ceremorphosis

One of the nice features of Microsoft Entourage is the Project Center. I had stopped using it for a while, relying instead on the open search of Spotlight. However, in an office environment, it is still easier to think of things in a file-cabinet methodology, so today I recreated my Entourage Projects.

One of the issues I face is that our mail system at work does not fully support IMAP. There is enough support for me to create subfolders under the allowed “Save” folder. Based on various methodologies I have read about time management, I created Action, Archive, Reports, Tracking, and listserv folders, along with rules to auto-parse and move some emails. It’s a good system when tied with Entourage’s search feature, but again, the file-cabinet concept and the lack of full IMAP support leaves me wanting.

So, I have created local folders in Entourage, to which I copy emails related to the projects I need to track. This works well enough when using the copy method. The concern was that I may not have my laptop handy when needing to find an email stored locally. By implementing this method, I should be covered. A click on the Project Center in Entourage, and I have all my tasks, meetings, and documents in one window. At home, or on another IMAP client, I still have access to the emails. Elegant enough.

Alas, while it is “Right-Click, Create task from email” easy in Entourage, copying tasks to iCal is tedious. Calendar events are relatively easy, as I drag the event to the desktop and import it right into iCal. Contacts follow much the same procedure, albeit with AddressBook.app. Not so with Tasks – those require re-entry into iCal.

Why use iCal, sinceit is not nearly as robust a PIM as Entourage? The .Mac sync makes it possible for me to pull up my calendar on my G5 at home. In addition, Missing Sync for Palm works best with iCal/AddressBook.app due to full Sync Services compliance. So, back to my beating the drum about getting Sync Services implemented in Entourage. When that happens, iCal/AddressBook.app will work for me anywhere, and be fully synced with Entourage, and vice versa. At least that’s my pipe dream.

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Microsoft Entourage, Macintosh