Filter by: issue worse in Office 2008

I had this problem ocassionally in 2004, but 2008 seems more prone to it,
and harder to get out of it:

1. Go to an address book.

2. Choose "Category is" or "Project is" in the filter drop-down. The text
entry field used in "Name contains" or "Company contains" should be replaced
by a drop-down of categories or projects. Here's a link:

http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/49090/2003594652319438809_rs.jpg

Sometime it isn't, so I have "Category is" followed by a text entry field.
(Which doesn't work if you type the name of a category, btw.)

3. Sometimes the reverse is true also, in which case the "Name contains"
filter has the category or project dropdown instead of a text field. I can't
get this to happen right now to capture a screenshot, but I'm certain that
it has.

In Office 2004, switching back and forth between filter types a few times
would usually clear it up temporarily. But in O 2008, it seems to get more
persistantly stuck, requiring a restart.

Diane
Sun Mar 16 16:28:26 CDT 2008

On 3/16/08 1:31 37PM, in article C402D1B9.26D8F%ramatsu@hotmail.com, "Allen"
<ramatsu@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Sometime it isn't, so I have "Category is" followed by a text entry field.
> (Which doesn't work if you type the name of a category, btw.)
>
> 3. Sometimes the reverse is true also, in which case the "Name contains"
> filter has the category or project dropdown instead of a text field. I can't
> get this to happen right now to capture a screenshot, but I'm certain that
> it has.
>
> In Office 2004, switching back and forth between filter types a few times
> would usually clear it up temporarily. But in O 2008, it seems to get more
> persistantly stuck, requiring a restart.

First, try just quitting Entourage. If that does not work log out/in might
be quicker than restart. Let me know if a restart is required. Also what OS
are you running?

I've seen the same thing, but usually just reselecting it fixes the problem.
I have more problems with switching applications in Leopard where the window
shows for the application but not the top menu. Sometimes selecting
command-tab will fix it but other times not.

Not sure what to suggest other than check the Activity Monitor when this
happens to see if anything is hogging CPU at the time.

Send feedback on this so this feature is improved. Hard to call it a bug but
it is certainly a performance issue.

When working in Office, you can use the ³Send Feedback² option under the
Help menu in all of the Office applications.

--
Diane, Microsoft Mac MVP (MVPs are not Microsoft Employees)
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

Allen
Sun Mar 16 16:54:03 CDT 2008

{Allen}:

Thanks, I'll send feedback. I should have said "restart Entourage." That's
all that's needed, no system restart required. It's just that I use this
feature so often that it's a significant drawback to have to restart
Entourage. (Especially since 2008 seems to take longer than 2004; runs over
a minute and a half to quit and restart the app. I do have a 3.6+ Gb
database.)

Glad to hear someone else note the OSX issue about app switching not
bringing focus to the right window. I have seen that semi-regularly, even
before Leopard.

A

> On 3/16/08 1:31 37PM, in article C402D1B9.26D8F%ramatsu@hotmail.com, "Allen"
> <ramatsu@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Sometime it isn't, so I have "Category is" followed by a text entry field.
>> (Which doesn't work if you type the name of a category, btw.)
>>
>> 3. Sometimes the reverse is true also, in which case the "Name contains"
>> filter has the category or project dropdown instead of a text field. I can't
>> get this to happen right now to capture a screenshot, but I'm certain that
>> it has.
>>
>> In Office 2004, switching back and forth between filter types a few times
>> would usually clear it up temporarily. But in O 2008, it seems to get more
>> persistantly stuck, requiring a restart.
>
> First, try just quitting Entourage. If that does not work log out/in might
> be quicker than restart. Let me know if a restart is required. Also what OS
> are you running?
>
> I've seen the same thing, but usually just reselecting it fixes the problem.
> I have more problems with switching applications in Leopard where the window
> shows for the application but not the top menu. Sometimes selecting
> command-tab will fix it but other times not.
>
> Not sure what to suggest other than check the Activity Monitor when this
> happens to see if anything is hogging CPU at the time.
>
> Send feedback on this so this feature is improved. Hard to call it a bug but
> it is certainly a performance issue.
>
> When working in Office, you can use the ³Send Feedback² option under the
> Help menu in all of the Office applications.

Diane
Sun Mar 16 17:22:00 CDT 2008

On 3/16/08 2:54 03PM, in article C402E50B.26F17%ramatsu@hotmail.com, "Allen"
<ramatsu@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks, I'll send feedback. I should have said "restart Entourage." That's
> all that's needed, no system restart required. It's just that I use this
> feature so often that it's a significant drawback to have to restart
> Entourage. (Especially since 2008 seems to take longer than 2004; runs over
> a minute and a half to quit and restart the app. I do have a 3.6+ Gb
> database.)

As a comparison, I have a G4 Dual 1.42 GHZ, Memory 2GB, Mac OS X 10.5.2 and
it takes me exactly 1 minute to open Entourage. My database is 660 MB.

Test Entourage with a new blank Identity and see if time improves. This way
we could rule out the size of the database. The only other thing would be to
look at your fonts. Clear out font caches.

Office 2008 Font Install Basics:

Office 2008 uses a different method for fonts and many fonts are new
versions. Office 2008 will install fonts to the /Library/Fonts/Microsoft
folder. By being at the root, then all users on the machine have access to
them and you don't get Office 2008 putting multiple copies on the machine
for each user.

The installer will scour /Library/Fonts/ and ~/Library/Fonts/ for fonts with
the same name and move them to /Library/Disabled Fonts/ or
~/Library/Disabled Fonts/ depending on where they were found.

Note some of the Microsoft fonts are newer than the Apple fonts.

Try disabling Curlz MT. Some users have had problems with this font.

Check your fonts with Linotype FontExplorer X (which is a free download).

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/index.html>

Optional: In Linotype FontExplorer use "Clean System Fonts Folders" which
cleans out any fonts not installed by the Mac OS X Installation (i.e. ones
you install yourself). This puts them in a folder on your desktop to do with
what you want. Slowly reinstall until you can figure out which one is a
problem.

--
Diane, Microsoft Mac MVP (MVPs are not Microsoft Employees)
Entourage Help Page <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

Allen
Wed Mar 19 01:17:31 CDT 2008

{Allen}:

Interesting... After reading Eddie's message "Re: VERY slow startup" from
7:13 am, I tried quitting Suitcase first.

Rough results:

- Entourage 2008 had been taking over 90 seconds to launch

- Without suitcase, Entourage launches in ~23 seconds, and <6 seconds when
cached in memory.

- After turning Suitcase back on, it now launches in ~40 seconds, ~20
seconds when cached in memory.

So it seems faster just having quit Suitcase and started it back up. It
could be that I'm still getting some caching benefit that I wasn't seeing
when the launch times were longer.


> On 3/16/08 2:54 03PM, in article C402E50B.26F17%ramatsu@hotmail.com, "Allen"
> <ramatsu@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thanks, I'll send feedback. I should have said "restart Entourage." That's
>> all that's needed, no system restart required. It's just that I use this
>> feature so often that it's a significant drawback to have to restart
>> Entourage. (Especially since 2008 seems to take longer than 2004; runs over
>> a minute and a half to quit and restart the app. I do have a 3.6+ Gb
>> database.)
>
> As a comparison, I have a G4 Dual 1.42 GHZ, Memory 2GB, Mac OS X 10.5.2 and
> it takes me exactly 1 minute to open Entourage. My database is 660 MB.
>
> Test Entourage with a new blank Identity and see if time improves. This way
> we could rule out the size of the database. The only other thing would be to
> look at your fonts. Clear out font caches.
>
> Office 2008 Font Install Basics:
>
> Office 2008 uses a different method for fonts and many fonts are new
> versions. Office 2008 will install fonts to the /Library/Fonts/Microsoft
> folder. By being at the root, then all users on the machine have access to
> them and you don't get Office 2008 putting multiple copies on the machine
> for each user.
>
> The installer will scour /Library/Fonts/ and ~/Library/Fonts/ for fonts with
> the same name and move them to /Library/Disabled Fonts/ or
> ~/Library/Disabled Fonts/ depending on where they were found.
>
> Note some of the Microsoft fonts are newer than the Apple fonts.
>
> Try disabling Curlz MT. Some users have had problems with this font.
>
> Check your fonts with Linotype FontExplorer X (which is a free download).
>
> <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/index.html>
>
> Optional: In Linotype FontExplorer use "Clean System Fonts Folders" which
> cleans out any fonts not installed by the Mac OS X Installation (i.e. ones
> you install yourself). This puts them in a folder on your desktop to do with
> what you want. Slowly reinstall until you can figure out which one is a
> problem.

William
Wed Mar 19 08:01:16 CDT 2008

Allen wrote:
> {Allen}:
>
> Interesting... After reading Eddie's message "Re: VERY slow startup" from
> 7:13 am, I tried quitting Suitcase first.
>
> Rough results:
>
> - Entourage 2008 had been taking over 90 seconds to launch
>
> - Without suitcase, Entourage launches in ~23 seconds, and <6 seconds when
> cached in memory.
>
> - After turning Suitcase back on, it now launches in ~40 seconds, ~20
> seconds when cached in memory.
>
> So it seems faster just having quit Suitcase and started it back up. It
> could be that I'm still getting some caching benefit that I wasn't seeing
> when the launch times were longer.

Are you using Suitcase's feature to manage system fonts? If so, are you
disabling those fonts using Suitcase or are they at least disabled while
Entourage is launching?

I suspect either Suitcase's handling of the same fonts is just better
than Mac OS X's or you're opening fewer system fonts with Suitcase,
which speeds launch time.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

Allen
Thu Mar 20 18:05:34 CDT 2008

{Allen}:

I am managing System fonts with Suitcase, but poorly =:-0

I tried following Extensis' recommendations long ago for doing this, when
Suitcase used to be notoriously flaky, but in the process lost a couple of
System fonts that were never replaced. The whole thing got so messy, I can't
honestly say I even know how those fonts are being dealt with. I got so
tired of repeating the long, tedious process of conforming to Extensis'
"best practices" that once I stopped having font problems, I stopped caring.

Entourage launch times are acceptable now, fonts aren't causing any issues
that I know of, so onward to other problems...

A

> Allen wrote:
>> {Allen}:
>>
>> Interesting... After reading Eddie's message "Re: VERY slow startup" from
>> 7:13 am, I tried quitting Suitcase first.
>>
>> Rough results:
>>
>> - Entourage 2008 had been taking over 90 seconds to launch
>>
>> - Without suitcase, Entourage launches in ~23 seconds, and <6 seconds when
>> cached in memory.
>>
>> - After turning Suitcase back on, it now launches in ~40 seconds, ~20
>> seconds when cached in memory.
>>
>> So it seems faster just having quit Suitcase and started it back up. It
>> could be that I'm still getting some caching benefit that I wasn't seeing
>> when the launch times were longer.
>
> Are you using Suitcase's feature to manage system fonts? If so, are you
> disabling those fonts using Suitcase or are they at least disabled while
> Entourage is launching?
>
> I suspect either Suitcase's handling of the same fonts is just better
> than Mac OS X's or you're opening fewer system fonts with Suitcase,
> which speeds launch time.