Wow - thanks for asking and providing the answer. I was so sure that this would be addressed in v2008 that I was going to get it without even asking the question. Thanks - looks like it might finally be worth dumping Entourage for the Mac apps. My upgrading was based solely on the Entourage element getting significant upgrade.
yeah I don't get it either. 4 years in development with tasks and categories being constant requests, you'd think they would have been implemented. Figures..
I'm waiting for our site license to arrive at our campus so I can call MS and try and get full synchronization added in. I find it disheartening that once again the Mac platform still does not have full support for a product that we have paid good money for.
I just called an canceled my order for 2008. Like cd said above... I'm gonna move to the mac apps. I'm not a huge Excel power user so if there is functionality missing in Numbers... I'm sure I can do without.
I really needed a full outlook client on my desktop... and once again... this falls short. I have a Motorola Q smartphone (for work) and I want everything synced to there... so I will just continue to use the MS Exchange Web Application.
On 1/16/08 5:52 PM, in article ee888b5.5@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "" <>
wrote:
> I can't believe, after all this time, there's no Tasks syncing.
With the new To Do flagging system you'll be able to assign
start/due dates to mail (and contacts) and they will sync to Exchange.
Since many "tasks" are based on e-mails that need action, Entourage 2008's
To Do sync is a way to get around this problem.
I've actually found this to be very useful. Of course, you can do the same
in Outlook, but it's nice to see it in Entourage now.
On 1/16/08 7:21 PM, in article
C3B4099D.EA9A%diane@invalid.entourage.mvps.org, "Diane Ross" wrote:
> On 1/16/08 5:52 PM, in article ee888b5.5@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "" <>
> wrote:
>
>> I can't believe, after all this time, there's no Tasks syncing.
>
> With the new To Do flagging system you'll be able to assign
> start/due dates to mail (and contacts) and they will sync to Exchange.
> Since many "tasks" are based on e-mails that need action, Entourage 2008's
> To Do sync is a way to get around this problem.
wrote:
> I can't believe, after all this time, there's no Tasks syncing.
>
> Entourage 08? All hype.
>
> It looks like the best bet is when snerdware comes out with their client
> for 10.5.
Please be sure to let Microsoft know you'd like to see task syncing in
future versions by using the Help --> Send Feedback mechanism in any
Office application. The more noise the better!
All that time you spent making MyDay so sweet is completely USELESS. I have three computers -- home, office, and MacBook (for on the road), plus my BlackBerry. If data doesn't sync between them, it's 100% USELESS to me.
Can someone from Microsoft please commit to when tasks & notes will sync? If not, as others have said, I'm going to dump my BlackBerry for an iPhone, dump Exchange Server, and just use .Mac and the Mac apps and/or maybe Google.
That's a big pain, I don't want to do it, and Microsoft will lose Exchange revenue as well as Entourage licenses. Lose-Lose!
But seriously, I talked with two Entourage people at Macworld at the Microsoft booth and it was NOT encouraging -- no one could commit to when this HUGE and fatal omission would be corrected.
Sounds like Microsoft is asking me to wait for Office 2012 (yep, that would be the next version). One of the guys told me it was a "tough problem". Geesh! Just sync the suckers with Exchange. All that manpower spent bringing crap like Messenger and it could have been done.
Microsoft isn't taking Exchange seriously on Mac. My vote is Mac.
Oh, and there's NO ability to archive Exchange data to the Mac, either. Cripes!
Either tell us when Exchange will be supported FOR REAL on the Mac, or I'm ripping out Exchange. Sync is the # 1 feature so many of us rely on, and if Office 2008 cannot integrate Macs into the groupware environment (or even sync a stand-alone user like me), something is SERIOUSLY wrong.
So how about it, can someone at Microsoft make a commitment to this? I am not waiting for the next major version. SYNC TASKS AND NOTES BY A COMMITTED DEADLINE ASAP, PLEASE!!
Just one more voice of a disappointed user who was waiting for Office 2008 JUST for Entourage to be able to do the basic operations I take for granted in Outlook. Looks like they're not there, which means no upgrade for me.
Guess I'll use iWork instead (which I already have) and run Outlook (2003 on XP - no upgrade revenue there) in Parallels. MS have truly dropped the ball on this one.
It would help us to know which Exchange features you’re interested in for Entourage so that we can prioritize them with our development.
-Andy
Lead Program Manager, Entourage
Macintosh Business Unit, Microsoft
On 1/17/08 5:21 AM, in article ee888b5.9@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "Ted B " <> wrote:
Just one more voice of a disappointed user who was waiting for Office
2008 JUST for Entourage to be able to do the basic operations I take for
granted in Outlook. Looks like they're not there, which means no upgrade
for me.
Guess I'll use iWork instead (which I already have) and run Outlook (2003
on XP - no upgrade revenue there) in Parallels. MS have truly dropped
the ball on this one.
I ordered the upgrade and just cancelled based on this information. I use a BB and wanted o sync tasks using Entourage. Now I really see no reason for me to upgrade. I make very light use of the other programs. I am disappointed.
On Jan 17, 12:26 pm, <> wrote:
> I ordered the upgrade and just cancelled based on this information. I use a BB and wanted o sync tasks using Entourage. Now I really see no reason for me to upgrade. I make very light use of the other programs. I am disappointed.
My Day is USELESS without exchange server support to most, if not all
users!
My Day will show your Exchange flagged mail, contacts, and events, all of
which synchronize with Exchange. I agree it's a limitation for tasks, but
it's not completely useless for Exchange users.
-Andy
On 1/17/08 10:32 AM, in article
cd839cd7-865b-4ead-a4be-3f9777f78693@l32g2000hse.googlegroups.com,
"Jay.Eagleson@gmail.com" wrote:
> On Jan 17, 12:26 pm, <> wrote:
>> I ordered the upgrade and just cancelled based on this information. I use a
>> BB and wanted o sync tasks using Entourage. Now I really see no reason for me
>> to upgrade. I make very light use of the other programs. I am disappointed.
>
> My Day is USELESS without exchange server support to most, if not all
> users!
Could someone at Microsoft please be accountable and commit to when "sync Exchange tasks and categories" issue will be resolved or at least give us an explanation as to why it was not added?????
You should keep an eye on MacMojo, the official company blog. In the mean
time, click on Send Feedback on Entourage inside Entourage's help menu to
send Microsoft your feedback.
On 17/01/08 19:56, in article ee888b5.13@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,
"Frustrated!!!" wrote:
> Could someone at Microsoft please be accountable and commit to when "sync
> Exchange tasks and categories" issue will be resolved or at least give us an
> explanation as to why it was not added?????
--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)
Giving feedback for Office is kind of hard to find when you don't have Office installed on the computer. I tried looking for a link to the feedback page off of the Office 2008 site and could not find anything.
I was looking forward to TASKS and ToDo lists syncing with Exchange so that I could get them on my BlackBerry. So now what. I'm the IT guy for a company of 65 and we are rolling out more and more MacBooks.
I did hear today that IBM Will be rolling out Lotus Notes Sutie and their Server for Mac. Maybe they will get it right.
I'm an IT manager and our company can see absolutely NO REASON to upgrade to the new client. We're definitely going to look into "alternatives" to the Entourage suite.
This is ludicrous that they still haven't done anything to correct a problem that every single Entourage User has been pining for almost a half a decade. Wouldn't this be the FIRST thing you would do?
and now will not. This is a major issue for me. I was hoping to get rid of outlook on parallelis and now it seems like impossible without tasks and notes...
I was going to buy the upgrade for me and several folks in our office. If it does not sync tasks and notes and EVERYTHING I can do in Parallels with Outlook 2003, then why in the world did they even release an upgrade.
I have been waiting for years for this upgrade and now find out it is not what I need.
Half a decade ago, Entourage did not even talk to Exchange. We have been consistently and regularly adding Exchange functionality to Entourage, many of them in regular, free updates. 2008 brought a number of new features:
* Out of Office
* Kerberos Single Sign-on
* Free/Busy Detailing
* To Do flag sync
* Delegation over HTTP
We realize there are shortcomings and some of them are painful. However, we want to make sure we build a reliable product. Not just check features. We stepped back from features and took the time to improve the app’s quality and reliability. Without doing so, it would have been much harder to deliver more Exchange functionality in the future as we plan to do. You will find Entourage 2008 much more reliable when using existing Exchange functionality such as calendaring and mailbox synchronization.
-Andy
On 1/17/08 8:14 PM, in article ee888b5.17@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "disgruntledandbummedout" wrote:
I'm an IT manager and our company can see absolutely NO REASON to upgrade
to the new client. We're definitely going to look into "alternatives"
to the Entourage suite.
This is ludicrous that they still haven't done anything to correct a problem
that every single Entourage User has been pining for almost a half a decade.
Wouldn't this be the FIRST thing you would do?
Hey folks, I'm the Lead Program Manager for Entourage. Here's the deal...
We know you want task and notes sync and we are planning on delivering them. Since Exchange was first introduced into Entourage four years ago, we've regularly delivered features often in free updates. This iterative process has let us get them out there and learn from you about your expectations of Entourage within your business.
In 2008, we decided to take a step-back from pounding more features into the application and focus on making the app more reliable and robust. For example, calendaring in 2008 is far more reliable than it was in the past. The focus on quality and reliability was aimed to provide a stronger foundation for where we'll go next. You may not agree with this way of building the product and I certainly hear your frustrations, but we want to make sure that we're delivering reliable solutions, not just feature checklists.
I use Outlook 07 all day at work ive just installed Mac Office 08 at home and feel cheated. Sort out the sync issues above or the Mac community, a lot of who got a Mac to get rid of the blue screen of death, will simply abandon you.
Mac Office 08 does not look or feel fresh, merely an update, more like Office 06.
So please make it feel and look similar to Office 07 for PC and give it the same functionality at least, is that so much to ask?
I have only been using a Mac for about 15 months. However, when I first setup Entourage 2004 I was sure that I had done something wrong as none of my categories synced over. After some research, I discovered that not only will I have to forget about categories, I lost to-do sync as well. I thought, Wow, that unfortunate, but surely 2008 will have this functionality (since it is all over any forum that you read about this product). I just don't understand how you guys missed this. But hey, at least there is a little floating reminder box...
You should keep an eye on MacMojo, the official company blog. In the mean
time, click on Send Feedback o Entourage inside Entourage's help menu
to send Microsoft your feedback.
-- Michel Bintener Microsoft MVP
Michael, Andy Ruff & others on the Office:Mac team,
This can't be a serious statement from Michael...? I don't mean any disrespect, but your Entourage community has been screaming bloody hell about it's poor Exchange and synching support for FOUR YEARS. We waited FOUR YEARS for this upgrade, and Microsoft failed miserably to meet the demands of its users.
Serious question...is this because you're the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft? Are you guys just not taken seriously and appropriately prioritized within the company for obvious reasons? Or is this just another massive oversight?
I've worked in engineering for years, so I know all too well that what seems like a simple change is not necessarily simple. But FOUR YEARS is a long time to be screaming about something and then still not have it implemented.
SmartArt and nice templates in Word are beautiful, and it's nice to have that consistency with Office System 2007. But there's an underlying foundation of functionality that we are STILL waiting for.
Click on Send Feedback? With all due respect, you must be joking. What on earth would make you think anyone in this community would continue to bother after your team fails yet AGAIN to deliver what we've ALREADY been sending feedback on for FOUR YEARS?
What's the point? Clearly, program management has been unsuccessful in prioritizing needs of the market versus engineering timelines. I'm quite sure this market would have even preferred no new release until you could get it fixed than to be miserably disappointed yet again.
Apple now commands 8% of the market, and we all know that number is growing. No one here is stupid enough to think it will ever come close to Microsoft Windows' dominance, but it is still growing. More importantly, cross-platform usage is growing within corporations. I work for a 100 person tech company that is doubling every year. Half of our team uses Apple and half uses Windows. Most of the 8% of the market expect to have to use some level of Parallels, Virtual PC or some other virtualization service since not everything is available for our platform of choice. But why continue to demonstrate Microsoft Office's complete lack of commitment to cross-platform compatibility?
The Microsoft Silverlight team got it right with cross-platform compatibility. Why can't the Entourage team?
On 18-Jan-08 18:08, in article ee888b5.27@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,
"dantrimble@officeformac.com" wrote:
> Serious question...is this because you're the Macintosh Business Unit at
> Microsoft? Are you guys just not taken seriously and appropriately
> prioritized within the company for obvious reasons? Or is this just another
> massive oversight?
I think it's that MSFT does not want a fully working Mac client for exchange
servers since that might translate to users running screaming from Windows
Vista, thus impacting MSTF sales figures.
--
Bart: This is the worst day of my life.
Homer: This is the worst day of your life SO FAR.
- Support multiple calendars and address books
- Allow you to set permissions on Exchange folders
- Open shared calendars, folders, or address books
- Quickly access public folders
- View non-mail public folders
- Use smart cards for encryption
- Search via Spotlight
- Delegate to other Exchange users
- Get detailed information about users in the GAL
- Keep your Exchange contacts and calendars seperated from personal
- Mark events or contacts in shared folders as private
- Reschedule events regularly
- Cancel recurring meetings
- Set the Out of Office Message
- Synchronize todo flags and dates
- Automatically configure your Exchange account
- View the quotas on your Exchange server
- Conversation grouping/threading
- Be notified of upcoming password expirations
- Synchronize with .Mac, iCal, Address Book, or your devicees
- Authenticate with Kerberos
- See free/busy details when scheduling meetings
- Respect compliance folders on your server
- True, multi-threaded sync with more user control
All of those things came between 2004 and today. We did not sit idle. Entourage has gotten several large, free updates. 2008 continues with an interval of improvements. If you have an original 2004 CD, try installing that and compare that to where you are today. Then tell me that we haven't done a lot to try and address these issues. We know you want more, we plan to deliver. But do not deny the fact that we haven't been working hard to do so for some time.
As for prioritizing, please keep in mind that what you want isn't necessarily the same as what others want. I'm sure you would be happy to lop off some of the above items, but that doesn't mean a) that's what other customers are telling us or b) that the engineering cost of those features is equal to your requests.
It is an entourage that with all that development time MS have managed to forget what people want. The key thing people wanted was a fully operational exchange client prohram(thats what the extra money is for ????) teh ability to send complex HTML messages, better HTML tools and the ability to edit a message that has been sent to you, What the hell is going on. I am now thinking that we will move to using outlook in Parallels, and certainly will not bother "upgrading????" to 2008. Bell whistles and disappointment !
I use tasks and categories a lot. That they are missing from Entourage makes my life slightly more difficult. Many of my colleagues do not use tasks, but they all use the calendar and contacts. It's unfortunate that some features did not make it into 2008, but I think you made the right choice.
The real question is if synchronized tasks will make it into a future upgrade.
To not include a conduit for me, and everyone else, to sync their Palm/Treo devices is asinine, honestly.
I don't mean any personal disrespect, but it is incredibly frustrating to learn that, at a minimum, I can't even count on the sync ability Entourage 2004 had with my Treo smartphone.
I'm sort of dead in the water here. You've got to address this, like, immediately.
As one of the largest solution providers in the country Future Tech is trying to integrate Apple into our large customer base. The challenge that we have which we thought would be addressed was similar functionality so that corporate america can take advantage of multiple platforms in their organizations. Since we have not accomplished this with the current release is there any timeline you have that you can share with everyone related to tasks. I will tell you most of the organizations we work with utilize this feature. Lets stem the tide of the complaints and see how we can address the challenge moving forward. I am sure if you said ok there will be an update in 90 days many more people would buy the product.
I believe the problem is related to the synchronization of Entourage to iCal. I'm able to replicate the problem consistently when synchronization is enabled.
Problem
-------
* Open Entourage preferences and enable the synchronization of events and tasks to iCal
* Create a new recurring task and save it
* Wait a few minutes for Entourage to sync the task to iCal
* Open the task and observe the recurrence has been removed
The above described issue never occurs if the synchronization of events and tasks to iCal is disabled.
This problem has been around since the release of Leopard. I can't replicate the problem in Tiger.
I've built a brand new system using a clean install and a fresh installation of MS Office 2004 & 2008, but still have the same problem.
disgruntledandbummedout wrote:
> I'm an IT manager and our company can see absolutely NO REASON to
> upgrade to the new client. We're definitely going to look into
> "alternatives" to the Entourage suite.
What is the Entourage "suite"?
> This is ludicrous that they still haven't done anything to correct a
> problem that every single Entourage User has been pining for almost a
> half a decade.
KMiller wrote:
> I was looking forward to TASKS and ToDo lists syncing with Exchange so
> that I could get them on my BlackBerry. So now what. I'm the IT guy for
> a company of 65 and we are rolling out more and more MacBooks.
>
> I did hear today that IBM Will be rolling out Lotus Notes Sutie and
> their Server for Mac. Maybe they will get it right.
Upgraded to office for 2008 for MAC, its chronic..... well done graphic designers, but where were the product marketing and software guys??? How productive is SW without a functional task module??
I also rushed out to buy Office 2008 with what I thought would be a safe assumption of having categories and task synchronisation.
I cannot believe that Microsoft have left this obvious but important functionality out. If you read this Microsoft, then I for one suggest you add this functionality in on the next update. If you do not, I can only see the decision as a stealth tactic to stop users being able to use exchange fully on a mac. OWA doesn't work brilliantly either as its designed for IE and not firefox or Safari.
Sort your act out after you've relieved me of a few hundred pounds.
Please outsource your Macintosh Business Unit projects to Apple. I trust Steve Jobs & Co. will get the projects finished properly and quickly.
I love my Mac (and everything Apple) because it just works. I wish I could say the same for MS Entourage.
I'm not kidding about having Apple take on this task. Have them rebuild Entourage from the ground up to include, at minimum, all of the features and functionality of Outlook with BCM.
I know you have been taking a lot of heat from Entourage users. My intent is not to simply add fuel to the fire. I just want Entourage and Exchange to work for me.
> I also rushed out to buy Office 2008 with what I thought would be a safe
> assumption of having categories and task synchronisation.
I cannot
> believe that Microsoft have left this obvious but important functionality
> out. If you read this Microsoft, then I for one suggest you add this
> functionality in on the next update. If you do not, I can only see the
> decision as a stealth tactic to stop users being able to use exchange fully
> on a mac. OWA doesn't work brilliantly either as its designed for IE and not
> firefox or Safari.
Sort your act out after you've relieved me of a
> few hundred pounds.
Venting here does absolutely no good - this is a peer-to-peer newsgroup.
Send feedback via Help/Send Feedback on Entourage if you want MacBU to
hear you.
Please outsource your Macintosh Business Unit projects to
> Apple. I trust Steve Jobs & Co. will get the projects finished properly
> and quickly.
I love my Mac (and everything Apple) because it just
> works. I wish I could say the same for MS Entourage.
I'm not kidding
> about having Apple take on this task. Have them rebuild Entourage from the
> ground up to include, at minimum, all of the features and functionality of
> Outlook with BCM.
I know you have been taking a lot of heat from
> Entourage users. My intent is not to simply add fuel to the fire. I just
> want Entourage and Exchange to work for me.
Thank you and best
> regards,
Steve Kane
Since you posted in a peer-to-peer newsgroup, your rant, justified as it
may be, won't affect anything. To get the message to Microsoft, send
feedback via Help/Send Feedback on Entourage...
On Jan 21, 1:35 am, JE McGimpsey wrote:
> In article ,
>
> Steven_K...@officeformac.com wrote:
> > Microsoft,
Please outsource your Macintosh Business Unit projects to
> > Apple. I trust Steve Jobs & Co. will get the projects finished properly
> > and quickly.
I love my Mac (and everything Apple) because it just
> > works. I wish I could say the same for MS Entourage.
I'm not kidding
> > about having Apple take on this task. Have them rebuild Entourage from the
> > ground up to include, at minimum, all of the features and functionality of
> > Outlook with BCM.
I know you have been taking a lot of heat from
> > Entourage users. My intent is not to simply add fuel to the fire. I just
> > want Entourage and Exchange to work for me.
Thank you and best
> > regards,
Steve Kane
>
> Since you posted in a peer-to-peer newsgroup, your rant, justified as it
> may be, won't affect anything. To get the message to Microsoft, send
> feedback via Help/Send Feedback on Entourage...
If he is on a Windows machine he can simply hit Ctrl-P and print this
forum out to show his colleagues (Command-P for a Mac btw). I am SURE
this is not the first time Andy or anyone else from the Mac BU has
heard about the 3 biggest topics I have seen in forum after
forum...and for all the slow people here they are again!
1. Task synchronization with exchange
2. Category synchronization with exchange
3. RPC over HTTP support
Just because this is a peer-to-peer forum doesn't mean important
people that CAN ACTUALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE aren't reading it!
It was hilarious seeing everyone get frustrated that this wasn't
included in 2008 during that class at MacWorld, and it was
specifically asked by the audience, so they have heard it for
sure....again....we all know you aren't sitting around there and doing
nothing, but these features have been ranted about for 4 years now, so
one would assume they were somewhat near the top of the list...maybe
you need a new polling audience .
Hopefully Office 2012 will have these basic features added...
In article
<16c5ad3c-f52e-428c-9515-4c8bec0162b1@e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
knightryder2@gmail.com wrote:
> It SHOULD make a difference!
Should ... shouldn't ... what's more relevant is "does". Since you were
at Day at the Office, you also heard a number of presenters say to
submit feedback (I was there in the front row...)
> Just because this is a peer-to-peer forum doesn't mean important
> people that CAN ACTUALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE aren't reading it!
Of course it doesn't. But you certainly shouldn't RELY on it being read
by those that need to see it. I suspect a LOT more of the MacBU folks
are reading the groups right now than usual, in fact. But they can't and
won't read every message. Nor is Andy likely to print off very many ng
posts to show his colleagues - that's not very efficient, nor is it a
very productive use of a program manager's time.
OTOH, every Help/Feedback... submission *does* get logged and routed to
the appropriate management. More importantly, it is tabulated for
marketing and product development, which are ultimately the drivers for
which features are included in Office (it might be nice if excellent and
dedicated developers like Andy and his team could be given free rein
with unlimited resources, but that's not usually how things work).
So by all means, post here, but to be more effective, also use Help/Send
Feedback...
> we all know you aren't sitting around there and doing nothing, but
> these features have been ranted about for 4 years now, so one would
> assume they were somewhat near the top of the list...maybe you need a
> new polling audience
I think you've gotten me confused with an MS employee...
I'd like to reiterate that after establishing recurring tasks in Entourage 2008, setting sync services to sync events and tasks with iCal, the recurring nature of the tasks disappears.
Also, PocketMac no longer works with Entourage after switching from 2004 to 2008. I can get Missing Sync for BlackBerry to work, but since the recurring nature of the tasks are broken, what appears in my BB are erroneous, too.
I'd like to see v12.0.1 of Entourage to work like Outlook. Archiving, .pst's, sync conduits, and the like are essential to business execs.
> I'd like to reiterate that after establishing recurring tasks in Entourage
> 2008, setting sync services to sync events and tasks with iCal, the recurring
> nature of the tasks disappears.
The bug has been submitted before, but use Help/Send Feedback to let
MacBU know that it's important to fix
> I'd like to see v12.0.1 of Entourage to work like Outlook.
> Archiving, .pst's, sync conduits, and the like are essential to
> business execs.
Send feedback on that, too, but I certainly hope that the 12.0.1 update
isn't delayed for all those items...
Doesn't matter what entourage did or didn't have then and now... the fact is that in software development, 4 years is a HELLACIOUSLY LONG TIME and you guys really missed the ball on this one. How you could possibly say that this is only important to the folks bitching on this thread really shows how badly you haven't listened to the community for the past 4 years. Doesn't matter what you DID build into this build... you've left a gaping hole on something that folks have been very vocal about and that exchange/outlook/windows mobile/bberrys etc have had for years. And you guys couldn't do it in 4 years? And to suggest that you had to either choose delivering a reliable product or one that added in features to bring it up to speed with the PC version? C'mon! What kind of cop out is that?
Do you guys like only have 2 developers on the mac team or what?
On Jan 18, 6:27 pm, Andy_R...@officeformac.com wrote:
> Four years ago Entourage didn't:
> - Synchronize with .Mac, iCal, Address Book, or your devicees
> All of those things came between 2004 and today. We did not sit idle. Entourage has gotten several large, free updates. 2008 continues with an interval of improvements. If you have an original 2004 CD, try installing that and compare that to where you are today. Then tell me that we haven't done a lot to try and address these issues. We know you want more, we plan to deliver. But do not deny the fact that we haven't been working hard to do so for some time.
> As for prioritizing, please keep in mind that what you want isn't necessarily the same as what others want. I'm sure you would be happy to lop off some of the above items, but that doesn't mean a) that's what other customers are telling us or b) that the engineering cost of those features is equal to your requests.
I know MS put a lot of work into Entourage 2008 and I don't doubt that
a lot of these new features are of value to many users, but it seems
the biggest concern and issue is the subject of this thread is:
synchronizing, specifically contacts, calendar items, tasks, notes and
categories. Sync Services, while under 2004, does work, but there was
a lot of Entourage contact fields that never made it over to the the
Sync Services database (at least that's what I have been seeing when I
turn Sync Services on for Contacts). Third party tools like e2Sync
smoothed things out a lot in keeping things synced up between
Entourage and the Apple PIM tools.
But it appears it's not that smooth when using Entourage 2008 and Sync
Services. I could see that being an issue with Leopard, as iSync has
been changed. But if under Tiger, using Entourage 2004 worked (even
with the field sync issues I mentioned above), then it should work
just as well with Entourage 2008, at least that's one of the
assumptions that people had when upgrading.
Personally, while it's nice that Sync Services is supported, I would
much rather see MS re-write the Entourage conduit for HotSync that was
available for Entourage 2004. I currently use this on my main
machine. I understand there are third party solutions out there, but
in all honesty, the Entourage conduit was the most reliable way to
sync to a Palm. I'm not sure how many Palm/Treo users there are there
at MacBU, but I would hope there was at least one that worked on the
Entourage team that tried to sync their Palm/Treo.
I hope what I've said is taken as a Treo user that wants to make sure
I can sync data when I install the Office 2008 upgrade, as well as
echoing the voices of other Palm users that have already run into sync
issues.
On 1/21/08 2:19 PM, in article
6d0a59ab-80e8-4523-92a0-a1d8ba311e01@t1g2000pra.googlegroups.com, "Marty
Mankins" wrote:
> Personally, while it's nice that Sync Services is supported, I would
> much rather see MS re-write the Entourage conduit for HotSync that was
> available for Entourage 2004. I currently use this on my main
> machine. I understand there are third party solutions out there, but
> in all honesty, the Entourage conduit was the most reliable way to
> sync to a Palm. I'm not sure how many Palm/Treo users there are there
> at MacBU, but I would hope there was at least one that worked on the
> Entourage team that tried to sync their Palm/Treo.
>
> I hope what I've said is taken as a Treo user that wants to make sure
> I can sync data when I install the Office 2008 upgrade, as well as
> echoing the voices of other Palm users that have already run into sync
> issues.
We didn't take this decision lightly. The HotSync manager hasn't been
updated in years and updating our conduit for 2008 was a very expensive
task. In general, we decided that we believed the direction on the Mac was
towards all device sync unifying around Sync Services, so we put our efforts
into that.
There are some shortcomings, such as category sync, that we are certainly
aware of. We are talking with Apple about these and hope to provide better
support through Sync Services in the future.
Again, please consider what we did do in 4 years. It’s not like we didn’t release a single thing in that time. There were numerous sizeable and free updates for Entourage 2004 in that timeframe. We added dozens of new features. It’s easy to forget this because you see the year “2004” and not the version numbers “11.x” where “.x” is consistently bumped upward with improved quality and plenty of functionality. Entourage has taken a model of regular and consistent improvement.
-Andy
On 1/21/08 1:36 PM, in article ee888b5.47@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "Mr. Disgusted!" <> wrote:
is 4 FRICKING YEARS FOR GOD'S SAKE!
Doesn't matter what entourage did or didn't have then and now... the fact
is that in software development, 4 years is a HELLACIOUSLY LONG TIME and
you guys really missed the ball on this one. How you could possibly say
that this is only important to the folks bitching on this thread really
shows how badly you haven't listened to the community for the past 4 years.
Doesn't matter what you DID build into this build... you've left a gaping
hole on something that folks have been very vocal about and that exchange/outlook/windows
mobile/bberrys etc have had for years. And you guys couldn't do it in
4 years? And to suggest that you had to either choose delivering a reliable
product or one that added in features to bring it up to speed with the
PC version? C'mon! What kind of cop out is that?
Do you guys like only have 2 developers on the mac team or what?
On Jan 21, 4:29 pm, Andy Ruff wrote:
> We didn't take this decision lightly. The HotSync manager hasn't been
> updated in years and updating our conduit for 2008 was a very expensive
> task. In general, we decided that we believed the direction on the Mac was
> towards all device sync unifying around Sync Services, so we put our efforts
> into that.
>
> There are some shortcomings, such as category sync, that we are certainly
> aware of. We are talking with Apple about these and hope to provide better
> support through Sync Services in the future.
>
> -Andy
Andy, I appreciate your reply and look forward to better Sync Services
support in the future. In the meantime, I need to stay with what is
stable and working at this time for my main system. I do have several
Macs, one of which I will be putting Office 2008 on to explore various
options on how to integrate that into my work flow.
I certainly appreciate the improvements you listed. But, the team's choice to not include task synchronization isn't truly addressed by accounting all the work done on numerous other features. It simply notes that you didn't consider it a priority. As an Exchange core business function, I believe tasks are as elemental to basic function as mail and calendar. Office 2008 is a very nice program for personal use, but its business integration clearly was given a low priority.
I suggest using such public forums as this to assist in your development prioritization. Offering a suggestion through the internal mechanism is silent: we have no public forum to see if others (or the Microsoft Mac development team) agree. This site demonstrates how critical a miss this was, something I can't be confident you'd sense so keenly if everyone used the internal suggestion mechanism.
> we have no public forum to see if others (or the Microsoft Mac
> development team) agree.
Well the site you used to post this message is simple (yet another) Web
interface to access the microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage newsgroup
which has been around for quite some time now (I suspect shortly after
the first version of Entourage came out).
Corentin
PS: This group is accessible from most newsgroup servers, including of
course the open msnews.microsoft.com
I too am disgusted by the fact that Exchange Tasks and Category
syncing was left out of Entourage 2008, but what disgusts me even more
is this piece of stupidity: why aren't the user fields (User Field 1
through 4) in Outlook Contacts not mapped to the user fields in
Entourage? There are dozens of user/custom fields in Entourage, so
hello Microsoft geniuses, did no one think to map four of them to
their Oulook counterparts? They aren't even available through Outlook
Web Access using ANY browser.
SHOCK HORROR EEEEEKKK Did we really all think that Entourage would have what we asked for, come on it' s been four years, get over it.
We are in the process of dropping exchange and Entourage for this very reason...Check out Kerio Mail server does all the exchange stuff including push email and supports BB.
The two things that would make Entourage meet the needs of our team are:
* the ability to use shared Distribution lists
* the ability to sync / delegate Tasks
Andy is right about several things:
- Entourage 2008 has improved Exchange functionality
- MS did release copious updates to 2004, improving its functionality as time went on.
2008 does most of what I need it to do, but still there is room for improvement (starting with note and task Exchange synch for one) that I trust MS will provide as free updates when they get it worked out.
I have met a few of the MacBU guys to know that they love the Mac platform and are trying to do their best withing the "belly of the beast" so to speak to deliver the goods.
> there is room for improvement (starting with note and task Exchange synch for
> one) that I trust MS will provide as free updates when they get it worked out
We can only hope they'll make this right in future updates...
--
Note: Please send all responses to the relevant news group. If you
must contact me through e-mail, let me know when you send email to
this address so that your email doesn't get eaten by my SPAM filter.
it's just hard to stomach that outlook 2001 in OS 9 had more feature parity with the windows side than entourage 2008! MBU gets a big WTF from me for the past 5 or so years!
lamer <> wrote:
> it's just hard to stomach that outlook 2001 in OS 9 had more feature
> parity with the windows side than entourage 2008!
Outlook 2001 was developed by a different team with a different agenda and
different goals. And let's not compare the feature list between Outlook 2001
and even Entourage 2001.
The two products simply don't compare. If there are *specific* Outlook
features you're missing, suggest them to Microsoft. Microsoft is not going
to implement Outlook on the Mac, but they will continue to add specific
features that people request (such as Out Of Office).
--
Adam Bailey | Chicago, Illinois
adamb@lull.org | Finger/Web for PGP & S/MIME
adamkb@aol.com | http://www.lull.org/adam/
Can't say strongly enough that the lack of "category" support when syncing with a Palm PDA or phone is absolutely pathetic. I bought Office 2008 for no other reason than the promised improvements from 2004 in Entourage. Unbeknownst to me that such a logical feature would be so "screwed-up" by your development team.
Why would anyone want to upgrade to Entourage 2008 and not be able to sync ALL it's lovely features with a Palm device (for that matter Blackberry etc).
To tell you the truth, unless I hear that this will be "fixed" in the very near future I plan on removing 2008 in favour of 2004 and deal with the loss.
Additionally, the "fix" of forcing the use of iCal and the Mac sync feature is completely inadequate... What were you thinking?
While I appreciate that a lot of hard work has undoubtedly been put in Entourage 2008 I simply cannot see how CORE PRODUCTIVITY FUNCTIONALITIES such as task and category syncing with exchange was completely overlooked. I believe this to be a symptom of the core underlying issue with the Mac Office product - Microsoft does not appear to take it seriously as a productivity tool. Instead they are more interested in making Office for Mac "flashy" or "creative".
I work for a company that provides outsourced IT solutions for several all mac and cross platform businesses and due to Microsoft's inability to include this functionality my recommendation will have to be to not bother upgrading to Office 2008.
I have been impressed with the improved multimedia aspects of Office 2008, however, Office is a PRODUCTIVITY tool. Very few users I have had discussions with, including myself, are concerned about whether or not they can make an attractive poster in Word. There are several applications for macs that already do a far better job with those kinds of creative projects.
Microsoft please address these issues. I have been running Entourage 2004 since exchange support was available and have not had any major reliability issues. What I have had to deal with was the fact that I could not get away from running a pc because Entourage was not a fully functional exchange client.
Thanks in advance for your consideration of my comments,
On Jan 29, 5:13 pm, "Lance - Cross Platform Systems Engineer" <>
wrote:
> While I appreciate that a lot of hard work has undoubtedly been put inEntourage2008 I simply cannot see how CORE PRODUCTIVITY FUNCTIONALITIES such as task and category syncing with exchange was completely overlooked.
> I believe this to be a symptom of the core underlying issue with the Mac Office product - Microsoftdoesnot appear to take it seriously as a productivity tool. Instead they are more interested in making Office for Mac "flashy" or "creative".
Your SUDDEN CAPS USE, notwithstanding, I think you're halfway there!
Microsoft does take the platform seriously, but not as a business
platform: If we were to compare how many Macintosh systems are used in
business ops, compared to how many are used in small offices/home
offices, I think we'd see the vast majority in the latter. So, with
this in mind, is Microsoft's Mac BU going to concentrate on serving SO/
HO or the corporate world? They're in it to make money. Where's the
most cash going to be generated?
Personally, I think a dual development strategy would be the best one,
from here. At the moment we have three (or is it four?) boxed products
for O2008 with marketing guff being the primary differences, as far as
I can tell; it would be better to have two distinct products; one with
all the bells and whistles and one with O2007 (or 2009, whatever)
compatibility being the driver.
Lance - Cross Platform Systems Engineer <> wrote:
> While I appreciate that a lot of hard work has undoubtedly been put in
> Entourage 2008 I simply cannot see how CORE PRODUCTIVITY FUNCTIONALITIES
> such as task and category syncing with exchange was completely overlooked.
Your definition of "core" and others' differs. I, for example, do not use
categories or tasks on the Exchange server. The Entourage ones work fine.
I can't say this enough - send feedback to Microsoft (Help menu). Everyone
thinks their issue is #1, but Microsoft acts on the ones actually submitted
to them. Crying about it here does little.
--
Adam Bailey | Chicago, Illinois
adamb@lull.org | Finger/Web for PGP & S/MIME
adamkb@aol.com | http://www.lull.org/adam/
It would be fantastic if someone at Microsoft please give us a target date when we can expect Task and Notes syncing to be ready? Even a date by which you will have a date would be useful. Currently we have no answer to our issue. I certainly requested that feature using the official form several years ago so I think it's clear I am in good company. It may not seem to meet the required effort/payoff ratio, but maybe MSFT should give this request a higher weight. My thinking would be that the folks who are whining about this particular feature are likely to be the most serious groupware users and experts. We really use the product and benefit from it the most and we're the trusted "mavens" that people depend on to tell them what are the best products in this space. When I talk about Entourage it's about Exchange and I always have to mention the two key pieces that don't sync to Exchange, Tasks and Notes. That's why I run Parallels on my Macbook with Outlook 2008. I would love to stay in OS X, but too much information is out of sync that way.
Please tell us when you can commit to get this piece working. That's what I think people really want to know.
It would be fantastic if someone at Microsoft >please give us a target
date when we can expect >Task and Notes syncing to be ready? Even a date
>by which you will have a date would be useful.
I completely agree with Jon and have also repeatedly made this request through the conduit provided in the software.
I also find it very interesting that in his Keynote a few weeks ago Bill Gates discussed that in the very near future Microsoft products will allow your data to follow you from device to devices wirelessly including your tv and potentially even your fridge. I find this interesting because Microsoft's flagship mac software doesn't even allow my tasks and notes to follow me from my macbook to my mobile device (a windows based smartphone). Their other comparable windows product has had this feature for years.
Microsoft, can you provide a valid explanation for this inconsistency?
Well, I raced out and purchased Office solely because I assumed that Entourage would work properly with exchange, and I could do away with Outlook under fusion.
Since the iPhone came out, our users all want Macs. In fact, we're purchasing far more macs than PCs now. I had hoped that O2008 would play nicely with exchange so that we could give our users choice. Whats going to happen now is that exchange is now seen as the bad guy because it doesn't play nice with Macs. I have to report to the board on our strategic IT direction soon. If this isn't resolved quickly, then our entire windows server infrastructure is under threat. Our users are demanding Macs, iPhones, BBs, and other devices.
We will change our infrastructure to meet our users wants, because after all, our people are our biggest asset - not technology. We need to keep people happy and enthusiastic about working for us - how can we do that if the tools we provide are painful to use?
Come on MS Mac guys, we know you can do better. I think the biggest thing to remember is that what companies actually need is for the mac email client to be as close to Outlook on the Mac as possible - not something very different that kind-of does something similar...
Can you give us a roadmap for this functionality? timeframes? anything to go on?
I need to agree with virtually all the requests and comments above. It's simply lame that an organization with the resources you have cannot overcome problems with tasks and syncing of categories. A very small company that makes a mac pim (contactizer) has about 3-4 programmers and they have recurring tasks and iCal category syncing.
If these guys can do it why not Mac Business Unit which is always priding itself on how many programmers it has?
SYNC is the problem but can anyone give me a solution.
If I was to dump MAC 2008 ENTOURAGE:
Is there a solution to SYNC, Calender, Categories, Colours, Tasks, Email, etc from my MAC running Leopard 10.5.1 to a MS Mobile Windows 6.0.?
I have a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
Can get this capability to SYNC through Outlook in Parallels, Virtual PC or any other products like this? Anything??
For that matter does this SYNC even work in the PC world – I wouldn’t know – again, this is still only an assumption of mine as I have been a Mac person for most of my time.
I am a Mac user for 18 years, but new to MS Windows Mobile.
Unfortunately I set-up Mac Entourage 2008 on my computer – had it looking fantastic on the computer – most organised I have ever been – was using ‘my day’ etc – and I was really impressed with the functionality of the package.
We don’t have an official IPHONE release in Australia, and I was so impressed with my organisation in Entourage 2008, that I wanted to go that one step further, so I purchased my first ever MS Mobile Windows assuming that because we are in the 21st Century, and all the hype of marketing materials that I read, that the latest MS Mac Office has got to work with the latest MS Mobile Windows. Obviously my mistake was to assume and it is costing me too much time and money to keep assuming.
The process of trying to SYNC has now stuffed up my entire work in organisation of calenders, contacts etc throughout my Entourage, ICAL, Address Book and even the MS Mobile Device. You all know the story…
Now I am at the point where I need to function is there a solution?
I am even happy to dump the phone, if there is another mobile device that actually works with MAC Entourage 2008
On 2/7/08 6:12 PM, in article ee888b5.75@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,
"superp72@officeformac.com" wrote:
> Is there a solution to SYNC, Calender, Categories, Colours, Tasks, Email, etc
> from my MAC running Leopard 10.5.1 to a MS Mobile Windows 6.0.?
It's a Leopard bug:
When syncing calendars on Leopard using any sync software it's possible for
the iCal sync program ("iCalExternalSync") to get confused and stop syncing.
The primary symptom of this bug is that updated events stop appearing in
iCal, but continue to show up in other synchronized devices and
applications.
For example, if you use Spanning Sync to sync Google Calendar with iCal and
also use iTunes to sync iCal with your iPhone, events from Google Calendar
will sync to your iPhone but not to iCal. The bug is fairly rare but can
affect any user at any time. And when it does strike, it continues to
happen, making it appear that nothing is syncing to iCal at all.
This bug is more likely to happen when you've enabled the "Show Birthdays
calendar" option in your iCal preferences. If you are affected by this bug,
you may be able to solve the problem simply by disabling this option in
iCal. Note that once you do so, you'll still need to "reset info on this
computer" in the Spanning Sync pref pane in order to force events to
re-sync.
Another fix (although potentially only temporary), is to reset Apple Sync
Services:
€ Open iSync (in /Applications)
€ Select Preferences from the iSync menu
€ Click "Reset Sync History..."
€ Wait for the reset to finish
€ Try syncing again
Andy,
I won't give you the (uncalled-for) abuse that some of the other
people have given. But, this is quite a major issue. I purchased
Office 2008 today on the premise that Exchange integration has been
improved. I was really surprised to find that tasks have not been
addressed. I am also wondering why I spent the money.
Please prioritise this!!!!
Having said this, I must compliment you on what is otherwise a much
better application. (I still don't think it is worth paying for given
the big issue with tasks.)
Gerrie van Zyl
On Jan 17, 3:55 pm, Andy Ruff wrote:
> Ted,
>
> It would help us to know which Exchange features you¹re interested in for
> Entourage so that we can prioritize them with our development.
>
> -Andy
>
> Lead Program Manager, Entourage
> Macintosh Business Unit, Microsoft
>
> On 1/17/08 5:21 AM, in article ee888b...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "Ted B "
>
> <> wrote:
> > Just one more voice of a disappointed user who was waiting for Office 2008
> > JUST for Entourage to be able to do the basic operations I take for granted in
> > Outlook. Looks like they're not there, which means no upgrade for me.
>
> > Guess I'll use iWork instead (which I already have) and run Outlook (2003 on
> > XP - no upgrade revenue there) in Parallels. MS have truly dropped the ball
> > on this one.
>
> > One more user done with Office!
I am trying to create a sub-folder within a sub-folder so that I can arrange my incoming email by company then sender. So if I have more than one contact from a company or domain i would be able to set up a filter for each sender. I am able to do this on out-look but can't find the filter on Entourage. The filter would look like this (inbox, subfolder(company name),sub-subfolder (senders name). I want to be able to create as many sub-folders within a subfolder.
First, please start a new thread with a new subject. Your question has
nothing to do with Exchange tasks and categories.
Victor <> wrote:
> I am trying to create a sub-folder within a sub-folder so that I can
> arrange my incoming email by company then sender. So if I have more than
> one contact from a company or domain i would be able to set up a filter
> for each sender. I am able to do this on out-look but can't find the
> filter on Entourage. The filter would look like this (inbox,
> subfolder(company name),sub-subfolder (senders name). I want to be able to
> create as many sub-folders within a subfolder.
Create all your subfolders (File > New Folder) and arrange them as you wish
with drag-and-drop. Then create rules (Tools > Rules) to file messages into
the appropriate folders. You will need one rule per sender whose messages
you wish to file.
I don't get it, i was happy to buy Office for Mac 2008 for our in house activities and get things finally synced between mac and pc's, and finally forget all the problems. Now i must search for an another solution, because i really don't want to wait another 2 years to get my information synced.
I still can't believed that those features aren't implemented, i sent an Sharefolder Notification to an Entourage 2008 client and was amazed when it didn't recognized it, started to read this forum and now im really angry and frustrated.
I hope that Evolution from Novell would be ported natively to Mac so i can start using Exchange features that i need.
Dear Andy,
No disrespect, but as you may know, Evolution is an open-source application now developed by Novell, and it's free, from what i know, it has all the functionality that Entourage lacks and we cry for! How can it be, than an not Ms based team, makes an Exchange Client more compatible and more capable then their own in-House developed product with their own services? I still can't get it how this is possible!
One more thing, maybe you should consider making an voting application on this site to see what CORE functionalities are for us, and what the majority wants. I'm sure that you aren't gonna be amazed how this voting would finish. Talking about view and approach differences is not helping anyone, feel free to pull an vote online, I will be happy to see what comes out and what the other users understand under the Term of CORE functionalities in Entourage.
With all due respect, citing the things that Entgourage does now that it didn't do four years ago as some kind of achievement is like touting new shock absorber technology on a car that you've neglected to put the wheels on. Categories and tasks are the wheels of a business's organizational vehicle, wouldn't ya say?
When I purchased Office 08 I saw clearly and even purchased the license that had Exchange Support. I know I should have done more research, but when something says exchange support, it should clearly say exchange support EXCEPT for tasks!!!
This is completely crazy, the task list is a vital part of office functions in exchange environments. I had a pc sitting next to my mac for just that reason, I bought Office 08 and was ready to move the pc out of my office, until... i find out tasks don't sync. I can not tell you how angry this makes me, frustrated, and just plain pissed at M$ for just leaving us out on a limb. I mean how hard must it be to sync tasks, it can't be that much different then calendar items!!!!!!!!!!!!
On Jan 17, 8:55 am, Andy Ruff wrote:
> Ted,
>
> It would help us to know which Exchange features you¹re interested in for
> Entourage so that we can prioritize them with our development.
>
> -Andy
>
> Lead Program Manager, Entourage
> Macintosh Business Unit, Microsoft
PLEASE add Task syncing, my entire outlook / exchange productivity is
depedent upon it at work, which makes the Entourage Mac option a real
challenge
THANK YOU!!!
> On 1/17/08 5:21 AM, in article ee888b...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "Ted B "
>
> <> wrote:
> > Just one more voice of a disappointed user who was waiting for Office 2008
> > JUST for Entourage to be able to do the basic operations I take for granted in
> > Outlook. Looks like they're not there, which means no upgrade for me.
>
> > Guess I'll use iWork instead (which I already have) and run Outlook (2003 on
> > XP - no upgrade revenue there) in Parallels. MS have truly dropped the ball
> > on this one.
>
> > One more user done with Office!
Good day
What I hoped to get was "outlook" for the Mac; it syncs OK with my Nokia 9500 communicator. Still does as I am still in the fooling around phase and use outlook on parallels desktop and windows XP.
Even more hopeless is the fact that I can use my nokia as a modem, although it cannot be used directly on the Mac. Gues it comes with being willing to go outside the office-box.
Still, Office08 seems to be stable and with my old office licenses dating back from a long time, I guess I'll have to get me a copy; will play with open source before that though
Is there any reason why entourage 2008 can't display tasks in a Public Folder (SBS2003), while OWA with Safari does!?! Contacts and mail appear in our Public Folder but the folder with tasks looks grey and empty. I'm disappointed, 'cause it seems that there is no chance to manage tasks in public folders by a native mac-client.
Server side tasks can not accessed using Entourage 2008 or OWA. It sounds
like you can see them in OWA only. It is unknown why it has taken the
Office development team so long to address this major shortcoming. Sadly,
I've noy even heard of anyone in Microsoft definitely state that they were
even planning on doing it.
On 2/21/08 1:44 AM, in article ee888b5.86@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw, "cmoers" wrote:
> Is there any reason why entourage 2008 can't display tasks in a Public Folder
> (SBS2003), while OWA with Safari does!?! Contacts and mail appear in our
> Public Folder but the folder with tasks looks grey and empty. I'm
> disappointed, 'cause it seems that there is no chance to manage tasks in
> public folders by a native mac-client.
>
> Christian
I am a new mac user, after long being a windows only person (and still am for my phone and office apps).
I think the people on this board (except the MSFT people) have it right. MSFT did not deliver a critical piece of functionality (tasks and categories) and it will have a large impact. There will be an accelerating defection from office to mac apps because of it, there is not question.
The MSFT guys can give there defensive excuses about stablity, etc. But at the end of the day, failing to deliver will costs MSFT money in term of office license, and increase the loss of mobile phone OS to the iPhone. Once you dump office, you dump wm6.
If the MSFT guys were at all serious, and wanted to respond to the (loyal customers) on this board, there answer would read something like this:
"we here you, we tried to get categories and task sync into the release but simple could not given the core work we did to the app. we know you are disappointed, we knew you needed this, and we are sorry. that said, it is a top priority and the current plan is that have it within the next year (or whatever"
That would at least directly answer what we want to know. And if it were true, they would say it. But it's not. I guessed they simply missed it, which is hard to fathom.
I think the big issue here is parity with Outlook. I am head of Mac support at a major University and regularly hear the recommendations that users use Windows running in Parallels simply because features are 'missing' in Entourage. I understand that Outlook Express for Mac disappeared a decade ago, but when new major features (or existing features from Outlook 2003) are absent from a brand new release, it is self-defeating.
I spent the summer holding Entourage 2004 training classes and regularly preached to the class that 'surely 2008 will have the missing features that you are seeing in Outlook 2007' only to have pie in my face later.
I was glad to see some missing features show in the Beta (Auto-reply for instance), but somewhat disappointed in finding out that the Tasks didn't sync (major missing piece) and categories not syncing. The categories presents major issues when an executive is on one platfrom (WinXP) and the admin assist. is on a Mac. Sad that both users are dealing with Microsoft products and a Microsoft Exchange server in the middle, but the pieces don't play well together. Can't blame another vendor for that problem.
Hopefully, this will be remedied in an update soon.
Yes, this is probably in first place on my "I can't believe they didn't add
this to 2008" list.... I *really* expected this to be there for Entourage
2008, since it seems like such a shocking omission.
In fact, the lack of this makes Entourage almost unusable for Blackberry
users, since there's no effective way to get Notes and Tasks between the
Blackberry and the desktop other than using either a cabled sync (which is
so 90's), or Parallels/VMWare with an actual Outlook client.
On 03/17/08 11:59 AM, in article ee888b5.91@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,
"Jackson Ferry" wrote:
> Bahh, this sucks. I NEED integration with Tasks. I don't suppose Microsoft
> will give me a refund once I've opened the software?
It possibly helps. I can understand your team's thinking, but I hope you can understand that many users, are really really wanting to keep the same task list, categories, and notes on different computers. It is hard to accept that this is so very very difficult when we know that we can sync a pda to a one of the computers. For that matter, the tasks quite easily sync to ical (unfortunately they seem to lose their category setting).
What makes it doubly difficult is that there seems to be NO way to access these items without keyboarding them. So far I see no way to export or import these items and no way to access them in Automator. Over in VisualBasic land I can get at the items, pass them to another program, or even convert them to text files.
I cannot really leave the windows version behind, because I keep my Outlook in sync with yet another program which operates from a SQL database. So, yeah maybe I will send it back and run Outlook on a VM or just hook to the desktop over PCAnywhere.
> bill
>
> It possibly helps. I can understand your team's thinking, but I hope
> you can understand that many users, are really really wanting to keep
> the same task list, categories, and notes on different computers. It
> is hard to accept that this is so very very difficult when we know
> that we can sync a pda to a one of the computers. For that matter,
> the tasks quite easily sync to ical (unfortunately they seem to lose
> their category setting).
>
> What makes it doubly difficult is that there seems to be NO way to
> access these items without keyboarding them. So far I see no way to
> export or import these items and no way to access them in Automator.
> Over in VisualBasic land I can get at the items, pass them to another
> program, or even convert them to text files.
>
> I cannot really leave the windows version behind, because I keep my
> Outlook in sync with yet another program which operates from a SQL
> database. So, yeah maybe I will send it back and run Outlook on a VM
> or just hook to the desktop over PCAnywhere.
Hi Fred!
For the record, I'm not part of Microsoft. I'm just a volunteer in this
newsgroup. But I can tell you that Microsoft is hearing the complaints
about Tasks/Notes synchronization with Exchange.
If you haven't already, be sure to directly let Microsoft know your
needs by using the Help --> Send Feedback mechanism in any Office
application or visit their website.
