With FolderWatch, virtually all of the work is removed from this process. After a simple setup process, FolderWatch will keep an eye on the specified folders and sync any changes automatically.

Getting Started with FolderWatch

Instead of walking through the various features in a random order, let’s go through a sample folder sync to see how it all works. Some of these apps can be quite confusing but FolderWatch makes the entire process remarkably simple.

To get started, we open up FolderWatch and find the following window.

FolderWatch

As you can see, my folders list is empty so we’ll need to start a new sync. To do this, click the “Add” button in the top left.

Creating a Folder Pair

The entire FolderWatch process revolves around the concept of “Folder Pairs”, if you understand these, you understand FolderWatch. Fortunately, it’s pretty simple!

A Folder Pair represents the two distinct folders that you would like to keep synced together. One of these will be the source and the other the destination. For instance, lets say you have a folder full of images on your desktop that you would like to keep backed up on an external drive. Here your source would be the folder of images on your desktop and your destination would be the folder on your external drive.

Below is the window that pops up when you click the “New” button from the main screen. This is where you setup your folder pair. All you have to do is drop your folders into place or click the folder preview to choose a folder from a dialog window.

Creating a new folder pair

After you choose your folders, name the sync anything you want, hit “OK” and you’re ready to go! I love how easy this process is here: drag, drop and you’re done. Exactly the process you would expect from a great Mac app.

Advanced Options

As I just mentioned, the steps above are really all that you need to do to get going, but if you need more control you can certainly have it. FolderWatch has a number of advanced settings for power users, including the ability to specify file type for inclusion or exclusion.

Advanced Options

Starting the Sync

Once you’ve got your Folder Pair set up, you’ll be taken back to the main window. The only slightly confusing thing about the entire app is that, at this point, it’s easy to mistakenly believe that you’re all done. However, your folders won’t actually begin syncing until you click the little play button next to the pairing that you just created.

Click the play button to start the sync

Once that button is clicked, the two folders are actively synced. The play button will then become a stop button, which allows you to temporarily deactivate the sync.

The Play Button is Now a Stop Button

Syncing Options

It’s very important to note that, at this point, we’ve set up a one-way sync. What that means is that any changes made in our source folder will automatically update in our destination folder, but any changes made directly to the destination folder won’t affect the source folder.

It’s also important to note that only added and changed files will sync to your destination folder. Deleting a file in the source folder will not by default delete the same file in the destination. To change this behavior, select “Delete extra files” in the advanced options above.

In addition to the advanced options, there are some basic actions that you can take right from the main screen. For starters, the star-shaped button sets the selected Folder Pair to automatically sync every time you launch FolderWatch. Without this selected, you’ll have to manually hit the play button each time you restart the app.

Advanced Options

The second action button is simply a one-time one-way sync from the source to the destination folder. The third action button is, as far as I can tell, the only way to implement a two-way sync so that any extra files in the destination will be brought over to the source. I’d really like to see a way to set an automatic sync to a “sync both” option.

Log

One final helpful feature included in FolderWatch is a log that simply shows you all of the recent actions the app has taken to keep your various Folder Pairs in sync.

Advanced Options

Worth a Download?

FolderWatch is one of the utilities that you either have zero use for or can absolutely see simplifying your life. For those constantly working with remote servers and external hard drives, this app could be a lifesaver.

At .99, it seems a little steep, but I can tell a lot of effort has gone into making this a high-quality professional application. It’s smooth, responsive and super easy to use. If you’re buying it for work, fifteen bucks really isn’t a substantial investment.

As I mentioned above, my major concern about the app is that, as far as I know, there isn’t a way to maintain an automatic two-way sync, which would be nice for multiple people sharing a drive or server. There is at least the one time option though so the functionality is there, it just takes a click.

Another thing that might go a long way is an optional preview of the before and after of the folder contents. Working with these types of utilities on important files is super scary. One wrong mouse click and you can lose months of important work. I’ve seen other apps implement a visual early warning system and it works great.

Conclusion

FolderWatch is an outstanding app that does one thing and does it extremely well. This app makes setting up and maintaining synced Folder Pairs is a nearly effortless task and there are plenty of professional features and options to make sure you have complete control over how the sync operates.

Go give FolderWatch a try and let us know what you think in the comments below. Have you come across any other apps that perform the same task? How do they compare?

Jon’s starred items in Google Reader

It’s a great concept, and one that has a lot of potential. But how well does SideFolders execute the idea? Read on for more information, along with a quick screencast overview of the app.

What is SideFolders?

Simply put, Sidefolders puts the Sidebar in the Finder withine easy reach. Move the mouse to the side of the screen and Sidefolders will jump out. This works exactly as you’d expect:

SideFolders Main Window

Within your Sidefolders, you can place your most accessed files, and by default it will show you your most recently opened and downloaded files. If you’d like, you can create your own folder and drag files inside Sidefolder to keep for easy access.

This gives you a manual way to “pin” a file to your sidebar, and easily access it with a single click – a useful alternative to putting a file or folder in your Dock.

Adding Your Own Files

See SideFolders in Action

This Seems Familiar

If this feels like deja-vu, it might be because there are already a handful of apps that let you store your most used and recently accessed files for quick access. For instance, remember Fresh from Ironic software or Blast, in one of my past reviews? Both of these are useful alternatives, and worth checking out in addition to SideFolders.

Whether you like SideFolders will depend upon whether it offers a solution to a problem you have. If you never find yourself wanting faster access to oft-used files, then this probably isn’t for you. On the other hand, it could be a great time-saver if this is a piece of functionality you’ve been yearning for.

The first version had a few bugs and niggles, but the latest release has gone some way toward ironing these out. You can now browse folders within SideFolders, and the popout delay can now be configured to a value that suits you best.

Conclusion

SideFolders definitely falls into the same boat as Fresh and Blast. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite have the same design aesthetic of these apps, and offers a slightly less “unique” feature set”.

That said, SideFolders is a cheaper alternative to both of these apps, and might not be a particularly high price to pay for saving a few minutes each day.

Jon’s starred items in Google Reader

The folks over at NewsGator have seemingly given up on consumer news feed syncing and have ceded to the superiority of Google Reader.

First it was NewsGator’s Windows syncing feed reader Feed Demon that got the switch from NewsGator syncing to Google Reader syncing. Now its the Mac client’s turn and the esteemed reader NetNewsWire has now switched syncing services too. Yeterday’s announcement by NewsGator states that its will be taking its NewsGator Online news feed reading and syncing service offline by the end of August. This leaves little time for NetNewsWire to fast track a stable switch to Google Reader syncing, but yesterday the first public beta of NetNewsWire 3.2 was made available.

There are a few differences between how NewsGator and Google Reader do their syncing. Notably Google Reader does not support folders within folders, which poses a problem for people who have organized their feeds in such a way. ‘Flagged’ items in NetNewsWire get transplanted as ‘Starred’ items in Google Reader, but the ’shared’ and ‘liked’ features are not supported yet.

Beyond the big change of where feeds are synced to, the new version supports sending articles to InstaPaper, sports a fancy new icon and has had a general code cleanup to boot. Being able to sync to NewsGator is not even an option anymore (due to NewsGator stopping their service) and neither is the previously available alternative option of syncing to .Mac or an FTP site. The Clippings functionality is also currently missing in action; they haven’t been deleted, but there is no way to access them.

Not all users are happy with the new beta, as can been seen on the NetNewsWire forum. NetNewsWire was originally a paid application, which was then turned into a free application by NewsGator. The new beta contains a relatively large ad embedded in the bottom left of the window. In the future, this can be turned off with a yet unannounced payment system of some sort, which of course has some people up in arms. While one can usually say “just stick with the existing version” this won’t apply beyond August when NewsGator shuts off its sync servers. But for a syncing service without any monthly fees, you’re always taking this risk. Personally, I’m happy to switch to Google Reader and can cope with ads. Developers need income too!

An updated version of NetNewsWires for the iPhone/iPod touch is also in the works that will support Google Reader syncing. The release date for this is currently unknown. For those that are interested, you can follow the progress of the new betas at nnwbeta.com and even follow the developer’s twitter account recounting the coding work.

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