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Chris & June

synchronising databases

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I am not sure if this is the correct forum, but if not maybe someone can advise me.

 

I use a laptop for mobile information collection, and a desktop for information processing, printing, etc. However, as the two are now wi-fied together, the laptop also gets used for desktop type functions.

 

My problem is that I am running two versions of the one project, and they get out of synch. How can I identify the differences between the two versions. I can't find anything. I hope I am being obtuse.

 

I would appreciate any advice.

 

regards

 

Chris

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Chris,

 

The only way to avoid this issue is to be absolutely sure you do not enter data in one copy of the Project after entering in the other, until you have first copied the project back to the other computer.

 

My solution is to never enter data on the copy on my laptop. If you must do that, make sure you copy that project back to the desktop as soon as you return home.

 

If you want to work on your laptop while at home, don't use the copy of the Project on that machine, but instead open the copy that is on your desktop using the wireless network.

 

Once you have gotten them out of sync getting them back together is difficult. I think the best way is to open two copies of TMG on the same machine, with one of the project open in each machine. Consider one of those Projects your master. Then find the changes you have made in the other copy, and use Windows Copy and Paste to replicate those changes in the master.

 

If you can't remember where you made changes, use the List of People report with a filter based on Last Changed Date to identify which people had changes. You will still need to find the specific tags that were changed manually.

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As Terry says, getting them back in sync is a problem. One method some of us have used is to create a word-processing report of the entire project from each computer, being sure to choose the same options for both reports. Perhaps an Individual Narrative report, complete with footnotes and bibliography, of all people in the project. Then use the feature that most modern word-processing programs have to show/highlight the differences between what you claim are two versions of the same document. This is about the only way I know to try to identify where you have made changes in both projects because the word-processor will show both what is missing and what is added when comparing the two report versions.

 

For these reasons I usually only run TMG on the machine where I do editing, and use SecondSite to create web pages on my laptop as a read/only but very navigable version of the project.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

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I use a laptop for mobile information collection, and a desktop for information processing, printing, etc. However, as the two are now wi-fied together, the laptop also gets used for desktop type functions.

 

My problem is that I am running two versions of the one project, and they get out of synch. How can I identify the differences between the two versions. I can't find anything. I hope I am being obtuse.

 

I would appreciate any advice.

 

regards

 

Chris

 

I use a PC at the office, a PC at home and a laptop on trips. I only have ONE copy of my project ON A PORTABLE HARD DRIVE. I just plug it in to the computer that I am using and enter away NO SYNCHRONISATION PROBLEMS AT ALL. You will need to play with some locations, for reports and such, and the layouts will be different, a 22" wide screen won't fit on a 15" laptop, but I have had no problems whatsoever in over four years. Since I can copy the project to three different machines for backup purposes I am also well covered for data security.

 

FYI I use a 8GB Omega drive no bigger than a small box of matches and no external power requirement.

 

Rob

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Thank you for your comments Gentlemen

 

I get very frustrated with TMG at times, and this is one of them.

 

However, moving on, all three suggestions are useful, particularly yours Michael. The Microsoft Word file comparison facility was the model I had in mind when thinking about comparing projects, but alas it does not seem to exist for TMG. And unfortunately I suspect it never will.

 

Thanks again

 

Chris

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Chris,

 

Genmatcher from Mud Creek Software will allow you to compare projects but it would be much faster to use one of the methods above.

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