Why does Entourage have to suck so bad compared to Outlook?

[corumba]

I'm a happy MAC user who's happily escaped the clutches of Windows. So I was dismayed to find that Microsoft has put so little effort into making Entourage a world class app. This is an email that I sent, following up on a support call. If anybody agrees, or has solutions, let me know.

Friends,

I was pleased with the support from Jim. He suggested that I give you some feedback on Entourage, for features that should be built.

* word processing support. Outlook allows one to use Word for composing emails. This gave me more functions than Entorage's limited word processor. There are numerous features that are silly not to include.
* forwarding HTML emails. This was the reason for my original call. The only way to forward an HTML heavy email and have it come out correctly is to do it as an attachment. this is also silly. With Outlook, this is not a problem. Entourage is years behind the market. I just spent a fair amount on Office 2008 for Mac and was surprised to find that Entourage had hardly evolved since the 2004 version. I would presume that Microsoft understands how to forward an email with HTML in it.
* Zooming. Using Word as a word processor in Outlook allows one to zoom in. In Entourage, the only way to do this is change the font, or use the MAC zooming feature. this is silly, since the other Office for MAC apps like Word, ppt, etc allow zooming.
* Email receipts. the method for setting up email receipts within the account edit menu is way too complex for the average user, compared to Outlook
* Conversation sorting. Outlook allows one to sort emails by conversations. Again, Entourage falls short.
* Pushing escape button to close an email: not present in Entourage
* Copy and paste one email into another as an attachment: not present in Entourage

this list goes on and on. It would be nice if Microsoft made a real commitment to supporting collaboration software for MAC, which, just by looking at Entorage 2008 that apparently took 4 years to produce. is not the case.

Thanks,

Bill Scott

 

[Kerry]

I'm a happy MAC user who's happily escaped the clutches of Windows. So I was dismayed to find that Microsoft has put so little effort into making Entourage a world class app. This is an email that I sent, following up on a support call. If anybody agrees, or has solutions, let me know.

Friends,

I was pleased with the support from Jim. He suggested that I give you somefeedback on Entourage, for features that should be built.

* word processing support. Outlook allows one to use Word for composing emails. This gave me more functions than Entorage's limited word processor. There are numerous features that are silly not to include.
    * forwarding HTML emails. This was the reason for my original call.. The only way to forward an HTML heavy email and have it come out correctlyis to do it as an attachment. this is also silly. With Outlook, this is nota problem. Entourage is years behind the market. I just spent a fair amounton Office 2008 for Mac and was surprised to find that Entourage had hardly evolved since the 2004 version. I would presume that Microsoft understands how to forward an email with HTML in it.
    * Zooming. Using Word as a word processor in Outlook allows one tozoom in. In Entourage, the only way to do this is change the font, or use the MAC zooming feature. this is silly, since the other Office for MAC apps like Word, ppt, etc allow zooming.
    * Email receipts. the method for setting up email receipts within the account edit menu is way too complex for the average user, compared to Outlook
    * Conversation sorting. Outlook allows one to sort emails by conversations. Again, Entourage falls short.
    * Pushing escape button to close an email: not present in Entourage
    * Copy and paste one email into another as an attachment: not present in Entourage

this list goes on and on. It would be nice if Microsoft made a real commitment to supporting collaboration software for MAC, which, just by looking atEntorage 2008 that apparently took 4 years to produce. is not the case.

Thanks,

Bill Scott

Not only has Entourage evolved little since 2004, it has taken one
major step backward. Sync'g with the Palm handheld used to be a breeze
as they included a conduit. Now they are using Apple's sync services,
and its operation is very dicey at best and in some cases is downright
broken. So not only have we had little progress but we have taken a
major step backwards. Mobility is where everything is going and I
relied on ENT04 extensively to ensure that my handheld devices were
perfectly sync'd. Now, that's not the case. We're all anxiously
awaiting a fix but who knows when that's going to be as the problem
sounds complex. So for me and others, it has dramatically affected the
way I've worked for years now. I find it so hard to understand that if
Microsoft was going to take this strategic direction how it ever got
out the door in this condition (numerous faults it how it
synchronizes).

So I too was happy when I went back to the Mac in 2003 and happily
worked with it and my Microsoft software until now. So the things you
mention well who knows when that will happen as there is so much that
has to be done to get the current iteration of ENT08 up to snuff.
Otherwise, I like 2008 as it is zippier at a UI level (UB) and
searches are faster plus a few of the annoying bugs in 2004 are gone.
But to throw us back 10 years in terms of sync - well its a shocking.

 

[Juan I. Cahis]

I'm a happy MAC user who's happily escaped the clutches of Windows. So Iwas dismayed to find that Microsoft has put so little effort into makingEntourage a world class app. This is an email that I sent, following up on a support call. If anybody agrees, or has solutions, let me know.

Friends,

I was pleased with the support from Jim. He suggested that I give you some feedback on Entourage, for features that should be built.

* word processing support. Outlook allows one to use Word for composing emails. This gave me more functions than Entorage's limited word processor. There are numerous features that are silly not to include.
* forwarding HTML emails. This was the reason for my original call. The only way to forward an HTML heavy email and have it come out correctly is to do it as an attachment. this is also silly. With Outlook,this is not a problem. Entourage is years behind the market. I just spent a fair amount on Office 2008 for Mac and was surprised to find thatEntourage had hardly evolved since the 2004 version. I would presume that Microsoft understands how to forward an email with HTML in it.
* Zooming. Using Word as a word processor in Outlook allows one to zoom in. In Entourage, the only way to do this is change the font, or usethe MAC zooming feature. this is silly, since the other Office for MAC apps like Word, ppt, etc allow zooming.
* Email receipts. the method for setting up email receipts within the account edit menu is way too complex for the average user, compared to Outlook
* Conversation sorting. Outlook allows one to sort emails by conversations. Again, Entourage falls short.
* Pushing escape button to close an email: not present in Entourage
* Copy and paste one email into another as an attachment: not present in Entourage

this list goes on and on. It would be nice if Microsoft made a real commitment to supporting collaboration software for MAC, which, just by looking at Entorage 2008 that apparently took 4 years to produce. is not the case.

Thanks,

Bill Scott

But unbelievable, the synchronization with Microsoft Exchange works a
lot better in Entourage (2004 or 2008) than in Outlook 2003.

Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!