For years I have been compressing my project files and saving to dropbox to work on any of 3 Macs, Home, travel and work, without any issues at all… Ever.
I upgraded to RW8 and that went very smoothly… I compressed the project file and opened it on my MBP. The project opens fine with one problem. All resources need to be “re-linked”.
Does anyone know why?
I have read here that the way to do this is to use the option to “Make Document Portable” to store resources Inside The RW Project File. This was for RW7…
I can’t find this option in RW8. It is gone or moved… Is this still the suggested way to use a project file among multiple Macs (2-3 of them)?
Brian, I just sent a reply email but better for all here…
Is going with a portable document the best way to use a project file on at least 2-Macs?
I wonder why compressing the file to dropbox no longer works? Each time I do, the resources need to be re-linked each way, from iMac to MBP and visa-versa…
I have about 40 or so documents / pdf’s on the downloads page:
I work on two different computers. Portable documents only solves part of the problem (having to do with resources). I also make sure that my RW Addons folder is on Dropbox.In Preferences I can control where the RW Addons are located. This means if any addon is updated, it’s updated for all my Macs at once. See here:
Finally, I put all my active RW project files in a specific folder (of my choosing) within Dropbox. So projects are always synced. The only thing I need to update on both computers is RW itself when it has an update. But projects and addons are auto-updated on both Macs via Dropbox. Been doing this for years with no problems.
The only caveat is you need to make sure the “other” computers have synced or updated with Dropbox completely before working on a file when you open them. Normally this is trivial, but you need to be aware of it. There are times when I come home and it will take 4-5 minutes for everything to sync. (This often is due to non-RW related files that are syncing and are the biggest ones.)
All of this makes complete sense and thank you for posting!
I presume the project file grows considerably but that should be ok… I know I have read about “Ware-housing” files too… I may ask Greg at Chilidog hosting about that.
I just can’t help but to wonder why my method worked for more years then I remember…??? Oh well, I guess I got lucky. On to the new (accepted) method
I’m busier then a one-armed wallpaper hanger and haven’t had time to work on this and do research… If this works you made it easy.
Hello, I maintain a 1500 page website. Used RW 5, 6, 7 and now 8. I have never once used “Resources.” We have video downloads, pdf downloads, mp3s, etc etc. I simply upload my “resources” to the server and link to them. I came to RW from DreamWeaver and the project I inherited didn’t have/use"resources." I actually never thought of trying out the feature…
I do exactly the same as @1611mac, so I really don’t use resources very much.
I never take my RW Project out of Dropbox. That can potentially lead to problems. Do my work, save as a I want, etc. Works a treat.
What I do tend to do is set up RW so it backs up the project file to my server. (I set this for once a day, but there’s also once a week option which is a reasonable choice.) In addition I also archive my project files. Let’s say my project file is:
mygreatwebsite.rw8
Then I tend to name it as:
mygreatwebsite-2018-08.rw8
or even
mygreatwebsie-2018-08-27.rw8
Of course at times I’ll duplicate and update the timestamp portion of the name. This provides me with extra security (mainly protecting myself from myself!). The old archived versions I pull out of Dropbox and put in another folder for storage. I don’t need these archives often, but when I do I’m really glad I did it!
I keep my RW files in Dropbox and work on them directly there on three different machines with no problem. Why do you compress the files? I just open and close them. The only minor trouble I have with resources is that i don’t include them in my RW file (I have hundreds of gigabytes of resources) . So if a resource was only on my desk top, it won’t show up when I work on my laptop. But I know it is on the server, so I don’t worry about it, When I publish, all is fine.
@all don’t forget that a RW project “file” isn’t a real enclosed file. It is a so called “container”, which just seems to be “one” file. At the end, it is a folder and folder structure with many included files and directories. Right click “show content” will show you the content of the inner structure (don’t mess with that).
This can lead to sync problems with cloud services like Dropbox, but must not.
I am using all my projects with iCloud w/o problem.
as a note and possible option…
I use a backup app (ccc) to make nightly copies of my RW projects to dropbox. One for each day of week. These are automatic. I don’t like to work directly out of Dropbox (for RW project files) but on any given day I can go to dropbox and grab any project as it was at the end of each day, Monday thru Friday. Each nightly “backup” also does a backup of the “Rapidweaver” add-ons folder. Thus, I have a seven day “safety net” of projects and add-ons accessible from any machine.
I always compressed my RW project files because that is what everyone said to do for dropbox sync (many years ago). “Never use the uncompressed file inside dropbox” - “ONLY live on your local Mac” is what was said…
Just like you, I now am using the project file inside of cloud service. Seems to work great - Thanks!
I may be misunderstaning you question … but it’s not a matter of “each Mac’s Addons folder”. Rather you are creating one shared Addons folder that is located in Dropbox. Of course you need to make sure RW on both Macs are set up to use that same folder!
There is no overwriting. In the case of Mac #1 it simply moves all the addons to the designated Dropbox location. In the case of Mac #2 (done a little later) you simply point to that location. I believe it’s all well designed. It’s something I did once, and never thought about again, so I may be forgetting some key detail. But I don’t remember it as being tricky or difficult.
