepage.mac.com/barryw/weblog/weblog.html
"... in iCal and all Entourage contacts will go into a single Address Book
group called 'Entourage'."

Well, Barry should correct that... As Michel mentioned, it is true for
iCal but not for the address book.

Corentin

 

[Jeremy Reichman]

Entourage accesses the same data as Address Book. Calendar synchronisation
is a different case, largely because of the different philosophies adopted
by Apple and Microsoft. Apple uses multiple calendars in iCal, while
Microsoft uses one single calendar in Entourage alongside the ability to
assign events to different categories. Microsoft decided to avoid the
calendar/category confusion by allowing Entourage to synchronise to one iCal
calendar only, the one named "Entourage". Once the distinction between these
two approaches is clear, it should be easier to understand why there is no
need to have a separate group in Address Book; groups in Address Book do not
represent different address books, like the calendars in iCal, but are only
"views" which use the main address book data. There is only one data source,
so Entourage and Address Book can easily share the entirety of their
contacts.

I'm not sure if this explanation makes sense; it's quite confusing, I admit,
and there are things which might seem obvious to me but not so to others, so
if there are any further questions, do not hesitate to post back. Just to
summarise what I've said: Address Book and Entourage use the same set of
contacts, but because Entourage only uses one calendar, it can only sync to
one calendar in iCal.

Well, Entourage does have multiple calendars, as well, in addition to the
category support. You can have a local calendar, one or more Exchange
calendars, calendars in Exchange Public Folders, etc. It's enough to muddy
the waters just a _bit_ more.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Oh, yes, it's definitely more complicated when you have more than one
calendar. However, the presence of multiple calendars does not change
Entourage's approach to calendars in general: they are still seen as
separate, since you cannot for instance view your local calendar and your
Exchange calendar(s) inside one and the same calendar window, as far as I
know. Regarding the Sync Services, you can only synchronise either the local
or the Exchange calendar; right now, it is not possible to synchronise both
at the same time. So, obscure as it may sound, Entourage can have multiple
calendars, but it still treats them as separate entities.

Well, Entourage does have multiple calendars, as well, in addition to the
category support. You can have a local calendar, one or more Exchange
calendars, calendars in Exchange Public Folders, etc. It's enough to muddy
the waters just a _bit_ more.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***