Mac OS X to the Max: Keeping Your Files in Synch


As you move around with your mobile Mac, I'm sure you'll find all kinds of great things to do with it (one of my favorites is to watch DVDs while I travel). Some of these might even involve work! If you work on files on your mobile Mac, it is highly likely that you will want to move those files to or from another Mac, such as your desktop Mac. There are lots of ways to accomplish this:

  • Store the files you are going to share between your mobile Mac and other machines on your .Mac iDisk. Then set your iDisk to synchronize automatically on all machines. The same versions of those files will be accessible on all your Macs automatically (and they will be backed up on your iDisk, too).

    To learn how to use an iDisk, p. 498.


  • Before and after a session on your mobile Mac, connect the mobile Mac to the network that your desktop Mac is on and use file sharing to move the files back and forth between the machines. (Make sure you move the correct version so you don't accidentally replace a newer version with an older one.)

  • Email files to yourself. This is easier to do if you have more than one email account. For example, use a .Mac email account for your regular email and another account just on one machine. You can send files to yourself via that address. The big problem with this method is that most email gateways allow only relatively small files to be sent (usually less than 5MB).

  • Use a folder cloning application to keep specific folders synchronized. You select one or more folders on each machine that you want to keep in synch and the application will ensure the latest version is in the folder on each computer.

  • Put files on CD, DVD, or a portable drive (an iPod is excellent for this), and then copy them onto a different machine.

One of the harder aspects of keeping files synchronized between a mobile Mac and other machines is knowing exactly which files changed during your most recent use of the mobile. With Mac OS X's smart folders, you can make even this easy to do:

1.

Create a new smart folder.

2.

Configure it to find files whose Kind is Documents and that were Last Modified Within Last 2 Days (or some other timeframe).

3.

Save the smart folder.

Each time you open this smart folder, you will see the document files that have changed within the timeframe you specify. This makes it simple to know which files you need to move to your desktop Mac or other location.

To learn how to configure and use smart folders, p. 123.




Special Edition Using MAC OS X Tiger
Special Edition Using Mac OS X Tiger
ISBN: 0789733919
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 317
Authors: Brad Miser

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