The Office upgrade ate two Address Books, or: why I don't touch Microsoft products

That upgrade not only messed up Entourage and the address book, it also resulted in the duplication of the complete and/or partially complete Documents folder in several other folders (Movies, Pictures, and Home folders). It would be easy enough to delete them -- but it turns out that different programs I use now save files in different places. I am a new Mac user [I love it] and a new Word user [I don't love it -- but cannot avoid it because of compatibility issues for others I work with] and am desparately missing Word Perfect.

I get an error message every time I try to sync Entourage with my Address Book. Based on this info, I'm not going to waste any more time troubleshooting the issue, since there's a good chance that "successfully" syncing may wipe my info anyway.

I actually had the best sync experience of my life with this. For about 4 years I have been waiting for Entourage and Address Book to sync correctly, and this time everything seems to be cool, albeit after a little bit of cleanup.

I DID see my contacts balloon up on all systems (3) that I sync through .Mac. I have one Entourage database on my laptop that I use primarily, and that one doubled my contacts on Address Book and that was pushed to my other 2 systems. Once I deleted all the duplicates and chose better versions of them in Address Book, those deletions propagated to Entourage, and then I RESET .Mac from my primary (laptop) system - now all is well on the other machines.

As a bonus, I just got a RAZR and syncing over bluetooth is fantastic with that - so I can add people ANYWHERE and eventually they'll get on my RAZR.

I am happier with my contact/calendar/syncing situation than I have been in about 5 years. Important events even show up on my phone now and I'm reminded of things I would otherwise have forgotten!

Sorry to hear you're having problems, but I'm happy as a clam, so I'll clam up right about now. :-)

OK, so we're not supposed to trust Microsoft...got it. Recommendations? Is this an issue primarily with Entourage or are you willing to lump in all of Office? If so, please offer a usuable substitute. Personally, I use Mariner Calc and Write (and so do my high school aged kids). I opens up MS documents no problem and it performs nicely. Can't wait for a Universal to come out....are you listening guys? As for an Entourage substitute, for me it's Mail and iCal..but that's because I use Outlook on my XP box that work provides...so my Mac based mail/calendar needs are not the same.

So if we're going to thrash Microsoft, let's provide people options...that's all I'm saying.

I have been using Mac since the beginning of my computing life (1988). When forced to use any other OS I cringe. Windows makes me ill. Period.

However, I went down the Claris road (remember that?) and did my best to avoid the MS pit; but you know what? Office products and Mac have worked for me just fine all these years. Entourage is fine. Word, Excel, fine....

Come one really, are we supposed to use Nisius Writer:-) This particular update is not so useful for me. I find the notion of using seperate programs (ie: Address and ICAL) for PIM functionality to be tedious and just plain dumb. I went down the "NOW" road for a while when ACT! went away and, once again am back in the Microsoft fold (albiet relunctently). The point is this: to use, stupid, lousey software just to say that you won't patronize Microsoft is self defeating. These current Apple products are pretty good but not as good as their Microsoft equivilents -- and that is coming from someone who would rather die than use a Windows box....

I had severe problems with the iSync and .Mac apps in 2004. Would never trust its synching abilities again and cancelled my .Mac account. For me the biggest flaw of all Apple technology.

Another positive/happy poster here. No problems whatsoever with the syncing to Address Book from E2004. Decided not to sync calendars - it pours the contents of all E2004 events into a single iCal calendar. Just continued to use Paul Berkowitz' magic scripts.

Nothing wrong with Entourage. Has some decided avantages over the iApps. Don't work in a MS environment - just prefer it.

Just thought I'd add a positive note on the update. Ran the updater last week - no problems. I generally seem not to be bitten by any of the bugs that people report with various updates (from Apple and others), but then I don't have 150 extra utilities installed, and I'm not constantly fiddling with this and with that. Having said all this, I'm crossing my fingers and touching wood that I don't get bitten next time.

Finally, a comment to those "I'll never buy MS products and neither should you" people. Your purity is admirable, but some of us live in world where MS products may be necessary for work and such, and some people may just like MS stuff. This article was obviously an invitation to do some MS bashing, but it's old people, very old.

I use MS Office but have learned to NEVER EVER install Entourage. Upgrades not withstanding - IMHO M$oft will NEVER be as careful about their service packs and upgrades as they should be. If I wanted 2nd rate software I could buy Windows and be done with it. I choose a higher road and, me thinks, a better one. I use Mac's. I have use them since the days of the first Lisa's and Mac XL's and before that the Apple II's and IIe's. Apple and I have grown middle aged together.When there was a substantial premium to be paid for the Mac hardware and software I paid it. Today, it's largely a push in terms of the platform and costs.

The ONLY problem I've ever had with Mac and .Mac sync service is that it's so intuitive that I couldn't figure out how to start it at first. I kept looking for a complicated control panel or something and of course there isn't one. Typical Mac fashion. You turn on a couple of check boxes and give it your .mac address. The rest happens seamlessly and perfectly behind your level of participation.

Entourage may be a must for someone who's using a MS Exchange server at work... I doubt it, but it's possible. With that one potential exception, I cannot think of a single reason to install or use it. Why complicate something that is not by it's very nature complex? I prefer simple elegance and ease of use to complexity any day of the week.

BTM LINE is simply don't use M S products unless you're absolutely forced to do so. Your life will be easier and happier without MSoft in it. Trust me....

Someone can maybe corroborate this with me.

I have made my user account on my Mac a non-admin account just for security reasons. The other day, I tried to run the Office 2004 demo tht came with my system and it won't run on a non-admin account. Maybe there is some kind of installation that needs to happen, but I thought I had already run it once before, so the "first-run" type of behavior should be complete.

Anyone else? I think I'm just going to be fine with NeoOffice. Forget Office 2004.