An open letter to Microsoft
After several years of fighting the raging tides of corporate IT politics, I have finally been overtaken by Microsoft (M$) Entourage. For the past 5 years I have used Mac's Mail program for all of my email needs (both personal and professional). Recently, my Capstrat email stopped working in Mail. One Friday it was working and it was business as usual. The next Monday my Capstrat email was completely inaccessible via Mac Mail.
I called IT thinking, "They'll fix this!"
They regretfully informed me that they don't support Mac Mail and that I was on my own. After two days of troubleshooting Mail and using Microsoft Exchange online for my Capstrat email, I finally caved in. I asked IT to help set me up on Entourage.
My life hasn't been the same since.
I decided to document over the course of ONE business day the inconveniences that I ran into using Entourage. The resulting list is by no means comprehensive, as I'm sure there are myriad other inconveniences that didn't pop up during this one day. If you have others, please, add them to the comments. Let's create a running list for M$, so maybe they can get it right next time.
#1 You cannot automatically BCC yourself on every email. I keep track of all email communication. This now adds one more step to every email I send out. Nice job M$.
#2 There is no visual linking of emails in the inbox. WOW. In Mac's mail program, when I click on an email it subtly highlights the rest of the related emails in my inbox. This creates a nice little trail for users to go back and see previous emails. Oh, how I miss that trail. In Main, you can also apple+click to select these related emails and file them away at the same time. Not so in Entourage.
#3 Where are my shortcuts?!!! These trusty time-savers are woefully missing:
Option+Delete - Deletes the whole previous word in Mail. Does nothing more than Delete does in Entourage. This means I'm deleting one letter at a time. Welcome to the stone-age.
Apple+delete - Deletes the whole previous line in Mail. Deletes the whole email in Entourage. I just so happened to discover this magical shortcut when penning an extremely long work related email. *DELETED* I figured "Ah well, there's bound to be a copy of the deleted email in my drafts or in the trash." WRONG. Thanks M$.
Shift+End - Selects everything from the cursor to the end of the email in Mail. This is super-helpful for deleting everything past a certain point in long email chains. Well, this WAS super helpful I should say, since I am now "working" in Entourage.
#4 Where is “link to URL?!” I know that if you type the whole URL out and send the email it will become an active link to that URL. That is old school. In Mail, you can add a URL link to ANY SERIES OF WORDS. So, I could say “Please have a look at this TRU commercial” and magically I could make the words "TRU commercial" link to the incredibly long URL that you would need to view it. Not in Entourage. I work in video and animation, and I send out links to samples all the time. To have to show the URL associated with each clip is ridiculous. It makes these emails seem so cluttered even I wouldn't want to read them (and I'm one of the few that don't mind skimming long emails).
#5 Save as draft... Sometimes I compose long emails. I like to save them as I go. Is that weird? Sometimes my emails span multiple deliverables and are composed as I go throughout the day. I begin the email when one asset is finished and I complete the email when the last asset is finished. In mail, I could hit "Save as draft" along the way and it would simply save it and leave it open so I could continue writing. M$ got the bright idea to close the email EVERY TIME I SAVE IT! Why M$, WHY? Now every time I want to save my email, it closes. I then have to go dig it out of the Drafts folder to continue writing.
#6 How much email is waiting for me? Well, in Mac Mail, I used to know. When switching back and forth between applications, I would see a number notifying me that I had X messages waiting for me. Now, with Entourage, it just shows me a sealed envelope that tells me I have mail, but not how much. Why does this matter? Well, every time I see the envelope I feel like I need to switch over and check it, whereas with Mail I never felt the need to check it until there were at least a few messages waiting. Now I’m derailed by email much more frequently.
#6 Did I mention the interface is just plain UGLY? Seriously, those tiny colorful icons are hideous.
I know that in writing this I run the risk of sounding like a technologically inept caveman, but trust me, I'm not. When you post a comment explaining how to do the very thing in entourage that I'm complaining it wont do, most will think I got punked. I'm ok with this. You see, if you do post an explanation of how to do any number of these things, then I will be one step closer to the life of blissful email convenience that I once enjoyed with Mac Mail.
Comments
Dear Microsoft,
I have a confession.... after sharing my blog with the folks in IT, they informed me that I was running a 2004 version of your Entourage for Mac software. So, comparing your 2004 version of Entourage to the 2010 version of Mac Mail wasn't really fair.
I am looking forward to seeing some of the inadequacies mentioned rectified in the 2010 version of Entourage. If they are then I will update this open letter at that time.
Love,
Carson
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