Dennis T Cheung's Microsoft Blog : Entourage

AppleScript: Entourage's Secret Productivity Weapon

decheung — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 18:00:00 GMT

One of the best resources for Microsoft Entourage customers is MacScripter.net

Here are two excellent downloads that I'd like to highlight from MacScripter.net:

Sync Entourage-Address Book synchronizes Entourage and Apple's Address Book in OS 10.3 (Panther)*. It has been upgraded to use the new features of Entourage 2004, but will continue to work as an update in Entourage X as well. It allows you to maintain Entourage as your centralized Personal Information Manager while at the same time taking advantage of the direct access provided to Fax programs, iSync, iChat, iPod, the new .Mac Address Book, and more by OS X's Address Book.

2. ScriptBuilders: Sync Entourage-iCal 1.0.8

Sync Entourage-iCal synchronizes Entourage 2004 and iCal. It allows you to maintain Entourage as your centralized Personal Information Manager while at the same time taking advantage of the direct access provided to iSync, iChat, iPod, .Mac online, and more by OS X's iCal. Almost all Entourage fields sync to iCal and back, with any unmapped fields recorded in event Notes.

You can also sync Entourage reminders to iCal alarms, including Email alarms. You can keep both applications in constant synchronization by running the script at any time, or automatically every night if you wish. Version 1.0.8 fixes a rare bug which could error "The variable iCalendar is not defined" and quit when Checking for Deletions.

These two scripts highlight one of the best aspects of Entourage that sets it far apart from its competition: its incredibly rich AppleScript support.

We spend a lot of time making sure that Entourage has a rich AppleScript dictionary so that you, our customers, can extend its functionality in ways that we would never imagine - and be able to automate activities to improve your personal productivity. We envision Microsoft Entourage to be your hub for communications, and making it a bit of a platform, there is simply more value.

So check out those two scripts -- they've been found to be quite useful by those who need that functionality.

Working with Exchange Document Available + Bonus RDC Tip!

decheung — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 08:25:00 GMT

Hot off the pdf press: Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac: Working with Exchange Server

This is a very useful white paper that is designed to help Mac admins in Exchange environments. I wrote a lot of the original content (including the table, and the flow chart diagrams.)

In Entourage 2004, we made incredible improvements to the Account AutoConfigure, but incase it doesn't work in your Exchange environment, this pdf has more information on how to set it up manually

Speaking of which, so for e-mail, Entourage 2004 supports POP3, IMAP, Exchange, and Hotmail. If you don't know what Exchange is, you likely don't need to worry about it. Entourage 2004 has a nifty feature that I designed that I call Account AutoConfigure. We redesigned Entourage so for a majority of the time, all you have to do is enter your e-mail address, and Entourage will automatically configure the right IMAP/POP/SMTP server information - so that you don't need to know what it is. For example, try someone@earthlink.net or someone@mac.com!

It just works automagically! This is really useful because most people don't know their IMAP/POP/SMTP server, or they get very confused between them.

And here's a Bonus Tip for the day - If you're a RDC user (Remote Desktop Connection), and you want to connect to multiple machines simultaneously - there is a way to do it. Just make a copy of the application! Yep. That's it! You can have multiple copies of the RDC app running at the same time. Pretty neat!

Top 5 Microsoft Entourage Resources

decheung — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:36:00 GMT

1. Visit Mactopia — http://www.microsoft.com/mac

Visit this site for the latest updates, tutorials, background images, tips and tricks for Microsoft Entourage, and other Microsoft products.

2. Visit the Entourage MVP website — http://www.entourage.mvps.org/

Operated by people who love using Entourage, this site has a plethora of great tips, and answers to frequently asked questions. If you have a question, start here first!

3. Visit the Entourage newsgroup — news://microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage

To join, click on Microsoft News Server in Entourage. This is a Microsoft-sponsored support community for Entourage users and experts. It is your best bet for getting feedback to the MacBU. You’ve got questions, they’ve got answers!

4. Join the Entourage-Talk Mailing list — send mail to entourage-talk-on@lists.letterrip.com

This is the e-mail community for Entourage users and experts. You’ve got questions, they’ve got answers!

5. Visit MacScripter.net — http://macscripter.net/

Visit this site for great third-party AppleScript add-ons that extend the capabilities of Entourage.

Orlando Sentinel loves the 3 Column View

decheung — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 01:20:00 GMT

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/custom/technology/orl-livcobbs10041004apr10,0,994733.column

My favorite feature in the new Mac Office is the Three Column View in Entourage, the Mac's answer to Outook in Windows. That is, the place you go for e-mail, along with contacts, a calendar and other information management.

Hurray for the three column view!

When good ideas go bad

decheung — Sun, 28 Mar 2004 01:17:00 GMT

http://blogs.msdn.com/jmazner/archive/2004/03/09/87094.aspx

Check out that blog post. It's an excellent example of some decisions at Microsoft make so much sense to the people working on it, but then are lost on our customers.

As a Program Manager, I face decisions like this daily. It's about balancing customer needs versus priorities versus resources versus this versus that versus foo versus bar. It's also a lesson that's took me a few years to learn.

One of these days I'll post my “How I joined Microsoft” stories (probably around my 4th anniversary - look for it in mid-June) - but for now, let's just say that I was pretty anti-M$ when I joined. To me, Micro$oft was this giant company with infinite resources - why can't “they” fix every bug? Why do bugs always show up in the software they ship?

Well, the reality is that all software is buggy. As someone pointed out the other day on another blog, there can be a bug in something as simple as “i = i+1;” [please don't ask me how though :) ]

So let's start off with reality - is it possible to fix every single bug? Maybe. (There's also the eternal question of “What is a bug?”. What may seem like a bug to you, may be a feature for someone else!)

But what would happen if we even tried to fix every single last bug. Believe it or not, Microsoft does not have infinite resources - and especially at the MacBU you want only people who are technically excellent and passionate about the Mac. And there definitely isn't an infinite number of these people!

Part of delivering to the customer is shipping. You could have the greatest product in the world, but if it never ships, or it ships too late, past the peak point of technological relevance, then what's the point? The customer would either have nothing, or something that's too late. [Good example: Do a search on “Apple Copland Project” on google. Start by reading this BusinessWeek Article].

Hopefully with these blogs, you'll have a better understanding how things came to be, and why things are the way they are. That's not to say that everything is perfect, or that everything is set in stone and can never be changed - in fact the opposite. This is just another way to communicate to the customer.

Entourage customers should join the Entourage-Talk mailing list. Click here to read about how to join. It's an invaluable resource, and yet another great channel for communication.

When Entourage 2004 comes out, I'll post about the features I specifically worked on and try to explain why they are...

“Office 2004 for Mac a must” - Washington Times

decheung — Tue, 23 Mar 2004 22:09:00 GMT

http://www.washtimes.com/technology/20040322-092411-6652r.htm

“Office 2004 for Mac a must”

The arrival of a new version of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh, called "Office 2004," is on the horizon, and should be welcomed by many users.

When viewing e-mail, the program offers a "three column view," which situates the e-mail reading pane to the right of the e-mail list. It's a brilliant idea, one earlier implemented in Outlook 2003.

Hurray for the three column view!

IMAP - You should love it.

decheung — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 06:01:00 GMT

The Washington Post had a great article today on IMAP.

What is IMAP? For a clear layman's description read the link above. For Dennis' runon-one-line description: Unlike the POP protocol, which everyone typically uses to "download" their mail from a server to their email client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape), IMAP is a protocol that enables your mail to live on the server.

An example: Dennis tends to check mail from 4 different computers regularly. And he hates using those web mail sites (e.g. Yahoo) because reading mail is painful, there are lots of distracting ads, and the email composition experience generally sucks.

Using POP (which is what most normal people do), all the mail would be downloaded to a single inbox on one computer. Leaving none for the rest of the other computers.

With IMAP however, Dennis can set up a bunch of folders, and everytime he moves a message, that message is moved on all machines.

What everyone needs is a great IMAP service provider, and a great IMAP e-mail client.

Omar has a list of great e-mail clients in this post, of them, [shameless plug] Microsoft Entourage, especially Microsoft Entourage 2004, is my favorite. Unfortunately, the Washington Post article above forgot to mention it! But fret not, Entourage has received wide acclaim in other publications such as Wired and Playboy [twice! seriously!].

As for an IMAP service provider, like the article notes, most ISPs actually offer IMAP - they just don't tell you about it (because they don't know!). So do check with your ISP or just try setting up an IMAP account in your favorite email program with your existing server settings and see what happens!

Personally, for e-mail, I use services provided by www.mailcan.com [offically known as FastMail]. Their service is fast, the prices are low ($15 for a lifetime account), and they have a fantastic junk mail filter. Their UI is bearable, and they're in the e-mail business -- meaning that they don't always try to push other services and crap on you.

Also, they don't just go around blocking messages unlike certain other e-mail service providers causing you to lose mail.

So give IMAP a try if you use multiple computers - your life will be so much more efficient.

FULL DISCLOSURE
1. I work on the Microsoft Entourage for Mac team. But I really do believe it is a great e-mail client. And so do Wired and Playboy.

2. I do not work for Mailcan/Fastmail nor I am getting paid by them. However, if you do want me to get credited for telling you about their great service, please enter "decheung@mailcan.com" when you reach the field that asks you for the "referrer" while signing up for an account. I get a whopping 50 cents or something...

[Originally posted here: http://dennistcheung.com/blog/archives/000081.html]

3 Column View comes to Entourage 2004

decheung — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 20:49:00 GMT

Microsoft unveils several Office 2004 features

Three Column View in Entourage: Desktop real estate is always at a premium. The Entourage 2004 Three Column View situates the reading pane to the right of the e-mail list allowing you to view up to 40 percent more of the message on screen.

This is my favorite feature in Entourage 2004. Why? Because I designed it and fought for it.

A study shows that this new 3 column view has the potential to increase the amount of text readable in one glance by 40%. Especially amongst Mac users, with their wider-monitors (PowerBook 15, 17, Cinema displays), this three column view looks absolutely fantastic. And if you don't like it, you can always turn it off to the original view (but why? WHY??)

The three column view is a feature that makes Entourage truly the best of breed when it comes to e-mail clients on (dare I say it?) any platform!

Go buy 8721984712 copies when Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac ships to enjoy this amazing new feature.

Click here to watch the video: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.aspx?pid=office2004Demo

[cross posted on http://dennistcheung.com/blog/archives/000034.html]