Little things that exhibit a certain attitude about e-mail can be telling. Resend and Redirect commands from Entourage are gone.Cannot sync with iCal, no CalDAV support.Supported by C-Command Software’s SpamSieve.Built-in support for pane management, top to bottom or side by side.New e-mail storage system eliminates DB corruption, makes e-mail searchable by Spotlight.Color coded categories and filter by category.Cocoa used for the UI, but some Carbon elements retained.As a reminder, these pluses and minuses are with respect to the scope of this review. These kinds of users don’t appreciate an e-mail program that seems to condescend to non-technical users and whose updates are rare and seldom noteworthy.īefore I continue, I should point out some of the features and problems with Outlook 2011 so that, given what I’ve said above, you can steer clear if the app still doesn’t meet your needs. Basically, a lot of users, including me, appreciate that.Īfter all, there are small business users who still have to manage a lot of e-mail: writers, consultants, marketing specialists, independent travel agents, publicists, attorneys and so on.

So while I’m not reviewing Outlook 2011 from the perspective of the enterprise customer, Exchange Server, calendaring, meetings, and so on, the design of the app for those purposes requires a mature approach to the features and user interface. Microsoft, being a quintessential enterprise company, has many years experience with corporate customers and e-mail. The app has features that support the productive use of e-mail based on experience and research.The app exhibits an understanding of how customers use e-mail, day to day.Of course, taking e-mail seriously doen’t mean that the app is perfect and all encompassing. Another way of saying that is that the app treats the user with respect. What’s at issue here is an e-mail program that costs money and, in concert, takes e-mail seriously. Some have hungered for something more, including me. Many Apple customers have used Apple’s Mail app as the least of all evils. And Entourage used a database that was susceptible to corruption which left a bad taste in the mouths of users and reviewers. Eudora was dropped by Qualcomm because there was no money to be made in that atmosphere, and only a handful of minor e-mail programs stumbled on for the Mac. That is, as soon as the community’s technology agenda became to give away e-mail programs for free, almost all innovation evaporated from our e-mail clients. That’s an interesting question for me and, I think, many Apple customers because of the politics of e-mail programs. Is this new e-mail program a worthy replacement for Apple’s Mail app? Instead, I’m going to approach the review from a different perspective. Many of the features are designed to work with a Microsoft Exchange server, and an assessment of that is better left to others. However, approaching this very capable e-mail program from the enterprise perspective isn’t the plan here. Nowadays, with the incredible popularity of the Mac, Microsoft has finally delivered Outlook for Leopard and Snow Leopard. Behind the scenes, Apple would nudge Microsoft to listen to all the complaints and create an identical version for the Mac. Corporate customers would complain to Apple, and Apple would gently and politely refer them to Microsoft. The question here is, can it replace Apple’s Mail app?įor years, corporate customers complained that Entourage for the Mac was a crippled second cousin to Outlook for the PC. Outlook 2011 for the Mac is part of the Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 suite and is intended to replace Entourage 2008.

Thunderbird for mac 10.5.8