I’m putting Entourage in early retirement; back to Outlook 2007

Outlook_and_igtd

Originally, I had installed Parallels Desktop followed by Office 2007 Ultimate on the MacBook Pro. That was within the first day of getting my new notebook. Then I realized just how much battery life that running a virtual OS sucked from the battery. Thinking like a mobile warrior, I decided that battery life was too important if there was a workable alternative, so I purchased Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, mainly for Entourage. I was able to configure Entourage so that it would sync up with my hosted Exchange server and I thought life was good. Unfortunately, I’ve run into a synchronization issue that has me pulling the plug on Entourage for now and going back to Outlook 2007 within Parallels. Put another way: it doesn’t matter how much battery life I save if Entourage isn’t going to work as well as Outlook 2007.

The issues first surfaced about two or three months ago. I started to see duplicate e-mails on my T-Mobile Dash and Samsung Q1P, both of which also sync with the Exchange server. It’s a cardinal rule of productivity to never touch the same e-mail message more than once (if possible), so this problem was hitting me hard. I routinely had to delete e-mails from my Dash since I had already taken action on them in Entourage. At one point, I completely wiped my data in Entourage to freshly sync with the Exchange server and for a while after that, I thought I was all set.

After a few more weeks, I started to see the issues again: duplicate e-mails on my Dash and Q1P. After kicking around some ideas with James and narrowing the symptoms to the Deleted Items folder, I created a new schedule to empty the Deleted Items folder in Entourage every 15 minutes. That seemed to resolve the issue for the most part, but every now and again, I’m seeing duplicate notes. As a result, I was up from 10 pm last night until 2 am this morning cleaning out my Inbox on a Windows Vista machine, and I’m not done yet.

I’ve worked with my hosted Exchange provider, but they indicated that it has to be a client issue. Unfortunately, I think I’ve tapped out every preference and option in Entourage and I know I’m tapped out on patience, so I’ve decided to stay away from Entourage for a bit. I’m back to Parallels, which I haven’t used in months, and just installed Outlook 2007 again. I suspect I’ll have less issues. Entourage is a fine application but it’s just not working the way I need to for me to be productive.

Along the productivity lines, I’m taking a much closer look at iGTD (shown above), which is a free application for Mac OS X to help you follow the Getting Things Done framework. I’m hoping there’s a way I can leverage Outlook 2007 in Parallels with iGTD, so if any of you can offer any cross-platform tips in the comments, I’d certainly appreciate it! Time to weed through more mail….

That reminds me: I receive a good 10 to 15 jkOTR reader e-mails a day on average. Some are tips, for which I thank you! Some are questions on how to do something on a UMPC, if I’m still using my Q1P as much since the 2 GB upgrade (YES!), or the famous ‘what device is best for me?" question. I try to get back to everyone, but this mail issue over the past few months has hindered my good intentions. If you didn’t hear back, please accept my apologies and don’t hesitate to ping me again, even if it’s a rehash of your unanswered question. If you wouldn’t mind your question becoming a post so that others can share in the conversation, just let me know.

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