Outlook on an Apple, etc.

I live in a Windows universe, so I have tended to shy away from Apples. Still it is a high quality product with good customer support. With the intel chip I can run Windows. I was just wondering to what extent a Windows person could live with an Apple. Can I use Outlook (very big deal)? Thanks.

 

afaik, Outlook is a Windows-only software. The only way to run it on a Mac computer is within a Windows OS install, either through virtualization or after installing Windows via Bootcamp. You *cannot* run it from within OS X directly, and Microsoft does not include Outlook as part of their Office for Mac series. If you're not wed to needing Exchange support then Gmail or Thunderbird are considered by many to be excellent alternatives to Outlook.

Else, many former Windows users (myself included) find we live quite well within the OS X universe. You can't always use Mac versions of the software you're used to (many publishers don't port their software for the platform) but you can nearly always find equivalent - and sometimes superior - software options.

 

" I was just wondering to what extent a Windows person could live with an Apple. "
Some people can easily switch to MacOSX and some poeple just hate it at the first sight.

If you need outlook, just install windows inside a virtual machine and run outlook as usual. If you really like the design of the laptop, i'm sure these steps to get everything working shouldn't be very fustrating.

 

The "alternative" to Outlook on the Mac is Entourage, though I'm not sure how happy you would be with it.

 

If you like the cool factor, buy a Mac.
If you want Outlook natively, continue your living in the Windows Universe.

 

why would you like outlook crap? Mail is 100 times better than outlook. Plus you can use address book, ical.

 

Well, let's see, since we're not being polite all of a sudden..... I'll offer at least one, since OP posed a reasonable question .

If one has several years worth of contacts and emails already organized and archived, there is no easy way of exporting and then importing those into Mail while maintaining all of the tags etc, i.e. HR or sales professionals who have all their business contacts in Outlook, and their livelihood depends on that info.

 

Entourage is essentially Outlook. They don't call it Outlook for whatever reason, which I am guessing is related to Entourage having less-than-stellar Exchange support. For someone having to talk to an Exchange server though, Entourage would be the most reasonable thing to try. For personal mail, there is a PST import tool available that might handle Outlook 2007 PSTs into Entourage 2008.

For general use, Entourage has things that seem Outlook-ish, and things tend to be in similar places. Like all the Office for Mac apps, the designers tried way too hard to make Entourage overly "Mac-ish" (read: circa 2001 Aqua fetishes) so many Mac users find it to be strange and retro-looking.

 

We get this all the time... pretty much if you want to use outlook smoothly on a mac, you will need to run windows. This is our second-biggest mac issue... the first being unibody macs that simply brick...

Entourage is barely a shadow of Outlook... the two are barely similar when it comes to exchange support.

Entourage (yes even 2008) has VERY POOR exchange support at best.

You can still get your mail through webmail, IMAP, POP3, or WebDAV, but calendar and contacts will never work as smoothly as outlook.

Note that you can simply run Outlook through a Windows virtual session or by loading windows through bootcamp... but if you just paid the mac tax, odds are you want to use mac OSX.

 

I haven't used Outlook since I switched. As for porting contacts I did that easily with my iPod. If tha doesn't work for you here is an article to help you.

 

This was one problem for me that, in my mind, was never resolved; i.e. the Outlook to Entourage transition, when I made the switch in '07. I was a heavy Outlook user and was under the impression that Entourage was the Mac equivalent (as was told me by a MS phone rep). I can tell you, as can others, that it's NOT! And as I understand it, it's not an Apple problem, but rather MS as they don't seem to want to give the same for this side.
Having said all that (and calming my blood pressure ) I can say I went ahead and did the import to Entourage and used it for a while. However, I also started using Mail, iCal and Address Book. I've found I like Mail and iCal as well as I did the Outlook modules. I haven't found that Address Book is as extensive as the Outlook contacts was, but it is workable and, my opinion only, better than Entourage.
A book that helped me a lot in the transition was Switching To The Mac, by Progue, and there was a section that told how to do the switch to Entourage from Outlook. I'm sure there are other books that would give you the same info, but that's the one I picked up as it was on sale.
Other than biting the bullet and learning how to use Entourage your other option would be going virtual and running Outlook in virtual mode.
My experiences only, and good luck.

 

I don't trust Entourage. It's the only Mac application that has ever given me substantial problems (crashing, losing data). I'd stick with Mail or Thunderbird or (if necessary) virtualized Outlook.