Synchronizing Documents with MobileMe

I have (and have had) a couple dozen entries in “Draft Mode” for some time. Something in me doesn’t want to pollute the web with useless knowledge (if there is such a thing) and productivity tips which have been diluted in meaning by sites (such as lifehacker, et al. – not sure how this could ever help me be more productive.

Finally, I decided that this is a website about me — though not as obvious as this: Will Gotshall-Maxon Official Internet Presence — and I’m going to write about things that are technological, productivity, or personal in nature. So here goes. Look for more soon. Reinvention #5.

The following is a series of instructions that I gathered from various places on the web and in my mind. What I’ve wanted for a while is a seamlessly synchronized Documents folder. I don’t want another special folder or drive onto which I have to put things that are to be distributed. What I wanted is for the default location for all of my saved documents to be copied on all of the computers that I regularly use.

Here’s what I did. Please note that I used a Mobile Me account. One of the really great things about Mobile Me and it’s OS integration is that there is always a local copy. In using a vanilla WebDAV setup, one would have to be connected or sacrifice the ability to open existing documents or save to this centralized repository.

• Move everything from the ~/Documents folder. If the target will be a MobileMe iDisk, why not move it there now?

  In Terminal.app

• sudo rm -rf ~/Documents [hit return]
• type your password and hit return
• ln -s /Volumes/[iDisk name]/Documents ~/Documents

  In Finder

• Go -> Go To Folder
• “/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources”
• Find “ToolbarDocumentsFolderIcon.icns” and open it (Preview.app is the default)
• Select All & Copy

  Optional 1: Change the icon so that it looks like the original documents folder.

• Find the new Documents alias (in your user’s folder).
• Edit -> Get Info
• Select the icon (top, left corner)
• Paste

  Optional 2: Remove those annoying arrows on aliases.

• cd /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources
• sudo mv AliasBadgeIcon.icns OldAliasBadgeIcon.icns
• Create your own icon and use it to mark aliases by naming it “AliasBadgeIcon.icns” and putting it in the directory mentioned two steps ago.

Also of Note: This won’t work on any non-Mac platform. I have drawn the line and hopped over it. I’ll use a Windows computer when I need to, but the frequency of actually needing a Windows box (i.e., not VMWare or CrossOver) is rapidly approaching never.