Entourage 2008 - good and bad

[Mike Sellers]

Just installed Office 2008. Entourage is the only component I use regularly so here's my initial thoughts after a whopping 30 minutes of use.

The good: I use the preview pane to view messages and in 2004 switching from one to another was painfully slow, depending on how much content was in the message. This is greatly improved in 2008. Clicking between all-text messages is pretty much instantaneous. With messages using html and images, there's still a slight delay but not near the multi-second lag of 2004.

The bad (for Microsoft): Entourage 2008 doesn't support the free Hotmail/Windows Live e-mail. You have to upgrade to the $20-a-year Windows Live Hotmail PLUS program. So, like my Yahoo account, it will now wither on the vine and I'll use my G-mail account more. Microsoft once again nickel and diming themselves to death.

[Mike Sellers]

Holy crap. I went the change the saving preferences from the .docx, .xlsx .pptx formats to the plain old .three formats and Word has the preference under Preferences>Save, Excel has it under Preferences>Compatibility and while PowerPoint has it under Preferences>Save, the Preferences pane is set up differently from the other two. Do the guys developing these programs ever look over each others' shoulders just to maintain a little continuity.

[tenders]

I'm positively sure I'm using Entourage 2008 with free Hotmail (just got a coupon for Red Lobster last night from it), and I don't subscribe to Live Hotmail PLUS or any other paid Hotmail upgrade.

[Spiff]

Are they even allowed to talk to one another to protect copyrights and patents and top secret stuff and all? Hmmmm?

[roshi]

I have been using Ent 2008 for a couple of months now, have used Entourage in its various iterations since it first came out. I use Mail simultaneously, for different accounts, and I still like Entourage better.

I have been trying to wean myself off Entourage, but it is just a better program, for my usage.

For me the trick with Entourage is to quit the Database Daemon and backup the database, and do this frequently. This has to be done manually, because copying an open database can risk corruption, from what I have read, and I read the Entourage mailing list almost daily.

[Mike Sellers]

[quote tenders]I'm positively sure I'm using Entourage 2008 with free Hotmail (just got a coupon for Red Lobster last night from it), and I don't subscribe to Live Hotmail PLUS or any other paid Hotmail upgrade.
OK, I repaired permissions, deleted caches, etc. and it seems to work now. Kinda funny since Mactopia specifically states Entourage 2008 doesn't work with the free Hotmail account. Guess since I've had the address so long, some sort of grandfathering is taking place.

What's steaming me now is that those crap proprietary dot.four extensions are the default on Word, Excel and PowerPoint so I have to go into each user account and reset them. Since I let my family have their own accounts on three different computers, that's a pain to have to reset them all.

[tenders]

> what's steaming me now is that...

Well, if you wait long enough, you can get a coupon from Red Lobster too. It's LobsterFest--steam them instead.

I agree, I hate the four-letter extensions too. Notice how every window says "compatibility mode" once you go back to the old format? Also annoying.

[GeneL]

Like Mike, Entourage is basically the only Office component that I use and I was terribly disappointed when I read somewhere that syncing with my Treo 755P was no longer supported. I have been successfully using the Missing Sync to sync my Treo and before that my Clie´ for years with no problem, so I cannot understand why MS would discontinue this important function.

Can anyone confirm whether Entourage (Office 2008) has the same syncing capability as the 2004 version? If it doesn't, I'm stuck with the buggy version I've been using all along.