PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide, Second Edition

HotSync Manager

Palm Desktop is a surprisingly flexible home base for your data on the Mac. Believe it or not, however, Palm Desktop has nothing to do with the actual HotSync process. All communication with your PalmPilot is performed by another important program: HotSync Manager.

To open this program, choose its name from the Instant Palm Desktop menu (see Figure 9.1). (If you have MacPac 2.5, choose Setup from the HotSync Manager submenu.) You see HotSync Manager’s Setup screen, a glorified on/off button for your ability to HotSync. Select Disabled, which tells your Mac to ignore the HotSync cradle, when you want to use the HotSync cradle’s jack for another purpose—MIDI, modem, or digitizing tablet, for example. None of them work when plugged into that port while HotSync Manager is enabled.

This primary screen also offers the “Enable HotSync software at System startup” checkbox, described in Chapter 6. And its Serial Port Settings tab lets you specify which Macintosh jack the cradle is plugged into, also as described in Chapter 6.

The HotSync Manager program is also used for several important administrative functions:

Adding, deleting, and renaming PalmPilots

Once you’ve named your PalmPilot, there’s only one way to change its name (short of erasing it completely): launch HotSync Manager and choose Users → Show Palm User List. Click the existing name of your PalmPilot, click the Edit button, and then type a new name.

Similarly, you can also delete a PalmPilot’s data from your Mac ...