The Outlook & Sync blog

At first Easy2Sync was developed just to synchronize. Now you can also just copy or overwrite data.

The difference?

When synchronising, both computers have the same rights. Changes on one computer will be transferred to the other. In a sub-dialog of the first page of the task properties you can choose other modes.

In the copy mode, one computer is the slave (the target computer) and only receives the changes (of the source computer). If you change something on the target computer, Easy2Sync will undo this and delete your changes. Changes on the source computer however, will be copied to the target computer.

Overwriting is the same as copying, with one difference: In the overwrite mode Easy2sync will never ever delete any files. Even if you delete a file on the source computer, it will not be deleted on the target computer.

Moving is also quite similar to copying. With one difference: The file will be deleted from the source PC after copying it to the target PC. You can choose whether you want to move both files and directories or move only files and keep the directory structure on the source PC.

To flatten the structure means that the files aren’t simply copied from the source to the target PC, but the directory information will be lost. No matter in which subdirectory of the source PC the file was stored, but will be copied directly into the target directory (and not in any subdirectory). Just like a Copying mode this task type always works in the specified direction. If several files with the same name exist in different source directories, the newest one will win the conflict in the long run (maybe only after several synchronizations).

Want to try? Download.

Yes, version 1.06 is out. Since the software just works nicely, there was little to fix / improve. We now use a different internal method for the icons on the toolbar. You won’t notice that of course, unless you have one of the very few PCs where it didn’t work before… 😉

The toolbar (and the menu):

You can download the demo version here and the registered version here.

Today’s the shortest tip ever: Did you now you can change the size of Easy2Sync’s main window? Simply drag the border or click on the maximize button. (This works with Easy2Sync for Files and Easy2Sync for Outlook.)

If you have many tasks, it’s time to get organized. If you haven’t already done so. Use the task collections to group several synchronization tasks into one task collection. And then enable the filter “Don’t show elements of task groups” in the view menu. And suddenly your file / e-mail synch became a lot easier. You’re seeing much less tasks now (don’t worry, they’re still there), but you can run all of them in one go with the task collection.

The same applies to deactivated tasks. You can deactivate a synch if you currently don’t need it any more, but still don’t want to delete it. So, simply deactivate the synchronization tasks and use the menu item in the view menu to hide tasks like these:

Easy2Sync can synchronize both your e-mails and your calendar items.
This can be useful if you want to share your calendar with you co-workers. But what about your private data in your calendar? That’s none of you co-workers’ business. No problem with Easy2Sync for Outlook – you can simple exclude private items from the PST sync. Simply active the “private filter” in your task properties.

It also works the other way round. You can synchronize (or copy) only your private items, if you’d prefer that, for example for your private calendar at home. Download it now and try it.

In Easy2Sync (for Files and for Outlook) you store the data for the syncs in “tasks”. If you have many tasks, then may need some tricks to organize them. The tabs are a great help here. They’re a row of texts and images just above the task list:

Depending on the selected tab, you’ll only see the tasks, that match the tab’s criteria.

* All: Well, just all tasks
* Favorites: All tasks that have been synchronized in the last 7
days, but not today.
* Today / Not today: Only tasks that (haven’t) been synchronized
today
* Not in sync: Tasks where the last sync wasn’t successful
* Icons: They symbolize a task type (copy, sync, overwrite, …. Only
tasks with this type are shown

These view filters will help to choose the right synchronization task for your e-mails, contacts, etc. or files. Want to see it live? Try the Freeware Edition of Easy2Sync for Files or Easy2Sync for Outlook.

Buzz off! That’s what some people may thing if Easy2Sync for Files is asking them questions. Because by default, the program asks questions in all cases that may be important to the user.

But help is just a keystroke away. If you don’t want these questions, simply press F12. Here are the options and here you can tweak and configure all the questions and dialogs:

• Questions for copying, overwriting, deleting, etc. can be turned off on the “Confirm” page
• The Synchronization Overview, the assistant and the summary can be turned off on the “Windows” page.
• Error messages for copy failures can be turned off on the “Automation” page.

Try it and synchronize your files!

Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Sometimes people complain that “1-Click duplicate delete for Outlook” doesn’t find all their duplicates. But it most cases this isn’t true. It’s just that their duplicates aren’t duplicates. They’re just objects that are similar.

And that’s the problem.

Because “1-Click duplicate delete for Outlook” can’t just go and delete everything that’s similar. (Or should it delete all e-mails that have the same sender address. See? You don’t want that.)

So, what should you do?

If the items are quite similar than our program will automatically suggest a definition of what’s a duplicate/similar objects and what not. If it doesn’t, you’ve got to use a trick:

• Choose 2 items that seem be the same. Do this have a closer look
• Create a new folder in Outlook (Contact folder for example)
• Copy both items into that folder to have a save “playground”. Look at that folder.
• Choose “More” / “Advanced Scan”.
• For “Where” choose the current folder (the “playground”).
• On the “How” page, choose “The following…” and select only the “Subject”. You’ll get a warning, which you can ignore. But only because we’re in the “playground” here. This setting isn’t recommended for your normal data.
• Now only the subject is compared and you’ll see your copied items in the confirmation dialog. Click on the “[+]” signs to expand the data.

Now you can see in the versions, what the differences are and why the program didn’t report the “Duplicates”.

If you do think, that the program should recognize this, please send us a screenshot. (Please note that the program cannot remove duplicates with really BIG differences. Like the same subject in different languages.)

Or you can simply adjust the the definition for duplicates. Use the scan options from above but choose all items to compare except the one that we reported as different. Please note that you SHOULD have a closer look at the reported items before deleting them. You definition may be so weak that it may define other items as duplicates that are in fact different. Download 1-Click Duplicate Delete for Outlook.

Easy2Sync for Files can handle LOTS of data. And some people have created LOTS of tasks to handle their data. Did you know that you can put many tasks into a “task summary”. Click on the “task” menu to see it. Task summaries have several advantages:

• Less clutter. By default tasks that are member of a task summary will be hidden from the main list
• Easier start. Just start the task summary and all tasks will be synchronized
• Easier automatic start: Just organize the timer conditions for the task summary -and not for 20 individual tasks

By the way: You can do the same with Easy2Sync for Outlook.

Download Easy2Sync for Files.

It’s hard to make great things better, so we’re working on the details by now:

• A completely automatic sync on system shutdown
• An automatic backup of the configuration
• An exit button in the tray menu

You can get the latest version here.

You can use our Freeware GoogleEarthTweaker to view Geocaches as nice icons in GoogleEarth (GPX files from a geocaching.com premium account are required). When you convert the files with GET, you may notice that some custom icons appear. GET auto-detects some special cache types:

Church caches:

TB Hotels:

Train stations:

Highway caches:

Night caches:

Download GoogleEarthTweaker here.

Yes, you can do that. It you’re using the Freeware Edition for more that 30 days, ReplyButler will add 2 small lines of text at the end of your e-mails which hint at our products.

And you can earn money with this. Register with Share-It (that’s completely free) and enter your affiliate number into ReplyButler (Extras / Options / Answer details / Footer). Now, if we sell a copy to anyone who was referred from your e-mail, you’ll get 15% of the purchase price (after deducting taxes and transaction costs). If you’re not interested in the money or don’t want to register, just choose one of the predefined charity affiliates.

Trick: If you’re using the Home- or Business Edition, or the Freeware Edition for less than 30 days, you can activate this manually in the options.

Version 1.25 is out. We’ve been busy during the last month, including lots of detail improvements. Probably the most interesting one is the new Linguatec translation engine:

If you have a text module in one language, simply click on the “new” button and pick a language to let the Linguatec website translate your text module. Great for everyone who does support work in multiple languages.

You can get the new version here.

No, not Easy2Sync this time. Most people probably won’t even know WordPress but in fact you’re using it right now. It’s a blogging system, quite popular. And because it’s popular, some people may try to attack systems running it. And that’s why there is the second update within a few weeks. Well, that seems to be the world we live in nowadays…

Let’s use a less abstract example. You might specify the following configuration:
Task type: Copy 1 to 2
Base directory1: C:\MyData\
Base directory2: X:\MyBackup%1-5%\
When synchronizing the first time, X:\MyBackup1 will be used. When synchronizing the second time X:\MyBackup2 and so on. When the sixth synchronization is performed, Easy2Sync uses the first directory again.

Try it now with the Freeware Edition of Easy2Sync for Files.