new Entourage users, some questions...

Hello,

I'm new to Entourage and I have a few questions. I hope someone can
answer these. All the questions assume an IMAP setup to a generic IMAP
mail server.

1) I have set the view options (columns, grouping, etc.) for my INBOX,
but the setting only seem to be for the inbox. How can I set a default
set of view options to be applied to all mailboxes?

2) Entourage make lots of noise. Is there a place I can set the beeps
and noises? Is there a place to find out what each beep or noise means?

3) I would like to have all my mail locally and on the server. Is there
a way to tell Entourage to synchronize all mail (bodies too) for all
mailboxes all the time?

4) How do I do the initial sync to get all my mail downloaded locally?

5) Can I back up the Entourage database with Entourage is open?

That's it for now. Thanks in advance.

Mickey
Wed Aug 30 17:49:47 CDT 2006

On 8/30/06 12:48 PM, in article #nO4PyFzGHA.3752@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl,
"Allan Marcus" <allan@lanl.gov> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm new to Entourage and I have a few questions. I hope someone can
> answer these. All the questions assume an IMAP setup to a generic IMAP
> mail server.
>
> 1) I have set the view options (columns, grouping, etc.) for my INBOX,
> but the setting only seem to be for the inbox. How can I set a default
> set of view options to be applied to all mailboxes?

When you create subfolders of a folder, those should inherit the folder view
settings of the parent folder. However, I don't know of a way to customize
the default settings for a new top-level folder.

> 2) Entourage make lots of noise. Is there a place I can set the beeps
> and noises? Is there a place to find out what each beep or noise means?

If you go to Entourage > Preferences, and then go to General Preferences >
Notification, you'll find the sounds Entourage uses. Click the speaker icon
next to each sound to hear each one.

> 3) I would like to have all my mail locally and on the server. Is there
> a way to tell Entourage to synchronize all mail (bodies too) for all
> mailboxes all the time?

Go to Tools > Accounts, and open your IMAP mail account. Click the
"Options" tab, and, under "Server options" check the option to "Always
download complete message bodies".

To have mail automatically retrieved by Entourage, check the "Live Sync"
checkbox in the same window.

> 4) How do I do the initial sync to get all my mail downloaded locally?

You could open each IMAP mail folder, select a message, go to Edit > Select
All, and then go to Message > Retrieve Entire Message to download the entire
contents of each message.

> 5) Can I back up the Entourage database with Entourage is open?

It may be possible, but I wouldn't recommend it.

In the future, please state which version of Entourage you're using.

--
Mickey Stevens (Microsoft MVP for Office:mac)
Office & Mac Resources: <http://home.earthlink.net/~mickey.stevens/>

Allan
Thu Aug 31 19:19:34 CDT 2006

Mickey Stevens wrote:

>
>> 5) Can I back up the Entourage database with Entourage is open?
>
> It may be possible, but I wouldn't recommend it.
>
> In the future, please state which version of Entourage you're using.
>

Thanks for the answers. I'm using 11.2.5 (060620).

Are you sure about the backing up? Having to quit the mail program just
to back it up, believe it or not, would be close to a non-starter in my
organization.

Thanks,

Allan

Diane
Thu Aug 31 21:04:03 CDT 2006

On 8/31/06 5:19 PM, in article O9QhcxVzGHA.1252@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl, "Allan
Marcus" <allan@lanl.gov> wrote:

> Mickey Stevens wrote:
>
>>
>>> 5) Can I back up the Entourage database with Entourage is open?
>>
>> It may be possible, but I wouldn't recommend it.
>>
>> In the future, please state which version of Entourage you're using.
>>
>
> Thanks for the answers. I'm using 11.2.5 (060620).
>
> Are you sure about the backing up? Having to quit the mail program just
> to back it up, believe it or not, would be close to a non-starter in my
> organization.
>
As a general rule you should shut down all programs (including Office
Notifications) before any backups. However, users have reported that as long
as the database is not being used during backup there is no problem.

If the database gets written to during the backup you can either (1) lose
some data or (2) have a corrupt backup file. If you are not writing
anything...e.g., no automatic Send & Receive All schedule...you can back up
without quitting anything. To be absolutely safe, you should quit Entourage
before backup.

Do you realize that when you make even one change to the database that a
backup will create a completely new copy of the database. There is no way to
add individual changes to backup.

--
Diane Ross
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>

Allan
Fri Sep 01 12:02:13 CDT 2006

Diane Ross wrote:
> On 8/31/06 5:19 PM, in article O9QhcxVzGHA.1252@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl, "Allan
> Marcus" <allan@lanl.gov> wrote:
>
>> Mickey Stevens wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>> 5) Can I back up the Entourage database with Entourage is open?
>>> It may be possible, but I wouldn't recommend it.
>>>
>>> In the future, please state which version of Entourage you're using.
>>>
>> Thanks for the answers. I'm using 11.2.5 (060620).
>>
>> Are you sure about the backing up? Having to quit the mail program just
>> to back it up, believe it or not, would be close to a non-starter in my
>> organization.
>>
> As a general rule you should shut down all programs (including Office
> Notifications) before any backups. However, users have reported that as long
> as the database is not being used during backup there is no problem.
>
> If the database gets written to during the backup you can either (1) lose
> some data or (2) have a corrupt backup file. If you are not writing
> anything...e.g., no automatic Send & Receive All schedule...you can back up
> without quitting anything. To be absolutely safe, you should quit Entourage
> before backup.
>
> Do you realize that when you make even one change to the database that a
> backup will create a completely new copy of the database. There is no way to
> add individual changes to backup.
>


bummer. I hope MS moves away from the database approach to a more
standard approach. The DB approach just seems very fragile. One file
gets messed up and you lose everything. Bad architecture.

-Allan