B
Bill Thompson
One of the options for syncing MS-Outlook between desktop and laptop
mentioned on http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.htm is to make
your mailbox.pst or Outlook.pst file into Offline Files (last
paragraph of section titled "Windows Briefcase"). I spent about
four hours trying this, and here's what I got.
Assuming you want your desktop to be the "base machine", then I
*think* you need to:
Copy the .pst file *on your desktop* to a shared folder.
To find the .pst file, there is some tricky stuff you have to
do, since it's deep within some hidden folders.
Map that folder to a network drive *on your laptop*.
Enable offline files *on your laptop*.
In MS-Outlook *on both machines*, open the .pst file on the
network drive. (File|Open|etc.)
Enable sync'ing of a .pst file by following the Microsoft-
discommmended instructions at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=252509
Do or schedule some sort of synchronization (I haven't gotten
this far).
I ran into some problems. On my desktop, I can enable offline files
by going to any Windows Explorer window, selecting Folder Options,
and going to the Offline tab. On my laptop, though, there is no
Offline tab. (I'm running Windows XP Professional on the desktop
and Windows XP Home Edition on the laptop. Maybe that has something
to do with it.)
On the desktop, searching the help for "offline folder" found the
instructions for enabling offline files on the desktop. But on the
laptop, it led me to instructions for running the Synchronization
Manager. The Synchronization Manager lets you select stuff within
your offline files for synchronization. Great! Except I haven't
found a way on the laptop to add any files or folders to the list
that's available.
The help on the laptop says, "Files must be shared before they can
be used with Offline Files. Once shared, files will display in the
list of available items to synchronize." Well, on the laptop, I
mapped the network drive to the shared folder on the desktop that
contained the .pst file. They didn't show up in the list that
appears when you select Tools|Synchronize... in a Windows Explorer
window. Other stuff that I have shared on the laptop also doesn't
show up.
At this point, I gave up.
I don't know yet if, if I got past whatever this problem is, the two
..pst files would actually merge intelligently or one would just be
copied over the other.
I doubt that this would work for me right now anyway, though, since
I'm running Office 2000 on the desktop and a borrowed, unactivated
copy of Outlook 2002 on the laptop. The .pst files have different
names and, presumably, different formats. (I'll upgrade and
activate once I find a set-up that works.)
However, I think I *would* find the sync'ing feature useful for
other things, like keeping documents in sync on both desktop and
laptop. Has anyone gotten that to work?
Bill Thompson
mentioned on http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/sync.htm is to make
your mailbox.pst or Outlook.pst file into Offline Files (last
paragraph of section titled "Windows Briefcase"). I spent about
four hours trying this, and here's what I got.
Assuming you want your desktop to be the "base machine", then I
*think* you need to:
Copy the .pst file *on your desktop* to a shared folder.
To find the .pst file, there is some tricky stuff you have to
do, since it's deep within some hidden folders.
Map that folder to a network drive *on your laptop*.
Enable offline files *on your laptop*.
In MS-Outlook *on both machines*, open the .pst file on the
network drive. (File|Open|etc.)
Enable sync'ing of a .pst file by following the Microsoft-
discommmended instructions at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=252509
Do or schedule some sort of synchronization (I haven't gotten
this far).
I ran into some problems. On my desktop, I can enable offline files
by going to any Windows Explorer window, selecting Folder Options,
and going to the Offline tab. On my laptop, though, there is no
Offline tab. (I'm running Windows XP Professional on the desktop
and Windows XP Home Edition on the laptop. Maybe that has something
to do with it.)
On the desktop, searching the help for "offline folder" found the
instructions for enabling offline files on the desktop. But on the
laptop, it led me to instructions for running the Synchronization
Manager. The Synchronization Manager lets you select stuff within
your offline files for synchronization. Great! Except I haven't
found a way on the laptop to add any files or folders to the list
that's available.
The help on the laptop says, "Files must be shared before they can
be used with Offline Files. Once shared, files will display in the
list of available items to synchronize." Well, on the laptop, I
mapped the network drive to the shared folder on the desktop that
contained the .pst file. They didn't show up in the list that
appears when you select Tools|Synchronize... in a Windows Explorer
window. Other stuff that I have shared on the laptop also doesn't
show up.
At this point, I gave up.
I don't know yet if, if I got past whatever this problem is, the two
..pst files would actually merge intelligently or one would just be
copied over the other.
I doubt that this would work for me right now anyway, though, since
I'm running Office 2000 on the desktop and a borrowed, unactivated
copy of Outlook 2002 on the laptop. The .pst files have different
names and, presumably, different formats. (I'll upgrade and
activate once I find a set-up that works.)
However, I think I *would* find the sync'ing feature useful for
other things, like keeping documents in sync on both desktop and
laptop. Has anyone gotten that to work?
Bill Thompson