Synchronizing Files with Briefcase

Briefcase allows you to create copies of files for offline use and subsequently synchronize those files with their online originals. It’s not as easy to use as offline files, but it’s the tool you need if you don’t have a local area network connection between your portable and desktop computers.

To use Briefcase with removable media, follow these steps:

1. Put a disk (preferably freshly formatted) in a removable disk drive of the machine that holds the files you want to use offline (your desktop machine, most likely).

2. Open the removable disk in Windows Explorer.

3. Right-click in the removable disk’s folder and choose New, Briefcase.

4. Rename the briefcase (an optional step, but you’ll want to do this if you use more than one briefcase at a time).

5. Open the briefcase (it’s a folder, almost like any other) and then close the dialog box that appears.

6. Copy files into your new briefcase until the removable disk is somewhat less than full. Don’t fill the disk, because you need room for your files to grow as you work with them.

7. Insert the removable disk in your portable computer, and move or copy the briefcase to the portable’s hard disk. (Move or copy the briefcase folder, not the individual files in the briefcase.)

8. Repeat these steps for as many removable disks as you need, giving each briefcase a unique name.

9. Upon returning to your desktop computer, copy each briefcase on your portable machine to a removable disk, and then transfer the disk’s contents to your desktop computer.

10. To synchronize, open a briefcase and then choose Briefcase, Update All. (The Briefcase menu appears on the Windows Explorer menu only when a briefcase folder is selected.) To synchronize only particular files, select Details view, select the files you want to synchronize, and then choose Briefcase, Update Selection.

Getting Status Information About Briefcase Files

In Windows Explorer Details view, Briefcase provides useful information about the origin and status of your documents. As Figure 15-9 shows, the Status column shows which files are current and which need updating. The Sync Copy In column tells where the original version of each file is stored.

Figure 15-9. Columns in Windows Explorer show which briefcase files need updating and where each file’s original version resides.

When your briefcase is online with the computer where it was created, you can also get status information about a particular file by right-clicking it, choosing Properties, and viewing the Update Status tab. Figure 15-10, for example, shows the status for a file that has been changed in the briefcase.

Figure 15-10. The properties dialog box for a briefcase file can tell you which version of the file is more current.

Synchronizing Files

When you’re ready to synchronize your briefcase files with their originals, you can either work with one file at a time or update the whole briefcase at once. To update a single file, select it and choose Briefcase, Update Selection. To update the whole briefcase, choose Briefcase, Update All (or click its toolbar equivalent). You’ll see an update dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 15-11.

Figure 15-11. When you choose Update All from the Windows Explorer Briefcase menu, the arrows in this dialog box show you which versions of your files need updating.

The arrows in the center of the dialog box can point in either direction, depending on which versions of your files are changed and which need updating. When you click Update, Windows copies the changed version, no matter where it resides, over the unchanged one. If both files have been modified, the default action is not to update either. If a file was deleted in one location, it will be copied to the other location to replace the deleted file.

If the update action that Briefcase proposes for an item isn’t the action you want, right-click its entry in the Update dialog box and then choose the action you prefer.

Separating a Briefcase File from Its Sync Copy

If you move a file from a briefcase to any other folder, the link between that file and its original version is broken. The result is an ordinary copy. You can also sever the link between a file and its sync copy without removing it from the briefcase. To do this, select the file and then choose Briefcase, Split From Original. In Briefcase’s Status column, the file will then be listed as an "orphan."