B
Bruce McLaughlin
It's disappointing that direct sync to Palm is no longer supported in
Entourage 2008. I was using a product called MobileSync which utilized the
Palm sync abilities in earlier versions of Entourage. Now I must use Apple's
iSync to sync my Sony-Ericsson phone instead of MobileSync. Here are a few
observations.
- Having Entourage categories sync to groups in Apple's address book would
be very helpful. That way I could open iSync an tell it to only sync my
contacts in the Cell Phone category.
There are workarounds to do this, but they are clumsy and time consuming. I
type CPCP in the comments of contacts I want on my cell phone. I have a
smart group in Apple's Address book that includes only contacts with CPCP in
the comments. Apple's iSync, however, does not see the smart group. So I
have a "dumb" group in Apple's address book which I periodically empty and
replace with the contents of the smart group. Like I said, clumsy and time
consuming. Can anybody improve on this workaround?
- What if I could tell Entourage to only sync Entourage contacts that are in
my Cell Phone category? I could then tell iSync to sync all of my contacts
because Apple's Address Book would only contain the contacts from my
Entourage Cell Phone category. This would work for me but perhaps not for
others. If someone used Apple's Address Book for any purpose other then
mobile syncing then this wouldn't work. Is syncing of only one category from
Entourage scriptable?
- Calendar syncing is not a big problem for me personally. I can sync my
Entourage calendar with my phone via iSync. Currently I don't need my
Entourage calendar to sync with google. But I can understand the desire for
Entourage to be able to pick up more than one calendar from iCal. The
question I have about that is how do you distinguish the multiple calendars
from iCal when you view them in Entourage. Do you give each calendar it's
own category? or it's own project? I don't know the answer.
As a Mac Consultant I can say with confidence that more and more people are
wanting to sync in more and more different ways. None of these sync issues
are going to go away. Instead, they are going to increase in complexity.
Entourage is a great tool by itself. I hope that it can do better at playing
well with others. By the way I have already submitted my suggestions to
Microsoft.
Entourage 2008. I was using a product called MobileSync which utilized the
Palm sync abilities in earlier versions of Entourage. Now I must use Apple's
iSync to sync my Sony-Ericsson phone instead of MobileSync. Here are a few
observations.
- Having Entourage categories sync to groups in Apple's address book would
be very helpful. That way I could open iSync an tell it to only sync my
contacts in the Cell Phone category.
There are workarounds to do this, but they are clumsy and time consuming. I
type CPCP in the comments of contacts I want on my cell phone. I have a
smart group in Apple's Address book that includes only contacts with CPCP in
the comments. Apple's iSync, however, does not see the smart group. So I
have a "dumb" group in Apple's address book which I periodically empty and
replace with the contents of the smart group. Like I said, clumsy and time
consuming. Can anybody improve on this workaround?
- What if I could tell Entourage to only sync Entourage contacts that are in
my Cell Phone category? I could then tell iSync to sync all of my contacts
because Apple's Address Book would only contain the contacts from my
Entourage Cell Phone category. This would work for me but perhaps not for
others. If someone used Apple's Address Book for any purpose other then
mobile syncing then this wouldn't work. Is syncing of only one category from
Entourage scriptable?
- Calendar syncing is not a big problem for me personally. I can sync my
Entourage calendar with my phone via iSync. Currently I don't need my
Entourage calendar to sync with google. But I can understand the desire for
Entourage to be able to pick up more than one calendar from iCal. The
question I have about that is how do you distinguish the multiple calendars
from iCal when you view them in Entourage. Do you give each calendar it's
own category? or it's own project? I don't know the answer.
As a Mac Consultant I can say with confidence that more and more people are
wanting to sync in more and more different ways. None of these sync issues
are going to go away. Instead, they are going to increase in complexity.
Entourage is a great tool by itself. I hope that it can do better at playing
well with others. By the way I have already submitted my suggestions to
Microsoft.