When it comes right down to it, good synchronization software is like your underwear. If installed correctly, it's not something that you really think about much during the day. Sure, you might think about other people's underwear, but let's get back to real core issue--you want something that will reliably and seamlessly synchronize your vital data between the Notes databases you love so much and the Palm computer you lust over. That's where EasySync 3.0a from Lotus can help. Not with the lust, mind you, but with the seamless synchronization.

EasySync 3.0a is really composed of five conduits that integrate seamlessly into your HotSync manager software. These conduits synchronize the following information: email, calendar, addresses, To Do lists and memos. As you can with HotSync, you can adjust the synchronization settings for each of these conduits separately.

But EasySync is not without its caveats, and those caveats have to do with compatibility issues and the need to synchronize with other non-Lotus software programs. But many of those caveats might not apply to you and/or can be easily avoided. I'll discuss those a little later in this review.

The five conduits, blow by blow
Let's take a quick look at each of the five conduits:

Notes Mail
The email conduit is by far the most robust and fun to customize. To get to the customization options for email, like for all of the conduits, you simply right-click on the HotSync manager icon in your system tray and choose Custom. When you open up the Notes Mail conduit, you'll see the dialog box in Figure A.

FIGURE A

The Notes Mail Conduit is the most fun to customize. Click picture for a larger image.

Two of the best features of the mail conduit are the Inbox Options and the Custom Options.

Inbox Options
It's great to have your Notes email in the palm of your hand but, in reality, most of us will usually use it as an occasional reference rather than as another platform on which to compose and manage messages. EasySync can be set to replicate your entire inbox or a subset of documents in your inbox.

For example, you can choose to replicate just the new messages that you have received since your last HotSync. Or you can synchronize everything after a certain date. You can see what the Inbox Options dialog box looks like in Figure B.

FIGURE B

Most users should be able to find some setting they like in the Inbox Options dialog box. Click picture for a larger image.

One of the features that I found useful was the checkbox to clear the inbox on the handheld before transferring the messages. This enables me to have a perfect mirror copy of my Notes inbox on my handheld after syncing.