Let's catch up on what's been going on since the release of Office 2008. As usual, after an update the disappointments seem to overshadow the positives. User disappointment in features still missing continue to raise high concern that after 4 years, features (especially for Exchange Support) are still missing.
Many concerns have solutions that will be addressed in an update. Some features might not come until the next version of Office. I can say that MacBU is closely monitoring the newsgroups and feedback to help prioritize what will be addressed in next update.
Positives: Be sure to read Amir Hague's posts on New features in Entourage 2008 and Bill Smith's Entourage 2008 corrects several annoying behaviors for home users. There are a lot of positive new features that make Entourage easier to use. Just being able to customize the toolbar is one feature that's been asked for and now we have it! For changes both good and bad see Changes from Entourage 2004 to 2008
Hot Topics on the newsgroups:
- Leopard users: sounds are broken
- Sync Services no longer includes conduit
- Safari fonts garbled
- After any install, you need to restart your computer. This will clear caches and fix Safari fonts
- Extensions being added to Safari downloads
- MS is aware of the issue and are investigating concurrently with Apple to find a solution. More info
- Problems installing
- Leopard users are experiencing the most problems. You must have a good base on which to install. Leopard is just not as forgiving as previous systems See Installing Office for Mac 2008 for tips.
Then there are general questions like Why is Office so slow? I thought it was supposed to be faster on Intel Macs.There is not one answer to this question. Did you restart and clear your caches after installing? This is a basic after any install. Using Repair Permissions is also suggested. Even though it does not repair any Microsoft permissions, it does on the system permissions that are used by Office. Many users have installed Leopard and Office 2008 at the same time. Leopard needs more RAM. Each individual computer is different. Each user will see different results. Personally, I have a G4 Dual 1.42 GHZ, Memory 2GB, Mac OS X 10.5.1 and see some slight improvement in speed. My drive has plenty of breathing room. A full drive can cause slowdowns. See Problems from Insufficient RAM and Free Hard Disk Space
MacTech benchmarks the new Mac Office 2008 and provides the following conclusion:
In general, Office 2008 is faster than Office 2004 when run on Intel Macs. And, on the PowerPC (represented by our PowerBook G4), it certainly runs "well enough" albeit marginally slower.
Articles dealing with Office Benchmarks:
- How well does Office 2008 run compared to Office 2004?
- How To Speed up Microsoft Office 2008 For Mac
x#%@!!^ Then there are users that are considering leaving Office for iWork. See Road to Mac Office 2008: Word '08 vs Pages 3.0 A more in-depth look at the specific new features in Word 2008, with some comparisons to Apple's Pages 08 included with iWork.
Questions about the new colors used in Entourage 2008 come up a lot. Love it or hate it, I doubt it will change. Let's concentrate on real problems. :-)
For more FAQs and bug info see the Entourage Help Page Get Started with Entourage 2008
View all of the new articles on this blog for Entourage 2008
Comments (11)
Posted on February 4, 2008 13:56
Brian Ehni:We use an HTML corporate signature block, which includes a jpg, pushed to Outlook users. Mac users have to copy the data to the signature file. We have noticed that a few of the Outlook users, when sending replies or new mail to Entourage 2008 users, are also sending the HTML code for that signature block. It appears to be just a few of the Outlook users, not all, and our CEO (a Mac user) finds this annoying. The same users that he has noted doing this also do it on my Mac (my CEO and I both happen to be using 2.4GHz MacBookPros, OS 10.5.1, and Office 2008). On my other Mac (PowerBook G4, OS 10.5.1, Office 2004), the mail appears normal.
I can forward a sample of what I'm talking about if anyone cares to see it.
[thanks for sample. If anyone else has a sample they can contact me via the comments option]
Posted by Brian Ehni | February 4, 2008 1:56 PM
Posted on February 9, 2008 06:51
linda fine:every few months I get duplicates sent to my inboxes of messages already existing. how can this be stopped ??? thanks.
Posted by linda fine | February 9, 2008 6:51 AM
Posted on February 9, 2008 16:01
dianerHi Linda, The problem with duplicates is usually server error. If you keep messages online you might want to move the older ones to an archive folder on the web.
You can deal with the duplicates with one of the remove duplicate message scripts. You'll find many remove duplicate scripts here:
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq_topic/duplicates.html
Posted by dianer
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February 9, 2008 4:01 PM
Posted on February 21, 2008 08:47
John Cradock:I have one Entourage 2008 user for whom it is so slow that he has gone back to using 2004. Basically, whenever he tries to do anything, like creating a new email message for example, he get the spinning rainbow wheel. He is connecting to an Exchange server using OWA. He has a lot of items that are synced from the server, but I have other users with lots of items and it has not been an issue. Anyone else seeing anything like this?
[Entourage 2008 has been slower for many users, but what you are describing seems to be more than usual.
I recommend creating a new Identity and let Entourage sync to the server with this clean environment. There is something about imported data that seems to cause problems. If you see improvement, please let me know.
This will eliminate any previous corruption as part of the problem.] Diane Ross
Posted by John Cradock | February 21, 2008 8:47 AM
Posted on March 13, 2008 03:29
Gre:I am stunned by the number of problems I am experiencing with this major release from Microsoft in 2008. ....it's 1998 all over again. Slow? You bet! Crashes? You Bet! 10 of each contact record? You Bet! Prompted to rebuild the database every time I open Entourage? You Bet!
In all seriousness, this product, and I use that term lightly, should have not have been released. Someone should be sued.
[The best way to let MSFT know you are unhappy is to send them feedback. When working in Office, you can use the “Send Feedback” option under the Help menu in all of the Office applications. ] Diane Ross
Posted by Gre | March 13, 2008 3:29 AM
Posted on April 9, 2008 14:58
David G Ferguson:I want to find all mail from the mail I have highlighted. in 2004 I would select find then from and it would populate the senders address. I can't seem to find this in 2008.
Posted by David G Ferguson | April 9, 2008 2:58 PM
Posted on April 9, 2008 15:19
Diane RossHi David, I'm not exactly sure what you are asking. Are you trying to extract addresses? You might try eMail Extractor $20.
Posted by Diane Ross
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April 9, 2008 3:19 PM
Posted on April 9, 2008 23:31
David G Ferguson:No when I highlight a message I want to be able to do a search for all messages from that sender. In Entourage 2004 I would simply click the mail then right click to bring up a menu go to "find" and select "from". The find in Entourage would propagate the from field with the sender who's message was highlighted. It worked equally well at creating rules. From what I can tell I now have to manually type in the senders address into the field.
Posted by David G Ferguson | April 9, 2008 11:31 PM
Posted on April 10, 2008 15:31
Diane RossI understand now. First, some items have changed or been removed in Entourage 2008. Looks like contextual menu "Find" is missing. This is probably a result of the new Spotlight Find in Entourage. In the top right, the Find box uses Spotlight to search your Entourage database. The regular Find is still available under the little "QuickFilter" box in the upper right corner or select it from Edit in the Menu bar (command-F).
Now we have the basics covered, let's look at what you want to accomplish. You can copy the name and paste it in the Spotlight search box and get what you want. You can open the contact using the shortcut command-option-C. Use "Find Related" under Contact in the Menu bar (command-F).
I rarely use the Entourage Find as the Spotlight Find is so much faster. If you would like to see this feature added back, please send feedback.
When working in Office, you can use the “Send Feedback” option under the Help menu in all of the Office applications.
Posted by Diane Ross
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April 10, 2008 3:31 PM
Posted on May 18, 2008 10:25
tyler :Installed and wanted to sync to exchange.
I have the same exchange working flawless on a XP outlook 07 client.
First it does not recognize the exchange server by FQDN, internal or external, had to use servers internal IP, the sync process was extremely slow around 10 items per second. (when my mailbox is over 1-gig it was brutal 6300 items)
it would start throwing my legit emails into junk mail. (had to disable junk mail)
It would start grouping 20 copies of the same email message as "TODAY"
and the rest under Older were from Nov 2007. nothing from 2008 even shows under inbox, although sent items looked ok. Calendar and contacts were ok too.
I service packed and tried setting up a new identity.. same issues.
weak..
Posted by tyler | May 18, 2008 10:25 AM
Posted on May 18, 2008 14:09
Diane RossMail that is moved to the wrong folder is often due to a Mailing List Manager rule that was accidentally created when you are marking a message as 'not junk'. Check if there is an MLM entry (look for MLM entries under the tools menu) with the incorrect destination folder as the target folder. Mailing List Manager rules run before your other rules.
Some of your symptoms sound like database corruption, but creating a new Identity ruled that out. I would create a new User in System Preferences and text there to rule out any problems in your User's account.
If you continue to have problems, ask on the microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage newsgroup. The Exchange experts and other Exchange users might be able to offer some help.
How to subscribe to the MSFT newsgroups
Posted by Diane Ross
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May 18, 2008 2:09 PM