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Technology Thailand

Where Thais and technology clash

by Jesada Chandraprasert, Thailand


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Breaking out of the office on Snow Leopard

Aug 28, 2009 02:46

Many current-generation Mac users will be looking forward to the upcoming release of OS X 10.6, a.k.a. Snow Leopard. It promises better performance in a less bloated, more polished package than 10.5. Business users will find more productivity with built-in support for Microsoft Exchange. This may be something most home or casual users overlook, but considering that the student version of Microsoft Office 2008 Mac starts just shy of US$100, this is considerable savings for those who have not yet purchased it.

For those who already own Office 2k8, like me, the question after upgrading will be whether to dump Office 2008, more specifically Entourage. You see, like all Microsoft products, I've had a love-hate relationship with Office 2008. I need to use Entourage to sync with my work email, but there have been stability issues and resource usage glitches which have made using it a pain. With Mail getting Exchange integration, I think I may be ready to ditch the Microsoft product altogether.

However, there will be a few issues with doing so. First off is that Entourage is a one-stop station for calendar, to-do, notes, contacts and email. This is one reason it's such a big monster of a program. To achieve all the functionality of Entourage, one would have to fire up to four separate Mac applications, making switching around between contacts or emails a few clicks less convenient.

But this may be a blessing in disguise because you'll have to run only what you require. If you need to look up a telephone number, the app won't have to load up a database of hundreds of email. This will surely cut down on the time it takes to complete a simple task and use up less system resources.

Another issue I foresee is the lack of MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint. I need them for work and more often for personal use as most of my correspondence utlizes Windows and MS Office. Using the the Mac equivalent, iWork, or Open Office works most of the time, but there are those little tools or features embedded in the documents which can be accessed only by using MS Office. 

Are you a Mac user planning to upgrade to 10.6 and currently running Office 2k8? If so, I'd like to know if you're aiming to ditch Office 2008 for the apps with built-in support in 10.6. Share below.



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marlowkc says...
Since I purchased the student edition of MS Office, it will be nice to have free Exchange Server support.

Aug 28, 2009 03:58
 
 
craigj says...
I'd have to say that my experience is the opposite. I've been using Mac mail and iCal for about a year, and I've found that the data files that store account information to be highly fragile, and I've had to, more than once, wipe out all my settings and start over, and I've had really strange behaviors with some imap accounts, like getting 50 or more copies of draft emails.

I've been using Office 2K8 for about a year also, and I just recently switched my calendar and mail to Enourage. It's not a perfect solution, but it's more stable than the built in mail program, and It works flawlessly with my kerio mail server and exchange servers on 10.6.

I'm not a big fan of Outlook, but Entourage is IMO what Outlook should have been. I'm just hoping MS doesn't screw it up in the next version of Office for Mac.

Personally I find that Open Office just doesn't meet my needs, and I am constantly sending Word and excel docs to colleagues. Office 2K8 is one of the few pieces of Microsoft software that I like (I hated Office 2007 and went back to 2003 on Windows) Windows 7 seems to be shaping up as a decent replacement to XP, but it's not as good as OS X IMO.

Aug 29, 2009 00:31
 
 
craigj says...
sorry, I meant to say it works flawlessly on 10.5...

Aug 29, 2009 00:32
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aspri says...
SL only adds support for Microsoft Exchange 2007. Perhaps another factor to consider before dumping Entourage altogether?

Aug 29, 2009 14:30
 
 
Jesadac says...
Very good point aspri. Looks like Entourage will be staying on my MacBook for a bit longer. I was hoping that fiddling with Mail's setting would let me get something to work with Exchange Server 2003 but it looks like its a no-go. I hate using virtual machines because it takes away resources to the point where neither host nor guest OS run well when multi tasking on both.

Aug 31, 2009 11:24
 
 
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About Jesada Chandraprasert

A firm believer that he/she who dies with the most toys wins.

 
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