There is a massive pool of CRM software to choose from. Some are well worth the time and money, but many do not even support GTD or TRO. When your main workflow is sales, this is a big deal. Since CRM is huge need for many of our customers, we started searching.

I was recently introduced to one product, Oprius, which supports Total, Relaxed Organization and GTD quite well. An online solution, Oprius gives you access wherever you have Internet. However, Oprius is a single-user CRM system with no current plans for group support. If you’re a small business with no need to coordinate sales efforts, this great tool may be what you’re looking for, but if you have multiple sales reps with a common client pool, you’ll unfortunately have to look elsewhere.

First Glance

Oprius boasts both powerful features and well-known clientèle. At only $15 a month, they seem like a good choice. Their website is well designed and easy to navigate. They also offer extensive support options including a number of video tutorials and User Guides for using Oprius.

Oprius offers Contacts, Email, scheduling for both Appointments and Phone Calls, and a Task List. They do not offer a memo or notes option. For me, this is a plus. A note is really nothing more than an unprocessed task and a new collecting point. I personally never use Memos or Notes, so not having to look a an unused feature is a bonus.

User Interface

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The opening view for your Oprius account is a screen showing your upcoming appointments, phone calls, tasks, and emails in your inbox. A button is available in each section allowing you to create a new instance of any type of item.

The layout is clean and extremely easy to use. Everything is relatively self-explanatory, but for anyone confused, a large button at the top of the screen invites you to watch an introductory video.

Clear, easy-to-see buttons line the top of the screen for easy navigation between item types.

One thing I don’t like, however, is the lack of a quick entry bar. In order to create a new task, you have to press a button every time. Plus, probably the biggest drawback for Oprius is its inability to apply the same action to multiple tasks at the same time. I can’t mark multiple tasks as complete or as High priority as a group. I have to individually edit each one. This would be a nice enhancement.

General Features (Time and Tasks)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Oprius lacks some basic task management features like project hierarchies and multiple dates. However, it does support appointments and adds some very useful, advanced features to compensate.

For example, with Oprius you can automate your processes for following up with potential customers. Think of this as automatic next steps in your projects. If a visitor visits your site and signs up for a newsletter, Oprius can actually create a new contact and task for you to call that person or email them. You can automatically send emails, send emails to specific lists of contacts and view the past history of your contacts.

CRM Features

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Because Oprius is a different kind of application, it needs an additional look from the CRM perspective: How well does Oprius work as a CRM solution?

Oprius is definitely one of the most frugal CRM solutions available. Many CRM programs cost many hundreds of dollars per year per user! (That’s a far cry from the Oprius’ $15 per month.)

Does Oprius compromise CRM functionality for cost? No. Oprius is actually feature-rich. For example, you can set up “plans” that take effect with contacts in a given category. For example, if you had a group called “Potential Redistributors” you could set up a plan that would automatically send out emails to describe new features in your products and then remind you in a new task that you need to call that person. This kind of drip-marketing automation is very powerful, saving you TONS of time in your sales follow-up process.

You can also tell Oprius to send out scheduled newsletters or announcements to anyone in your groups as well as scheduled auto-responder messages. Double opt-in emails are supported for CAN-SPAM compliance.

Another huge feature is the ability to create HTML that will automatically add people to groups in your account. You might have a button on your website that says: “Affiliates click here!”. When someone clicks on it, you might have them added to a list of contacts that you need to call and talk to. Again, a big time saver.

Dollar-for-dollar, it’s hard to imagine a better CRM choice than Oprius. If you don’t need group collaboration features, it deserves careful consideration.

Compatibility and Accessibility

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Because Oprius is browser-based, it can be accessed from almost any platform. Unfortunately, it also means you can only access it if you have an internet connection. No Internet, No Oprius, No Tasks, No Control. Google Gears support (offline access) is NOT available, either.

Oprius allows you to import Contacts from other locations but unfortunately ONLY allows this for contacts. There’s no way to import Tasks, Calendar events, or email. This could be an issue if you are switching systems.

GTD and TRO Compliance

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Right out of the box, Oprius supports both TRO and GTD. No additional tweaking is needed, but actually using it for TRO/GTD is a little involved.

Categories are a bit strange and not very easy to add. Oprius comes with a set of static categories but you can add new categories under the guise of “Quick Groups.” To do this, Click the wrench in the upper right hand corner to access “Preferences.” Switch to the “Groups” tab and click the button labeled “Add New Group.”

Priorities in Oprius were a bit of a surprise. There are six different priorities in Oprius. (None, low, low-medium, medium, medium-high and high). For TRO compliance, use priorities as your soft date. Use “None” for your Someday/Maybe tasks. Use Low for items that you want to do sometime this month. Low-medium items are great for items you might like to do sometime in the next week. Medium priority should be used for items that MUST be done in the next month. Medium-high can be used for items that MUST be done in the next week, and High should be used for items that you are going to do today. You get the idea….

Overall

Overall Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars

Oprius has some very powerful features. It rocks as as a CRM tool for automatically reaching out to your potential clients, which can save you a LOT of time in the long run.

Oprius supports both GTD and TRO rather nicely and conveniently. However, for the typical person just trying to get his or her life organized, it’s not a good fit. Use something specifically for time and task management. But if you do a fair amount of sales work and need to organize your life, you definitely need to check Oprius out. As a tool for small business owners it can be invaluable.

The answer to this dilemma is third party software. But which should you choose? There’s plenty of software claiming to easily and conveniently synchronize your device with mac but which is best?

As a Pocket PC (Windows Mobile) user, I’ve only ever found one program that safely and quickly synchronizes my device: Missing Sync.

Missing Sync is one of multiple programs from Mark/Space. I’ve successfully synchronized a Windows Mobile 6 device with Mac and Exchange server. It did it quickly, and easily. There were no duplicates, no date errors, and even the categories synced nicely!
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to recover from problems caused by bad software. I’ve never had to go through this with MissingSync.

The only problem that I have yet to encounter with MissingSync was cause by a new type of USB connection called RNDIS. If MissingSync can’t seem to find your device, download this RNDIS/Serial swither from Palm and try again. It should find it.

MissingSync can be purchased for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, PSP and Symbian. So far there’s no MissingSync for the PC; only the Mac.

The one major downside to MissingSync is the price. At $40 it’s far from free. There is another free app for the Mac called “Pocket Sync”, that I’ve tried. I wasn’t pleased. It refused to sync my tasks and seemed rather unreliable. When it comes to managing your life with technology, reliability is money. My suggestion: Pay the $40 and get what works.

Although I never did find out why they call it “Remember the Milk”, I did find the answer to my other two questions. So, after being subjected to a slew of tests, configurations, and enduring a great deal of poking and prodding, RTM has now been officially reviewed by The Resident Geek.

First Glance

The first thing I noticed when I started was how easy it is to get an account. I mean, how much easier does it get? Put a few lines of info in, press a button, and wham! Instant task list. The great part? It’s free! There is a pro account that can be purchased for $25 a year. This Pro account (besides making RTM mascot “Bob the Monkey” happy) gives premium email support for RTM plus the applications for the iPhone, Blackberry, and Pocket PC.
What does RTM support? Multiple tags for each task, priorities, due dates, recurring tasks, reminders and even a contact list.

User Interface

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Top Marks for design. It’s clean and fairly easy to navigate. I did get stuck several time trying to get to a specific view but it’s a great improvement over many interfaces I’ve seen.
What I like:

1. The look and feel
2. Easy editing of any task
3. Searching is really easy

What I didn’t Like:

1. Creating a task involves clicking on a button EVERY time.
2. No way to highlight a task. You can only check the mark next to one. (Makes editing a selection confusing.)
3. Checking multiple tasks does NOT let you edit them all together. You can only apply a given action.
4. No default way to view all tasks with a given tag. You have to enter the Overview and click it, or create a new “Smart List.”

Fortunately, RTM has a list of hotkeys that can be used to better utilize the application’s functionality with minimal inconvenience. This list can be viewed at RTM’s Hotkey Reference.

All in all, it’s a great design. Pending the issues I mentioned, I’d give it a five star rating. Great work!

Features

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I’ve rarely seen an app so jam packed full of features. Some of the most notable include:

1. Get your tasks each morning in a text message to your phone no matter where you are
2. Sync with Google Maps to know exactly where you need to go for your tasks
3. Manage your online tasks even when you’re offline (w/ Google Gears)
4. Email your tasks to your RTM account
5. Add tasks by calling 1-866-JOTT-123! (This was a big plus)

I really wish you could attach documents and other files to your tasks, but they don’t seem to support this. I guess this is something to keep our fingers crossed for.
All in all, I was very impressed by the features available for RTM. This is definitely my top online GTD app at the moment.

Compatibility

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Wow! RTM seems to sync with everything! Gmail, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and others. Although it doesn’t directly sync with iCal, you can subscribe to your RTM task list essentially achieving the same thing.
You can view your tasks from a slew of places. A mobile web version of RTM is available at http://m.rememberthemilk.com. Numerous applications for all kinds of platforms have been made to sync with RTM. Your phone, instant messenger, and Twitter account suddenly become virtual eyeballs for your task list.
By far one of the more compatible applications I’ve seen. My only big qualm is it’s inability to sync natively with Outlook and Entourage. (Entourage can sync with iCal which can subscribe to RTM and Outlook can sync through a mobile device that’s syncing with RTM but a “middleman” means middle problems.)

GTD and TRO Compliance

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

You have to get a little creative to use RTM for GTD and TRO, but it does work. Although things don’t appear in the usual way, it works decently and conveniently for TRO as well as basic GTD.
Here is what to keep in mind when using RTM:

1. “Lists” are not categories. They are projects. Use “Lists” to group your tasks together into a single project
2. Use “tags” for your tasks’ categories, not lists. It’s frustrating to view your tasks by a specific tag but you can set up a new “SmartList” by searching for all tasks with your specific tag and then saving the search as a new SmartList. (Your tags also show up on your Overview Page.)
3. For TRO, use the Due Date as your “Hard Reminder” Date and to set items as “Due Today”. Use Priorities for loose goal dates. (1=This Week, 2=This Month, 3=S/M)
4. You can also set up a “SmartList” that will look for all your unprocessed items using this text as a search: ((priority:none OR due:never) OR (isTagged:false)) AND status:incomplete

The rest of RTM works beautifully with TRO and GTD. After a few hours, your don’t notice the complications. They’re minor issues that are easily worked around.
Does RTM support GTD and TRO? Yes!

Overall

Overall Rating: 4.63 out of 5 stars

RTM is an excellent tool for geeks and n00bs alike. It works well with almost all systems. It supports GTD and TRO principles and allows a flexible and dynamic interface to accommodate even the pickiest of organizers. This application receives high marks as a web based application. My hat goes off to the RTM team.

The first such review is for software that I personally use each day: Agenda Fusion 8.

First Glance

Agenda Fusion 8 is an all-in-one time management tool for the PPC created by Developer One. This company has produced software for the Pocket PC in areas of health, password security and even an RSS reader. Developer One recently released a new organization tool called “Agenda One (v.2)”. Although it’s newer, I’d have to argue it’s superiority over it’s predecessor. Although claiming to be “So powerful yet incredibly easy to use…” I’d have to stress an important point: “Powerful” and “Easy to Use” do NOT go hand-in-hand in the case of Agenda One. Although it has prettier colors and icons, it’s ability to quickly and conveniently support GTD and TRO is far inferior to Agenda Fusion 8.

Agenda Fusion is capable of supporting your Outlook and Exchange Server information quickly and stress free. The default settings for the software worried me at first but after some slight tweaking, I managed to set up a clean view for managing my tasks and time.

Agenda Fusion 8 supports Tasks, Calendar Events, Notes, Contacts and Projects. It allows for advanced viewing options and filters including grouping by categories, priority, due dates and more with multiple sorting priorities!

User Interface

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

It’s a bit strange at first. It’s not much to look at and some of the views would blow your mind at first glance. Once you understand what’s happening though, things are pretty smooth. Everything is right at your fingertips. There are a few advanced features which have to be accessed from the options menu, but for the most part, it’s all there at the bottom of the screen.

Colors and icons are ugly as sin but I could care less what it looks like as long as it does what it’s supposed to. It has an older feel to it. The solid gray buttons and ancient graphics were a bit concerning but once I got inside the program I was hooked.

I’ll live with the design interface. It’s not stellar, but it’s not terrible either.

Features

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Agenda Fusion has far more features than any other time management PPC software that I’ve seen to date. The biggest plus for Agenda fusion is it’s ability to sort by multiple contexts. You can add any task to an unlimited number of categories, add projects that include links between items, and can create new tasks, appointments, emails and links based on contacts in your address list.
Unlike it’s, Agenda Fusion has kept the quick Entry Bar. Instead of manually adding tasks one at a time, you can quickly add them by simply typing text in the supplied field and hitting enter.
The ability to create custom views is a HUGE plus. By using filters you can create views to identify unprocessed items and sort by specific sets of categories. (Or exclude them.) I do wish that there were more options for filtering but at least they’ve got it.

Compatibility

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Agenda Fusion fully supports categories in use by both Exchange server and Outlook. It even synced nicely with Entourage on the mac using MissingSync. Because everything here is Microsoft specific, there are very few if any translation errors incurred. I have seen the occasional task or appointment duplicated during synchronization but these occurrences are rare and far surpasses competition in reliability.
When you have a large number of tasks or appointments, the software runs a bit slower but still exceeds my expectations. Two thumbs way up there for compatibility.

GTD and TRO Compliance

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

By far one of the best GTD software apps available for the PDA. It’s versatility means that you can use it for your specific GTD or TRO set up. Everyone’s different which means that their tools and systems vary slightly. With Agenda Fusion, this isn’t a problem. Everything needed to support GTD and TRO are there plus enough extras to make it a comfortable tool for just about everyone.
The default setup when you install is a bit overwhelming so I will give a few tips that I recommend to streamline your experience.

	1. Turn on the Quick Entry Bar I found it quite a surprise that it’s not set as default, but turning it on is very simple. Just select the double arrowed icon at the bottom of the screen and select “Entry Bar” from the menu. *Poof!* You now have the uber cool entry bar.
	2.Turn off Tasks in Calendar The second issue I noticed was the visibility on tasks. They were everywhere! I don’t want to see my tasks in my calendar. Just in my task list! This was fixed by opening the setting menu through the Agenda Fusion icon at the bottom. Select Customize View from the menu. In the new window, choose “Calendar Tasks” from the menu at the top and turn off “Display Active Tasks”, “Display Undated Tasks”, “Display Overdue Tasks”, and “Display Completed Tasks”. You should now only see sheduled items in your calendar.
	2.Group and Sort Tasks Start by sorting your tasks. Click the A-Z icon at the bottom and choose your preferences. For TRO I prefer: First Sort: Priority Second Sort: Due Date Third Sort: Subject To group tasks just click on the icon with the checkmarks and select categories. (For GTD and TRO systems). All of your tasks will now be grouped together according to category. you can expand and collapse all of them together by pressing the nested icon to the left of the “Sort by” button.

Overall

Overall Rating: 4.38 out of 5 stars

The application is nicely designed. It’s advanced features and ease of use make it a powerful organization tool. Although it takes some tweaking to fully support TRO principles, it’s 90% of the way there right out of the box. You can purchase it from Developer One for under $30 US.

It’s the best money I’ve spent on my PDA so far. Trying to support GTD and TRO on the built in task manager and calendar was insanity.

Highly recommended.

Click below for more screenshots:

Agenda Fusion is a Trademark of Developer One, Inc

Starting Monday, I will be reviewing GTD and GTD-ish Software.
Software will be rated on:
1. User Interface (Easy to learn?)
2. Functionality (Features, Compatibility)
3. Conformity with GTD Principles (See here)

What do we need from you? Tell us what your favorite piece of GTD(ish) software is and why. We will begin our reviews based on this. These reviews will be posted regularly and I encourage readers to post comments on their own experiences with the software.

Please feel free to recommend software not yet listed on our GTD Software Comparison Page. Thank you!

With the rise of the iPod and techy cell phones has come a demand for more power in a smaller space. Computers have advanced faster than anything in the past ten years. Although prices are steadily dropping, no one wants to waste money on something that just won’t do what they need. In this post I will give my professional views on what is best for time and task management and why.

Although there are a slew of mobile operating systems out there, I will concentrate on the four most used:

BlackBerry
Palm
iPhone OS (iPhone, iPod Touch)
PPC (Windows Mobile, Pocket PC, Windows CE)

BlackBerry

Pros:
Mobile email
Established Professionals for organization
Speed (Relatively simple OS)
Large Online Community
Phone and PDA are on the same device

Cons:
Difficulty in processing tasks and calendar events
Doesn’t directly sync with most Organization systems
Few apps

Blackberries seem like a great idea at first glance but problems quickly arise. My first experience with a Blackberry was with a client who wanted to connect it to exchange server. 72 hours and 30 a month later, we had a system that was somewhat reliable. On occasion the BB would hiccup and things would duplicate in the calendar.
Another client wanted their tasks for the road. (Something we encourage heavily). As Mac users, they used a piece of software called “PocketMac”. It’s Entourage to Blackberry capabilities were buggy at best. After finally getting the two apps to cooperate, the tasks refused to sync to the Blackberry in categories. The client would have to view ALL of them at once or none at all.

My biggest complaint with Blackberries is the difficulty in adding tasks. There’s no quick add for a task. You have to open a new window and input everything. This wastes a lot of time that could be spent elsewhere.

Palm

Pros:
TONS of apps. Literally thousands! (Many of them are outdated and not as useful anymore though)
FAST
Stability
Easy to learn
Price!

Cons:
Not as advanced
Compatibility
Doesn’t sync well with other Organizers
Doesn’t Multi-task very well

Here we go again. The war continues. Passionate people will defend the Palm with their lives. The Palm was my first PDA. After using it, I was one of those people. When I decided to buy a more advanced PDA than the one I had, I turned immediately to Palm. It was only the words of a “concerned” friend that convinced me to at least look into a PPC. Looking back, I’m trying to find out why I defended the Palm so vehemently.

The biggest issue I see with the Palm is categories. Believe it or not, Palm only supports 15 categories. per application. This, on top of it’s inability to natively sync with outside applications, makes the Palm a sketchy choice. High end Palms cost $200 to $300. This is cheap compared to other alternatives but probably isn’t a good choice for you organizational needs.

iPhone (iPhone and iPod Touch)

Pros:
Compatible with the Mac!!
Fast!
Based on OS X
Intuitive
Easy to use but still a computer!

Cons:
VERY expensive
No SD Card slot
Very few Apps
Doesn’t sync Tasks

All I can say about the iPhone is: Wow. Apple made the right move here. The first time I touched one, I wanted it. Big screen, easy to use, fast, syncs with Mac, advanced, slick, geeky, and light weight. I could barely see the screen with all the slobber on it. This ecstasy wasn’t going to last though.

Although the iPhone directly syncs with iCal, someone forgot about us Task users and left it out. *Oops!* Apple also wanted to make sure that the 16GB limit on the iPhone meant something by leaving out an SD Card. So while you may have a lot of space for your tunes and videos on there, you can only use what you have.

Fortunately for us, Apple announced the release of a Beta SDK (Software Development Kit) to the world. What does this mean? It means we can see a massive increase in the number of built-in iPhone apps. At least one GTD compatible app is in development with more certainly on the way.

I look forward to the day that the iPhone will meet the rest of my needs but for the moment, it’s out of reach for my time and task management needs. *Cries slightly*

Pocket PC (Windows Mobile)

Pros:
Compatibility, compatibility, compatibility…
Plenty of Apps
Advanced uses
It’s a computer not just an organizer

Cons:

It’s a computer not just an organizer
It crashes more often than other systems
Speed (It uses a bulky operating system)
Cost of both hardware and apps

This is my personal choice of device. Why? It’s compatible with native windows organizational software (Outlook *Cough**Cough*) As a geek, it also does all the “Geeky” things I need.

The Palm OS was the uncontested champion of mobile operating systems for years. When Microsoft forced it’s way onto the scene, things began to change. Having already conquered the computer industry, their movement into the mobile world did not go unnoticed.

Windows CE was the first version of Windows mobile. This was followed by Windows Mobile 2003, WM 2003 SE, WM5, and most recently WM6. If you get a PPC, I stress the importance of getting the most recent version of windows mobile. The more recent the version, the better the compatibility and capability of the device. The number of PPC natively running WM6 are next to nill. The number of Smartphones running it however would be too long to conveniently post here. My suggestion? Get a smartphone if you can. The convenience of having a PDA and your Phone together is incredible. Only one device means only one sync. It means convenience, ease, and only ONE collection point for your tasks, contacts, emails, and notes.

Bottom Line

A smartphone running MS Exchange server is the number one setup that we recommend to our clients. Whether you run Mac or Windows, it’s the best supported solution for mobile GTD that we’ve found to date.
I’m sure that within 5 years the iPhone will be the best for the Mac with Windows Mobile dominating the PC community, but for now we highly recommend a WM6 Smartphone with Exchange.

End result?
Phone + PDA = Awesome
No Tasks = Bad
Compatibility = Must Have

Windows Mobile Smartphone = Phone + PDA - No Tasks + Compatability

Feel free to add you opinions in the comments section below.

1. Network Configuration

The way your systems are organized behind your router is vitally important. Get it wrong and you just won’t be able to print or move files across the network.

2. Users Configuration

Believe it or not, your slick machines actually care whether or not you belong poking around in someone else’s system. We’ll go over the basics for setting up your users to make sure that they have the same configuration.

Pre-Setup :

With these two major topics in mind we’ll do some pre-setup to make sure that you can actually do what we want.

Prerequisites:

Windows Side:

• Windows XP or higher. (You CAN technically use something older than this but it can get complicated. The only question I have for you is: Why are you keeping that around? Upgrade! Trust me, it’s worth the $50 it’ll cost to get an XP tower at a yardsale.)
• Administrator Access
• Internet Access (For Printer Set-up)

Mac Side:

• Mac OS X (Tiger or Leopard is preferred but not necessary)
• Again, you will need administrative access
• Internet Access (For Printer Set-up)

Intro:

For this explanation I will be using Windows XP, Mac OS X Tiger(10.4.x) , Admin privileges on both, Belkin router, and a Canon Pixma MP830 printer. Although I give specific details for these systems, the principles here can be used to set up a general network with only slight variations.

Network Configuration

Depending on the number of systems on your network, you may need a larger router than the one you may have. Most routers have four slots on the back. “Piggybacking” systems on each other is heavily discouraged. You lose the integrity of the network IP addresses for each of your systems (Something we will discuss). With this in mind, make sure that each of your computers has their own unique IP address. For a Belkin router you would open up an internet browser and browse to http://192.168.2.1 . This usually changes dependent on your router.

Refer to your user guide to determine the exact address you should use. (NOTE: Your computer MUST be connected to your router for this step) Once in your router’s control panel look for your DHCP client list. This will show you all the devices behind your router and what their unique IP address is for your network. These IP addresses will be used to connect between your computers. If any of your systems do not show up in your DHCP client list, you do not have your network properly configured. This will need to be troubleshooted. Windows: Right Click on “My Computer” and select “Properties”. Move to the “Computer Name” tab. It should be listed under “Full computer name:”. For Mac: Open System Preferences. Go to “Sharing”. Your computer name is listed at the top.

Users

So you’ve got your network set up. What next? Users. You can only connect to a Windows computer from a Mac if the users on both sides have the EXACT same name and password. These are case sensitive.In Windows, right click “My Computer” and click “Manage”. And uber-cool window will pop up with all the information you ever wanted to know about your computer in it. Expand “Local Users and Groups” and then click the “Users” folder. There you have it! Instant access to all the users on your PC. Just right click any user and you can “Set Password” or Rename it. Voila! You’ve just unlocked the secrets of Windows Users! Things are a little different in your Mac. Open your system preferences and click “Accounts” Select a user and you can instantly change the name and password for any of them! Easy huh? (If you find some things grayed out or you can’t click some options, try clicking the little lock in the lower left hand corner. Put your password in and you’re ready to murder some usernames!)

Mac Set-up for printer and Network access

First off, don’t set up your printer on you Mac if you can avoid it. Think of your PC as a Highschool dropout with absolutely no lingual abilities. Meanwhile, your Mac acts as translator at the UN for 14 countries. If you put your printer on your Mac, your PC won’t understand what it’s saying and disregard it. Meanwhile, the Mac understands the PC when it tries to talk with it.

Getting your Mac to talk to Windows

Windowsese is not your Mac’s native language but it can speak it pretty fluently. Here’s what we need to do to let you Mac know that we want it to communicate with Windows. Open up System Preferences and go to “Sharing”. If it’s not already there, click on the “Services” button to show the active services for your Mac. You will need to select “Personal File Sharing”, “Windows Sharing”, and “Printer Sharing”. Before your Computer is willing to talk to Windows, you need to let it know which users want to talk. Select “Windows Sharing” and then click the “Accounts” button that appears to the right. A dialog box with your system’s accounts will appear. Every time you check an account it will ask for that user’s password. If you don’t have it, that user will be unable to talk to Windows. Better get those passwords… Or at least the people who know them. If everything has gone according to plan, your should now be able to view all shared files on your PC by opening a new Finder window and clicking “Network.” Open the network that you gave as your Workgroup name and browse to the PC you want. The Mac will now virtually mount the shared folder you choose onto your desktop. Open it! See? Now wasn’t that easy?

Getting Windows to look at your Mac

There’s essentially no setup required to browse your Mac now. Everything required to do so was done from the Mac. Browsing files is a little different though. Open “My Network Places” and select “”View Workgroup Computers.” Select any Mac Computer. A window will prompt you for a name and password. You MUST use this format: User:(Mac’s Name)/(User Name) Password: (The uniform password you had set up) You should now be able to browse your Mac from Windows! Congratulations! Now all that is left to be done is set up your printer.

Setting up the Printer

This is not as difficult as you might think at first. There are two major steps, but once you’ve completed them, printing across Operating Systems is as easy as clicking “Print”!

Mac Side

Step one is the hardest. Get the latest driver for your printer that is Mac compatible. In the case of the MP830, this is a little difficult. The driver supplied by Canon is buggy at best and never worked for me even once. Solution? Use the GutenPrint Driver pack for Mac. You can get it here. Install your driver. Now go to “System Preferences” => “Print & Fax” Click the + button to add a new printer. If the printer you are looking for is on the PC, you may need to click “More Printers” to find your printer on the Network. (Note: In order to find the PC printer, it must already be installed on the PC) Once your printer has been added, select “Sharing”. You should see your printer in the box at the center. Check “Share these printers with other computers” and then add a check mark to the printer.

Windows Side

Setting your printer up on the PC should be as easy as following the instructions for the printer. It probably came with a CD with the drivers on it. Follow the instructions in your user’s manual. Once it’s set up, it can be discovered by the Mac. OR You can attempt setting the printer up on the Mac directly and connect to it via the PC. On the PC, open your Control Panel and Click “Printers and Faxes” Right Click => “Add Printer” Follow the Wizard to find the printer on the Mac. Any number of things can go wrong here. Feel free to try it though.

Done!

That’s it! You should have at least one Mac and Windows PC on the same network with full Printer and File Sharing!