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Mac 101: Don't move those files!
No, this won't be another post where I explain my reasons for loving and ordering the MacBook Air. That will come later when I actually have the MBA in my hands. Until then, I want to pass along a little bit of knowledge I learned while doing Mac consulting many moons ago: many files and folders on your Mac should be left alone and not moved or thrown away.One particular incident that illustrates this point happened to a user who called me one day saying his entire Microsoft Entourage store of emails, contacts, etc. had just "disappeared" and Entourage had "reset to when it was new." Well, naturally that sounded a bit odd to me so I went over to see what I could do to resolve this little problem.After a bit of searching around I discovered the user had "accidentally" moved a very important folder out of a folder called "Documents" (which is located in his individual "Users" folder) to the Trash. For the win, can you guess which folder he threw in the trash? iI you guessed it was his "Microsoft User Data" folder, you would be correct. Fortunately for this particular user, after moving the folder back where it belonged all was well with Entourage and his data was restored. Let's go over that again, just to be clear. This particular folder, the "Microsoft User Data" folder, is located in your particular "Documents" folder on the hard drive of your computer.
Entourage 2008 and Time Machine don't get along
Office 2008 for the Mac is a huge release for Microsoft, and a big deal for most Mac users. I've been anxiously waiting for the newest version of Office for one thing only: Entourage 2008. For my money Entourage is the best mail client on OS X (feel free to call me names in the comments), but Entourage 2004 certainly shows its age.Entourage 2008 looks great, but not all is sunshine and daisies. Entourage 2008 stores most everything it uses in one big database file. There are many reasons to do this, but are also a few drawbacks. One of the biggest Leopard related drawbacks is the fact that Time Machine does file level, not bit level, backups. Every time a file is changed it is included in Time Machine's backups. Every time Entourage gets an email, you add a contact or event, or label something Entourage's database file is changed. Add to this the propensity for that database file to grow rather large and you can see the problem here. Microsoft suggests you simply exclude Entourage's DB from Time Machine's backups, but I hope they come up with a better solution in the near future.
Mac BU posts Entourage 2008 details (finally)
Microsoft has been ramping up the hype machine for the coming release of Office for the Mac 2008. They've set up a special website, been talking to bloggers, and posting lots of information about the coming changes. One glaring omission from information bombardment was Entourage 2008. It was a little suspicion, but it looks like the Mac BU is finally ready to talk about Entourage.The latest post on Mac Mojo is all about calendaring in Entourage, and I must say Entourage 2008 looks like a huge improvement over Entourage 2004. The UI looks much better, and best of all the features seem to be on par with Outlook.Head on over to read the details about managing meeting requests, making sure you don't lose track of invites, and more.
Sending QuickTime movies with Entourage
They say that necessity is the mother of invention, but personally I'd nominate frustration instead. Lots of the time, the things you need to do, or think you need to do (get more exercise, pay your taxes) get pushed off or procrastinated into irrelevancy, but the things that frustrate you -- even if they're below the radar -- will drive you to the point of saying "I'm going to fix this @!#*& problem no matter what it takes!" Inventions motivated by frustration tend to be quick hacks that provide at least a momentary sense of achievement, if nothing more.If I wasn't deeply frustrated with the QuickTime Pro feature that lets you quickly email a movie, but only if you use Mail.app as your email client, I wouldn't have spent the time and energy to whomp up this Applescript. Entourage users can throw it into the Entourage script menu, or stash it in a quick-run location or under a hotkey if you want. All it does is export the frontmost movie from QuickTime Player (standard or Pro), then it encloses the exported file in a new Entourage email. Nothing too fancy, minimal error checking, and it will not respect odd/widescreen aspect ratios... but it does seem to work. If you are recording quick video clips with your iSight and emailing them off, or doing mini-screencasts, this may be something that finds a home on your machine. Download it here.Please note that the script is placed in the public domain, in readable form, and is provided with NO WARRANTY WHATSOEVER. Use at your own risk. Any ill consequences to you, your computer, your videos, your sanity or your interactions with friends & family who are now bombarded with your video snippets are your own problem and in no way the responsibility of me, TUAW, Weblogs, Inc. or AOL. In case of a water landing, your seat cushion serves as a flotation device. Exits are under the lighted signs. Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for it makes them soggy and hard to light.
Sync your iPhone with Microsoft Entourage
I must admit I'm a bit surprised that this slipped past me, so I hope I'm not the only one that didn't realize Entourage can sync with the iPhone via its oft-forgotten ability to play well with Mac OS X's Sync Services. According to this Apple support doc, switching on the preference you see above in Entourage 11.3.5 or later will break down the barriers between Entourage, Address Book and iCal, allowing iTunes to unite your iPhone and Entourage in beautiful synching harmony (however, as far as I can tell, iTunes won't be able to sync your actual email accounts from Entourage).How well this bridge will work in practice I can't tell you; I'm not an Entourage man myself. But this might be great news for those still on the fence between an iPhone and something like a BlackBerry for whom Entourage synching is a deal maker or breaker. If anyone has been using their iPhone with Entourage, please sound off on how this setup's been treatin' you.
iPhone syncs with Outlook and Entourage -- kind of
It was definitely quickly glossed over in today's iPhone activation and sync walkthrough, but Apple pretty clearly stated that Mac users with Entourage can sync their calendars with the iPhone through iTunes, and PC users can sync their Outlook calendars the same way. That's totally heartening for any corporate calendar users wondering how they were going to get their datebooks on their new phone, but there was no mention whatsoever of contact syncing via Outlook / Entourage for Active Directory, just Apple Address Book and Yahoo Address Book (which could potentially leave PC users in the lurch). P.S. -See our post on classic for a poll.
iPhone syncs with Outlook and Entourage
It was definitely quickly glossed over in today's iPhone activation and sync walkthrough, but Apple pretty clearly stated that Mac users with Entourage can sync their calendars with the iPhone through iTunes, and PC users can sync their Outlook calendars the same way. That's totally heartening for any corporate calendar users wondering how they were going to get their datebooks on their new phone, but there was no mention whatsoever of contact syncing via Outlook / Entourage for Active Directory, just Apple Address Book and Yahoo Address Book (which could potentially leave PC users in the lurch). So, your thoughts?Update: According to Mossberg's early review it does in fact sync contacts too! Not the same as live, over the air AD access like on WinMo, but definitely close enough! %Poll-1590%
HDTV Listings for April 8, 2007
What we're watching: Two more new episodes of Planet Earth on Discovery, but we'll be stuck on HBO to see the return of The Sopranos and Entourage.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
APC reports Office 2008 in private beta
Happy Friday everyone! From Down Under it emerges (via APC, the Aussie computer magazine): a preview article on Office 2008, including the tempting tidbit that the suite is now in private beta, with the 'Escher' graphics engine and plenty of shiny bits. MBU managers also admit that the initial attempts at a new, more Windows-ish interface for the Mac productivity suite met with blank stares and frustration:"[T]he Mac developers had already had one radical redesign tested and rejected after user feedback, said MacBU group product manager Mary Starman. 'We had what we thought was going to be this perfect UI solution, and the first time we put it in the labs, no-one understood it! It was so different they were completely confused!'"I don't know whether to be happy that they listened to the test groups, or discouraged that they were surprised when a radical UI change caused user confusion. *sigh* Check out the full APC article for screenshots and more.Thanks Dave and Bryce!
HDTV Listings for August 27, 2006
What we're watching: The Emmys are in standard-def tonight, which would be bad enough but since it also bumps preseason Sunday Night Football it is especially irksome. ABC & Fox decide to combat TV awards by showing movies, with Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars Episode II both kicking off at 7. The season finales of Deadwood, Entourage and Lucky Louie are all on deck for tonight so it might make sense to skip that 480i awards show, watch shows in HD that will probably grab a statue or two, and check out the liveblogged recap on TV Squad later. Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
Groupcal 3: manage your Exchange calendar from iCal
Are you a Mac user living in an Exchange world, forced to trudge through Entourage? (Don't get me wrong: Entourage is fine, but 'trudge' is just a good verb for dramatic effect.) Well trudge no longer with Groupcal 3, an addon for iCal that allows you to access, manage, edit and synchronize your Exchange calendars and tasks. Also on the feature list are: subscribing to coworker's free time, sending/receiving meeting invites, sharing/publishing calendars through .Mac or WebDAV and even syncing with an iPod or Palm through iSync.Groupcal 3 is a Universal Binary, a demo is available and a single licenses costs $55. As you might expect, multi-license packs are available starting at 5 seats, moving all the way up to 500 and 1000 pack licenses. [via MacMerc]
HDTV Listings for June 11, 2006
What we're watching: While The 4400 season premiere is regrettably SD tonight, we will be checking out new beginnings for several series tonight. HBO has a great lineup with Deadwood, Entourage (now in HD), the series premiere of Lucky Louie and Dane Cook's Tourgasm. Couple that with Heat at Mavericks in Game 2 of the NBA finals on ABC and we have a very good night of high-def watching in front of us.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
Entourage 720p trailer on Xbox Live Marketplace; Season 3 HD?
One of the laments of my summer drought post was that one of my favorite programs, Entourage on HBO-HD, would not be in high definition since it hasn't for the first two seasons. However today they have posted up a 720p trailer on Xbox Live Marketplace (along with a theme and gamer pics) proudly touting itself as a Hi-Def trailer, so it seems likely that we will get 1080i display of the adventures of Vince & friends. Summer HDTV watching is definitely looking up now.
MacTech benchmarks Office 2004 on Rosetta
MacTech has published what I am fairly certain are the comprehensive Office 2004 on Rosetta test results for Intel Macs. Honestly, there is so much literature and testing in this article that I simply skimmed most of it and skipped ahead to the conclusion: "in general, Office 2004 under Rosetta works "well enough" to "very well," and in some cases, it's even faster than on the PowerPC baseline machine." Having recently acquired a MacBook Pro, I have to agree. However, I think Word has a slightly longer startup time than on my previous PowerBook, but I would attribute that to Rosetta having to work some magic in the background.Don't take my word though: check out MacTech's article for more than you'd ever want to know about how well Office 2004 will perform on Intel Macs.[via MacMinute]
Drag and drop calendar items from Entourage to iCal
I don't know how long this secret affair has been going on, but apparently MacOSXHints caught a calendar event from Entourage sneaking over to iCal! Mmhm, that's right. Allegedly, it's possible to drag and drop *gasp!* a calendar event from Entourage right onto the iCal window.While it sounds like the event will retain all of its information, I'm not sure if that includes an alarm, if set. The event will also default to being an hour long once dropped onto iCal, so depending on your workflow and your typical schedule, this might or might not be handy.
MenuCalendarClock goes Universal
MenuCalendarClock is a clever little customizable pulldown calendar for the menubar that can also display events from iCal or Entourage to help keep you on top of things. As an unregistered version, MenuCalendarClock can display a small 'pocket calendar' (pictured), and clicking on a day of the week will open that corresponding day in iCal. Registered users will get to see iCal events right in the calendar without iCal even running, email support, a configurable hotkey and much more.This handy little utility sells for $18.95 and, with the most recent version of 2.5, is now a Universal Binary.[via MacMinute]
HDTV Listings for April 1, 2006
What we're watching: Final Four time, and still George Mason's run continues. Can they get to the final game? We'll find out tonight at 6 on CBS. If you can possibly tear yourself away from some of the best hoops action in history, Jeremy Piven's Journey of a Lifetime seems very interesting as the Entourage star takes a trip through India, first of a two parter and debuting tonight on Discovery-HD.After our April Fools joke earlier, we'll be perfectly honest, we are watching the Saturday Night Live repeat in high definition tonight because Scarlett Johansson is incredibly hot. Our traditional high-def listings continue below
Entourage will receive Spotlight and iSync support by March
Good news for you Entourage users: included in Microsoft's 5-year Office promise announcement was that, with the March update to Office, you will soon be able to search your Entourage emails through the beauty of Spotlight.Keeping the surprises rolling, for all you PDA sync-happy folk out there, Microsoft will also build support for iSync right into Entourage, meaning that devices compatible Sync Services will natively be able to sync with Entourage. Unfortunately, I'm *pretty* sure this ironically excludes PocketPC's, but I could be wrong. You can read more about the announcements and new features at Microsoft's PressPass announcement.At any rate, I think these major new features and updates ought to squash any doubt of Microsoft's commitment to Office on OS X.[via Hawk Wings]
Recipient-based Entourage email signatures with Other Signature X
Other Signature X is an applescript for Entourage 2004 that will allow you to assign signatures based on the recipient or group you're sending a message to. While I don't use Entourage myself and can't test this, it sounds like a great idea that I hope gets adopted by email apps in general. You can pick up the script from the developer's iDisk under the directory "Entourage X-2004 Scripts," while I found it at ScriptBuilders. If anyone tries this out, please let us know what you think in the comments.
