How do I stop auto sync then sync only one item

Question

I have 5 Macs. They are all set to sync using dot mac.
I hadn't used 2 of them lately, the others were being synced.
I noticed that mail had 2 of the exact smart folders (with several folders within them). And all of the criteria disappeared from the smart folders.
I wanted to get the smart mailbox criteria from the computers I had not synced lately as that was still ok.
So I thought I could turn off the syncing for mail rules, signatures and smart mailboxes by removing the check mark from that option. But immediately upon syncing, my smart mail box was replaced with 2 duplicates with no criteria available. So it seems that ignored the fact that the option was not checked when I synced.
Now I have 1 mac left. On that Mac I would like to sync bookmarks, calendars, contacts, keychains. But I would like to keep the smart mailboxes the way they are and send them to the other macs.
The problem is that my MacBook Pro is set for automatic syncing. And when I turn it on, it will connect wirelessly and automatically sync.
How do I get to it quick enough so the sync will not happen and I can put it in manual mode?
Then how do I sync just what I want to sync? And how do I then sync the smart mailboxes back to the other macs?
I don't want to turn on the MBP until I know exactly what to do.

Answer 1

This is actually a .Mac Sync issue, and has nothing to do with iSync. You'll find a forum for .Mac Sync users here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=957
To correct the issue you outline, you will have to start your MacBook Pro and disable AirPort at the first opportunity to prevent network connection and a subsequent synchronization event initiation.
Then, launch the System Preferences application, press the Sync tab, and select Manually from the Synchronize with .Mac: menu. Once you've done that, turn AirPort on again.
Then press the Advanced tab and wait for your registered device list to be refreshed. Press the Reset Sync Data… button in the lower left corner of the dialog box. From the Replace: menu, choose the Mail Rules, Signatures and Smart Mailboxes data descriptor that identifies the information you want to transfer from your MacBook Pro to the rest of the synchronization pool.
Press the right-faccing arrow so that the animated orange arrow moves from left to right, and the label changes to read On .Mac with sync info from this computer. Then press the Replace button to propagate your smart mailbox structures to .Mac and your other sync clients.
Remember that Automatically means essentially whenever a change is made, and in any event, no less than once each hour. Any change, even an inadvertent one, will propagate through the synchronization pools when an event is triggered, so you will want to carefully consider your selection of that option.