Sync Mobile Contacts to Gmail

Google has finally implemented something that users have been requesting for years, synchronization of mobile phone contacts and calendar items with gmail. Google previously released Google Calendar Sync, which synchronizes between Outlook and Google calendar. This allowed you to bounce Google Calendar items off Outlook and onto a mobile phone. Now you can synchronize directly between your phone and Google, AND contacts will be synchronized.

Now our appointments and contacts can be backed up, readily accessible from anywhere, and easily edited from a PC.

You can find instructions here. I had trouble setting up my Windows Mobile phone the solution is here.

Backup and transfer Word Autocorrect settings

A few months ago I reformatted the hard drive on my laptop, since then I have mostly been using OpenOffice and so I never had the need to (or never got around to) resetting all of my Autocorrect settings in Word. This came up just yesterday as Mike and I were working on a project for class and we wondered if there was a way to back up these settings, or more specifically, syncing between two computers. Mike addressed the value of custom Autocorrects in a previous post.

While automatic syncing may be a little too hopeful (or at least beyond my VBS ability. Mike?), there is a VERY easy solution for backing up and importing your saved Autocorrects. Dave Rado at mvps.org has written a macro that automatically backs up your Autocorrects. Then, when run on the new computer, imports them.

After downloading and extracting the zip file, run the template, and it's all pretty self explanatory from there. If you need additional help there's instructions on the original post.


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Simple Remote Folder Synchronization (FolderShare)

Every once in a while you stumble upon a piece of software that, after using it for only a short time, you can't imagine ever living without again. Foldershare is one of those pieces of software for me. I initially downloaded it to be a simple backup method after reading one too many horror stories of "bricked" hard drives, and hearing one too many weird clicks coming from the dark netherregions of my own computer.

Foldershare, at it's simplest, allows you to automatically synchronize specific folders among two or more computers. This overly simple description doesn't begin to touch on ease of mind of always knowing that every change you make to every document is automatically being whisked away and stored safely on another hard drive; far away from the danger of the coffee mug sitting next to your computer just waiting for a chance to tip over and let it's half-caf goodness ooze into your keyboard, and turn your beloved laptop into an awkward paperweight.

OK, so maybe I'm a little bit more paranoid about backing things up than the average bear (I really don't think my coffee mug is out to get me... I drink tea), but my peculiarities are really not the point of this post... I promise. Below you'll see a picture of Foldershare in action... Quietly whisking away every change I make to the Commissioner v. Estate of Bosch file while at school to the safety of my desktop computer at home ("King Ebenezer" is the name of my laptop, named after a song. OFFICE, is predictably, my office computer).











But as the name (FolderSHARE) indicates, file backup is not the main or only purpose. Once this is installed on your home computer you will be able to access any file on your computer, from any computer anywhere in the world (provided that it's turned on). Also, folders can be shared with one or more friends/colleagues.

In spite of my praise for it... Foldershare does leave a bit to be desired. My wishlist includes 1) ability to exclude designated extensions; 2) unlimited libraries (current limit 10); 3) folder hierarchy maintained after delete; 4) automated maintenance of the trash folder (or sending them straight to the recycle bin); and 5) better compatibility when a file is open on both computers at the same time.

Even after I've laid out this wishlist Foldershare is something I would highly recommend to everybody, whether you're on the go alot or not.