Via mail, I got this question:
Are multiple exchange accounts possible in Outlook 2011?
Yes! If you’re using Exchange 2007 or 2010, you can have multiple Exchange accounts. I’ve currently got five Exchange accounts set up in my Outlook (my own account, and four that I use for usability testing purposes).
Inspired partially by yesterday’s post, which included a mention of how I imported all of my existing data into Outlook, I decided to clean up my oh-so-messy Documents folders. We won’t discuss how much stuff was in there that I haven’t needed in years.
In that folder, I found a presentation that I gave earlier this year at the San José State University student chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. This presentation gives me an excuse to try out embedding a PowerPoint presentation that’s stored on SkyDrive in my blog, so here goes:
Via mail, I got this question:
I have Entourage EWS running now off Exchange Server 2010 and will be upgrading to Outlook. Do you recommend:
a) doing a fresh download of all mail and other data from the server when setting up Outlook, or
b) importing the data from Entourage into Outlook locally?
With a fresh download, you’re starting off with a clean slate. This is important for someone like me who’s been using Entourage since 2004, since gunk can build up in your database. But, with an import, you get the goodness of keeping all of your local data. Since I have been using Entourage for years, and at one point I had a teensy Exchange account size limit, I’ve got lots upon lots of local data.
With every release, I’ve gotten into the habit of starting off with a clean slate. For this release, that means that I first saved out all of my local mail (that’s the only local data that I have: all of my contacts, calendar, and so on live in Exchange). I let Outlook start off with a clean slate, download my mail from Exchange and from my IMAP accounts, and then imported the local data.
To do this, in Entourage for Web Services, I saved all my local mail folders by dragging them out of Entourage and onto my desktop. That creates .mbox files, which can then be imported into Outlook (as well as any other mail client which supports .mbox files, which is most of them). I don’t have any other local data other than mail, but I’d do the same if I did have local contacts, calendar, notes, or tasks.
Then, after Outlook had downloaded all of my Exchange and IMAP data, I made sure that it would show my local data. Go into the Preferences, then select General, and make sure that the box next to “Hide On My Computer folders” is not checked. Then, I dragged those .mbox files into Outlook.
In my opinion, that’s the best of both worlds: I start fresh and still get to keep my reams and reams of local data.
On Friday, Macworld published John Welch‘s review of Outlook:Mac 2011. It’s a big review, but then there’s quite a lot to say about an all-new application, and John’s never been anything short of verbose anyway. John’s a hard guy to please, so I feel like our four mice in his review would’ve been at least 4.5 mice in anyone else’s review! His final advice is that “[i]f you need an Exchange client on the Mac, Outlook 2011 is the king … or just want something more than Mail, iCal, and Address Book give you, Outlook is a no-brainer”
Since it’s such a big review, there’s discussion of some of the subtle work that we’ve done to improve your experience when you’re using Outlook. For example, he noticed one of my favourite features in the calendar. If you select a specific category in the list on the left side, the events that are in the other categories fade out a little bit. It’s subtle, but it’s a great visual indicator to help you focus on the category that you’ve selected.
John also talks about our Ribbon. Here’s part of what he has to say:
The Ribbon is a bit of a controversy. It’s a user interface element in all of the Office programs that sits at the top of the document window and provides quick access to the most commonly used tools. At first, because of my experience with Entourage, I hated it. I like to have a minimal UI. After using it for a while, I’ve changed my opinion. The Ribbon is a bit garish, but it does keep the options I use frequently right where I need them. It doesn’t get in the way and it takes up a minimal amount of space.
If I had any complaints about the review, I have to admit that I find it perplexing that Outlook’s use of Exchange Web Services (and thus the requirement that it requires Exchange 2007 or later) gets three separate lines in the “cons” section at the top of the review.
Steve asks:
Can Outlook 2011 manage server side rules on an Exchange server?
We didn’t get that into the initial release. We’re well aware that it’s something our users would like, so hopefully I’ll be able to share more news about it in the future.
In the interim, Mac users who are in an Exchange 2010 environment are able to create and edit server-side rules via Outlook Web Access (OWA). OWA 2010 has full support for Safari and Firefox. This is how I manage my extensive set of server-side rules today.
As I’m sure you can imagine, my team here in MacBU has been following the early reviews of Office:Mac 2011 quite closely. Whenever a new one gets posted, there’s a flurry of mail, not to mention Facebook and Twitter posts.
So far, my favourite line is from the PC Magazine review. Here’s the quote that totally makes my day:
I like Apple Mail, iCal, and the OS X Address Book, but Outlook is more powerful and flexible than those three separate apps, and it’s one of the most powerful and best-designed apps ever written for OS X.
Having worked so hard on the user experience for Outlook, seeing someone call it “one of the most … best-designed apps ever written for OS X” has me turning cartwheels in the halls.
More reviews are forthcoming. Mossberg hasn’t weighed in yet, and the full Macworld review hasn’t arrived either. My fingers (and toes!) are crossed that they’re as positive as the ones I’ve seen so far.
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