Entourage's mail behavior vs. Outlook's

M

Morgan19

Registered
I've set up Entourage but one thing is still bugging me. With my old Outlook on 9.x, it seemed to just "see" mail on our Exchange server; it didn't actually download them or anything. But I get the feeling that Entourage is downloading them locally... At least, every time I start it up I see in the status bar "Updating Inbox" as well as Sent, Trash, and every other folder I have in the Inbox. It seems odd... Am I imagining things, or is there some way to get Entourage to function like Outlook did, so it just sees the mail and not have to take the time to update each and every folder every time it starts up?

(EDIT-) Maybe some clarification is in order. From what I could gather, Outlook (not Outlook Express) doesn't actually download mail; rather, it just updates the listing and instantly shows you what mail is new. Entourage, on the other hand, seems like it actually downloads the mail each time the program starts... I gather that because it has to update each folder and Inbox when it starts. The difference is Outlook was instantaneous, Entourage takes time. Any way I cna change this?

m19
 
Edit one of your accounts, and click on the "Options" tab. Uncheck "Always download complete message bodies" and see if that helps.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
Edit one of your accounts, and click on the "Options" tab. Uncheck "Always download complete message bodies" and see if that helps.
Click to expand...

There isn't an checkbox entitled that, as far I as I can tell. (This is Entourage 2004 if it makes a difference.) I went to Account Settings > me > Edit but there is no Options tab. Nothing else seems to relate to downloading complete message bodies.

Poking around in Entourage some more, it seems like scheduling might be what I'm vexed with. Outlook seems to see email on the Exchange server instantly; Entourage seems to have to actually run a process to "check" for mail, which is where I'm seeing a delay. Outlook was instant, Entourage isn't. I set the schedules up to run at startup and every one minute, but that still seems more handicapped that Outlook's instantly browsing speed.

Not sure if I have a valid concern here, or it's just the way it should be doing things... But if it is, I definitely do not like this whole scheduling business. I want to see my mail, as it is, right then. Blegh.

m19
 
Try this:

From the menubar: Tools > Accounts > Mail then select your account and click Edit. Then select the Options tab and look for that checkbox there.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
Try this:

From the menubar: Tools > Accounts > Mail then select your account and click Edit. Then select the Options tab and look for that checkbox there.
Click to expand...

That's the same way as what I did; they both go to Account Settings. And there's still no Options tab. ;) The ones that are there are:

Account Settings | Mail | Directory | Advanced | Delegate | Security

The Mail tab has a blurb about Downloading Mail: receive complete messages or partially receive messages but that didn't change anything when I tried it. Advanced tab has a section on Synchronization but that doesn't look like mail items either.

m19
 
Hmmm... perhaps that's just the way Entourage works. Also, I'm assuming that the account is an IMAP account, correct?

Do you have any POP accounts that act like this?
 
When you first create the account you can set it up as POP, IMAP... They've also since created some extra IMAP extentions to make it more excahnge friendly...

I don't know the details but I do know that you should use IMAP since that's the only way to do online viewing of all of the Exhange folders besides the In Box...
 
TommyWillB said:
Funny... The official answer from Microsoft seems to be that you should "Use Outlook Web Access":

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/support.aspx?pid=exchange
Click to expand...

How do you figure? Going by their requirements and suggestions, I'm on 10.3.5 and an exchange server. Following their path, I can go:

- Need to access Exchange server
- Don't need more than email, scheduling, and calendar
- That leads to Entourage 2004

You just sound bitter. :) In any case, Entourage is working fine except for this one thing... I'm not exactly throwing in the towel.

m19
 
Also note you can set up what Entourage does on Startup... You can have it do a full send/receive or not. If you choose not to, maybe it won't do the remote synching (downloading) either... On my Entourage X, this setting is under Tools > Schedules. If I remeber correctly "Send & Receive All" is one of the default schedules. (I've long since deleted mine...)
Morgan19 said:
How do you figure? Going by their requirements and suggestions, I'm on 10.3.5 and an exchange server. Following their path, I can go:

- Need to access Exchange server
- Don't need more than email, scheduling, and calendar
- That leads to Entourage 2004

You just sound bitter. :) In any case, Entourage is working fine except for this one thing... I'm not exactly throwing in the towel.

m19
Click to expand...
Since you need to have control over where mail is saved I'd say you DO "need more than email, scheduling, and calendar". I also assumed you did not want to use VPC or Remote Desktop (which assumes you have a remote WinXP box)... That's how I got to Web Outlook.

...and YES, I'll admit to hating the Web Outlook. So I guess I probably do come off as bitter on that topic.

Note that after 2 years of accessing my Exchange email using VPC with the full Outlook (Exchange) client running under Windows 2000, I finally reformatted my PC @ work, installed WindowsXP, and now use the MacOS X Remote Desktop client. This is the coolest telecommuting setup I've had in the 8 years. No more issues with slow VPC and slow DSL... Now everything runs as fast as my PC at work!:D (I use Entourage for personal email and only as a backup for Exchange email...)
 
TommyWillB said:
Also note you can set up what Entourage does on Startup... You can have it do a full send/receive or not. If you choose not to, maybe it won't do the remote synching (downloading) either... On my Entourage X, this setting is under Tools > Schedules. If I remeber correctly "Send & Receive All" is one of the default schedules. (I've long since deleted mine...)
Click to expand...

So it sounds like you're saying the Send & Receive schedule is what's actually downloading (locally?) the messages? As a test, I tried turning off al schedules, sending a mail through a web-based email to the Exchange account, and it looks like it came through ok. After I got the email, it started synchronizing all the folders even though sync'ing has been turned off. Hmm.

Something else I'd noticed while poking around for all of this... Our global address book doesn't seem to be working. At least, my address book only has me in it so I assume it's not working. ;) From what I've read it looks like Entourage doesn't like an Exchange address book? Any thoughts on that?

m19
 
Yes Entourage does keep a cached local copy of the imap folders from the exchange server unlike outlook 2001.

You will find this folder in your microsoft users data folder in ~/Documents.

The GAL works just make sure you don't have to authenticate to the exchange box.

I like Entourage 2004 but its missing the most important service public calendars.

You can get evolution up and running under x11.app which supports the public folders and its free.
 
Morgan19 said:
Our global address book doesn't seem to be working. At least, my address book only has me in it so I assume it's not working. ;) From what I've read it looks like Entourage doesn't like an Exchange address book? Any thoughts on that?
Click to expand...
Go to the New Account > Directory Services preferences... Set up a directory service using the name of your Exchange server.

To use this, open up the Directory Services window. Do a search, and then drag/drop the user to your new email TO field.
 
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