So far I’ve been listing feature after feature and really diluting the core features that make Portal so wonderful. For a change of pace, I thought I’d walk through a typical installation and first sync with Portal from the point of view of a new user.
Suppose you’ve got two Macs, an iMac at home and a PowerBook you take back and forth to school/work each day. You’d like it if all the files, folders, and applications you edit or modify during the day would be synced with your home iMac, with minimal hassle. So you buy a copy of Portal during the day and install it on your PowerBook. Now the fun begins…
Portal installs perfectly and then asks you what sorts of files, folders, or applications you’d like to sync with your second system (since you’re not in the presence of your iMac, if just sets up a generic “Mac #2″ profile). A default list is given that includes most of the basics, plus your 5 most recently used Applications not already on the list:
Default Apps—————-
- Address Book
- iCal
- iChat
- Safari
- Keychain
- Screensaver
- Desktop Wallpaper
- Dashboard
- Documents
- Movies
- Music (not iTunes)
- Photos (not iPhoto)
- iTunes
- iPhoto
- iMovie
- Garageband
- iDVD
- Keynote
- Pages
- Xcode
- Automator
Recent Apps—————-
- Quicksilver
- NewsFire
- Fetch
- TextWrangler
- Wacom Tablet
Selecting an application or a folder will tell Portal to sync that item to the “Mac #2″ whenever the two are connected with Bonjour. If you’d like to modify this default setting, you can set a Sync Rule: if you want the PowerBook’s Mail settings to always overwrite the iMac’s settings, you can do this by selecting the Mail item and changing the sync preferences. These will be customizable for each Mac Portal has been told to sync the file to. The default settings will work in most cases, however.
If you want to select a file or application not in the default list, you can do that very simply in the Finder. Navigate to the file in Finder, right-click on it, and select “Sync with Portal”. From the new menu, select “Mac #2″. This will add the file to the sync queue with the default settings. Selecting “Other…” here will reveal that file’s preferences in Portal, if you want to customize it further.
You can continue in this way, selecting files and folders for sync, and customizing the sync preferences if you really want. Once you’re done with that, you can customize Portal’s sync schedule. By default, Portal will sync files continuously whenever the two Macs are connected by Bonjour. If the user wants, syncs could be limited to once an hour, once a day, or manually only. Portal adapts to whatever schedule you want.
By default, Portal also will display a cool, animated sync graphic (using Core Animation) during the first sync after each new Bonjour connection between the Macs. The user can choose from a selection of animation types (wormhole, tornado, parade…), change the duration for the animation, change the size of the animation (from full-screen, on top of everything, to a small corner of the screen, beneath the desktop), etc. The animations are as unobtrusive to as all-encompassing as the user wants. Settings can even be randomized, for a different show each time the user syncs!
Of course, all this customization is up to the user. The default settings are fully functional and ready to go “out of the box”.
Now, when the PowerBook is taken home at the end of the day and it finally meets the iMac again, Portal will try to communicate with it. When this fails (because the iMac doesn’t have Portal installed), Portal will ask if the user wants to transfer all the “Mac #2″ settings to the iMac. If you do, Portal will send a copy of itself to the iMac, install itself (asking the user to verify that the iMac is the right computer; letting the two Macs shake hands). Once Portal is on both systems, the animation runs and all the files are synced. Since this is the first sync, the user will be asked if he is sure that he wants to overwrite the iMac’s files with the PowerBook’s files, just to be safe.
And that’s it. Portal is installed on both systems, the sync profiles are in place, and the files are being watched for changes. As long as the two Macs are close, any changed you make on one should sync to the other in the background. Settings can be tweaked on either system without any fear of one getting left behind.
After this, if an application is upgraded on one and not the other, the user if notified of the discrepancy. If it is possible, the user can sync the installer to the second system and update it as well (that is, if his license allows multiple installations). Some good ideas to keep new files in sync would be to create a Smart Sync Folder in Portal to keep track of newly created files. This would basically be a classic Smart Folder set to include only files added to the system in the past day (or in this case, since the last sync with the iMac). Portal would then identify these files and sync them normally to the iMac at home when it gets a chance. If you want, you can make a rule that automatically tags any file in that Smart Folder to be synced from then on by default.
That about wraps up what Portal does out of the box. There is a world of customizability that comes from these features, including all the Group Sync models, the Sync to Server features, and the Sync to Disc option. They are all simple twists on the basic premise: Mac-to-Mac Sync done well.
Portal is simple to use. It has the strength to sync everything you need, and the common decency not to bother you with all the unnecessary details. It flexes the graphics muscle Apple provides with Core Animation, while having enough sense to stay out of the way if you want it to. If you think Portal should be able to do something, it probably can; plus it probably can do it with very little effort on your part. Its a classy Mac app: one that looks good, does its job very well, and is more fun than anything like it for the PC.
