Office X for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

chapter 8: entourage email and newsgroups 307

chapter

8

F

or longtime Microsoft Office users, one program in the Office X application

lineup is a relative newcomer: a program called Entourage. Entourage is closely

based on Outlook Express, Microsoft’s free email and newsgroup reader. But

to those Internet features, Entourage adds a calendar and a to-do list. True to its

name, entrusting your schedule and communications to this program is like having

an entourage of lackeys at your command. And who couldn’t use an entourage of

lackeys?

At first, you might wonder what the point is of adding a calendar and task list to an

email program. As it turns out, however, this arrangement offers numerous pay-

offs—cross-fertilizing features that let all of this information work together, both

within Entourage and among the other Office programs.

The Big Picture

The Entourage main window is divided into three main areas: buttons for Entourage’s

main functions at top left, a list of “file folders” for your email at bottom left, and a

big viewing area for your actual messages, calendars, tasks, and so on, on the right.

Like changing stations on a car radio, you can switch among Entourage functions

by clicking their buttons.

Entourage Functions

When you first launch Entourage (Figure 8-1) and complete the setup wizard (de-

scribed in a moment), the Mail button at the upper left is already selected. But mail

is only one of Entourage’s functions. This chapter and those that follow cover all of

them in depth, but here’s a quick overview to let you know what you’re in for. The

Entourage Email and

Newsgroups

308 office x for macintosh: the missing manual

six big icons at the upper-left corner of the Entourage screen correspond to the

following features:

• Mail. This, of course, is the big Kahuna feature: email. This chapter covers the

Mail feature in detail.

• Address Book. Your electronic “little black book”—home to not just the email

addresses in your social entourage, but also phone numbers, home addresses,

and so on. The Address Book also features predefined Address Book Views that

let you find subsets of your data—every member of your family, for example. See

Chapter 10 for complete details on the Address Book.

• Calendar. Plan your day, your week, your month…if you dare, plan your year!

You can manage your schedule and track important events using the Entourage

Calendar. Once again, a set of Views can quickly show you only work- or family-

related events, recurring appointments, or whatever. See Chapter 9 for details.

• Tasks. Your to-do list. When you click this button, the right side of the screen

shows the list of tasks you’ve set up for yourself. See Chapter 9 to read everything

about Tasks.

• Notes. Memo-pad-like musings that you can attach to names in your address

book, tasks in your to-do list, and so on. See Chapter 10 for details.

• Custom Views. The Custom Views button collects together all of Entourage’s

predefined views for its Mail, Notes, Calendar, Address Book, and Tasks func-

tions, along with any views you’ve created yourself. More on Custom Views on

page 425.

The Big Picture

Figure 8-1:

In addition to the Folder list

and an email-specific toolbar,

Entourage has a List pane that

lists all of the messages in a

particular folder. There’s also

an information bar at the

bottom of the screen that

shows how many messages

are in a given folder, how

many are selected, and what

schedules (if any) Entourage

has on deck. Don’t miss the

Fonts tab in Entourage

→

General Preferences, where

you can specify the type size

and style you prefer for

reading your email and other

Entourage components.

Function buttons Mail toolbarList pane

Folder list Information bar