Any personal experiences with Microsoft Briefcase?

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but this is one Microsoft feature I've never used. Seems like it would be extremely handy to be able to transfer all this job information from laptop to desktop to home and back again and always have the most recently saved version on every machine, after an update of course.

It just seems to good to be true.

Any cheers, jeers, comments?

I've never actually managed to get the briefcase to work properly for me. Possibly because I have so many computers, and different networks, but possibly because it's more on target for default installations of office lol.

Instead, we use a bit more manual system, but it has worked well.

The primary office network repository has a "Projects" share, and under that are all of our jobs, broken down by project number. In each project, are folders for things like "HMI", "PLC", "DRIVES", "DOCS", etc. Everyone has a simple text document on thier desktops (and laptops) called "CHECKOUT.TXT".

If you need to take the info to the floor, or off-site to work on something, copy your "CHECKOUT.TXT" to the root of the project folder, then copy the entire folder to a PROJECTS directory on a laptop. When you return, copy the whole thing back, and delete the "CHECKOUT.TXT" file.

It isn't automatic, but it has worked. I've tried various source-safe type code tracking, but have never had much success due to the incredible variety of source-level files we have to work with here.

EDIT -- One thing that I don't like about the Idea of Briefcase, is I absolutely HATE MicroSoft doing things behind my back. I always want to actually confirm file updates and things. For the same reason, I always have 'Automatic Updates' for everything turned off.

rdrast said:

Instead, we use a bit more manual system, but it has worked well.

Click to expand...

You must work with some very well trained people.
It's amazing what larger companies will do for document control, and it STILL doesn't work!

Akreel, I would love something more automated, and have even considered using SQL to manage and provide access to project files, but that requires a great deal more time than I have.

I have played around with various source-code repositories, but find that all of them are fantastic for programming languages (C, C++, VB, Java, etc), they do not work well at all with the variety of file types required for automation systems.

I guess it comes down to, eventually you have to distribute responsibility, and people should be able to handle it.

Heck, because of the wacky number and variety of computers around here, it's a job just keeping the clocks synchronized. (we still have some Dos/Win95/Win98/NT4/ME laptops... /shudder)

I use a Briefcase located on a CompactFlash card every day, with the files updated from my desktop, and just take the CF card when I go out with my laptop.

Either use the Briefcase files in the Briefcase itself, or copy them to your data file directories, and when done copy the changed files to another sub-directory on the CF card - if you copy the updated file from your laptops hard drive to the Briefcase, it will become a laptop file that your desktop cannot update and will actually delete the original during an update.

You can use any type of card (CF, SD, etc) or a USB thumb drive.

Also, if you have Microsoft Access databases, the Briefcase will NOT handle them in Windows 98 or ME, it will give a Password error. And in WinXP the briefcase will ask to modify the database & then only allow updating either the original or the briefcase copy (it asks during the initial copy!)

Well that explains a lot. Here I was trying to figure out how I could keep all three undating to each other and I guess you can't...
I have already figured out that I can create a briefcase on my desktop PC, drag files into it, and when I make changes elsewhere, and when i return and do an update, I updates my Desktop PC files. What I have been trying to figure out, is how I would do the same thing for my laptop...You know, have them all update to the newest version of each file. Essentially, I would have copys on all three devices: Desktop PC, laptop, and my thumbdrive. It doesn't seem to work that way. It would be really nice if this were possible.