Office 2011: Outlook FAQ | Office | Macworld:
“Does Outlook for Mac 2011 allow you to manipulate Exchange server-side rules, as the Windows version does?
No.”
Want Proof…
Despite what the good folk at Macworld said, I had to try it myself. So this morning I exported all 50 of my old exchange rules that were rather broken and still forced me to check my trash and junk folders more often than I wanted. Since going Mac at Work over 6 months ago, I have been using mail and waiting patiently for Outlook for Mac 2011 to come and make my mail management a lot easier. Even though Outlook is rather clever with it’s iPhone & GMail like conversation view and it’s unified inbox. However, and as usual there is always a however, the Exchange integration is still not there yet. When you click on edit rules, the Exchange account shows ups and you get the impression that you actually creating rules on the server. But don’t be fooled, just above the folder there is the ominous “On My Computer” header which literally squashes all your hopes and Inbox Zero dreams. q
Why are exchange rules so important: Smartphones…
You see, when you create rules on your computer instead of using the Exchange rules, the rules will only be applied if you leave your computer and even then emails will still get sent to your device for some amount of time before the phone gets re-sync’d. THIS is a HUGE pain in ASS! There is a good reason why most of us use GMail for our personal mail simply so we can have some good mail filtering. I’m still waiting patiently for Merlin Mann‘s new Inbox Zero email book, but the short of it is that filtering your mail effectively is by far the best way to manage your inbox.
So what I essentially have to do now is fire up the Dell e6400, remote desktop into it and rebuild and boat load of rules… JOY!
Comments
12 responses to “Outlook for Mac 2011: Forget About Exchange Rules Sync”
It doesn’t do many things that windows version does so well…. how the hell can I turn off the bloody READ receipt to avoid being spied by sales????????????
It doesn’t do many things that windows version does so well…. how the hell can I turn off the bloody READ receipt to avoid being spied by sales????????????
I love it when IT Directors ask _US_ how to do something. We’ll look into this and calling all Office for Mac Geeks for help too.
yeah sucks. in the meantime i have found creating the rules via owa as a work around (granted owa 2007 sucks on a mac so if you have that you are sorta screwed unless you can get to an IE machine for owa 2007)
Yes I just discovered this lack of functionality today after downloading a trial of the Office 2011. But instead of running another Outlook version on a PC to edit the rules if your company has it enabled, you should be able to go into the Web based mail interface for your exchange server and edit the server-side rules there. It might be faster then having to power up the pc.
I can. I’m a Exchange Sys Admin and a Mac user, and I can modify these rules. We are running Exchange 2010 SP1 and Outlook 2011 (14.1.0)
J
I can. I’m a Exchange Sys Admin and a Mac user, and I can modify these rules. We are running Exchange 2010 SP1 and Outlook 2011 (14.1.0)
J
Do you know if this is anything to do with the SP1 for Exchange or the latest Outlook Update? When I wrote this in November 2010, Outlook was not patched and I am aware is SP1 had been applied for 2010.
Thanks for the comment, I am definitely going to try this out now.
ey
I guess that answers the SP1 question…
I can confirm that this is only an issue for old exchange servers,… which I am unfortunately tied to.
Thanks for the web mail solution Rich, now I can finally stop getting backup failed emails from our crap cloud server.