Alternatively, if you choose Inspector from the Window
menu or if you double-click on a pair in the list, the Inspector
panel will be opened, and if the drawer is opened, it will slide
underneath the main window to hide. The Inspector panel
looks pretty much the same than the drawer:
As you can see, the content of the drawer and the inspector
panel is exactly the same. The major difference between the two
is you can drag the inspector panel pretty much where you want,
while, on the other hand, the drawer will stick to the main
window. You can also resize the inspector any way you want it
while the drawer, even if you can make it wider, will
stick vertically to the main window. So, I guess it's just a
matter of preference... Please note that you can select on which
side you want the drawer to slide, through the Preferences
window. By default, the drawer will slide to the right of the main
window, but you can decide to make it slide at the bottom of the
main window. See the Preferences
window for additional details.
The 2 buttons on each side of the
"double arrows" button, in the middle, are displaying the
current elements selected as the source and the destination.
You can click on them to select a new item, and you can also drag
an item from the Finder directly onto the buttons to set the
source and/or the destination of that pair.
The button
with the double arrows in the middle is used to select the synchronization
priority. It has 3 states: the current one as
displayed on the left, pointing to the right to indicate that the source
has the priority and pointing to the left to indicate that the destination
has the priority. You cycle through the 3 states by simply clicking
the button with the pointer, or if you have full keyboard access
turned on, just press tab until the button is selected and then press
the spacebar to cycle through the 3 states. The synchronization
priority will determine the behavior when synchronizing.
When both the source and the destination have priority, any
file on each side that is not found on the other side will be
copied over when synchronizing. If the Delete orphaned
files is selected, then the result is quite the opposite:
any single file on one side of the pair that isn't found in the
opposite side will be deleted or moved to the trash when the
synchronization is performed. So, care must be taken before you
select the Delete orphaned files! If you're
not sure, set the preferences to move orphaned files to the trash
instead of deleting them. Or, you could enable the option Keep
files recently modified. When this option is enabled, orphaned
files that have been modified since the last synchronization will be
copied over instead of being deleted. When the synchronization
priority is set to the source or the destination, every file
that is found on the prioritized side which is not found on the
other side will be copied over during the synchronization
process. Any file on the non prioritized side that isn't found on
the prioritized side will be left there, as long as the Delete
orphaned files button is not selected. If it is selected,
then any file on the non prioritized side that is not found on the
prioritized side will be deleted or moved to the trash. Again, if
the Keep files recently modified checkbox is enabled, the
files that have been modified on the non-prioritized side since the
last synchronization will be left there untouched. Giving the priority
to one side and selecting Delete orphaned files will
ensure that the prioritized item will be copied over the non
prioritized item, resulting in a perfect copy. Even if a file in
the non prioritized item is more recent than its matched file in
the prioritized item, it won't be
copied. Only the most recent files in the prioritized item will be
copied. Here is a little table to explain the behaviors:
| Synchronization
Priority |
Orphaned
Files |
Keep
Recently Modified |
Missing
files on either side |
Modified
files |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Both |
 |
 |
Will be copied over to the other side. |
Every file that is found to be more
recent than its counterpart on the other side will be copied. |
| Both |
 |
 |
Will be deleted or moved to trash if no
file by the same name can be found on the other side. |
Every file that is found to be more
recent than its counterpart on the other side will be copied. |
| Both |
 |
 |
Will be copied over if they have been
modified since the last synchronization. Otherwise, will be deleted
or moved to trash. |
Every file that is found to be more
recent than its counterpart on the other side will be copied. |
 Priority to source |
|
|
Every file on the source side that is
missing on the destination side will be copied over. Orphaned
files on the destination side will be left and not copied nor
deleted. |
Every file that is more recent on the
source side will replace the same file on the destination
side. Files that are more recent on the destination side are
not copied over the source side. |
| Priority to source |
|
|
Every file on the source side that is
missing on the destination side will be copied over. Orphaned
files in the destination side will be deleted without further
notice or moved to trash depending on your preferences. |
Every file that is more recent on the
source side will replace the same file on the destination
side. Files that are more recent on the destination side are
not copied over the source side. |
| Priority to source |
|
|
Every file on the source side that is
missing on the destination side will be copied over.
Orphaned files on the destination side will be kept if they have been
modified since the last synchronization. Otherwise, they will be
deleted or moved to trash. |
Every file that is more recent on the
source side will replace the same file on the destination side.
Files that are more recent on the destination side are not copied
over the source side. |
 Priority to destination |
|
|
Every file on the destination side that
is missing on the source side will be copied over. Orphaned files
on the source side will be left and not copied nor deleted. |
Every file that is more recent on the
destination side will replace the same file on the source
side. Files that are more recent on the source side are not
copied over the destination side. |
| Priority to destination |
|
|
Every file on the destination side that
is missing on the source side will be copied over. Orphaned files
in the source side will be deleted without further notice or
moved to trash depending on your preferences. |
Every file that is more recent on the
destination side will replace the same file on the source
side. Files that are more recent on the source side are not
copied over the destination side. |
| Priority to destination |
|
|
Every file on the destination side that
is missing on the source side will be copied over.
Orphaned files on the source side will be kept if they
have been modified since the last synchronization. Otherwise, they
will be deleted or moved to trash. |
Every file that is more recent on the
source side will replace the same file on the destination side.
Files that are more recent on the source side are not copied over
the destination side. |
This text field lets you specify a value in
minutes that will be used by File Synchronization to determine whether
2 matched files are different enough to warrant copying the most recent one
over the older one. If you're synchronizing with a remote volume and routinely
have a slight time difference between your host computer and this remote computer,
you can put a value there to compensate for that difference so that files that
shouldn't be copied won't.
This
button opens the filter sheet which lets you specify criterias to ignore some
files and/or folders.
This
sheet displays the list of criterias that are used to ignore some files and
folders. This can speed up the whole synchronization process quite a bit.
The criterias that you can choose are the names, the size, the extension, the
file type and the file creator (the file type and creator are a 4 characters
code that you can see with a tool such as XRay).
Each criteria has its own set of operators that you can use. For example, when
selecting the name, you can set the operator to contains, start
swith, ends with, is (exactly the value entered) or does
not contain. Clicking the + button adds a new criteria,
while clicking the - delete the selected criteria. As the dialog
warns, be careful in creating those criterias because you have to keep in mind
that File Synchronization will have to evaluate each of them with every file
contains in the 2 folders that make up a pair, thus increasing the time to do
the scan. However, even though the scan can increase, if enough files and folders
are ignored or if the files or folders are large, the time to copy the files
and folders can be significantly smaller. Double-click to the right of the operator
popup to enter the value to be evaluated.
This checkbox lets you decide whether or not
the synchronization should generate an error in the event that a pair of files
have both been modified since the last synchronization. If you check this box,
File Synchronization won't generate a warning and will copy the most
recent file over the other, older one.
This checkbox gives you the ability to mark
or select the current pair for automatic repeating schedule or the automatic
synchronization at launch. It has the same function than the checkbox in the
pairs' list. You have to make sure that you turn on the global automatic synchronization
in the preferences for
this to work.
These
2 text fields provide the status of the last synchronization. If everything
went fine, the status will be The items have been synchronized.
If an error did occur at the last synchronization, then the status will read
The items have been partially synchronized. If the pair was just
added to the list, or if no item have been selected for that pair, or if one
item hasn't been selected, the text field will display an appropriate message
like No items were selected or The source has not been selected.
If one of the item in the pair has been replaced, the status will read The
items have not been synchronized. The Last synchronized text
field provides the completed date and time of the last synchronization. Again,
if the pair is new or if one of the item in the pair has been replaced, then
the text field will display Never.
Next section: The
Preview window page.
Previous section: The main
window page.
Back to the File
Synchronization main page.