Microsoft has announced at MacWorld San Francisco that Entourage will soon have Spotlight and iSync support.

From March this year, Entourage users will be able to search their emails with Spotlight, finally bringing Entourage into line with Word, PowerPoint and Excel, which already have Spotlight support.

Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit will also bring iSync support to Entourage, so that users will soon be able to sync their Entourage calendar, address book, notes and tasks with handheld devices that also work with Sync Services.

Entourage will also gain new converters to allow it to read the new Microsoft Open Office XML formats.

Microsoft introduced these improvements as part of a promise to continue the development of Office for Mac for another five years. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìWe?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve had many years of success with Office for Mac”, Microsoft Consumer Productivity VP Tom Gibbons said in a press release, “and this formal commitment confirms that we?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re in the Mac business for the long haul.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

[Thanks, Dan!].

The full text of Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit after the jump…

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David Chartier at TUAW reports on the weird situation that arises when you try to sync settings on two or more Macs when more than one has Mail.app set to use random signatures.

This situation sends iSync into an endless loop of error messages, that can only terminated by syncing the computers with Apple Mail active on only one of the Macs.

Take Control Books has just released a book on .Mac, written by Joe Kissell and edited by Dan Frakes.

Designed to “help you take control of every aspect of your .Mac membership”, it covers the whole gamut — .Mac‘s online contacts, iDisk, Backup, using iSync, publishing web pages an getting the most out of .Mac’s new Groups feature.

But what interests me most is the coverage of .Mac Mail, and the many tips on how to use it best both from its web interface and through Mail.app.

Joe covers all the features of email with .Mac — autoreplies, polling other POP accounts, adding your picture, aliases, the different kinds of .Mac memberships available and how to get the right one for you.

The style is clear, direct and firmly focussed on making the use of your .Mac account better in real-world terms.

At only USD 10, it’s a bargain. The perfect companion gift to the .Mac account you are buying for the people you love this Christmas!

Check it out on the Take Control web site. Read the preview. Buy the book.