Mobilize Yourself! The Microsoft® Guide to Mobile Technology

Author Robert L. Bogue Pages 368 Disk N/A Level Int/Adv Published 01/30/2002 ISBN 9780735615021 ISBN-10 0-7356-1502-0 Price(USD) $29.99 To see this book's discounted price, select a reseller below.	More Information About the Book Table of Contents Sample Chapter Index Related Series About the Author Support: Book & CD Rate this book

Chapter 5: Park It in the Garage: Synchronization

• Synchronization for your Notebook
• Synchronizing Files
• Synchronizing E-mail with Outlook 2002
• Setting Up Public Folders for Synchronization
• Setting Synchronization Settings
• Synchronization for your Pocket PC
• Selecting Connectivity for ActiveSync
• Creating a Partnership
• Establishing and Configuring Conduits
• Transferring Files
• Backing Up and Restoring
• Resolving Conflicts
• Troubleshooting Connectivity
• Summary

Chapter 5  Park It in the Garage: Synchronization

Most people can't remove information from their corporate network, because others might need the information too. As a result, there's always the quandary of how to effectively manage information on your mobile device and keep it in sync with the information on the corporate network.

It's possible to do this manually, but because of the complexity of the task, it's easy to make a mistake or forget some information and lose valuable work. For instance, if you updated a financial analysis spreadsheet while you were away but forgot to copy the spreadsheet to the network when you returned, your colleagues would be working with outdated information. Conversely, if you made changes to the financial plan and copied everything from your notebook to the network but, unbeknownst to you, one of your colleagues had updated the financial plan while you were away, you would have copied outdated information to the network and overwritten your colleague's work.

The tools mentioned in this chapter are designed to automatically find the files that need to be updated on your notebook or Pocket PC and copy the up-to-date information over them. Conversely, files that you updated while you were away are updated on the corporate network. These are intuitive tools that "know" when a conflict occurs because a file has been changed in both places. In these cases, you're informed of the conflict, and you can manually consolidate the changes.

Synchronization for your Notebook

There are two basic types of information you can synchronize while you travel. The first type is your files: your Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Microsoft Access databases, and so on. The second kind of information you can synchronize is your e-mail.

Synchronizing Files

After you set up Briefcase, you can work freely, ignoring that the Briefcase isn't just a normal file folder. When you get back to your office, a few quick steps synchronize your Briefcase with the network. The first step to using Briefcase is creating a Briefcase folder. Here is the process to do this:

1. Double-click the My Computer icon. In the My Computer window, select the location where you want to create the Briefcase. Alternatively, you can skip this step and create a Briefcase on your desktop.
2. Right-click a free area of the folder or desktop, point to New on the shortcut menu, and then click Briefcase.
3. Right-click the New Briefcase icon, and click Rename on the shortcut menu. Give the new Briefcase a name that makes sense to you, such as Work Files.

That's all there is to creating a new Briefcase. You can open the Briefcase by double-clicking it. The first time you open the Briefcase, you'll see a message like the one in Figure 5-1, telling you a little bit about the features of Briefcase.

Drag the files you want to keep synchronized into the Briefcase. The following procedure shows you how to put files into your Briefcase, in case you're unfamiliar with copying and moving files in Windows:

1. Open the Briefcase by double-clicking it. If this is your first time opening the Briefcase, click Finish to close the dialog box containing the introduction message.
2. Move the Briefcase window aside if necessary, and on your desktop, double-click the My Computer icon to open Windows Explorer.
3. Navigate to the folder that contains the files or folders you want to keep synchronized by double-clicking each drive and folder until you reach your intended folder.


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Figure 5-1 Briefcase helps you understand how to use it the first time you open it.

4. Right-click the taskbar, and on the shortcut menu, click Tile Vertically. The screen should look something like the one shown in Figure 5-2 when you are done.


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Figure 5-2 Briefcases look almost exactly the same as an ordinary file folder, except for the extra menu.

5. Position the mouse pointer over the first file or folder you want to move. Hold down the mouse button, drag the file icon to the Briefcase window, and then release the mouse button. The file or folder should appear in the Briefcase window.
NOTE
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The method described here is just one of many ways to move and copy files in Windows. If you're interested in becoming more effective at file management in Windows XP, read Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out (Microsoft Press, 2001).
6. Move the files and folders you want into the Briefcase. You can put files from many different servers and directories into one Briefcase.
7. When you are done, simply close the Briefcase and Windows Explorer.

Now you're ready to travel with the files you've gathered from the network. You can disconnect from the network and open files directly from your Briefcase. The modifications you make will be held in your Briefcase until the files are updated.

Synchronizing the files in the Briefcase with the files on the network is a simple process. Simply open the Briefcase, and click the Update All button. The Update All command is also on the Briefcase shortcut menu (available when you right-click the Briefcase icon).

When you click the Update All command, Briefcase compares the files on the network, the files currently in the Briefcase, and the files that were last copied into the Briefcase. From there, it creates four different lists of files:

• Nothing Changed This is a list of files for which no action is necessary because the file didn't change on either the notebook or the network.
• Only The Notebook Changed This is a list of files that must be copied to the network because changes were made on the notebook.
• Only The Network Changed This is a list of files that must be copied to the notebook because changes were made on the network.
• Both The Network And Notebook Changed This is a list of files that you have to manually synchronize because changes were made on both the network and the notebook. As a result, a simple file copy cannot be done in either direction.

These lists (with the exception of Nothing Changed) are then assembled in a confirmation dialog box that tells you what Briefcase is going to do with your files. If you're satisfied, click the Update Now button.

The confirmation list contains three icons. The first two icons are green arrows that point to the right or left, indicating which way the file will be copied. An example of a file that needs to be copied to the network is shown in Figure 5-3.

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Figure 5-3 An arrow that points to the right indicates a file that should be copied to the network.

The other type of icon is a "skip" icon, which is a clockwise curved arrow. An example is shown in Figure 5-4. This indicates that a file was changed on both the network and the notebook, and therefore Briefcase can't automatically resolve the conflict. When this occurs, you'll eventually need to manually correct one of the files. To preserve the changes from both versions of the file, click the document icon to the left of the confirmation line, and select the option to skip the file. Then open both files in the appropriate application, and copy both sets of changes into a single file. Then rerun the process, and copy the file you changed to the other location.

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Figure 5-4 A clockwise curved arrow means you have to decide what to do.

Briefcase is a good tool for synchronizing a reasonable number of files, but you should not attempt to use it to synchronize an entire network's information, even if you have the space on your notebook's hard disk. Briefcase tends to malfunction when you request the synchronization of too many files. Generally, this occurs when you want to synchronize thousands of files.

Synchronizing E-mail with Outlook 2002

Since the creation of Microsoft Outlook—and its partnership with Microsoft Exchange server—it has supported mobile users by using offline files to store copies of information kept on the server, and it has offered remote mail capabilities to keep mobile workers connected. However, Outlook 2002 has significantly raised the bar in terms of flexibility for the mobile worker.

Before I explain how to turn on synchronization so that your e-mail is available while you travel, I will review a few things about Outlook and remote connections in general.

Outlook and the Microsoft Exchange server account to which it is connected contain more than just e-mail. They contain your tasks, calendar, and notes as well. Additionally, the public folders on an Exchange server can store many human resources and other business forms. Large amounts of information can be stored on an Exchange server and accessed through Outlook.

Unfortunately, when traveling you are frequently limited to slow connection speeds. As a result, you have to limit the amount of information you send across the wire so that you can get things done. This means you have to decide what information you want to synchronize.

Outlook enables you to control what information you synchronize and when you synchronize it. This means you can use an older copy of an expense report form that's stored in a public folder on an Exchange server without needing to download the most recent version. In most cases, it's probably not vital that you use the newest form immediately. Accounting departments expect to get a few outdated expense forms.

Setting Up Public Folders for Synchronization

1. Open Outlook, if you haven't already.
2. On the View menu, click Folder List to display the Folder List, if it isn't already displayed.
3. Click the plus sign to the left of the Public Folders icon to expand the list.
4. Click the plus sign to the left of All Public Folders to display a list of all public folders.
5. Continue navigating through the public folders and expanding subfolders until you have located the folder you want to make available offline.
6. Right-click the folder, and then on the shortcut menu, click Add To Favorites.
7. In the Add To Favorites dialog box, click the Options button to reveal the subfolder options. The Add To Favorites dialog box is shown in Figure 5-5.


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Figure 5-5 You can control how subfolders are handled using commands in the Add To Favorites dialog box.

8. If you want to automatically add subfolders, select the Add Subfolders Of This Folder check box. Then select the option that indicates whether to include only one level of folders or all the subfolders in the folder you selected.
9. Similarly, if you want to automatically add new subfolders, select the Automatically Add New Subfolders check box, and select the appropriate option.
10. Click the Add button to add the folder to your favorites.

After you've added the desired public folders to your favorites, you're ready to set up synchronization settings that will enable you to maintain local copies of the folders for traveling.

Setting Synchronization Settings

To set up an offline folders file, follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook, if you haven't already.
2. On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/ Receive Groups.
3. In the Send/Receive Groups dialog box, click the Edit button. The Send/Receive Settings dialog box shown in Figure 5-6 appears.


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Figure 5-6 The Send/Receive Settings dialog box can be daunting at first.

4. Click the Account Properties button.
5. In the Microsoft Exchange Server dialog box, click the Advanced tab. The Advanced tab of the Microsoft Exchange Server dialog box is shown in Figure 5-7.
6. Click the Offline Folder File Settings button.
7. In the File Text box, accept the default file name, or enter your own path and file name.
8. Set the Encryption settings. You should use either Compressible Encryption or no encryption and use Windows 2000/XP's file-level encryption for the file that Outlook creates.


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Figure 5-7 The settings on the Advanced tab of the Microsoft Exchange Server dialog box are fairly easy to use.

9. Click the OK button to close the Offline Folder File Settings dialog box.
10. Click the OK button to close the Microsoft Exchange Server dialog box.
NOTE
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If you want to determine which folders to keep in your offline folders, you can stop here and skip ahead to step 4 in the next set of steps.
11. Click the OK button to close the Send/Receive Settings dialog box.
12. Click the Close button to close the Send/Receive Groups dialog box.

Not all folders will be synchronized simply because you have an offline storage file. By default, only your Inbox, Outbox, Deleted Items, Sent Items, Calendar, and Contacts are synchronized. This can be particularly frustrating if you use the Notes folder in your Exchange mailbox to hold important tidbits of information, such as a rental car confirmation number or an account number.

In addition to specifying exactly which folders to synchronize, you'll also need to configure Outlook to synchronize these folders when you want them to be synchronized. I'll explain this procedure next.

1. Start Outlook 2002, if you haven't already.
2. On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive Settings, and then click Define Send/ Receive Groups.
3. In the Send/Receive Groups dialog box, click the Edit button.
4. In the Check Folders To Include In Send/Receive box, select the folders from your mailbox and public folder favorites to include in synchronization.
5. Unless you have a specific reason not to, select both the Make Folder Home Pages Available Offline and the Synchronize Forms So That You Always Have The Latest Information For The Folder check boxes. You might not want to synchronize forms if there are frequent changes to large forms in one or more of the folders that you synchronize.
6. Click OK to return to the Send/Receive Groups dialog box. Figure 5-8 shows the Send/Receive Groups dialog box.


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Figure 5-8 Scheduling is the final step of setting up synchronization.

7. Select the Include This Group In Send/Receive (F9) option in both the When Outlook Is Online and When Outlook Is Offline areas of the dialog box. This ensures that when Outlook sends and receives all messages, it will resynchronize all folders as well.
8. If you anticipate occasionally being in so much of a hurry that you won't have time to synchronize before closing Outlook, select the Schedule An Automatic Send/ Receive Every check box, and set the number of minutes between synchronizations.
9. If you don't mind waiting a few minutes when closing Outlook, you can also select the Perform An Automatic Send/Receive When Exiting check box. This ensures that your offline folder file is completely updated when you disconnect.
10. Click Close to return to Outlook.

The process to set up folder synchronization isn't particularly complicated. Synchronization will greatly enhance your mobile experience, especially if you set up your offline folder so that you can take the information from your mailbox and public folders with you when you're traveling without needing access to a connection. (This can be handy when you're sitting in an airplane at 35,000 feet.)

Last Updated: January 13, 2002

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