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Outlook for the Mac: Why It's Important to Enterprise IT, Apple and Users

J. Gerry Purdy | Date: 08-12-11 | Comments

Learn why mobile and wireless expert J. Gerry Purdy believes that Outlook for the Mac may be the most important app that Microsoft has ever created for the Mac environment.

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Outlook for the Mac: Why It's Important to Enterprise IT, Apple and Users
Over the past six months, Microsoft has (rather quietly) finally introduced their very popular Outlook email management system on the Mac platform. It allows Mac users to enjoy the same benefits as Windows users. However, there are a number of things that are important to enterprise IT, Apple and users beyond the obvious financial benefits to Microsoft.

If you owned a Windows PC and wanted to migrate to a Mac, the process can be very difficult or, if you were using Outlook, impossible. The reason has to do with Outlook�s internal file structure which use "OST" and "PST" files.

Before Outlook became available on the Mac, there was no way to copy the files over to the Mac and use them with either Mac email or Entourage. Now, with the implementation of Outlook on the Mac, anyone can copy their Outlook email files from their Windows PC over to the Mac, load Office 2011 for the Mac and open the Outlook files on the Mac. I have tried it, and it worked flawlessly the first time.

You get all of your historical email and all of your account settings. Outlook�s Calendars and Contacts are copied over and are available as well. If you�re syncing them to your iPhone, the sync works in iTunes just like it does on the PC. In iTunes, you select Outlook as the source for your Contacts & Calendar and they both are updated from your Outlook information. And, with the introduction of iCloud this fall, your contacts, calendars and email will stay in sync wirelessly (fixing the problems that sometimes occurred with MobileMe).

If your organization uses Microsoft Exchange, it has to be Exchange 2007 or later to support Outlook for the Mac.

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