Mail/iCal - Question from a PC user

lirandlirand
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Hey,



I'm considering a switch to the Mac platform... I'm interested in knowing how the iCal/Mail combination ranks as a substitute to Outlook (BTW: is there a good "import" feature to move in everything from Outlook?)



I am used to Outlook and pretty much happy with it...



Waiting for your answers...

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    kcmackcmac Posts: 1,051member
    Mail and iCal (as well as Addressbook) work wonderfully together. I use Outlook at work and for me, this threesome is far superior.



    I believe there is a program called Outlook2Mac. Look it up at www.macupdate.com.



    Good luck.



    BTW. If you like more of the look and feel of a combined mail/calendar/addressbook app more like Outlook, you can give Entourage a try. It comes with Office for the Mac. I left that program long ago but some like it better than the combo.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    tilttilt Posts: 396member
    Pardon my ignorance, but how do Mail, iCal and Address book work together? I have always had to fire up each one separately in order to do things (except for adding a sender to my Address book of course). Could you give me an example please to help me understand?



    Thanks and cheers
  • Reply 3 of 6
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tilt


    Pardon my ignorance, but how do Mail, iCal and Address book work together? I have always had to fire up each one separately in order to do things (except for adding a sender to my Address book of course). Could you give me an example please to help me understand?



    Thanks and cheers



    1) In iCal, you can add people in your address book to events.

    2) in ICal, you can have event reminders automatically emailed to yourself through mail.

    3) in iCal, you can send out invitations to people in your address book.

    4) In Mail all of your contacts in your address book are available.

    5) In Leopard there will be much tigher integration includding To-Do's through mail, notes in mail, etc.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    jabohnjabohn Posts: 582member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lirand


    (BTW: is there a good "import" feature to move in everything from Outlook?)



    You can use IMAP to transfer your email to a new mac. See this link:



    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106778



    To move your address book in Outlook to Mac, you'll need to export it to a text file and then import this text file on your mac in Address Book. I just did this last night for my sister and it worked like a charm.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    tilttilt Posts: 396member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by icfireball


    1) In iCal, you can add people in your address book to events.

    2) in ICal, you can have event reminders automatically emailed to yourself through mail.

    3) in iCal, you can send out invitations to people in your address book.

    4) In Mail all of your contacts in your address book are available.

    5) In Leopard there will be much tigher integration includding To-Do's through mail, notes in mail, etc.



    Thanks Ice, that is an excellent exppanation. Yes, I have indeed been doing all these things, I guess I just took it for granted and did not even think about how these are separate applications and that they are integrated well!!! Hence my question.



    Chers
  • Reply 6 of 6
    wircwirc Posts: 302member
    Like iLife, the combination of Mail, Address Book, iCal, iChat, and Dashboard can make organizing stuff really easy. I hated the sluggish, monolithic design of Entourage, and splitting the three makes more sense. They all work together behind the scenes, sharing information, which makes life easier.



    More than anything else, a thorough Address Book helps, and you can tranfer Outlook cards directly to this. It can be used like ICfireball said, and automatically adds birthdays to the calendar, if you enable this in iCal. This has been a particularly useful lifesaver. Address Book has excellent minor features, like direct access to email and displaying phone numbers and links to MapQuest.



    Since they are all tied to iChat, you can IM in response to messages, since availability is show next to known address card names in Mail. The ties to iChat are pretty fun and can help you a lot.



    I think that these, combined with features comparable to Outlook make it a solid combination. Anyone's thoughts on Thunderbird or other suites?
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