Best way to access my mac G4 files when working on a windows pc laptop

Question

Hi - I'm looking for ideas on the best way to access files stored on my G4 mac, when working on a pc laptop elsewhere in the house.
I'm not sure if this involves setting up a network, or whether I should be looking at ftp or even bluetooth.
Just to explain what I'm after: I'm writing a book, primarily on my g4 (running panther) in my study. But I spend a large proportion of my day running after my rampaging toddler. I'd like to make better use of my time by being able to grab my partner's laptop and write while my toddler is occupied for twenty minutes.
Messing around with a memory stick etc would just take too long as I'd have to remember to update the main file. It would get very messy!
I hope someone can help!
Thanks, Tina
Message was edited by: tinaMac

Answer 1

Between the networking question(s) to connect the two different platform
computers, using Sharing and other settings in each, the next question is
about the software used in the documents you are to be creating in one
and sending to the other.
Do you have a similar word processing software for the PC as in the Mac;
or something compatible in creating and using .RTF documents, etc. Or,
if you have a Windows version of AppleWorks, that would work. And the
TextEdit in your OS X can handle rich text format word processing; and
probably open basic text from a PC fairly easy. (And Word, etc, can.)
Issues in sharing, are such that you have to be careful when changing the
settings in your computers, that you don't accidentally share your computer
contents with other persons and computers in the vicinity. By wire would be
the most secure, since Ethernet can be used locally to share.
Internet and wireless may be a possibility, too; or using a local shared external
drives, if visible to both computers, depending on the network setup.
Do you have a USB hard disk drive set up on your wireless network, and
formatted in Fat32 so the Mac and PC can both see and use it? If so, you
may be able to send documents to there from the PC and use them in the
Mac. This may work, and depending on how the files were organized, not
too hard to keep up with the draft copies generated from the PC for use in
the Mac at a later time, and so on. This way, both computers would not
need to be on, to send & receive a file...
{For that matter, using a Google Account could be helpful;
to just email the writing to yourself, at any computer.}
Anyway, there are several possibilities, including those in the link to another
discussion on that topic per the above post.
Good luck & happy computing!