Take Your Files Offline with Tablet PC
Published: May 28, 2003
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The freedom to work how you want and where you want is at the heart of the Tablet PC design. The Offline Files feature in Windows XP makes your Tablet PC even more flexible. The best part about using offline files is you get to work as if you were still connected to the network wherever you go—even while flying along at 30,000 feet. Offline files aren't just for traveling around the country. Simply taking your work outside on a sunny afternoon beyond the range of your wireless network is usually best done with offline files.
The Offline Files feature lets you use files that reside on a network server when you're traveling or otherwise unable to connect to a network. You designate a folder that's stored on a network server to be available offline. Then Windows XP creates a folder on your local hard drive in which it stores copies of the offline folder's contents. When you connect to the network again, Windows synchronizes the local copy with the version on the network and gives you a means to resolve conflicts should they arise.
This article explains how to set up offline files, designate folders for offline use, synchronize files, and how to make Web pages available for offline use. I've also included a section on how to create a travel document in Windows Journal based on offline Web pages.
Set Up Offline Files
Before you can designate an offline folder, you must configure Offline Files on your Tablet PC.
To set up offline folders:
1. | Tap Start, tap Control Panel, tap Appearance and Themes, and then tap Folder Options. |
2. | On the Offline Files tab, select the Enable Offline Files check box, as shown in the figure below.  Figure 1 |
3. | Select when the computer will synchronize its folders. I recommend synchronizing the Tablet PC when you log on and log off. |
The next step is to select which folders and files you want available offline.
To designate a folder or file to be available offline:
1. | Connect to the network from your Tablet PC. |
2. | Using My Computeror My Network Places, open the network share that contains the files you want to work with offline. |
3. | Right-tap (press and hold) on the either the folder icon or a particular file you want. |
4. | Tap Make Available Offline to start the Offline Files Wizard. |
5. | If the folder you've marked for offline use includes subfolders you must confirm that you want the subfolder contents available too. |
If you designate a folder with many subfolders and files to be available offline, do it while connected to the network using a cable rather than a wireless link. Usually the wired network is ten times as fast as the wireless and a folder with many sub-folders may contain much data. Once created, only files with changes copy on synchronization, so synchronizing wirelessly is usually a snap.
For more information, see Use Offline Files When You're off the Network.
Synchronize Files
If you modify an offline document on your computer and the copy on the network was not changed, the network copy is updated with the copy from your local offline folder. Similarly, if the copy on the network has changed and your local copy has not, the local copy is updated during synchronization. If both copies have been changed, you'll see the Resolve File Conflicts dialog box (shown below) where you can elect to keep one version or the other or both.
Figure 2
In addition to automatic synchronization, you can manually synchronize your offline files any time you're connected to the network by right-tapping the folder or file you want synchronized and selecting Synchronize. You can manually synchronize all your offline folders at once by tapping the Tools menu in Windows Explorer and then selecting Synchronize.
There are two critical items to remember with Offline Files:
| • | Deleting a file from your Tablet PC will delete the copy on the server at synchronization, and anyone deleting the file from the server will remove it from your Tablet PC. |
| • | While connected to the network and editing synchronized files, you are editing the files stored on the server and not the files on your Tablet PC. If you leave the network without synchronizing, either manually or automatically, none of your work is copied to the Tablet PC. |
Offline Files for the Home User
Offline files aren't just for people on large office networks. I have a desktop computer and a Tablet PC that share the same My Documents folder on a home network. Whichever computer I use, I always have my files available and up-to-date. I do this by changing the target of the My Documents folder on my Tablet PC to point to the My Documents folder on my desktop computer. Then I made the Tablet PC My Documents folder available offline.
To change the target of your My Documents folder
1. | On the Start menu, right-tap My Documents, and then tap Properties. |
2. | On the Target tab, enter the path to the folder on the server. |
3. | Set My Documents on your Tablet PC to be available offline as described above. |
Note that on small office and home networks, offline file access is incompatible with Fast User Switching.
To ensure that Fast User Switching is turned off:
1. | Open Control Panel, and then tap User Accounts. |
2. | Tap Change the way users log on or off. |
3. | Clear the Use Fast User Switching check box, and then tap Apply Options. |
For more information on home and office networking, see Automatic Configuration for Multiple Networks and Install Windows XP Professional: Joining a Network.
Offline Web Pages
Offline Web pages are copies of Web pages that are saved on your Tablet PC. You view offline Web pages by opening the page in Internet Explorer just as if you were online. One major difference between offline files and Web pages is you must specify how many links (or levels) you want to download.
You can download the page marked as a favorite (zero levels), pages accessed from the favorite by a link (one level), pages linked to pages linked to the favorite (two levels), and pages linked to pages linked to pages linked to the favorite (three levels). The amount of data linked at three levels can be overwhelming. Be cautious about turning this setting up beyond the first level.
To make a Web page available offline
1. | Add the desired page or Web site home page to your list of favorites. |
2. | On the Favorites menu, right-tap the favorite, and then tap Make available offline. |
3. | Follow the prompts in the Offline Favorite Wizard. |
To further limit what is downloaded and when for an existing offline favorite:
1. | Right-tap the favorite, tap Properties, and then tap Make available offline. |
2. | Answer No to If this page contains links to other pages, would you like to make those pages available offline too? That limits the links saved to one Web site. |
3. | Tap Advanced to control whether to download images, sound and video, ActiveX controls, Java applets, and non-HTML pages. |
Offline E-Mail
Sitting in the airport waiting for your flight is a perfect time to sit and review your e-mail. You must download your e-mail messages to your Tablet PC before going offline. Since there are so many types of e-mail accounts, I can't cover how to download messages here. I can share three suggestions that will improve your offline e-mail experience.
Use the Advanced toolbar to show and hide the Outlook Bar or Folder List. Outlook's default layout with the Outlook Bar or Folder List on the left and messages on the right does not work as well in the portrait mode where horizontal space is at a premium. The Advanced toolbar lets you toggle the folder list on and off with a single pen tap. This lets you easily use the full screen width for reading messages.
To view the Advanced toolbar:
1. | On the View menu, point to Toolbars. |
2. | Tap Advanced to view the Advanced toolbar. |
You can manually switch Outlook to work offline before you leave the network and prevent a barrage of annoying "Unable to connect to server" messages. This is handy even when you simply carry your Tablet PC out of wireless network range for a minute or two. The process is very easy if you are using POP or IMAP e-mail account.
To work offline with a POP or IMAP e-mail account:
| • | On the File menu, tap Work Offline. Messages you've composed offline will be transferred to the Outbox and then sent to their recipients.  Figure 3 |
If you're using a Microsoft Exchange Server account, it's a bit more complicated. For information on how to set up a Microsoft Exchange Server account, see OL2002: What Are Offline Folders and How Do You Use Them or contact your network support person.
You can also add custom buttons to the toolbars for useful commands. Having commands such as Work Offline on a toolbar saves you a lot of menu tapping.
To add custom buttons to the Outlook toolbars:
1. | On the Tools menu, tap Customize. |
2. | Tap the Commands tab, and then select the menu on which the command is found on the left and the desired command on the right. |
3. | Drag the command up to the toolbar. If there was an icon next to the command, the icon will appear on the toolbar. If not, the text will appear on the toolbar as a button. |
These items work well in concert. The figure below shows the Advanced toolbar, with the folder list hidden and Work Offline added as a custom button.
Figure 4
Note: When using Outlook on a Tablet PC, the keyboard key you miss most is Delete. Don't forget about the delete icon on the standard toolbar, it's a black X.
Use Windows Journal for Offline Files
It is often the case these days that our airline reservations, car rentals, and driving directions are sent as Web pages. You can, of course, make these pages available offline so you have them at your fingertips as you travel. Another option however is to import them into Windows Journal and build a travel document. You import files by "printing" them to Windows Journal.
For a recent trip, I imported two e-mail messages, my airline information, and a map at three different resolutions from MapQuest to Windows Journal and combined them into a single document. By setting the view to reading view, I could easily page through it one-handed, even while driving. Since it was a note, I could also highlight and make notes on the document as I traveled, such as the phone number shown below that I wrote down while waiting for a rental car in Columbus.
Figure 5
To import a document into Windows Journal:
1. | Open the document or Web page you want to print. |
2. | On the File menu, tap Print. |
3. | Choose Journal Note Writer as the printer, and then tap Print |
A new note will open in Windows Journal with the printed page as its background. For more information on importing documents into Windows Journal, see Mark Up Your Documents. There's a lot more fun to have as you travel with your Tablet PC. After your first trip with the Tablet PC tucked under your arm, you'll wonder how you ever got by without it.
 | Jeff Van West is the author of over a dozen books, CDs, and training curricula about computers, technology, and aviation.
Titles include Microsoft Tablet PC Quick Reference (Microsoft Press, 2002) and
Illustrator CS Hands-On-Training (Peachpit Press, 2004).
His multimedia training programs are used in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. An advocate of what he terms "appropriate technology," Jeff focuses on applying the best solution to accomplish the task, rather than using cool features just because they're there. He can be reached at Van West Communications.
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