Synchronization Implications for Handheld Users

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Bonsai Portable Outliner (Run from USB drive) > Synchronization Implications for Handheld Users

The USB version of Bonsai does not support synchronizing outlines to handheld devices, however that does not prevent users using the Desktop Edition of Bonsai to synchronize outlines to their handheld. If you plan to use Bonsai on your handheld and on a USB drive, keeping your outlines synchronized can be done, but requires consideration on how to do this.

Each Bonsai installation (which will be referred to as "Bonsai Desktop" and "Bonsai USB") keeps a list of outlines. Part of this information in the outline list is the file location of the outline file and for the "Bonsai Desktop" a setting for if the outline is synchronized with a handheld device. An important choice needs to be made on where your outlines files should be stored. This is a decision you need to make based on which is the best choice given your needs.

Storing Outlines on your USB drive:

Pros:

•Both the Bonsai Desktop and the Bonsai USB versions access the same outline file.

Cons:

•USB drive must be present to use the Bonsai Desktop and when synchronizing your device. If HotSync is unable to access the outline during the sync, a warning will be logged during the first sync. On the second sync, if the outline is still not available, a new outline file will be created on the local disk. Unfortunately, the user may not be aware of the duplicate outline if they do not examine their HotSync log.

Storing Outlines both on the local disk and on the USB drive

Pros:

•Outline is always available by the Bonsai Desktop even if the USB drive is not present. Synchronization of the outline with a handheld device can always be performed.

Cons:

•Given there are two copies of your outline files, it is up to the user to keep these copies current. One could use third party software to keep these copies up-to-date, however these tools "synchronize" at the file level. If changes were to made both on the outline used by the Bonsai Desktop (whether from the Bonsai application directly or via a HotSync) and on the copy used by the Bonsai USB application, there is no way to merge these changes together.