Can see files on Mac Mini from Macbook Aire on same network

Question

I can see the MacMini in the side bar from the Air but when I click through i can only see the public folders.  I have File Sharing checked in the System Preferences so I dont understand why i cannot see the files on the mini.  I can only see the drop box in the public folders and it wont even allow me to access that even if i wanted to.
Is there something else other than check file sharing in system preferences that I need to do
Also, I have an external drive attached to the MacMini which is not visible from the Macbook Air, not sure if that is the same problem
Thanks for any advice you can offer
Andrew

Answer 1

Note that there's a difference between sharing and syncing.
Sharing will allow you to access the files on your Mini from your MBP, but the files won't be on your MBP when you take it somewhere else.
Syncing is making both Macs have identical copies of files, so that a change on one Mac makes a change on the other Mac.
If you've got a large LightRoom catalogue and limited space on your MBP, then you want sharing. The link above should get you started with that.
For syncing, I recommend BitTorrent Sync, which is free. It's basically "DropBox without the cloud". You select a folder to sync, and then whenever your two Macs are on the same network, any file in that folder that changes is synced to the other Mac.
I use it to keep my entire Documents folder synced between my Mini and MBP.
http://www.bittorrent.com/sync
You may need to be careful about modifying the same document on both computers at the same time, though I believe BS does handle this in some way. Also, if you're syncing an app's data library, then some database files (e.g. with computer-specific data like file path names) may not sync well.
Of course, you could use DropBox, though you'll need to subscribe if you want more than a couple of GB.