Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Would You Recommend Entourage?

M

mcmike100

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 31, 2005
93
0
I just got my first Mac and I noticed that Office comes with a program called Entourage. It seems to be a lot like Outlook. On my PC, I used Outlook a lot but it was too unstable (it was slow and it would crash) so I switched to Palm Desktop and Thunderbird.

Is Entourage better than Outlook? Would you recommend something else for calendar and email (they don't necessarily have to be together in one program)?

Thanks
 
I have Office.X and not 2004, but I played briefly with Entourage and decided to go with Apple's Mail and Calendar apps, primarily because they work the most easily with iSync. Calendar has improved a lot since Panther came out -- at first it didn't have very good recurrence features, but now it is fairly close to Outlook's level. Mail is just peaches, unless you want to write msgs in HTML format.

So unless you have access to an Outlook Exchange server, I'd say give those two apps a shot. Otherwise, Entourage is your best friend.
 
if you dont need anything too powerful i could give Address Book, iCal, and Mail a go, Thunderbird i didnt like personally, and Entourage is too slow for me - its basically Outlook renamed.
 
Entourage is OK but you might have a better experience with using the system-based apps like Mail, iCal, Address Book etc. They're very user-friendly. Otherwise, check out the Mozilla website to get their versions of everything (Thunderbird etc.)

For my uses, OSX supplies some of the best tools around. Their seemless integration is awesome too.

Have fun! :D
 
Thanks for the replies.

By the way, I should also mention that I have a Palm Pilot that I'd like to sync the calendar to.
 
mcmike100 said:
Thanks for the replies.

By the way, I should also mention that I have a Palm Pilot that I'd like to sync the calendar to.
Click to expand...
iCal can sync to a Palm Pilot as can the Address Book app.

You need the Palm Desktop software installed, then you would set the Palm up in iSync.
 
Apple's apps are for the general user of Mac

Entourage is nice for someone more serious about organizing, why deal with three to four apps when it's all bundled in one and more easy to use?

Play with Entourage (though it's microsoft, someone at apple kept a close eye on it) it's really nice to use.

Cheers.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Will iSync sync Entourage with the Palm Pilot too?

Thanks
 
I use Entourage, but it definitely has its flaws. It's... I'd say Entourage's flaws are flaws of commission, while Mail/Calendar/AddressBook have flaws of omission.

The mail should be fine either way -- what it comes down to is how much and how you use your calendar and address book. If you need repeating tasks, Apple's Calendar won't cut it, for instance. Entourage has a hidden keep-track-of-greeting-cards feature. Entourage has easier contact editing. Entourage has a built-in newsreader and scratchpad. Maybe those are things you want or need, and maybe not.

I suspect you'll be able to answer your own concerns simply by trying Calendar/Address Book for a day or two -- if you need the relative ugliness of Entourage, you'll know because the Apple apps just won't let you do what you want without hunting for workarounds. If you can enter all the information you need in the formats you need without getting frustrated, then go for it and forget about Entourage. If not, Entourage ain't sexy, but it works.
 
At work I use Entourage. At home I use Mail. Personally I like Mail better and it works quite well with our Exchange server, but getting iCal to work with Exchange is a little more of a hassle. All in all Entourage was the best solution for an Exchange based environment. Entourage is much better than Outlook IMO by the way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back