First post - Sync mail between Mac and Windows

I am in the process of buying a Mac. I need to be able to run a small business program in Windows (I will use XP Home) that interacts with email. The program will update contacts/calendar as well as send occasional emails (The program does not interact with recieved emails). The program is designed to interact with Outlook. I will use the program about once or twice a week.

When not using Windows, I would prefer to use Mac's mail program.
I will use the same email address on both.

Is there a way to utilize the seperate mail programs, while at the same time keeping them synchronized? In otherwords all email/contact/calendar items can be viewed on both Mac's mail program in native OSX as well as Outlook in Windows XP?

If not, what options do I have? I am new to Mac's so I have limited experience with the apps.

I assume this may be possible with Boot Camp/VMware/Parellels

Thanks

i am using vmware fusion and it has worked perfectly for me. i have 2gig of memory in my macbook and it does make a performance difference with the extra memory. as to your outlook application, i have a similar setup and just disabled the auto send/receive in outlook and told it to leave a copy on the server so i can pick it up in imail. works fine. good luck with the transition, my experience has been great.

If the email account is IMAP, you should always be syncronized.

Notice how my mail.app mailbox pane shows folders used by Outlook/Exchange...

The mail is POP3

I think I solved my own problem. The program only needs to send email and does not interact with any in-coming email. I am going to only configure the outgoing mail server in Outlook on the Window's side and have in-coming/out-going on the Mac side. As long as I cc myself on all sent emails, then I will have a copy. I can send vcards to myself. I can also add myself as an attendee to an appointment in outlook calender and the invite will hit the mail server and come in to the mac.

Thanks for everyones help! The Macbook is getting ordered today!

You can also set one of the mail programs to fetch mail but do not erase from the server. Then the other mail program would pull the messages off of the server.