Home Forums Mac Software Mac Applications Office 2011: opinons wanted

curious what people think. Particularly curious on opinions of those who know Outlook 2011, Entourage, and Mail.

Look at MacWorld's reviews of the components.

nice links, thanks.

Jon, I'm on Entourage 2004. just worry about help on forums etc.
Will you stay with it forever?

How does it compare to mail?

I have never used Mail so I can't make a comparison. My reasons for using Entourage aren't wholly logical. My first Mac experience was with OS 9 and the only game in town, at that time, was Outlook Express. When I switched to OS X (Jaguar, by the way), OE was not an option. Since I had bought Office X, I started using Entourage because it was so similar to OE. I'm comfortable with it, it does what I want, and I don't feel the need to make a change. It has some quirks but they don't bother me. If I used Mail, I would probably have to get used to other quirks.

Jon,
I'm 100% with you. Almost same story.
My only worry, it that it's now a dead software.

What about support? I go to the newsgroup and there are only a few people who answer posts.

Also, it will never be improved. Will you use it indefinitely?

Funny, it was exactly like Outlook. Now people are reporting Outlook 2011 is very different, and unstable etc.

But I'm with you right now. What a nightmare having bugs in your email client, or any glitches.

I personally continue to use office 2004. Other than some minor issues with excel limitations I see NO reason to upgrade.

But I suppose when rosetta goes away I'll have my "reason" eh?

We have already ran into numerous customers that got their email torpedoed by upgrading to office 2011. (the non pro version, because it DAMAGES their previous entourage into a state that won't run, and is tricky to fix, the first step of which is to purge office 2011 entirely)

That's where I am although I'm thinking that OS 10.6.5 is probably going to be as far as I will be able to advance in terms of systems. However, it's not a bad place to be...particularly since my needs aren't complex and I have other older software that still works with 10.6.5. (Quicken 2006, for example).

I recently was able to get an old MacWrite file into MacLink Deluxe V 16.0 into AppleWorks V6.2.9 into Word V11.6.2. A bit of a trek...but it worked.

ryck

Thanks for posting that, V1. I had not intended to upgrade to Office 2011 but you certainly validated my decision. If I ever need another email program, I'll probably try Mail. If I need a different word processor, I'll probably go with Pages (or NeoOffice). I don't use Excel or Powerpoint so they are not an issue.

thanks guys,
but my questions Jon, others, how long can one go on with Entourage?

Support?
Rosetta wont be on future OS's? (never heard of that) --
Imagie, I upgrade to new imac or OS, and discover, I'm out of business, no email.

Then.... wont Outlook be fixed by then and import well or will Mail be the way to go.

Or can I stay on Entourage another 10 years?

get away from proprietary formats. give thunderbird a try.

if you have ANY question as to whether entourage/outlook has any sanity to its 'standards' or forward compatibility, do a little research on its "mbox" file. There IS an mbox standard, but they don't use it. and they change their internal file format in every version. Entourage 2003 is an absolute nightmare.

I guess, all rumors that I heard say that Lion (10.7) will not have Rosetta anymore. Too bad, because so many people who have old working programs will be forced to buy new ones.
Concerning Office, they have corrected a couple of serious glitches in PowerPoint 2011 (like no drag-copy of text) and improved compatibility with Word. Still no keyboard shortcuts for many things in PPT. Word got a little bulkier and I don't like the ribbon. Font formats are now in your face and increase menu clutter. Good for birthday cards and ad agencies at best, but not for serious people who use it for writing. On the other hand, the access to functional blocks is now easier.
Concerning Entourage, I really like it and never had any problem on several computers connected to an Exchange server. Since Office 2008 is an Intel-native program, Entourage may be around for a while, I guess. Unless Lion/Exchange 2010 breaks something in it; hope not.
Outlook 2001 was pretty good too and I regretted its death in Office 2004, so I am expecting the same from 2011. Just need to wait until my place switches to Exchange 2010.
Generally, as a person who uses MS Office daily since version 5, I can only regret the demise of Office 2004. In my opinion, it was good enough not to be touched or "improved" (unless for some weird stuff with PPT presentations, movies, etc.). However, I could not make it work any longer under 10.6.5 because PPT would crash (reproduced on several Intel machines). Office 2008 was a step back; hopefully they finally realized that and made a new one.
Time will tell how good/bad it is; I am sure it is not a finished product yet.
Happy New Year everybody with best wishes of health to the members and prosperity to the site!

thanks Virtual. Did it not go 2001 to 2004?

Mbox, very important they import down the road.

Is Thunderbird like the Firefox of email clients? (ie really good and open source), free too? have you compared to Apple's Mail? your opinion on outlook 2011?

Why would Apple eliminate Rosetta ever? Don't get that.
How much space could it take up?

> Why would Apple eliminate Rosetta ever? Don't get that.

I guess I see the point of eliminating Rosetta; it's a bridge utility, and Lion will have long since crossed the bridge, but I wonder whether we'll be able to import Snow Leopard's Rosetta into Lion?

Excellent point Artie, I would think a lot of people would want that.

Curious,
1) Mail, always curious what people think of mail vs Entourage.
2) Thunderbird, same question.
3) Does Microsoft allow a download of Office. Adobe does that and you can give it a test drive. Wonder if Outlook is the way to go in long run.

That is apparently Microsoft's opinion for everyone other than perhaps corporate users.

Joe,
what do you use?
So you are saying that Outlook is basically a power/ corporate email account that is overkill for most people?

Well we hear that every time. We heard it with OS 7, 8, 9, we heard it with classic.

Apple will keep their userbase at least in this deckade, dragging them kicking and screaming if necessary.

I don't use either Entourage or Outlook. In fact my system is virtually Microsoft free unless you count Windows and the few applications I use in a Windows testing environment under Parallels Desktop. Apple Mail works perfectly well for me.

As to why Microsoft is moving toward Outlook and away from Enttourage, this article by Michael Bintener, Microsoft MVP might shed some light on the subject. This AppleInsider thread on the differences may or may not shed more light on the "why". This tutorial(?) discusses how Outlook 2011 for Mac is not completely up to par with Outlook for Windows.

thanks Joe.