New to Mac 2 months. Thinking of going back to PC

Hi. I'm new to Mac and rely heavily on outlook to communicate with the business world. Also, MC Office is my main tool. Made to the switch to Mac mainly due to tired of crashing PC machine and advise that migration to Mac would be relatively seamless. Also liked MacBook Air as I travel alot and tired of lugging PC around. 2 months into it and I feel like I've made a mistake. Apple have offered a full refund ($3k all up). Do I go back or trawl through?

I need a solution to managing my calendar and syncing with iphone?

I was told outlook for mac 2011 does everything that windows does. It doesnt. It does not syc with ical or iphone. Whilst microsoft say they are working on it, who knows how long it will take?

Would prefer to find a solution and stick with Mac, but am feeling really stuck and 'no way out' when it comes to finding a calender solution that works for PC Outlook users and syncs with my iphone.

Pls help. Based on the research I've done, here are the options I see -

1. Go back to PC & give up great experience and feel of working with Mac.

2. Run Outlook in parallels. Does running outlook in parallel sync with iphone?

3. Downgrade to entourage. Apparently this sync with iphone. Does it look and feel like outlook? Is it easy to pick up?

4. Use ical. Problem is when I send ical meeting requests to outlook users, they cannot read or respond to meeting request. Have looked at threads and seems to be a common problem.

5. Set up exchange account. I have a small business with 8 user names/ people. Do I need to move our entire server across? Not keen on moving office to exchange (currently with Optus) to solve my mac problems.

Help pls.

Never mind

the problem is that when i use ical, people using outlook cant read the message. they just get an icon they cant open. has anyone else experienced this?

You could also dual boot and have a windows partition with Outlook etc on it.

Thanks Razormac. Dual boot is an option, but not keen on having to turn my mac off and on. Also, defeats the purpose of going to mac as outlook is my primary tool most days. Will have to turn computer off and on throughout the day.

BlueBab said:

Thanks Razormac. Dual boot is an option, but not keen on having to turn my mac off and on. Also, defeats the purpose of going to mac as outlook is my primary tool most days. Will have to turn computer off and on throughout the day.

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I hate to say it...but it sounds like you've pretty much made up your mind.

I mean that's ok...if you really rely on Outlook as much as you say...and the "Outlook Experience" on a Mac it not meeting your needs...then you gotta do what you gotta do. No harm in that!

No need to continuously eat mushroom soup...if you don't like mushroom soup!

- Nick

Here's what I would do: run Windows in a virtual machine and give it a try. If all you're using is Outlook, there's no reason to run Windows in BootCamp and rebooting just to use that program. Virtual machines are simple and you can run Outlook/Windows right alongside your Mac programs in a seamless way.

Sun's virtualbox is free, and both Parallels and Fusion have 30-day free trials. Give them a try and see if it works for you. If not, well, then, do what you have to do. The only thing is, you'll have to buy a copy of Windows.

If you're happy with how it works, then you're set.

Cheers

Thanks for the advice. Have installed parallel trials version and now playing .....

I stumbled across this thread looking for similar answers for different reasons...as you can see from the many comments...you're not alone in your beef with MS for this particular capability. The original post makes you think a solution is coming - but as you read through the comments - you start to wonder.

The Download on Sync Services in Office for Mac 2011 | Office For Mac

Thanks for the link.
Interesting that MobileMw won't be able to Sync with entourage from May 2011.