Does Entourage have ADHD?

I have been using Microsoft’s Entourage as my main email program four or five years now. I like a lot of the features, though I can now get most of the same power via Apple’s Address Book and Mail programs, as well as iCAL. But you know how it is, once you are used to working with a program, and have a few years worth of content in that proprietary format, it is hard to change over.

Over the last year, though, I have begun to get very frustrated with Entourage for a variety of reason.

First, because Entourage stores all your email in a database structure, rather than as separate files on your hard drive, Spotlight cannot find content in those email messages. I am sure someone will eventually write a plug-in that allows it to work, but for now, Tiger users are SOL.

Next, while I like the interface of Entourage, it is starting to feel very 1990’s-ish to me. I can move around just fine in the program, but it is not the most intuitive email client I have ever used. (nor is Mail, from the few times I have tested it out. I’m just saying’¦)

I have a saved email folder within Entourage that holds a few (25) thousand emails. Simply clicking that folder takes way too long before anything is displayed. It also takes forever to complete a search within the program of those messages. It is buggy and not responsive enough to be truly worthwhile. When I want to find something, I want to find it NOW, not ten minutes from now. And this on a G5.

Spam has always been a problem for me. I have had the same email address for years and years. I am probably on every spammer’s list of mass mailings in the world, even though I have never responded to spam in my life. So I get, I would hazard a guess, around twenty spam emails an hour. At one time, over a year ago or longer, Entourage did a fairly decent job of gauging what was spam and what was not. Today? It does not catch even 10% of spam, and that is on the highest protection level.

The program does not seem to have the ability to learn what is spam and what is not. I can get a V!agra email ten times, and even though I marked the first one ‘Spam’, over the next hour Entourage still pours the identical emails that come in into my In-Box. I already TOLD Entourage that was a Spam email, but did it learn? Nope. What, does Entourage have ADHD or something?

So, I ask anyone out there (being too damn lazy to go look myself at the moment) is there is easy way to convert Entourage email over to Apple’s Mail program that does not make the user jump through hoops? Or should I possibly look at another email client besides Mail that will work with Spotlight, and actually LEARN what a Spam message is?