Chapter 11. iSync

iSync is an easy and convenient way to keep your iCal calendars and your Address Book information synchronized between multiple Macs. You can synchronize your Safari bookmarks so that multiple computers all have the same ones. When your bookmarks are synchronized, you have access to them from any computer in the worldjust log in to your .Mac account (see Chapter 12, Bookmarks). You can also synchronize your Keychain information, Mail accounts, and Mail Rules, Signatures, and Smart Mailboxes. This makes it possible to quickly set up an additional (or new) computer with your existing informationjust use iSync to copy the .Mac version of your information to the new computer. When you use iSync, you also have a valuable backup of your information in your .Mac account in case you somehow lose this data or experience a disaster of some sort.

To synchronize multiple computers requires a .Mac membership because each computer you synchronize compares its Address Book, iCal, and Safari bookmarks information to the copy that's stored on the .Mac server. A free 60-day .Mac trial membership is availablevisit www.mac.com to sign up. If you don't have a .Mac membership, you can still use iSync to synchronize your Address Book and iCal information with a Bluetooth-enabled phone or a Palm OS device. A Palm OS device is any PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) that uses the Palm operating system.

Some people are intimidated by the word synchronization and never get around to using iSync. But it's easy and it's incredibly useful. As explained on the following pages, just sign in, choose the information you want to sync, then click "Sync Now."