Editing Microsoft Entourage (section)

===As a client for Microsoft Exchange===
Entourage had included support for Microsoft Exchange servers since August 4, 2003, when the Exchange Update for Entourage X was released. This early release required the use of IMAP for mail connectivity and WebDAV for address and calendar functionality. (Subsequent versions have dropped the requirement for IMAP and rely solely on WebDAV.) Users complained of the lack of a variety of functions present in Outlook for Windows and Outlook 2001.<ref>{{cite web
 |publisher   = MacWindows.com
 |url         = http://www.macwindows.com/entourage#8
 |title       = Using Entourage with Exchange Server Special Report
 |date        = 2003-08-06
 |access-date  = 2008-08-26
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20081011061831/http://www.macwindows.com/entourage#8
 |archive-date = 2008-10-11
}}</ref>

Subsequent versions of Entourage added some of the missing functionality. However, full parity with Outlook as an Exchange client was never available in Entourage 2008.<ref>{{cite journal
 |last=Welch
 |first=John C.
 |url=http://www.macworld.com/article/131730/2008/01/msftexchange.html
 |journal=[[Macworld]]
 |title=How Entourage 2008 fares with Exchange - Update improves Mac-Exchange relationship, though some features still undone
 |date=2008-01-21
 |access-date=2008-08-26
}}</ref> Synchronization of tasks and notes with an Exchange server was not available. Many Exchange users have been vocal<ref>{{cite web
 |last=Smith
 |first=William M.
 |url=http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/prioritize_your_exchange_needs.html
 |title=Prioritize your Exchange Needs!
 |date=2008-01-17
 |access-date=2008-08-26
 |archive-date=2010-09-23
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923120800/http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/prioritize_your_exchange_needs.html
 |url-status=dead
 }}</ref> in denouncing Microsoft's omission of these features.<ref>{{cite journal
 |last       = Flynn
 |first      = David
 |url        = http://apcmag.com/7842/office_2008_for_mac_fails_to_deliver_full_exchange_support
 |journal    = [[APC (magazine)|APC Magazine]]
 |title      = Office 2008 for Mac fails to deliver full Exchange support
 |date       = 2008-01-17
 |access-date = 2008-08-26
}}{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Microsoft claimed to have prioritized "reliability" over expanded Exchange support in Entourage 2008.<ref>{{cite news
 |last=Keizer
 |first=Gregg
 |url=http://www.computerworlduk.com/technology/applications/desktop/news-analysis/index.cfm?articleid=1094
 |publisher=[[Computerworld|Computerworld UK]]
 |title=In Mac Office 2008, reliability trumps Exchange support
 |date=2008-01-14
 |access-date=2008-08-26
}}</ref>

One major shortcoming of Entourage was its inability to handle complex HTML. While messages could be received and viewed correctly, they could not be forwarded without all formatting being stripped out. As an example, an airline confirmation received from, say, Imaginary Airlines, could not be forwarded without all of the pictorial information being reduced to links, rendering the e-mail unreadable. A workaround for this was to choose "Forward as attachment" which forwarded the message as a [[E-mail#Message format|message/rfc822]] file, and preserved complex HTML formatting.

An additional limitation was the inability to attach what is referred to as an "Item" in Outlook to a message while it was being composed since there was no menu choice to allow this. Instead, a user needed to find the item to be forwarded, i.e., a Contact, select it, then choose Forward as vCard from the menu.

It was also not possible to create or manage server side rules on the Exchange server, so filtering only worked when the Entourage application was running.