If I want to sync everything in my DT library to my phone, do I have to move everything, all the time, to the Mobile Sync folder? Why is this still the method for syncing, or have I missed something? Then, if I remember correctly, a few releases ago it did not sync either global or local inboxes.
How are people actually using DT To Go? I want to use it, but it was never useful because it required restructuring my database, and never could clip anything well.
Is work being done on this, or should I expect these methods to stick around for a while and look for some other mobile solution for clipping?
Note sure what “everything” and “all the time” is, but if you replicate a folder to Mobile Sync, then whenever that folder changes, the replicant is updated, and the next time you sync the updates will be added to your phone (iPhone, that is – or iPad).
The global inbox can be synced and that has always been the case, IIRC. So, you can sync global inbox + Mobile Sync group for any open database(s).
Have you used it? The forum will provide some use cases – DEVONtech’s website and blog more. In a sense, the question you ask is like the old “why do I need a computer” question from the 80s? The answer has always been “It depends”.
Here and elsewhere DEVONtech has said there will be a new release, that they do not announce releases and new products or features in advance, and that when they are satsified it is ready for the public, then it will be ready for the public.
Meanwhile, there are many options for syncing data to iOS devices – and iOS 8 brought many more possibilities. Which one you’d like, of course, “depends”.
After working with DTPO and DTTG for a little while, I came to the conclusion that availability of documents on my iPad was essential, and selective placing of items into the MobileSync folder would not work; whenever in a rush, I would be sure to have not put the right documents in there, say, before a long flight. Therefore I started to put my whole group-structures inside the MobileSync folder. I now have several GB of data across several DBs inside the MobileSync folders, and successfully sync them to my iPad.
The Global Inbox does get synced, but not the local ones. For that reason I no longer use the local inboxes. Instead I put a folder “0-DBname” into the Mobile Sync folder (I generally use alphabetic sorting of groups, and then this folder will be at the top) and use that one as my local inbox, which will nicely sync to DTTG.
Concerning the question of “what to do” with DTTG: As korm says, “it depends”. To me it is my de-facto filesystem on the iPad, always in sync with my Mac. From DTTG I distribute the files to the specific apps that use them. My main use is reading/annotating pdfs, which I send from DTTG with the “open in” command to iAnnotate. I can then send them back after working with them. Unfortunately, one can send MS Office files to the Office apps, but I cannot send them back, because there is no global “open in” command in Office, have to send edited/marked up files back via email.
The editing capabilities, e.g. for rtf files, are not good in DTTG (I believe a limitation of the iOS toolkit), and so I use DTTG largely as a sync/file display/dispatcher. And I’ve come to believe that this is a good thing. Along the lines of the old UNIX mantra “do one thing and do it well”, we cannot ever expect DTTG to beat iAnnotate or GoodReader for pdfs, or Safari for the web, or Word for text docs. So to me, the dispatcher model is the right approach.
This setup has worked amazingly well for me over the past 2 years. We all have great hopes for DTTG-2 (and we hope that it is not going to be like “Duke Nukem Forever” ), but for now I am doing very well with the current version.
), but for now I am doing very well with the current version.