Outlook -> Entourage -> Outlook and etc.

I'm a new switcher. I use Microsoft Office for 95% of the work I do. I run a small business from a home office on a laptop. When I travel the laptop and business goes with me. I sometimes feel that I am not as much a person as a peripheral of the laptop.

I have several thousand business and personal contacts on Outlook that was running on a Dell Laptop (I still have the Dell Laptop). When I go the new MacBook Pro I tried importing the files to Entourage. I don't know what happened but I got two files for each contact (thousands of them). At the time I thought they were exact duplicates, so I sat here one weekend sorting files and manually deleting duplicates.

Later I found out that one of the files contained the "notes" section of Outlook where you can type in text. And one of them did not.

I used this feature on just about every contact recording what was said, promised, when they were going to buy again, preferences - you name it.

Now I have deleted duplicates only to find that some of my files I have now in Entourage do not have these notes, and some of them do. (a true Oh-Crapola Moment).

When 2011 Office for MAC with Outlook comes out I plan to be the first kid on my block to get it and try to set Outlook up again.

Does anyone have a good suggestion on how to get the new version of 2011 Outlook to have all the information I had, plus new information that I have added in the past four months or so.

My Idea is to:

Go back to the Dell and try to import the Outlook file fresh again, and check to see if the MAC Outlook has the notes. Then somehow try to gleen the recent entries from Entourage and manually cut and paste new information into the correct files. Then to add an new files that have been created.

If anyone has already faced this and has a suggestion, I would be your friend forever if you could suggest some simplification of this process.

One thing that would be incredibly helpful is a way to pull up Contacts in Entourage by date of revision. Does anyone know how to search Contact for only those files that have had new information added after a certain date ?

Ron Vermillion

Are you still using your Dell to store contacts or are you now completely switched over to using the Mac and Entourage? Exporting the *.PST info from the Windows version of Outlook to Mac Office 2011 Outlook should be straight forward unless MS get's "cute" and changes format. (which I doubt they will)

As far as recovering what you now have newly setup with Entourage, we'll have to wait and see if MS provides an import feature that's compatible. But even at that, I believe you're going to have to do some manual work. Perhaps a lot of it. Sorry I can't be of more help. I too am waiting for Office 2011.

Regards.

Switched Completely

I am completely switched to the MAC for everything. The Dell lives in the basement at my guitar practice station. Yeah! I know I would be better off with a MAC there too - yet another project in the wings.

I have found in necessary from time to time to go get information off of these "note" fields in the basement and email them to myself and copy them into the Entourage files.

Actually Entourage does just about everything I need to do, with the exception of the notes fields not being transferred and, that was most likely my error somehow.

After posting this I found a search field on Entourage ei.e. "Files that have been updated in the last 7 days". This is exactly what I need if I could do "Files that have been updated since -ENTER DATE.

Anyone know how to do that?

Ron

Advanced search will do it

ADVANCE Search saves the day. I can search by dates modified greater than and less than and just get files that I have worked on since the MAC showed up.

SORRY for the bother, but I think we have a way out of this mess.

Ron