After experimenting with a lot of approaches to using Outlook on my home and travel computers (My Briefcase, syncing programs, copying *.pst back and forth, etc.), and soliciting ideas here on FlyerTalk, I finally found the solution that works for me:

I keep my outlook.pst and archive.pst files on a 5-gig PCMCIA card instead of on my hard drive. Each of my .pst files (outlook and archive) is a bit over 1 gig. When I am headed out on a trip, or even if I just want to take the little laptop out to the coffee shop for a while, I pop the card out of the home computer and pop it into the travel computer and go. (Obviously this solution only works if both computers have PCMCIA cards. I suppose alternatives would be (depending on the size of your .pst files), an SD card or one of those pocket-sized external hard drives.

The main reason that I went to this approach is that it was taking so long to copy over my work files and .pst files from one computer to the other every time I had to leave on a trip. Someone who was going to drive me to the airport would be hovering, warning, "we'd really better leave very soon..." and I, a nervous wreck, would be barking back, "give me a minute, I'm still copying the files!" Too much stress; not the way to start a trip.

Mindful of the risk inherent in keeping my Outlook files on a removable drive rather than an internal hard drive, I use the free Outlook Backup utility (downloaded from the MS site), to remind me to back up the files to an external hard drive (which always stays at home) every couple of days.

Similarly, I do regular backups of my work files to the external hard drive, and during the day before a trip (not at 3 am or when the cab's already outside) I copy those files to the travel computer.

As for syncing computer files, PDA, and phone, I hate winding up with duplicates, and I hate being confronted with those "Are you sure you want to overwrite ...?" messages, especially when I'm too rushed and stressed to remember which location has the latest version of the files. So here are my rules for syncing contact info:

Home computer --> PDA, never the other way
Home computer -->phone, never the other way

(I don't sync either the phone or the PDA to the travel computer. If I collect new contact info while on a trip I save it as a note on the PDA or a paper note, or email it to myself, and enter it in the home computer later.)

For syncing work files, I use the sync function in PowerDesk, and I take these steps to make sure I have the latest files on both computers and don't accidentally overwrite something newer with something older:

1. Backup home computer work files to external hard drive.
2. After a trip or day out with the travel computer, back up work files to external hard drive.
3. Copy work files back to home computer.
4. Copy work files back to travel computer.

So, the tools that I rely on for all this are:

• a 5-gig PCMCIA card for my Outlook files
• a 40-gig external hard drive for backups
• the MS Outlook Backup utlity
• PowerDesk

And if by chance something slips through the cracks (but not only for this reason), I also use GoToMyPC. I know someone's going to say, why go to all this card-swapping and backing-up trouble then? Why not just use GoToMyPC to access Outlook and work files on the home computer when travelling? The reason that won't work for me is that I frequently have to travel to places where I won't have internet access.

Hope this is some help, OP.

cubbie