Apple's own Mail application, on the other hand, stores each message as a separate file - in part so that OS X's own Spotlight search tool can index the message and its contents - so a corrupted file damages only one message.ĭata corruption has been on users' minds. If that file is corrupted, all mail is lost. The e-mailer, like its Windows' cousin, stores mail in a database file, which can grow to serious size. Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit also expended significant effort in getting Entourage's notorious data corruption problems under control. But Entourage does not sync notes and tasks with Exchange, as Outlook does. It was a big investment in this release.'Įntourage 2008, for instance, now synchronizes to-dos with Exchange, and is more consistent with Outlook in other calendaring functions, such as declining a previously accepted invitation directly from the event listing. 'We straightened lots of problems out and added features. 'A big area of pain was the calendar,' added Rich Kmieciak, an Entourage program manager.

Instead, the team devoted its time and resources to improving the reliability of Entourage's synchronization, both with Exchange and - using the Mac OS X's own Sync Services - with other applications such as iCal, the calendar bundled with every Mac. 'Technically, that's a very difficult thing to do,' Ruff said when asked why Entourage 2008 couldn't read Outlook's. I am sick and tired of all this half-assed Exchange support.' 'If it's missing in January, I am going to be very pissed. 'Exchange support for notes and tasks is a must,' said Evan Baxter. 15 post.Īnother user was more colorful in his language. pst file, and get full access to Exchange servers like Windows, in every manner,' someone identified as Jason said in a comment left on the Oct. 'I just can't figure out why it's so hard to read. Many lobbied hard for better Exchange support and more interoperability between Outlook and Entourage.

In October, when the Office team blogged about improvements to the client's calendar, 135 users left comments.

Users keeping tabs on the progress of Office 2008 last year, however, had different ideas about what they hoped to see in Entourage. 'When we looked at Entourage two years ago, we felt that improving the reliability and stability was the way to go.' 'The real story with Entourage is that we have improved its reliability,' said Andy Ruff, lead program manager for the e-mail client.

Office 2008 for mac