Entourage versus Apple Mail for Heavy Usage

Thinking of moving to Mail after years using MS Entourage.

[bouncybunny]

I've been using Microsoft Entourage for many years. I have about a dozen separate email accounts, a few years worth of emails in 'archive' folders and obviously the calendar/organiser. I am about to move to a new Mac with Snow Leopard and so I am tempted to try to move to Apple's built in Mail program... again.

I have tried this previously, but have found Mail to be a bit lightweight versus Entourage. However, having recently moved to Office 2008 and been unimpressed with the new interface and speed, I was thinking of trying Mail and iCal again. I have also been unable to get Entourage to play nicely with Apple's iCal syncing and it would be nice to get the iPhone calendar up to date again.

Previously, I found Mail to be not as adept at handling multiple email accounts and so I have stuck with Entourage. But I also don't use the Tasks or some of the other Entourage 'features' and the 'all in one approach' has become a bit bloated.

So, I'd be interested in people experiences with Mail in recent years. Do you use it with multiple email accounts? How do you rate iCal versus Entourages calendar features.

How about email rules and filters, which program handles these best? In the past I found Mail to be a bit more lightweight in this regard.

[weeks]

Yeah, I am not thrilled with Entourage either. But, your experience with Mac Mail was like mine. I know people who love iCal, but Entourage's calendar works great.

I, too, would like to hear from others.

[sonjay]

I've liked Entourage for a long time, but it keeps getting more and more bloated. I've tried twice to switch to using Apple's Mail, iCal and Address Book triumvirate, but I keep coming back to Entourage. Mail/iCal/Address Book just don't "feel" right to me.

Microsoft has announced that the next version of Office for the Mac will include a new Mac version of Outlook instead of Entourage.

Yes, boys and girls, Entourage is going away.

Lots of Mac programs have built-in functionality to sync various things with Mail/iCal/Address Book. So, with Entourage going away, I think that this next year is a good time to try again to switch to Mail.

[timster]

I used to use Entourage when I needed some of its scripting features (I think I needed it to save attachments to a particular folder). I switched to Mail years ago. Might seem silly, but the red circle in the Mail dock icon is what keeps me stuck on Mail.

At one point, I tried Mozilla Thunderbird out. I had no complaints about it except that its dock icon didn't change when I got mail.

[mozilla.org ]

[pelachrum]

Anyone else had experiences with Entourage vs Mail vs others?

I am also in the process of setting up a - hopefully reliable - solution for email/contacts/time management.

I've been using Entourage for few short years but honestly other than its mail capability I found the rest of features to be an overwhelming experience.

I like the simplicity of Mail but I do intend this setup for a business purpose so all features required for such outfit would have to be supported.

ideas anyone?

[bouncybunny]

I still haven't made the switch.

I have gone over to iCal for the diary, for two reasons.

1. The Office 2008 notifications are so ugly that I find it hard reading what I have typed in-between the vile wide bordered reminder windows. 2004 was far more elegant.

2. I could never get the Entourage diary to sync with iCal reliably, for the benefit of my iPhone.

So I use both now. I'm not mad on iCal, but it's quick. I think I will probably go over to Mail at some point. It's just the thought of bringing across 15 different email accounts (some of which I will probably redirect or close) that puts me off.

Perhaps next Christmas, when it's quiet.

[columbusgeek]

I've switched back and forth between Ent and Mail a lot over the years. I am back on Mail again after having some weird issue with Ent.

Mail does all the things you can do in Ent, and if it doesn't, there are always plug-ins for it at Hawkwings. Mail.app search is amazing. I use it constantly.
Add the 3 column view plugin for it, and call it a day.