The Entourage Help Blog

How to get help

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:46:26 -0800

We appreciate your comments on our articles, but if you are having a problem with Entourage or have general questions about installing Office for Mac, leaving a comment is not the best way to get individual help. Select the best option to get the individual help you need.

Office 2008 12.2.3, EWS 13.0.3 and Office 2004 11.5.6 updates available!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:25:53 -0800

Microsoft released the following updaters for Office 2008 and Office 2004 users today:

Office 2008 12.2.3 is a combo updater. It requires 12.1.0 or later installed.

This includes the 13.0.3 updater for the EWS version of Entourage for Exchange users.

Office 2004 11.5.6 updater requires 11.5.5 be installed.
Open XML File Format Converter 1.1.3 requires Office 2004 11.5.0 or later installed.

Hotmail accounts as IMAP

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:39:52 -0800

This is an announcement not an endorsement. Hotmail users have lost functionality when Hotmail switched over to POP access recently. To get back IMAP sign up here to beta test mBox Mail for Mac. What's the difference between IMAP and POP? IMAP works by keeping mail on the server. POP works by downloading your mail to your computer.

If you usually use POP to check mail, then when you use the Webmail interface you'll only have access to new mail -- none of your folders will be available. Likewise, if you create folders via Webmail and move mail to them, that mail will not be available the next time you check your mail via POP. If you normally use IMAP to check your mail, then all of your folders will be accessible using the Webmail interface.

Please leave us your comments on results from beta testing, but we will not be able to help troubleshoot.

Update to shell script used with Super Duper! in Snow Leopard

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:05:48 -0800

After updating to Snow Leopard, some Entourage users need to update the shell script provided in this article Backup Entourage with SuperDuper! to quit all Microsoft applications. Users are also getting an error when the script runs in Super Duper! that indicates the Adobe Unit Types.osax is causing the script to fail.

Office 2008 for Mac Trial Edition

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:15:47 -0800

Are you trying to decide if it's the right time to upgrade to Office 2008? Microsoft now offers a trial version of Office for Mac 2008. You can download the trial and test Office 2008 for 30 days free. Previous trial versions of Office for Mac could not be converted to the full version; however, the Office for Mac 2008 trial is convertible to a full version of the product, either Home & Student, or Standard Edition (and Standard Upgrade).

Entourage Calendar issues on Snow Leopard

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:51:35 -0800

Snow Leopard has introduced new sync issues with Entourage Calendar events. Let us know if these options help or if you have found a solution that you would like to share. Entourage-to-iCal time zone synchronization problems

Snow Leopard users are experiencing compatibility problem between iCal and Entourage. When syncing with iCal the calendar times will change to be off by a number of hours (depending on the time zone) from when they were originally created.

Entourage and ICal Calendar don't sync anymore after upgrade to Snow Leopard

After upgrading to Snow Leopard, Entourage 2008 and iCal calendar events stopped syncing. Contacts and notes are OK, but calendar events just sync one way iCal > Entourage 2008.

Synching an iPhone or iPod touch with Entourage

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:15:17 -0800

One question that pops up very frequently on the Entourage newsgroup is the question of how to synch Entourage data with an iPhone or iPod touch. In this article, we will be looking at several methods to do just that, and highlight any advantages and disadvantages of the methods described. Please note that since the functionality of both devices is identical in the areas that are going to be discussed in this article, I will use the word "iPhone" to refer to both devices. Any strategy discussed in this article work for both devices. One more fact to point out is that synching via Sync Services has regrettably not changed much under Snow Leopard, which means that the same limitations manifest under Leopard are still there.

Wanted: toolbar buttons!

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:36:18 -0800

If you ever open Entourage and want to create a new item, you may notice that all the buttons in the toolbar are missing. You may perhaps know that the latest version of Entourage, Entourage 2008, allows you to customise the toolbar, and you may also have been told on the Entourage newsgroup that you should right-click the toolbar and choose the "Customize Toolbar" option from the contextual menu to restore any missing buttons. That sounds like solid advice, but the only problem is: there is no toolbar to right-click! If this is the case, you have encountered a poorly documented feature in Mac OS X that can be highly useful once you know how to use it. And what is even better: you can solve this problem in just one click!

Work around Entourage Web Services Edition installer issues

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:58:42 -0800

Entourage 2008 users trying to switch to Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition, may find the installer refuses to install the software because:

"At least one of your e-mail accounts does not meet the requirements necessary for Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition. Installing Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition will make one or more of your e-mail accounts inaccessible."

However, this message can be erroneous and it does not allow the person installing the software to override it and install anyway. While the message cannot be overridden, it can be worked around.

Poll: Install MS Office 2008 on Snow Leopard

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:26:18 -0800

If you upgraded to Snow Leopard, please send your feedback on how Office 2008 works with Snow Leopard:

Troubleshooting Office for Mac with Snow Leopard

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:15:17 -0800

Regardless of which method (upgrade or clean install) you used to install Snow Leopard, we're going to discuss options to troubleshoot and steps to identify the problem so you can get your Office for Mac install working under Snow Leopard.

"Since installing 10.6, I have not been able to get any Microsoft Office 2008 program to run. All Office applications hang on "Optimizing Font Menu Performance."

Fonts seem to be the most common cause of problems using Office 2008 and Office 2004 with Snow Leopard. Deleting font caches BEFORE you update to Snow Leopard is advised since many of the utilities are not working in Snow Leopard yet. I suggest you delete all the older Microsoft fonts replaced by the newer ones installed by Snow Leopard. If you use a lot of custom fonts read this thread on Apple Discussions for more details. View link Before you start troubleshooting,

Restart your computer at least twice. This has fixed many issues for some users.
Verify that you are running the latest version of Office.

Before you install Snow Leopard...

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:47:34 -0800

If you haven't installed Snow Leopard yet, take some time to read some of the numerous articles that have been published for a successful install. I listed some links at the end for you to read that do an excellent job covering how to successfully upgrade to Snow Leopard.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. -Benjamin Franklin

Snow Leopard is a major change. Be prepared!

Perform a full bootable backup of your system! If your experience with Snow Leopard is bad, you can simply boot from your backup.
The most common issue for Office apps has been "Optimizing Font Menu Performance." Delete Font caches before you update. Many of the utilities don't work in Snow Leopard.

Does Office for Mac work with Snow Leopard?

Possible workaround for crashes involving Webcore

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:47:40 -0800

As described in WebCore involved in crashes some Entourage users are experiencing frequent crashes involving Webcore and JavaScriptCore. Matt Ridella, an Entourage user has suggest this workaround to stop the crashes until a fix is found. Please let us know if this workaround stops the crashes for you.

In Entourage preferences, go to Security and uncheck "Display complex HTML in messages" and make sure that "Download pictures" is set to "Never".

(Edited photo 082209 for clarity) Preferences can be found under Entourage in the Menu bar.

Restarting your computer after an update is important!

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:35:50 -0800

Having problems after updating Office 2008? Can't find anything to update? Try restarting. This simple step could be the one thing that will fix your problems.

It's important to quit all Microsoft applications including the hidden ones before installing.
It's also, as important to restart between each update.

The reason is simple - the Apple Installer (which MSFT uses for updates) creates a temp folder to do the update. Some times the temp folder does not get deleted after the update is done. When you try to start another update, if that temp folder is still locked, the installer cannot write to that space and the updater fails. Restarting causes that temp folder to be deleted. Thus, when the updater launches it does not find the pre-existing folder and then can write a new one. More Dos and Don'ts for a good install Check List to troubleshoot your install Help with Install & Update Errors Steps to re-install Office

Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition has launched

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:28:47 -0800

Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition has launched and is now available on Mactopia. Because EWS final release requires 12.2.1 to be installed, it's currently only available for English and Japanese users. (If you don't use Exchange you don't need this update!)

Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition uses Exchange Web Services as the primary protocol to communicate with Exchange Server. In addition to several calendaring improvements, this new version of Entourage synchronizes notes, tasks, and categories with Exchange Server. This update also enables logging that can be used for diagnostic purposes. For detailed information about this update, see the IT Pros section of the Microsoft Web site.