Sonny Software

What files do I need to copy to switch all of my preferences and database settings from one computer to another? I want to avoid crashing the database and I've added a number of new formatting settings recently on one computer. What's the easiest way to do this? Thanks!

I do this all the time, using a small external hard drive and a rsync-script (rsync is included in mac os x). Works perfectly, as long as you remember to run the script each time you switch computers. I save my shell script as a double-clickable command file so all I have to do is to double-click on a file on the desktop.

You need to sync the folder where your Bookends database is (obviously), as well as the floder where the pdfs are (by syncing your Documents folder you probably take care of both of these). In addition you need to sync the "Application Support/Bookends" folder, which is where your custom formats, filers etc is located. I don't bother to sync the prefs file but you could do that too, I suppose.

The beauty with rsync is that it only copies what has changed since last sync, so it is quite fast.

I make sure to quit Bookends before syncing to avoid potential conflicts.

The syntax goes something like this: This requires a bit of tinkering with unix commands, but once that is done it is very simple. Like I said, just double-click and go...

Let me know if you want to know more.

Best regards, Niklas

Niklas made an excellent suggestion. If you're leary of unix/terminal, though, and if this is a one-time only transfer, you can of course copy from the Finder. Copy the folders/files in ~/Library/Application Support/Bookends, as well as ~/Documents/Bookends. The last thing is ~/Library/Preferences/Bookends 10 Preferences and Bookends 7 Bookmarks (it's named Bookends 7 because it hasn't changed in format since then).

Jon
Sonny Software