Keeping MacBook and iMac in Sync
I have been using Mac computers for a few years now. Prior to that, I carried around a Sony VAIO laptop, which was my main computer for business and personal productivity tasks. I had three offices plus my home office. I am now down to two offices and a home office. I never needed to sync anything (except for my PDAs and phones): I kept everything on my laptop computer and just made sure that I had a good backup (which DID come in handy on more than one occasion).
Although I still have several Windows machines around that get occasional use, I have moved all of my day-to-day business and personal computing to Apple Macs. I have an iMac (the beautiful aluminum one), a MacBook Air, and an iPhone. On my home network, there is also a Mac Mini that serves as my fax receiver, backup server and primary iTunes server for my AppleTV.
I really like the MacBook Air. It is a great travel companion. There is plenty of room for my Word documents, my spreadsheets, my InfoSelect data, e-mails and other daily-use files. I don’t carry around all of my photos, videos, music and other large-file media. I don’t need to: I can get to them any time I want with a variety of techniques.
Keeping Calendars and Contacts in Sync
My Macs are always in sync with Apple’s MobileMe service. While there are certainly lots of ways of accomplishing the same thing, for ease of use MobileMe can’t be beat.
With MobileMe, I keep the following items in sync between all my computers and my iPhone:
- Bookmarks
- Calendars
- Contacts
- Mail Accounts
- Mail Rules, Signatures, and Smart Mailboxes
- Notes
So, no matter which of my computers I am on (including my iPhone), Safari looks the same. All of my bookmarks are the there, my contacts are with me, and my calendar is up to date. If I make a change on my iPhone, the data on my computers us up to date within an hour (based on my sync preferences).
Keeping Files Synchronized
The beauty of having a desktop computer is having greater resources at your disposal: plenty of file space, a large video monitor, blazing speed, etc. The beauty of a MacBook Air is having a subset of the above in a streamlined aluminum body, smaller than a manilla envelope.
So, in order to keep all my Word files, spreadsheets (and even my archives of these files) synchronized between them, I have a daily routine that includes ChronoSync by Econ Technologies, Inc.
In order to keep my MacBook Air from getting bloated with stuff from my desktop machine, I keep a folder in my home directory called My_Stuff. These files get synced while leaving many of the large media files on the desktop alone.
Over my home network (a combination of wired and wireless access) the entire process usually takes just over a half minute to complete. So every morning and every night I just get ChronoSync to do its thing and I never worry about it again.
There are other tricks to keeping in sync. But for me, this is a simple solution that gives me the freedom to go from office to office with all my files.
Need a File That Is Not Synced?
What about those media files, or any other files that you do not regularly keep synchronized on your laptop computer? Well, I use MobileMe’s “Back to My Mac” feature. I can log on to my home iMac and either copy the file to my laptop, or just use the file on the desktop without ever transferring it.
For example, I keep DreamWeaver on my iMac at home. I do not use it on my laptop, because my need for updating websites (other than my blog) while I travel is relatively rare. On those occasions, I bring up my screen at home, start DreamWeaver, edit my site and send the file to the server via FTP. The file never actually exists on my laptop. The entire thing is done remotely without the need for cluttering up my laptop with occasional-use software.
In Summary
There you have it. My simple plan for keeping my Macs in sync with each other. You might have a better plan. Great! Feel free to share it with us.
