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rickey939 · Sep 20, 2005, 02:26 PM

...anybody tried it yet? Entourage sounds like it received some enhanced Exchange support.

Microsoft Office 2004 11.2 (Service Pack 2)

rickey939 · Sep 20, 2005, 03:06 PM

Haha, still no "Out-Of-Office" set-up with Exchange...have to use OWA to configure that or set-up a rule.

songoku912 · Sep 20, 2005, 07:55 PM

From what I've read, they made great strides, but still not 100% there yet. Maybe sp3 or worst case, Office 2006 or whatever the next mac office is named.

Cold Warrior · Sep 20, 2005, 09:36 PM

I still get that stupid alert box when connecting to POP using SSL for either send or receive. But it connects anyway.

beverson · Sep 20, 2005, 09:49 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

Haha, still no "Out-Of-Office" set-up with Exchange...have to use OWA to configure that or set-up a rule.

Ugh. This is so f'ing stupid.

Everything else seems to work fine at work for me, though. I was afraid something would break, but at least that didn't happen.

bborofka · Sep 20, 2005, 10:44 PM

We have 100s of Mac users at our University that use Exchange for email, calendar, etc. and this is a nice update to Entourage. Some users we setup on OS X still need to use classic for Outlook 2001 because of features that haven't been in Entourage. SP2 finally brings us a little closer to Outlook 2001, and also near, well, where it damn well should be.

Here's the pros and cons that we notice with SP2:

Pros (resolved issues):
You can now see the size of all your folders
Delegates
GAL browsability... you can now see more information about people in the GAL
Auto-fills entries from the GAL and LDAP directories when filling out a new email
Seems a little quicker when synchronizing and overall a little snappier (?)
Properly shows Public Folders with Calendars
Warns you when your password is about to expire

Cons (outstanding issues):
Still doesn't synchronize Distribution Lists (Groups) or Tasks with Exchange (this alone will keep some people on Outlook 2001)
Still no Out Of Office Assistant
Still no Spotlight integration thanks to the big, proprietary mail database file
Still can't request Read Receipts (not that I care for them, the feature should be there though)

So, I guess we can thank Microsoft for giving us a much needed update to Entourage, but we're still a ways off from full Exchange support. We've been waiting for SP2 for almost a year, and a 4 year old program (Outlook 2001) still does the job marginally better under awful Classic. I still hate how Entourage nags at you when you quit while a "network operation is in progress," and you can never, fully get rid of the Progress window. Trying to search your email is such a pain too.

If only Mail/iCal/Address Book had better Exchange support.

rickey939 · Sep 20, 2005, 10:54 PM

Originally Posted by bborofka

Here's the pros and cons that we notice with SP2:

Warns you when your password is about to expire

Have you seen this integration yet? Does a message box just show up stating the fact? I assume you cannot change it directly through Entourage, correct? I had to set-up a Calendar reminder for myself every 30-days to change my password, so I'm glad to see this rather "elementary" attempt by Microsoft.

rickey939 · Sep 20, 2005, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by bborofka

Here's the pros and cons that we notice with SP2:

Auto-fills entries from the GAL and LDAP directories when filling out a new email

This is new? If your LDAP "Directory Service" was set-up correctly (we had to change the default port to get ours to work), it should have done this in the last version as well.

bborofka · Sep 20, 2005, 11:18 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

Have you seen this integration yet? Does a message box just show up stating the fact? I assume you cannot change it directly through Entourage, correct? I had to set-up a Calendar reminder for myself every 30-days to change my password, so I'm glad to see this rather "elementary" attempt by Microsoft.

I have yet to see it. However, Microsoft has some information and a screenshot on their website:

Password Expiration Notification
Receive a notification alert to update your account password before it expires. (Service Pack 2 Required.)

bborofka · Sep 20, 2005, 11:23 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

This is new? If your LDAP "Directory Service" was set-up correctly (we had to change the default port to get ours to work), it should have done this in the last version as well.

Before, we could add an LDAP server as a Directory Service and then manually look up names for email addresses, or click "Check Names" before we sent the email. Now in SP2, when we write a new message, it automatically queries the GAL and LDAP as you start typing someone's name in, say, the To: field. Before, it would only auto-fill names that you had recently sent an email to or received from.

It's just like Mail's implementation, which I believe has had it for years.

kcmac · Sep 21, 2005, 08:28 AM

I don't use Entourage so most of this update I won't see any difference. However, Word and Excel fire up almost immediately now. Finally, no more spinning looking for fonts or whatever else it was doing. Much zippier now.

Rangers4me · Sep 21, 2005, 09:03 AM

Does anyone know why I am able to get my LDAP server to work with Address Book, but not through entourage?

LeeG · Sep 21, 2005, 10:21 AM

I am not an exchange user either, but any feedback on Word would be great.

I use word and excel frequently, and I have found word to be a system resource hog. I use it with EndNote 8, which may be part of the instability isssues, but its a great solution (when it works).

I will download and see if it helps...

kcmac · Sep 21, 2005, 08:21 PM

From what I have read, make sure you restart after installation.

nonhuman · Sep 21, 2005, 08:41 PM

Hmm, is there a reason it's not showing up in the Microsoft Auto Updater any more? I installed it that way on one computer this morning, but now I'm trying to do another and it says there are no updates.

rickey939 · Sep 21, 2005, 09:25 PM

Originally Posted by nonhuman

Hmm, is there a reason it's not showing up in the Microsoft Auto Updater any more? I installed it that way on one computer this morning, but now I'm trying to do another and it says there are no updates.

Is the date/time correct on the machine? Did you try to AutoUpdate a few times with no luck?

rickey939 · Sep 22, 2005, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by bborofka

Pros (resolved issues):

Properly shows Public Folders with Calendars.

I was all excited about this one, as I've always had to use OWA in order to view the "Public Folder" directories and Calendars in the past. However, while I'm happy that I can finally view the information in Entourage SP2, I don't like how it has to re-populate the Calendar entries every single time you view a Public Folder Calendar. We have an "Employee Calendar" that has been used since late 2000 in our Exchange environment and is used to show when you are out for Vacation/Sick/Appointments and stuff. It, of course, has a billion entries over the years and each time I go to view that information within Entourage SP2, it starts from the very beginning and starts to pull down the information from the Exchange Server into the Calendar. I figured it could be cached or something; however, it is not.

Anybody else seeing this behavior? Anybody know of a way to hold that information in the Calendar once it's fully populated and just pull down the changes/additions to the Calendar when reviewed?

geraldp · Sep 22, 2005, 06:32 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

Anybody else seeing this behavior? Anybody know of a way to hold that information in the Calendar once it's fully populated and just pull down the changes/additions to the Calendar when reviewed?

Did you try subscribing to that calendar? Right click on it and select Subscribe and see if that solves your problem.

LeeG · Sep 22, 2005, 10:06 PM

Welll one of the upgrades listed on Microsoft's site is improved scroll wheel performance, and I also found this to be true - definitely better - not perfect, but it doesn't hang up as much while scrolling.

L

threestain · Sep 23, 2005, 03:39 AM

Strangely enough, word seems to be somewhere reasonable now. Good update for a change!

gralem · Sep 26, 2005, 06:05 PM

I'm having BIG problems here. After installation, my system remains stable for approximately 30 minutes, then it just freaks out. At first I thought it was just Terminal.app, because that is what I use most of the time. But I've found that have any app open, or no apps open, it lasts about 30 minutes. Then the network connection drops. Then apps just start failing. Cannot quit. You can force-quit for a while. Then the finder itself goes wacky and you have to bring down the system hard.

Anyone else see this happen? I notice that kcmac said, "From what I have read, make sure you restart after installation". Is this what is wrong? I had word open when it started installing. It asked me to quit word for the installer to continue. Then I kept using the system for quite a while before finally restarting. The whole process started because the office auto updater just told me there was an update. I thought it could just process in the background.

Does anyone have any more info? I think I'm going to manually reinstall with no other apps running and see what happens. Any advice woud be GREATLY appreciated.

---gralem

Cold Warrior · Sep 26, 2005, 06:40 PM

you sound like you are having the lookupd issue. Check out these threads and some of the solutions or workarounds to see if it helps you.

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=269656
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=270626

nonhuman · Sep 26, 2005, 07:41 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

Is the date/time correct on the machine? Did you try to AutoUpdate a few times with no luck?

Yeah, checked all that. Ended up just downloading the update from the MS website and installing it that way. Had no problems on any other machines. Weird. :/

spiff72 · Sep 28, 2005, 06:42 PM

Hello all,

I installed the SP2 for office, and I am about 98% sure that it changed the way that it opens links in Safari. I swear that it used to open links in tabs in safari, but now each link clicked opens in a new window instead.

Has anyone else noticed this, or am I just imagining things? I REALLY want the links to open in tabs within the same safari window...

Thanks!

rickey939 · Sep 29, 2005, 07:39 AM

I cannot re-produce that spiff72...sorry! Are you sure your Safari preferences are still set correctly?

spiff72 · Sep 29, 2005, 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by rickey939

I cannot re-produce that spiff72...sorry! Are you sure your Safari preferences are still set correctly?

I figured it out after I posted that message - I think I had a bad Safari crash that happened around the same time, and I lost my Safari preferences. I had gone into the "tabs" tab of the safari prefs, and reactivated them, but I missed the pref on the first tab that lets you say if application links open in windows or tabs. That did the trick. I had totally forgotten about that Safari problem, and that application link pref is in a strange place in Safari.

Thanks,
Jeff

jbleisure · Sep 29, 2005, 08:02 PM

My inbox no longer shows those coloured dots to let me see which project the email is associated with. It was so useful. Any tips?

Kate · Sep 30, 2005, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by jbleisure

My inbox no longer shows those coloured dots to let me see which project the email is associated with. It was so useful. Any tips?

New bug.

songoku912 · Oct 3, 2005, 06:16 PM

I have a question and maybe someone here can direct me to an answer. is there any technical reason why Entourage does not have 100% exchange server support? Or is this a case of microsoft crippling the application because it is on the macintosh platform?

pkdavis · Oct 5, 2005, 07:57 PM

Originally Posted by Rangers4me

Does anyone know why I am able to get my LDAP server to work with Address Book, but not through entourage?

Hmm. LDAP works for me, so I imagine that it's just a matter of entering the settigs. They are to be found under the Advanced tab, once you've used Tools/Accounts and opened your account. Frankly, I don't remember whether Entourage was able to determine these settings automatically, or whether I entered them manually.

rickey939 · Oct 5, 2005, 09:35 PM

Originally Posted by Rangers4me

Does anyone know why I am able to get my LDAP server to work with Address Book, but not through entourage?

Check your LDAP port settings within Entourage...mine had to be configured from default before it worked correctly.