Progress indicator when syncing

[TheNovice]

I am new to syncing and I have a few questions.

Can anyone point me to a resource that will show me how to place an
indicator when our sales force sync's to the main database?

I would like to be able to show them a progress indicator, and if there are
errors to tell you what the error is and what to do.

also I would like to be able to compact the databases without having to
select the option to compact when exiting, it takes too long, i would like to
do it for the base one time a week and with the replicas also. any ideas?

Thanks in Advance to all,