Now: iSync, iCal, AddressBook, And Entourage.

I don’t want this to be a review of Microsoft’s Entourage or Apple’s iSync. Both are absolutely excellent at what they do.

Feature for feature, there’s not much better than Entourage at handling email, calendar, and addressbook functions. Microsoft makes the latest version even better with a project manager.

Apple’s iSync is so good at synchronization of cell phones, .Mac, iCal, and AddressBook that I finally dropped Entourage in favor of Apple’s Mail.

This is really a quick review of e2Sync. It’s a Mac utility that lets you synchronize your iCal calendar, Apple’s AddressBook, to Microsoft’s Entourage—via iSync.

I really don’t know why this didn’t happen sooner because it makes perfect sense. iSync does a great job of synchronizing contacts and calendar between Macs, your iPod, your PDA, and other Macs via the .Mac account.

The problem, at least for me, is that I’d used Microsoft’s Entourage for years—back when it was on Mac OS 9.x. Entourage is an excellent Mac application and plays very well in Mac OS X.

So I hated the prospect of moving over to Mail, though I bit the bullet, so to speak, back in late 2003. Why? Because iSync was handling everything—iCal, AddressBook, my cell phone, iPod, and multiple Macs. Entourage got left out in the cold.

Until now. e2Sync acts like a device inside iSync. Your contacts in AddressBook get synchronized to Entourage’s contacts. Your calendar items in iCal get synchronized to Entourage’s calendar.

In the meantime, I get to use Entourage again. Hassle free.

How’s e2Sync work?

It’s a simple application (only on the outside; on the inside it’s one complicated bugger) that allows iSync to see Entourage as if it were an iSync compatible device. Like iPod, your cell phone, your PDA device.

e2Sync allows iSync to synchonize Entourage Contacts, Tasks, Calendar entries. Even Categories and Projects (if you use Entourage, you know what that means).

The e2Sync developer also says Mac users report that it even works with PocketPCs and PalmOS devices using The Missing Sync from Mark/Space.

I gave up on the Palm (and PocketPC) devices a few years ago as my cell phone now does most of what Palm’s Pilot did. It’s the synchronizing between devices that’s always been a pain.

I tried e2Sync a couple of months ago, while in beta. It worked fine for me but still didn’t sync iCal to Entourage. The latest version does that and more.

To be fair, setting up the synchronization takes some thinking; just like using .Mac and iSync the first time. Make sure you sync “TO” Entourage the first time.

One oddity (but it makes sense) is that iCal gets another calendar called “e2Sync.” That’s the calendar that syncs with Entourage’s calendar. iCal is capable of handling many calendars, while Entourage isn’t.

Click Here for a look at e2Sync details and the download link. You get 10 days to try it out. No charge. If you use iCal, AddressBook, and Entourage, you’ll be happy.

There’s nothing really wrong with Apple’s Mail application. iCal is great. So is AddressBook. Entourage is remarkable (considering that it comes from Microsoft).

e2Sync works well, though don’t let the simple installation and setup fool you. Synchronizing all that data is a bear. A wicked bear. So I give the e2Sync developers an extra star for making the process rather simple.

Again, let me caution you about your data. What you change in one application can ripple and change in another whenever you use iSync. Do it right, and you’ll love it. Do it wrong, and you’re back to manual entry again.