Reader Stanley Wachs is a travelin’ man who is having some difficulty keeping his email, contacts, and calendars in sync. Specfically, he writes:
I travel a great deal for work and I’m trying to keep my two computers synchronized — at least the Entourage and Word files (both of which are in my Documents folder).
Synchronizing the Word files is no problem — just get a utility such as Econ Technologies’ $30 ChronoSync or You Software’s $50 You Synchronize or Qdea’s $30 Synchronize! X Plus — and designate the folder where you store your Word documents for synchronization.
Entourage is a tougher nut to crack and I’m afraid there’s no elegant way to synchronize the data in the Entourage database. There are a couple of fairly inelegant ways, however.
If you’re concerned solely about email and have a POP account, you can simply configure Entourage to leave a copy of your mail on the server. That way your email will be downloaded to both computers when you check it. Or, if you have the option to use an IMAP account, you can easily access your mail from both computers because it’s stored on a server rather than locally. If you care to get tricky about it, you could set up a mail rule that automatically forwards all mail you receive on the road to a home account.
But then there are those darned calendars and contacts. If you need everything Entourage has to offer, your best bet is to copy the Office 2004 Identities folder (found inside the Documents folder within your user folder) from your home Mac to your road Mac before you hit the road. When you return, replace the copy of this same folder on your home Mac with the version you’ve updated while traveling.