[NJRonbo]

I am a new Mac user, expecting my first Mac Pro in the
next few days.

I had the opportunity to briefly look at Mac OS X while
in my local Apple store.

I was surprised that the email that is supplied with Mac OS is
pretty bland. I have been an OUTLOOK user for years and
I love the fact that all my contacts and scheduling are so well
integrated within the email program. Furthermore, OUTLOOK
integrated wonderfully with my PDA and Blackberry.

So why did Microsoft exclude this feature in their Office for Mac?

Is there any other software out there that comes close to
my Outlook experience?

I'm not overly worried about all this as I will be using Windows
Parallels to work with OUTLOOK until something just as good
becomes available in MAC flavor.

[Big Mac]

For some reason M$ calls the email component of Office for the Mac Entourage. I'm not sure if it offers feature parity with Outlook, however; it most likely does not.

[Blasphemy]

I much prefer outlook 2003 to entourage 2004 in terms of features and GUI. I wish MS would make at least that one client to parity.

[Philip J. Fry]

Originally Posted by NJRonbo 

I am a new Mac user, expecting my first Mac Pro in the
next few days.

I had the opportunity to briefly look at Mac OS X while
in my local Apple store.

I was surprised that the email that is supplied with Mac OS is
pretty bland. I have been an OUTLOOK user for years and
I love the fact that all my contacts and scheduling are so well
integrated within the email program. Furthermore, OUTLOOK
integrated wonderfully with my PDA and Blackberry.

So why did Microsoft exclude this feature in their Office for Mac?

Is there any other software out there that comes close to
my Outlook experience?

I'm not overly worried about all this as I will be using Windows
Parallels to work with OUTLOOK until something just as good
becomes available in MAC flavor.

Same reason they aren't making MSN messenger on par with the PC. Oh, it's Mac not MAC.

[kmkkid]

I'm surprised people are still using mail programs. Since I started using web-based such as gmail, I've never looked back.

[JKT]

Originally Posted by NJRonbo 

I was surprised that the email that is supplied with Mac OS is
pretty bland. I have been an OUTLOOK user for years and
I love the fact that all my contacts and scheduling are so well
integrated within the email program.

Personally, I prefer my contacts and scheduling to be integrated with the entire system which is what the Mac Address Book and iCal offer.

As someone who has to use Outlook day-in, day-out at work, I crave the simplicity of Mail (and also contact search/auto-fill functions that can find people via more than just their last name) and the separation of the apps so that I can view my calendar at the same time as my e-mail at the same time as my contacts...
Horses for courses.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally Posted by kmkkid 

I'm surprised people are still using mail programs. Since I started using web-based such as gmail, I've never looked back.

SURPRISE!!!!

[TheoCryst]

Instead of Outlook, which is an integrated mail/contacts/calendar app, I suggest that you check out what comes built into OS X: Mail, Address Book, and iCal. They are all separate apps, but integrate together 100%. For example, iCal has an option to display the birthdays of people in Address Book, and Mail uses Address Book to manage email addresses for your contacts (in the To: box, just start typing their first name).

Granted, this is a bit of a paradigm shift away from Microsoft Outlook, but try it out before you pass on it.

[CheesePuff]

Originally Posted by kmkkid 

I'm surprised people are still using mail programs. Since I started using web-based such as gmail, I've never looked back.

I still don't know of ANY professional user that DOESN'T use a mail program.

[besson3c]

If you aren't accessing an Exchange server, Outlook doesn't offer you any more than what you can reproduce with Mail + iCal + Address Book or Entourage.

[Blasphemy]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

If you aren't accessing an Exchange server, Outlook doesn't offer you any more than what you can reproduce with Mail + iCal + Address Book or Entourage.

But across three applications, the latter two being inferior to Outlook's built-in address book and calendar.

[Thinine]

Not really, unless you want a specific feature.

[JKT]

Originally Posted by Blasphemy 

But across three applications, the latter two being inferior to Outlook's built-in address book and calendar.

Inferior in what way? Do you mean in the way that I can assign multiple alarms to one event in iCal whereas I can only ever assign one to an event in Outlook? Do you mean in the way that Address Book/Mail will find all names and e-mails that contain a text string I type no matter if it is first, second, last name, in the middle of the word, etc whereas Outlook can only find by last name AND THAT IS IT (which means I have to know what that last name is already, which is not fun when you work in a corporation with several thousand employees)? Do you mean the way in which I can assign any label colour I like to my calendars whereas in Outlook I'm restricted to the 10 or so defaults? Do you mean in the way Mail will find things in a second when I search thousands of messages whereas Outlook can take from tens of seconds to minutes?

Outlook is capable of many things that Mail, iCal, Address Book aren't (they are, afterall, not pro apps), but where it matters - the things I need to do constantly throughout the day - it is too often a horrible, horrible user experience.

[frankthetank966]

No it is called Entourage. It is much better than Outlook.

[NJRonbo]

Here's the big question concerning Entourage...

How compatible is it with Outlook?

I know we are talking apples and oranges as far as operating
system, but I am wondering if I can somehow import all my
Outlook contacts into Entourage and then through third party
software be able to synch it all up with my Windows Mobile PDA.

[Todd Madson]

I suspect he wants outlook because many businesses invest in exchange servers that
outlook works with. If he wants to co-exist in a business that's what you need.

[kcmac]

I haven't tried this myself but might be worth a look.

Outlook2Mac
Little Machines

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by frankthetank966 

No it is called Entourage. It is much better than Outlook.

Not if used with an Exchange server.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Todd Madson 

I suspect he wants outlook because many businesses invest in exchange servers that
outlook works with. If he wants to co-exist in a business that's what you need.

Although one might be able to get by with Outlook Web Access.

[NJRonbo]

Actually, there is hope.

ENTOURAGE may work.

I can transfer all my OUTLOOK contacts to my Blackberry device.
From the Blackberry I can import it all to Entourage.

[besson3c]

Why are software titles in all caps?

[jasong]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

Although one might be able to get by with Outlook Web Access.

Not on a Mac they can't. OWA on a Mac is all but useless. The non-Internet Explorer for Windows interface is worse than horrible.

[bobablob]

OWA works great with the newest Crossover and Internet Explorer (ugh) ...Intel Macs only.

[besson3c]

Yeah, forgot about IE 6 being a requirement for full-functionality... Figures!

[Angus_D]

Originally Posted by frankthetank966 

No it is called Entourage. It is much better than Outlook.

HAHahahhahahahahahahahahahahrhahrhrahrahrrah. Uh, no.

[GENERAL_SMILEY]

I'm running outlook 2003 in Crossover. Seems viable.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22636

[mhuie]

Originally Posted by JKT 

Inferior in what way? Do you mean in the way that I can assign multiple alarms to one event in iCal whereas I can only ever assign one to an event in Outlook? Do you mean in the way that Address Book/Mail will find all names and e-mails that contain a text string I type no matter if it is first, second, last name, in the middle of the word, etc whereas Outlook can only find by last name AND THAT IS IT (which means I have to know what that last name is already, which is not fun when you work in a corporation with several thousand employees)? Do you mean the way in which I can assign any label colour I like to my calendars whereas in Outlook I'm restricted to the 10 or so defaults? Do you mean in the way Mail will find things in a second when I search thousands of messages whereas Outlook can take from tens of seconds to minutes?

Outlook is capable of many things that Mail, iCal, Address Book aren't (they are, afterall, not pro apps), but where it matters - the things I need to do constantly throughout the day - it is too often a horrible, horrible user experience.

Wow, most fanboyish comment I've heard all day.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by mhuie 

Wow, most fanboyish comment I've heard all day.

How is that "fanboyish?"

He is explaining how he finds those apps better than Outlook.

For some people, that may be all that is needed, others still need the advanced functions provided by Outlook.

The original poster switched to Mac. So, we're asking him to try the Mac way of doing those things before proclaiming it "inferior." It may be exactly what he needs.

To the original poster: to sync your Windows Mobile device to those apps (iCal, Address Book, etc) you need The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile.

[Javizun]

Outlook is what apple mails client wants to be when it grows up.

IN the next releasee of mail they added a to do option and people got excited lol hahaha
thanks apple welcome to 1995. Kinda late on the party there sugar tits.

[gradient]

Originally Posted by kmkkid 

I'm surprised people are still using mail programs. Since I started using web-based such as gmail, I've never looked back.

Webmail is pretty useless for people who need to reference their offline messages on the go, where they may not have internet access.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Javizun 

Outlook is what apple mails client wants to be when it grows up.

IN the next releasee of mail they added a to do option and people got excited lol hahaha
thanks apple welcome to 1995. Kinda late on the party there sugar tits.

Except hopefully, unlike Outlook, Apple will abide by RFCs and will also allow their mail app to behave nicely with non-Apple apps, also unlike Outlook.

Outlook/Exchange has a lot of great features, there is no question, but that doesn't make Outlook a well designed mail client. Exchange still hasn't solved the problem of Groupware servers scaling poorly, and MAPI being a closed protocol gives Exchange users no choice but to use Outlook.

[NJRonbo]

Entourage is a horrible email program compared to OUTLOOK 2007.

It may look like Outlook, but once you try to create signatures that
involve logos or try to do any sort of fancy signatures, you find out
how useless Entourage is.

Thus far, I have found all the email programs associated with mac
absolutely stink!

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by NJRonbo 

Entourage is a horrible email program compared to OUTLOOK 2007.

It may look like Outlook, but once you try to create signatures that
involve logos or try to do any sort of fancy signatures, you find out
how useless Entourage is.

Thus far, I have found all the email programs associated with mac
absolutely stink!

If you are looking for features and standards compliance, Thunderbird is your best bet on Mac or Windows. I hear Mulberry is pretty cool too.

Some people don't like it as much on OS X because it doesn't have a lot of the unique OS X bells and whistles, but it is a damn good client otherwise.

[sushiism]

You mean Outlook 2007?
The release where they rolled back the HTML Mail engine from IE to Word… (search for it on the net, its a bit of a disaster really)
Yeah bet thats brilliant at graphics in emails.

Outlook and its utter mess of an option system can piss off, give me beautifully simple but as powerful as you should ever need Mail any day

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by sushiism 

You mean Outlook 2007?
The release where they rolled back the HTML Mail engine from IE to Word… (search for it on the net, its a bit of a disaster really)
Yeah bet thats brilliant at graphics in emails.

Outlook and its utter mess of an option system can piss off, give me beautifully simple but as powerful as you should ever need Mail any day

By utter mess of an option system do you mean Exchange? Unfortunately, nobody wants to touch Exchange because of MS' dominance, and I got to hand it to the Microsofties... Exchange does a lot of really useful things - it is unequalled, but I kind of think that nobody will have to if we can get buy-in of CalDAV (other than Apple, Mulberry, and Chandler), and somebody can perfect some protocols and foundations for managing delegates, making appointments, and all of the other things Exchange does, we may someday have competition in a more Unix-like design, rather than a giant monolithic thing (Exchange/Outlook).