Wintivity ™

Recently we have been working with a Mac based client who has chosen Microsoft Exchange for email, calendaring and team collaboration.

Prior to hiring WIGITAL to unify their mail services on Exchange, the company’s users managed their email services (on a variety of POP platforms) and kept their own appointments in iCal. Since the entire environment is dispersed on individual Macs and MacBooks, individual users have “multiple iCal calendars” in which they have organized and color coded their own appointments.

To help our client transition from separate individual Personal Information Management solutions onto a team platform, the use of Microsoft Entourage 2008 (part of Office for Mac) has been chosen for the users. This means WIGITAL also has the job of transitioning each “individual” users data from Apple’s Address Book, iCal and MacMail applications onto Microsoft Exchange where it is then available to “all of the users” through Entourage.

This article is dedicated to the Calendar portion of the data transition.

Migrating Calendar Data - the challenge:

Because Entourage does not implicitly provide an import tool for iCal (.ics) calendars, the client needs a work around to transfer their multiple iCal Calendars into Entourage. The goal is to retain the organization of appointments while avoiding a lot of manual click-click-click work for the users. Each user wants to keep their current separation of appointments by type and color coding.

Here is how to import “multiple” Calendars from iCal into Entourage while assigning Categories and Colors to the Calendars “in-bulk” and retaining the seperation as it previously existed in iCal.

Verify Sync Settings are enabled in Entourage

• open Entourage
• go to the menu bar above, click Entourage | click Preferences
• under General Preferences | click Sync Services
• check the box Synchronize events and tasks with iCal and .mac
• confirm that iCal maps to your Calendar in Entourage (in our case it must be the “Exchange account” calendar)
• click OK
• a node for Entourage should now appear in iCal in the form of a Calendar named “Entourage”

Export Calendars from iCal and import back into the iCal Entourage sync’d calendar

• open iCal
• go to menu bar above, click View | confirm Show Calendar List is enabled
  • This enables the entire list of Calendars to show on the left side of iCal (it may already be enabled)
• in iCal - clear all check boxes from individual Calendars “except the specific one you want to work with” (we’re going to export the last remaining “checked” Calendar)
• click on the Calendar you want to export (example - click the “Work” calendar… it highlights in BLUE)
• go to the menu bar above: click File | click Export
  • you can export the entire Calendar (in our example the highlighted “Work” calendar) to a file location (Desktop, Finder, etc…)
  • in the Save As: name the Calendar
  • click the Export button
• once that specific Calendar has been exported, return to iCal
• in iCal, click and highlight the “Entourage” calendar (remember Sync Services must be “enabled” to view Entourage in iCal - see above)
• in the menu bar above, click File | click Import
  • the Import window will pop up
• select import an iCal file and click the Import button
• select the “Work” iCal calendar you previously exported to a file location
• click the Import button

* This “Work” calendar has now been imported back into iCal (but this time, into the Entourage sync’d calendar inside iCal that is synchronizing with Entourage). The data will now appear in both iCal and Entourage.

Assigning the iCal calendar items to Entourage Categories after import

If you are new to Entourage, the Entourage equivalent of separating Appointments, Events and Tasks into identifiable groupings is to use Categories in Entourage.

Click here for a video on how to create and edit Categories in Entourage

The fundamental principal here in exporting/importing iCal calendars is to create and then assign an Entourage Category for each set of iCal Calendar appointments that exist and are being imported into the Entourage sync’d calendar node in iCal. Exporting/importing a single calendar at a time gives us the opportunity to assign one Category at a time after each import.

To explain: for the multiple Calendars in iCal ( such as “work, personal, training, meetings” ), we are creating a Category in Entourage to represent each of these divisions. If a “Calendar” exists in iCal for “work”, we will create a corresponding “Category” in Entourage for “work”.

The key to discerning which Appointments and Events already existed and which ones are newly imported is to “only import one Calendar at a time”. By switching to Entourage immediately after each import from iCal, we have the ability to assign the newest items to a Category. Once imported items are assigned to a Category, they take on the “name and color” of the Category and can then be easily distinguished from the next set of imports (which by default have the category of “None” and use “no color at all”).

To see all calendar items (and Categories) “at once” we use the Views feature of Entourage. This method of viewing and sorting Entourage Calendar information is simple and allows to see every appointment at once. Using the All Events view also enables us to assign multiple items to a Category. This is accomplished through simple keyboard concepts like “holding down the Shift key when selecting multiple items”. Here is how it works:

• use the iCal method above to export/import a single Calendar
  • Observe the “name” and “color” of each calender you are exporting/importing
• Now open Entourage
• click the Calendar toolbar in Entourage
  • NOTE: the toolbar is the row of buttons directly above the Folder List
  • NOTE: toolbar buttons are named Mail, Address Book, Calendar, Notes, Task, Project Center
  • clicking the Calendar button provides a “different view” of the Folder List
• expand the Calendar View (i.e. click the triangle - Calendar toolbar must be active to see Calendar View)
• select All Events from the Calendar View
  • Note: all the Calendar items appear in the All Events View
    
  • Note: items assigned to a category appear in different colors
  • COLUMN HEADERS appear at the top of the rows of data
• look for the Column Header named Categories
• CLICK on the Column Header named Categories - this “sorts the Categories” by name thereby grouping similarly named Categories together
  • Note: unassigned Categories are named “None” and have “no color“
  • Note: the “None” category will now be grouped together in the list
  • “IF” you have imported only one iCal calendar into Entourage at a time, these “newest” items are in the Category of “None”.
• To assign the newest imports to the category of your choice -  Hold down the Shift key, click the first item and then the last item with the Category of “None”
  • Holding down the shift key selects all list items between the first and last item you choose.
  • All selected items can then be assigned “in-bulk” to a Category
• with items highlighted, click the Categories “button” in the toolbar above
• assign your Category from the list
  • each Calendar item will turn the “color” of the Category you have selected
    
  • remember “if” multiple Categories are assigned to a Calendar item, the item reflects the “color” of the last Category to be assigned to it
    
• You are done…!
• Return to iCal and repeat this procedure
• Assign all the “None” items after each import into a Category.
  • With each new import, newly imported items always appear under the Category of “None“
• Repeat this process as many times as needed to re-assign imported iCal Calendar items to Entourage Categories
• 

Once imported, Appointments and Events appear in Microsoft Entourage as well as the Entourage sync’d calendar in iCal. Categories however will only appear in Entourage.

SUGGESTIONS

• using the same “colors” in Entourage your Users previously used in iCal may help keep things familiar and make it easier to find things
• using the same “names” for Entourage Categories that your Users previously chose to name the Calendars in iCal may also help keep things familiar
• remind your users to no longer use the multiple Calendars in iCal and that if they insist on using iCal, entries must be made to iCals sync’d Entourage calendar if they want them to appear in Entourage
• Entourage Help and Learning Tools are available online

Happy Thanksgiving,

Mark Raborn
WIGITAL

Using Entourage for mail, calendar, tasks and contacts can provide business users with an enterprise quality personal information manager on the Mac. The capabilities of Entourage are greatly expanded when connecting to Microsoft Exchange Server 2000, 2003 or 2007. Users on Exchange are able to query and interact with other users in their environment. This includes sharing email, calendar and contact folders and even completely delegating folders to other employees from within Entourage.

Entourage is included in Microsoft’s Office 2008 for Mac and is the equivalent of Microsoft Outlook on the PC. We’ve written this article about setting up Entourage for non-techy people and for those new to Office for Mac. For an extensive technical walk through, please see Amir Haque’s blog entry on How Entourage Works.

This article is dedicated to helping beginners get connected.

Entourage Technologies Under the Hood

Yes…. Entourage is different than Microsoft Outlook for PC

Because Entourage runs on Mac OS X , the underlying technologies are web standards based and the differences can be significant, especially in earlier versions of Entourage and Exchange. This article will touch on the following protocols and services:

• HTTP
• SSL
• Certificate Services
• WebDAV
• LDAP

Outlook for PC also relies on standards based technologies (in Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003). It differs primarily in it’s specific implementation of Remote Procedure Call to connect to Exchange over HTTPS. This is a different implementation than Mac because Entourage relies primarily on WebDAV and LDAP to provide secure connection, authentication and directory services while Outlook relies on RPC.

by-the-way, this all changes in Exchange 2007 SP1 which transitioned certain key functions to web services

Here’s a non-normative comparison prior to Exchange 2007 SP1:

function:	Entourage	Outlook
Connect and Authenticate	HTTP SSL LDAP	HTTP SSL Basic Authentication
Retrieve Data Share Data Delegate	WebDAV LDAP	RPC / HTTP Active Directory
find other Users	LDAP	Active Directory

For anyone familiar with Outlook but unfamiliar with Entourage, it’s important to understand the differences not only between PC and Mac but between setting up the different Mac versions of Entourage (2001, 2004, 2008) with the different versions of Exchange Server (2000, 2003, 2007).

Setting up Entourage Account Settings and connecting to Microsoft Exchange

We’re going to setup Entourage with Exchange (prior to the Exchange 2007 SP1 version)

• open Entourage
• on the menu bar above, go to Entourage | Account Settings
• in the “Accounts” window, click New
• the following window will appear to enter the Account Settings

Explanation of Account Settings

• Account Name: your personal description of your account on the Exchange Server
• Name: your name as you want it to appear in Email
• Email Address: the full email address associated with your Exchange account
• Account ID: your UserID on the Exchange Server (this is NOT your email address but is your user logon name in Active Directory and may be different from your email “alias”)
  • ask your administrator for this information
• Domain: this is the internal DOMAIN-NAME of the network on which the Exchange Server authenticates
  • it is most often the NETBIOS DOMAIN-NAME
  • it will be a string of characters with no periods (.)
  • it may be different than the website domain you access your email on
  • ask your administrator for this information
• Password: your password for email access
• Exchange Server: the web facing internet address of your exchange server
  • most often the same internet address as the Outlook Web Access site
  • may be in a form similar to:
    • mailserver.com/exchange (PC)
    • mailserver.com/exchange/mark@mailserver.com (Mac)
    • owa.mailserver.com (PC)
    • owa.mailserver.com/mark@mailserver.com (Mac)
    • etc…
    • use this article to Troubleshoot Entourage Connections to Exchange
  • ask your administrator for your mail server information
• usually check the box - This DAV service requires a secure connection (SSL)
  • most administrators require SSL which encrypts the User/Password credentials when logging on
  • Please confirm with you administrator about this requirement

The last entry is the first in which we view Entourage using DAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning) over SSL. This is one of the differences between the way Outlook on PC and Entourage for Mac access the Exchange Server.

ALSO: It is possible to Override default DAV port of 443 but do not check this box or alter this this setting unless specifically instructed to do so by your administrator.

NOTES:

Account ID

Your Account ID is most often your email address name without the @mailserver.com

EX: if your email address is mark@mailserver.com then your Account ID is generally mark

However, email addresses may also be an alias of the actual Account ID. This means that while your Account ID may be “mark”, your default email address could be mark.raborn, markr, mraborn OR any number of variants called an “alias”. Ask your administrator for this information.

Domain

The Domain “name” you are accessing may be a name you literally have never heard of. While the website for accessing your company mail over the internet may be something familiar like owa.mailserver.com/exchange your internal Domain may be something like OURCOMPANY and may not resemble the internet address of your mail server at all. Internal DomainNames when used in Entourage (such as OURCOMPANY), are not fully qualified domains. This meansthey will not be in the form of a typical internet address “separated . by . periods”. This means not OURCOMPANY.COM or OURCOMPANY.NET but more likely a single name like OURCOMPANY

Ask your administrator for this information.

Exchange Server

Your Exchange Server address should be entered as the same web address which allows access to Outlook Web Access over the internet WITH ONE EXCEPTION, in Entourage the Exchange Server address should be appended with your default SMTP email address. This would take the form of ( example   owa.mailserver.com/exchange/mark@mailserver.com )

The Exchange Server “Outlook Web Access” address enables you to log on, send email, view contact and calendar information and perform most tasks you expect to perform in Entourage or Outlook. It is part of accessing Microsoft Exchang over the web. The address you enter here (i.e. owa.mailserver.com/exchange ) should give you direct access to Exchange from a either a Browser (which is a good way to test the address by the way) or Entourage. Just be sure that when you enter it in Entourage, you append your email address to the end as in the example above as in owa.mailserver.com/exchange/mark@mailserver.com

Setting Up Advanced Settings for Entourage with Exchange Server

With  basic Exchange Server “Account Settings” now in place, there are two more major components that that can increase the functionality of Entourage. They are:

• Public Folders
• Directory Services

To understand the Public Folder and Directory settings in Entourage, lets go to Microsoft.

Public Folders in Exchange (quoting Microsoft)

Public folders, introduced in the first version of Microsoft Exchange, are designed for shared access and provide an easy and effective way to collect, organize, and share information with other people in your workgroup or organization. Public folders are hierarchically organized, stored in dedicated databases, and can be replicated between Exchange servers.

This excerpt explains why an organization would want to provide these additional services to it’s Entourage Users. The next step is to connect to them.

PUBLIC FOLDERS

Let’s setup Public Folders using the Advanced settings for Exchange

• open Entourage
• on the menu bar above, go to Entourage | Account Settings
• in the “Accounts” window, double click the Entourage for Exchange account you created earlier
• the Edit Account window appears
• click the Advanced tab
• enter your Advanced Public Folder Settings here

Explanation of Public Folder Settings

• Public folders server: this is the full web address from which Public Folders are accessible from the internet (prior to Exchange 2007 SP1). - - Please ask your administrator for your information
  • usually a variant of the Outlook Web Access website address (ex. owa.mailserver.com/public )
  • you can view public folders from the Internet in an internet browser using the full address (ex. https://owa.mailserver.com/public ).
  • Logging onto Public Folders over the Internet is a good way to test for the correct Public Folder address as well as test your logon and view the folders you have permission to access. Seeing Public Folders through your browser enables you to verify that the same information appears in your Entourage Public Folders once you have connected Entourage.
• check the box - This DAV service requires a secure connection (SSL)
  • most administrators require SSL to encrypt the User/Password credentials between Entourage and Exchange. Please confirm with you administrator about this requirement.

This again is an example of Entourage using DAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning) over SSL. Note that It is possible to Override default DAV port of 443. Do not override or alter this this setting unless specifically instructed to do so by your administrator.

DIRECTORY SERVICES

The second section of Advanced settings in Entourage is the Directory Settings. To familiarize ourselves with Directory Settings let’s once again turn to Microsoft.

Directory Services - using the Global Address List through Exchange (quoting Microsoft)

A global address list (GAL) is a directory that contains entries for every group, user, and contact within an organization’s implementation of Microsoft Exchange Server. GALs are displayed in the Microsoft Outlook Address Book on a client computer. Address lists are a subset of the GAL and can be used to further organize the recipients in your organization

With directory services explained, let’s go back and compare a picture of a typical Public Folder entry and it’s corresponding Directory Settings entry together…. (again, this is prior to Exchange 2007 SP1)

Notice how “different” they are! There is a completely different “name” used in the LDAP server entry. So, why the difference?

Accessing users, groups and internal company address book data in Entourage is accomplished by accessing something called the Global Catalog (a part of Active Directory). The Global Catalog itself is accessed (when using Entourage on Mac) by use of the web standard LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). Here are some basics about LDAP and why we may want to use it in connecting to the Microsoft Exchange server.

• LDAP provides the company’s User data from the Global Catalog to Mac users
• For LDAP to query the Global Catalog it is necessary to oepn firewall ports other than the typical internet ports of HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443). NOTE: this is prior to Exchange 2007 SP1
• because accessing LDAP from the outside of a network requires making “holes” through your firewall, LDAP may not be implemented OR ALLOWED in your environment (it may be turned off from access by the outside world)
• the reason the Global Catalog may be DISALLOWED is because it offers information your administrator does not want to expose on the internet

About the Ports and/or Web Services used to access the Global Catalog

As Exchange has continually developed, the methods used to access the Global Catalog have developed as well. LDAP based Directory Access is different today than it was on the last version of Exchange and how it is accessed literally “varies” on the version of Exchange Server (2007, 2003 or 2000) in use at your organization. Some key points are:

• “IF” Directory Services are open for LDAP based access from the Internet, the likely ports are
  • “unsecured” LDAP port = 368 and 3268
  • “secured” LDAP ports = 636 and 3269
• The LDAP Server name under Directory Settings is likely to be completely different than the Exchange Server or Public Folders names.
• If Entourage 2008 and Exchange 2007 SP1 are present, Directory Services are actually accessed via web services through the same Internet Address as the public facing Outlook Web Access server on the internet. This basically means - - all the above stuff changes!

This all of a sudden very technical way of explaining LDAP hints at why establishing the Directory Settings is much different than other aspects of Entourage. One final point is that LDAP access from your Entourage mail client may be available while “on the local network” but that same access may not be available from “outside” the local network… meaning anywhere on the open Internet.

Fortunately, advances have been made in the most recent release of Exchange Server to help this circumstance. Please confirm with you administrator about your exact settings and the availability of the Global Catalog through LDAP in your environment.

Changes to Entourage connectivity in Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1

The final caveat about everything we have discussed so far is that it all changes significantly with the release of Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1. In short, Client Access has been made accessible through Web Services with the release of SP1 for Exchange 2007. This means the complex explanation of ports, protocols and different types of access inside versus outside goes away.

Here is a list of the features now available (post 2007 SP1) using plain HTTPS (port 443) via Web Services:

• Public folder access  - You can access and manipulate public folders.
• Delegate Management  - You can manage delegates by using Exchange Web Services.
• Improved Delegate Access -  Delegates can do the following:
  • Open folders based on folder-level permissions
  • Create, send, receive, forward, and respond to meeting requests
  • Open shared mailboxes and act as the owner
  • Create notification subscriptions on folders in the mailbox of the principal owner
• Folder Level Permissions -  Users and client applications can query and configure permissions on folders.
• Identifier Translation -  You can now translate Exchange item identifier formats.

In closing, let’s offer some additional reading.

Please read:

New Client Access Features in Exchange 2007 SP1
As well as these two articles which explain the newest capabilities of of Entourage 2008 and Exchange Server 2007 SP1 in tandem

1. Entourage 2008 - new features (part I)
2. Entourage 2008 - new features (part II)

Talk to your Administrator

The best thing in all circumstances is to consult your administrator for the specific information necessary to connect your version of Entourage (2001, 2004, 2008) to your version of Exchange (2000, 2003, 2007). Please remember Amir Haque’s excellent blog entry on TechNet for a deep dive on HOW ENTOURAGE WORKS . It is a great explanation of how Entourage and Exchange work together to connect the dots.

I hope this helps get you started. Entourage is a great tool and Exchange is one of the most successful and highly deployed of all mail platforms in the enterprise. Mac users can benefit from it’s features along with all those PC users. Who knows, with a little practice, maybe you too can get even more out of Entourage than just your email.

Thanks,
Mark Raborn
WIGITAL

What to do if .local has been used in Windows Network as the first level domain name of the Internal domain and you are deploying in an “Apple Mac centric” network with older Mac’s in the environment?

To help Mac DNS resolve .local Please read KB836413 - You receive an “unexpected error occurred” error message when you try to access resources on a Windows-based network from your Macintosh computer

content of KB Article

• .local Preferences adjustment: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2385?viewlocale=en_US
• Updating Mac OSX: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1338?viewlocale=en_US
• Apple Support: http://www.apple.com/support/

File Systems tools for interoperability between Windows, Apple Macintosh, and Linux

Useful free tools (and good reading) for use in a heterogeneous [ Windows / Mac / Linux ] File System environment

Windows File System tools serving Mac

Services For Macintosh (SFM)

SFM was an effort by Microsoft supporting Mac integration into the Windows Network. SFM is available in Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2003 Server (but has been dropped from Windows 2008 Server). Services For Mac includes these three key Server services:

• File Server for Mac - checklist
• Print Server for Mac - checklist
• AppleTalk networking and routing - checklist

File Server for Mac - KB147438

File Server for Macintosh (FSM), which is part of SFM, allows Windows and Macintosh clients to create and open files on the same share by presenting the files to the clients with the naming conventions used by their operating systems.

Macintosh and Windows Server Integration - TechFAQ

The folks at TechFAQ have written an excellent article on Mac and Windows Server Integration. The article includes detail walkthroughs about activiting and administering verious Services For Macintosh features.

Also, here are genrally helpful tips on Performance Tuning Guidelines for Microsoft Services for Network File System

File System Tools from the Open Source Community

NTFS-3G

An NTFS driver for Mac OS X and Linux is NTFS-3G - ( also read the NTFS-3G FAQ )

The NTFS-3G driver is a freely and commercially available and supported read/write NTFS driver for Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, NetBSD, Solaris, Haiku, and other operating systems. It provides safe and fast handling of the Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 and Windows Vista file systems. POSIX file system operations are supported, and full file ownership and permission support is available as well.

Mac File System software serving Windows

• HFSExplorer - by Erik Larsson - erik82 [at] kth (dot) se
• Mac OS X: About file system journaling - Apple Support

Linux File System software serving Windows and Apple Macintosh

• Explore2fs - Explore2fs for Windows is a WIN32 explorer for Linux ext2fs partitions. Full URL here http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs
• Ext2fxc - Ext2fxc for Apple Macintosh is an implementation of the Ext2 (Linux) file system for Mac OS X. Full URL here http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsx/

User Space File System software

• Linux - FUSE -  http://fuse.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/OperatingSystems
• Mac - MacFUSE - http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/
• Windows - WinFUSE - http://www.suchwerk.net/sodcms_FUSE_for_WINDOWS.htm
• Windows - UniversalFUSE - http://www.eldos.com/cbfs/

Experiment with these File System resources in your heterogeneous environments. Please comment if you have more, better, or mo-better solutions.

Thanks.

Today I’m installing Small Business Server 2008 for a client that has a bunch of Macs.

THE PROBLEM

The Small Business Server was delivered with a “partial install” of SBS2008 already complete. The challenge right now is that I cannot use the sbsanswerfile.xml to control the FULL INTERNAL DOMAIN name. My opinion: “this is either an oversight or mistake in SBS 2008 setup design”. The oversight being that the answer file cannot be called upon when “continuing setup” if a partial install has already been completed (this is even though the internal domain name has not yet been defined by the wizard).

The wizards allow the admin to define “only the secondary level domain name” (the vanity domain) and not the top level domain.  The default top level domain in SBS, as a result of using the wizard, must then be .local . My opinion: “It would have been much better to allow the sbsanswerfile.xml to be called from the setup wizard upon continuation of an OEM based install.” This could provide more flexibility and be a 2nd option in addition to clean installs that call the sbsanswerfile.xml from the very beginning.

Anyone who does VAR based work for a living experiences these “partial complete installs” as common place when working with an SBS box from an OEM manufacturer (i.e. Dell, HP, etc…). So why kill all other possibilities on these boxes than .local for the top level of the FULL INTERNAL DOMAIN. Doing so leaves admins in the “real world” with no other option than the requirement of a complete re-install?

To review: use of the sbsanswerfile.xml is the only resource from which “the FULL INTERNAL DOMAIN (which includes the “top level domain) can be defined. The sbsanswerfile must be called from the very first stages of an SBS 2008 install or .local will be the top level domain internally.

THE CLIENT

So getting back to my client: It appears that we have no choice. A (.local) top level domain will “have to” be used for the internal domain because we’ve got an OEM partial install. Since we are installing for a client that has Macs, I would have far rather used the answer file and altered the internal domain name to companyname.pri . The reason is in relation to Rendevous (now called Bonjour) and Mac’s design that treats any request relating to a .local first level domain in the context of Rendevous (Bonjour).

Networking Windows .local and Apple Macintosh

What to do if .local has been used in Windows Network as the first level domain name of the Internal domain and you are deploying in an “Apple Mac centric” network with older Mac’s in the environment?

To help Mac DNS resolve .local Please read KB836413 - You receive an “unexpected error occurred” error message when you try to access resources on a Windows-based network from your Macintosh computer

content of KB Article

• .local Preferences adjustment: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2385?viewlocale=en_US
• Updating Mac OSX: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1338?viewlocale=en_US
• Apple Support: http://www.apple.com/support/

	Windows Print Screen shortcuts on MacBook
Function:	Print Screen	fn+shift+F11
Function:	Print Screen (ACTIVE WINDOW)	fn+shift++alt+F11
	Start Menu and Basic shortcuts on MacBook
Function:	Start (Windows Start)	command
Function:	Enter	enter
Function:	Numlock	fn+F6
Function:	Alt	alt
	Windows Cursor Movement shortcuts on MacBook
Function:	Backspace	delete
Function:	Delete	fn+greater than symbol (i.e. >)
Function:	Home	fn+right arrow
Function:	End	fn+left arrow
Function:	Jump one word Left	ctrl+left arrow
Function:	Jump one word Right	ctrl+right arrow
Function:	Highlight one letter Left	shift+left arrow
Function:	Highlight one letter Right	shift+right arrow
Function:	Highlight one word Left	ctrl+shift+left arrow
Function:	Highlight one word Right	ctrl+shift+right arrow
Function:	Highlight Sententence Left	fn+shift+left arrow
Function:	Highlight Sententence Right	fn+shift+right arrow
Function:	Page Up	fn+up arrow
Function:	Page Down	fn+down arrow
Function:	Up Arrow	up arrow
Function:	Down Arrow	down arrow
Function:	Right Arrow	right arrow
Function:	Left Arrow	left arrow

more data

MacBook Pro Windows Keyboard Shortcuts
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1220

Windows PC (XP and Vista) Keyboard Shortcuts on Macs
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1167

more to follow, be back soon

Microsoft Exchange Server is available to Client systems via a variety of methods outside of the local network.

• OWA - Outlook Web Access
• OMA - Microsoft Mobile Access
• Outlook using RPC over HTTP

These (among others) are some of the more popular ways that knowledge workers access their mail, calendars, tasks etc… from Exchange Server while outside of the office.

Outlook using RPC (remote procedure call) over HTTP is very popular for those workers who need the full Outlook experience (more than just email). Using Outlook RPC/HTTP gives the Client access to Public and Shared Company Folders in real time that would only available “Offline” as Favorites otherwise.

So what about the Mac? Can the Mac access Microsoft Exchange Server using Outlook RPC over HTTP?

If you are using Entourage (Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac), Exchange Server based email boxes, Public Folders, and more.. can still be accessed via a similar method to RPC over HTTP. Entourage makes use of WebDav (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) to securely access your Exchange mailbox using the Entourage for Mac.

How to do it?

First, launch your web browser and navigate the URL where Exchange can be accessed

Microsoft Exchange Server generally will have a certificate of some kind installed. This encrypts traffic (and your credentials) so they cannot be easily read. If the Certificate is not trusted by your browser and/or application, it will cause an error to be thrown.

To make things a little smoother, Trust the Certificate. View the warning window carefully. Select to “Show the Certificate”

as you view the Certificate, look for an select the Trust drop down

Select Always Trust Certificate

Enter your password.

You can then view Keychain Access to confirm that you Certificate has been trusted.

Now you should be able to view the Exchange Outlook Web Access page without difficulty or error

Now Setup your Entourage Account access to Exchange. Go to Tools | Accounts

For the Account type, select Exchange

Setup the Exchange Account manually by clicking the “Manually” button

You may now edit the individual account settings to access Exchange:

Remember as you enter data here that Entourage communicates with Microsoft Exchange differently than Outlook does on the PC. Entourage uses WebDav. Entourage also uses a slightly different set of conventions in entering credentials.

• Account name:
• Personal Information
  • Name: your Full Name
  • E-mail address: your Email Address
• Authentication
  • Account ID: your Windows username for the Domain your Exchange Server is a member of
  • Domain: the name of the Domain
  • Password: your password
• Server information
  • Exchange server: enter the URL used to access your Exchange Server online
  • [ ] DAV service: be sure to CHECK THE BOX to secure the connection over WebDav. This uses the certificate you Trusted earlier to encrypt your credentials as you logon to Exchange.

Go back to Entourage and check your mail. At this point you may begin to see some activity:

That’s it. Grab a glass of water at the cooler. Talk about some fun stuff and then… get to work.

This is a growing list of keyboard shortcuts to accomplish typical Windows tasks on a MacBook keyboard (running Windows with BootCamp installed).

Windows Print Screen on MacBook

There are two potential methods using BootCamp to capture a screen image using the MacBook keyboard

IF your function keys control the MacBook hardware then use:
Shft+fn+F11 (Full screen)
Alt+Shft+Fn+F11 (Current Window)

IF your function keys behave as normal function keys
Shft+F11 (Full screen)
Alt+Shft+F11 (Current Window)

Windows Right Click using MacBook Penryn

The MacBook Penryn models have a multi-touch touchpad. Right licking is accomplished by:

Hold TWO fingers down on the touchpad
Click the MacBook single-button

more to follow…

!!!~ this article in progress ~!!!

MIS/IT/Developer/Designer types live today in a multi-operating-system/multi-web-browser world. The fancy word we use to refer to this paradigm is “heterogeneity” (which sort of means: lots of systems on one network).

Today, different types of computers are learning to offer more common ground. The people behind these systems do a lot of work to make sharing this common ground easier. At WIGITAL, we too are learning to participate in this effort. Responding to clients and the needs of a diverse computer culture requires us to both “learn” and carry around resources that empower (Linux, Mac, Windows) to work together.

Enter the MacBook Pro.

The Intel based-MacBook offers a platform on which all three Operating Systems can run. MacBooks are costly but they enable one “Tech guy” to carry around one laptop and do “the job”. This weekend, I took my own deep dive into the proverbial swimming pool of multi-booting on the MacBook. Here are my views on the experience, some links, research and walk throughs. If you are thinking of the same, read what’s here (and all over the web) and share your comments.

Resources to get you started (posts I read over the weekend):

• Triple Boot via BootCamp: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
• OpenSolaris 2008.05 meet the MacBook Pro
• MacBook Pro Triple Boot: Mac OS X, Vista, Windows Server 2008
• Linux on the MacBook Pro
• Ubuntu on the MacBook Pro
• MACBOOK TripleBoot Tutorial: OSX Leopard - Fedora8 - Vista

Software you need:

• rEFIt ver 0.11 - “Open Source” EFI boot menu and maintenance toolkit - (2008-02-20 or later)
• MacBook Pro OS X update (check for latest version)
• MacBook EFI Firmware Update ver 1.2 - (2008-04-08 or later)
• Boot Camp Update 2.1 - for Windows XP/Vista - (2008-04-24 or later)
• DRIVERS

Terms to know:

EFI

The EFI specification defines a model for the interface between operating systems and platform firmware. The interface consists of data tables that contain platform-related information, plus boot and runtime service calls that are available to the operating system and its loader. Together, these provide a standard environment for booting an operating system and running pre-boot applications.

http://www.uefi.org/home

HISTORY:

Intel Macs use GPT - GUID Partition Table (which is part of the EFI specification) as the source of information/code relating to partitions and boot information. Modern operating systems are EFI aware “even though” we must go through the BIOS based Multi Boot Record (MBR) method to get our (Linux and WIndows) systems loaded.

Windows Vista, beginning at Service Pack 1, “DOES SUPPORT EFI” - (see Hardware Ecosystem Support in this article). Also, some previous 64bit Windows and Itanium based Windows Operating Systems support EFI.

Older Microsoft Operating systems (XP, Windows 2000 etc…) use MBR - Master Boot Record (which is legacy Windows) as the code to manage partitions and boot. Multibooting on the MacBook requires us to create FAT32 partitions and the MBR table even with EFI aware Vista and Linux. This has proved challenging in multi boot environments that need to implement both the modern EFI GUID Partition Table (Mac as example) and the legacy Master Boot Record. Originally (the old days), pulling this off required a lot of hacking (like this example and this example using this method). The end result, which is still in use today using rEFIt, is a GPT/MBR Hybrid which combines EFI, GPT, MBR, BIOS emulation to get all the partition tables written (and synchronized) for multibooting.

Linux can use both EFI and MBR has been deployed in various ways using rEFIt in both dual and multi boot settings on MacBook. The walkthroughs still rely on initial FAT32 partitions to get things started prior to the installation of Linux and OpenSolaris. These are later converted to Ext3 in Linux and NTFS in Windows.

PARTITIONING:

As has been well outlined in pioneering articles, the primary challenge in multi booting operating systems is the partitioning systems.

• GPT for Intel based Macs
• BIOS based MBR for legacy Windows
• GPT and GNU GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) for Linux
  • NOTE: GRUB 2 is replacing GRUB and is currently in development (today is 2008-07-19)
  • read the GRUB Wiki (re: developement of GRUB 2)
  • read about testing GRUB 2 on MacBook

Dealing with these partitions, the boot loaders associated with them and ultimately syncing EFI with MBR still remains the primary focus of successfully multibooting Linux, OS X and Windows to a MacBook

NOTES:

Wish List:

• to be able to use EFI/GPT on all partitions (now supported on Mac OS X, Linux, Windows Vista SP1 or later)

Real World:

• create a EFI / GPT Mac OS X partition
• a FAT32 partition (converted during Linux install to Ext3)
• a FAT32 partition (converted during Windows install to NTFS)

Partition Details (basic outline as of today):

• disk0s1 = /dev/sda1 - EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface)
  • Apple reserves the first primary partition for the EFI System Partition
• disk0s2 = /dev/sda2 - EFI/HFS+ (Mac Hierarchical File System plus)
  • Apple Mac OS X Leopard 1.5.4
• disk0s3 = /dev/sda3 - FAT32
  • target for Linux/Open Solaris (later converted to Ext3 in Linux and ZFS in Open Solaris)
• disk0s4 = /dev/sda4 - FAT32
  • target for Windows Vista x64 (later converted to NTFS during install)
  • NOTE: this process expects Windows to be the last partition on the drive

Partitions Details - (additional info)

• IMPORTANT: the GPT Partition table must show the FAT 32 partitions as Microsoft Basic Data or Mac OS X will not recognize it.
• Because MBR only supports 4 partitions, we must use a Linux Swap File instead of a Swap Partition (when triple-booting). This must be created at the command line.
• Mac OS X can recognize and mount both FAT 32 and NTFS, however the partition must begin as FAT 32. NOTE: the FAT 32 partition can later be converted to NTFS for use with Vista and Windows Server

Helpful Utilities:

• Gnome Partition Editor can shrink FAT 32 partitions creating space for more then 4 usable EFI partitions)
• FAT 32 Formatter (formats FAT partitions larger than 32GB)
• BART Preinstallation Environment - Builder
  • BART PE explained (wikipedia)
• NTFS-3G: Mac OS X write to NTFS
• more…

Boot: use rEFIt or BootCamp as the Graphic Boot Utility

• rEFIt an EFI boot menu and toolkit
• this article states that BootCamp cannot Triple Boot

Multiboot Walkthrough Basics

INSTALLATION (a basic outline)

Phase 1 - Install the base Mac OS System and updates

• Install Mac OS X (base system only)
• Install all updates to OS X
• Install available firmware updates to MacBook
• Install BootCamp
• Install updates to BootCamp

Phase 2 - install rEFIt

• Install rEFIt

Phase 3 - create Windows Driver CD or use Mac OS X installation disc 1

• Run BootCamp Assistant and create Windows Vista SP1 x64 driver CD
• • Right/Ctrl Click on Boot Camp Assistant
  • select Show Package Contents
  • copy the Contents/Resources/diskimage.dmg file to your Desktop
  • launch Disk Utility and burn the diskimage.dmg image to a CD
  • NOTE: you are only using BootCamp for the drivers
  • NOTE: DO NOT partition with BootCamp
• more…

Phase 4 - list and Create your Partitions

Open a terminal window and type: diskUtil list

the result should look like:

 /dev/disk0
   #:                   type name               size      identifier
   0:  GUID_partition_scheme                    *233.8 GB disk0
   1:                    EFI                    200.0 MB  disk0s1
   2:              Apple_HFS Macintosh HD       233.4 GB  disk0s2

Locate the identifier for your Mac OS X partition (in this example disk0s2).

To create the partitions for your multi boot system type the command using the following syntax:
sudo diskutil resizeVolume [disk identifier] [disk size] [partition type] ["Partition label"] [partition size] [partition type] ["Partition label"] [partition size]

In my scenario, I’m working on a 200GB hard drive, I would therefore type:

sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 50G "Linux" "Linux" 100G "MS-DOS FAT32" "Windows" 15G

CREATE PARTITIONS

With the MacBook, partitions can be created either at the command line or using the Graphical DiskUtilities tool.

COMMAND LINE SETUP OF PARTITIONS

• in Mac OS X, launch Terminal

• type diskUtil list

**this will display all the current paritions

Last login: Sat Jul 19 14:30:15 on ttys000
mark-raborns-macbook-pro:~ wigital$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *186.3 Gi   disk0
1:                        EFI                         200.0 Mi   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            186.0 Gi   disk0s2
mark-raborns-macbook-pro:~ wigital$

In our scenario, we have a 200GB hard drive
14GB are used by ?

disk0s2 is the HFSplus partition used by the MAC

We now resize this disk and create 2 new partitions for Sun Open Solaris and Windows Vista

In Mac Terminal, type the command

sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 34G “MS-DOS FAT32″ “Linux” 100G “MS-DOS FAT32″ “Windows” 50G

OR

*Insert the Mac OS X installation DVD
*When the DVD autoplays you will view this screen - Picture 3
*click Install Mac OS X and Bundled Software
*When the Install Mac OS X Restart windows appears, click (Restart) - Picture 4
*enter you password - Picture 5

When you get to the Welcome screen, select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu
When Disk Utility starts, select the MacBook’s hard disk, my Disk Description is: “FUJITSU MHY2200BH Media”
select the Partition tab on the right panel
*under Volume Scheme:
**click once on the Macintosh HD to change the Volume Scheme

**click the [ + ] button (a second Volume HD_2 will appear)
**click once on the second Volume
**in the Name: box, name the Disk Description partition: “LINUX”

**click the [ + ] button (a third Volume HD_3 will appear)
**click once on the third Volume
**in the Name: box, name the Disk Description partition: “WINDOWS”

In my scenario
**Volume 1: in the Size: box, set the size of the Macintosh HD partition: “65.00″
**Volume 2: in the Size: box, set the size of the LINUX partition: “25.00″
**Volume 3: in the Size: box, set the size of the WINDOWS partition: “95.00″

click Apply

once the existing Partition has been resized and the new Partitions have been created

*Quit the Disk Utility

If you are creating a fresh installation, then Install Mac OS X

If Max OS X was already installed in your system and you require no changes

*Quit the Mac OS X Installer
*select Restart
*eject the Mac OS X installation disc

WINDOWS

*Eject any discs that may be in the DVD drive
*insert the Windows Vista x64 disc
*restart the MacBook
*listen for the chime, hold down the C key when the chime sounds, this boots from CD/DVD

with rEFIt
*you can also insert the Windows Vista DVD
*start the MacBook and let rEFIt come up
*tab to the Boot from Windows CD option
*press return
*the MacBook will boot to the Windows Vista DVD setup

At Windows Vista setup
*Select
**Language
**Time and currency
**Keyboard or input method
*click Next
*click Install now
*enter your Product Key
*accept the Terms
*select Custom at “Which type of installation do you want?” screen
*you should now see a list of partitions
**BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO DELETE OR OVERWRITE ANY PARTITIONS labeled as “Unallocated Space”
**click on Drive options (advanced)
**highlight the partition you created earlier with the Disk Description “WINDOWS”
**NOTE: this partition should appear as Disk 0 Partition 4 WINDOWS
**click on Format
**you will receive a warning about data, click OK
**once formatted (should be very fast), click Next
*the installer will begin Installing Windows

Copying files
Expanding files (0% etc… this portion may take some time)
Installing features
Installing updates
Completing installation

Once Windows Vista is installed, the system will reboot.
Allow the system to go into the rEFIt boot manager
from the available options, select Boot Windows from Partition 4
the Windows Vista x64 installer will continue at this point

<code>Please wait while Window Sets up your computer</code>

after some time it will return to the Preinstallation Environment GUI showing
Completing installation …

once the Installation is complete, the system will reboot once again

*when rEFIt comes up, boot into Windows Vista, select Boot Windows from Partition 4
*go through the OOBE (Out of Box Experience) screens and select your preferences (Windows Update settings, time and date, etc…)
*once OOBE is complete, click Start
*you will view the “Please wait will Windows launches for the first time” display
*once complete, you will view the Windows Vista welcome screen for the first time

ADD WINDOWS DRIVERS

*insert the Mac OS X installation disk 1
*when the AutoPlay window appears, select Open folder to view files
*navigate to WindowsSupport\Boot Camp\
*double-click Setup
*A program needs your permission to continue , select Continue
*this launches Boot Camp installer, click Next
*select I accept the terms in the license agreement, click Next
*click Install

Installing Apple Softrware Update Apple Built-in iSight
**Bluetooth
Broadcom wireless
Apple Null Divers
Crystal Bach
ATI graphics
NVIDIA graphics
Sigmatel audio
***Removing old RealTek audio driver
RealTek audio
Apple Built_In Bluetooth
Apple REmote
Apple Keybaord Support
Apple Cinema Display
Copying new files
APPle Time Service
Keyboard Servidee
Apple Trackpad
Music HAL
Intel chipset, etc…

When you reach Boot Camp installer completed.
click Finish
click Yes to Restart

Windows Vista reboots, when rEFIt boot loader select Boot Windows from Partition 4

when Vista launches, you may very well experience your fastest Vista experience ever

UBUNTU

• insert Ubuntu 8.04 LiveCD
• at rEFIt, select to boot from Linux CD
• select to Install Ubuntu
• select Language,Time and Keyboard options (your Country - Macintosh), click Forward
• at Prepare disk space screen in Install, you will be asked “How do you want to partition the disk?, select Manual, click Forward
• system will begin Scanning disks
• highlight /dev/sda3 (which should read fat32 in the Type column), select Edit partition
• from the Use as: drop down:
  • select Ext3 journamling file system
  • DO NOT check the box labeled Format the partition:
  • in the Mount point: enter “/”
  • click OK
  • click Forward
• you will receive a WARNING “Do you want to return to the partitioning menu?”. This warning will inform you “You have not selected any partitions for use as swap space.” Click Continue.
• Enter the Who are you? information, click Forward
• There is no need to migrate documents, click Forward
• !!! IMPORTANT !!! - at the last Ready to Install screen, CLICK THE “Advanced” button
  • in Advanced Options, from the drop down in Device for boot loader installation: select /dev/sda3
  • DO NOT Install boot loader to (hd0). This is the hard drive and not the sda3 partition. Installing boot loader to (hd0) will cause the boot loader to fight with rEFIt and also take over the boot loading process for Vista (which means booting to Linux to then boot to Vista. We prefer rEFIt to be our “one and only boot loader”. Installing the boot loader to /dev/sda3 keeps Mac OS X, Vista and Linux all accessible from withing the rEFIt GUI.
• once this is set… click Install

NOTES:

Once the installation is complete, the FAT32 partition will have been re-formated replaced by the Ext3 partition. The Ext3 partition is not readable from within Mac OS x without third party software.

OPEN SOLARIS

*attach a USB keyboard to the MacBook Pro
**(on my install, OpenSolaris read the MacBook Pro keyboard as USB but would not take input from the number keys on the keyboard)
*attach a USB mouse to the MacBook Pro (ctrl+click not supported by Solaris)
*Insert OpenSolaris 2008.05
*reboot the system
*once rEFIt appears, select Boot Legacy OS from CD

GNU BRUB version 0.95

OpenSolaris 2008.05
OpenSolaris 2008.05text console
Boot from Hard Disk

*Highlight OpenSolaris 2008.05 and press Enter
*Select the keyboard layout (using External USB keyboard), press Enter
*Select the desktop language, press Enter

Configuring devices.
Mounting local partitions/cdroms
Reading ZFS config: done.

opensolaris console login:

…wait while opensolaris prepares it’s Live environment

*Close the OpenSolaris License (external USB mouse can now be used)
*double-click the Install OpenSolaris icon
*at OpenSolaris Installer, click Next
*on the Disk screen, Paritions should read

EFI PMBR (EFI primary)
Unknown (HFSplus - Mac OS X)
Win95 FAT32 (will be used with OpenSolaris)
IFS: NTFS (Windows Vista x64)

*click Win95 FAT32 and select Solaris, click Next
*Select Tim Zone, Date and Time, click Next
*select Locale, click Next
*enter Root Password, Name, username and password and Computer name, click Next
*review your settings, click Install

OPEN SOLARIS BUG: Bug ID        6413235

In my installation the Open Solaris Bug 6413235 would not enable me to install. The Bug relates to an issue with FDisk where FDisk fails to create the Partition Table for Linux.

Read about Bug 6413235 here:
http://bugs.opensolaris.org/view_bug.do?bug_id=6413235

Solve the issue here:
http://www.genunix.org/wiki/index.php/OpenSolaris_Dual_Boot

Here is an overview of the proceedure.

*boot into Mac OS X
*install rEFIt
*insert the GPartEd LiveCD
*reboot into rEFIt
*once rEFIt appears, select Boot Legacy OS from CD
*connect a USB Keyboard and USB mouse (necessary on some MacBook’s as MacBook keyboard/touchpad not recognized)
*answer the Keyboard and Language questions
*complete boot into Debian/GPartEd

GPartEd Terminal

*the GPartEd application and Terminal will be on the Desktop
*double-click the Terminal
*at the Terminal window type: # fdisk /dev/sda
*…. a block of text information will appear
*enter the following commands as each line appears

<code>
Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): af
Changed system type of partition 1

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
calling ioctl() to re-read partition table
syncing disks.
</code>

GParted application

*if it is not alread open, double-click GParted on the desktop
*my display was something similar to this:

<pre>
Partition     | Filesystem     | Label     | Size     | Used     | Unused     | Flags
/dev/sda1       fat32            EFI
/dev/sda2       hfs+
unallocated     unallocated
/dev/sda3       fat32
/dev/sda4       ntfs
</pre>

/dev/sda is the EFI bootloader partition (changed to FAT 32 by applying the Hex code “AF” in the Terminal steps above
/dev/sda2 is the hfs+ partition for Mac OS X
unallocated should not be changed
/dev/sda3 is the fat32 partition which is our destination for OPEN SOLARIS
/dev/sda4 is the ntfs partion (converted from fat32 during the Vista x64 installation)

*highlight the /dev/sda3 partition (click once with mouse)
*go to Partition | Format to | and select linux-swap
*in the display /dev/sda3 will change from fat32 to linux-swap
*the footer of the application will display: “1 operation pending”
*to Apply the changes, click the Apply button (top of application)
*the changes will be made
*Exit GParted and reboot into rEFIt