Productivity Tip #101: Staying Connected via Exchange

If you are like me, you have multiple devices such as an iPhone, an iPad, and a notebook or desktop computer.  You also have multiple calendars. Some of these you share with others, and some show you information you’d like to see, such as national holidays.  Now there is a very simple way to keep your many different calendars, on many different devices, all connected, synchronized, and up to date: Google Exchange. Oh and by the way, you can use this to share data between SmartCal on your iPhone and SmartPad on your iPad. Very cool.  Read on.

All you need is a free account with Google and you can set up calendars to sync seamlessly to your iPhone and iPad calendars.  Even better, you can use Google Calendar to create new calendars on your iPhone and iPad.

Factoid:  Did you ever notice that you can’t actually create new calendars on  your iPHone Calendar or iPad Calendar?  Well Google will do it for you, and it will do it for 25 calendars, all with unique colors.

Getting Started

1. Open the Settings application on your device’s home screen.
2. Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap Add Account….
4. Select Microsoft Exchange. OS 4.0+ now allows multiple Exchange accounts.

Enter Account Info

5. In the Email field, enter your full Google Account email address. If you use an @googlemail.com address, you may see an “Unable to verify certificate” warning when you proceed to the next step.
6. Leave the Domain field blank.
7. Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.
8. Enter your Google Account password as the Password.
9. Tap Next at the top of your screen.
9a. Choose Cancel if the Unable to Verify Certificate dialog appears.
10. When the new Server field appears, enter m.google.com.
11. Press Next at the top of your screen again.

12. Select the Google services (Mail, Calendar, and Contacts) you want to sync.

13. Unless you want to delete all the existing Contacts and Calendars on your phone, select the Keep on my iPhone option when prompted. This will also allow you to keep syncing with your computer via iTunes.

Choose Which Calendars to Sync

Google Sync allows you to choose up to 25 Calendars with the Calendar app on your Apple device.

To select which calendars to sync to your Apple device, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Safari browser on your device and go to http://m.google.com/sync.
2. Sign in with your account and select your device from the list of devices you’ve set up for Google Sync.
3. Bookmark this page so you can return to it easily. Even better, save it to your Home  Screen.

If you use Google Apps, follow these steps:

1. Open the Safari browser on your phone and go to http://m.google.com
2. Click on Google Apps user? at the bottom of the screen.
3. Enter your domain name (e.g., YourDomain.com).
4. Click the Sync icon in your domain area (this section has a green background).
5. Sign in if required.
6. Select your device to configure Calendars.

Have an iPad?

Follow the same instructions to set up Google on your iPad Calendar. Now your iPhone Calendar, your iPad Calendar, and your Google Calendar (on your desktop) are all connected.  No need to sync!  It’s seamless.

Now connect SmartCal and SmartPad!

Because SmartCal syncs directly to your iPhone Calendar, and SmartPad sync directly to your iPad calendar, guess what? Your connected!  It’s that easy.

Tips for SmartCal users

1. Create calendars in Google that have the same names as your calendars in SmartCal.
2. Follow the instructions above, to connect those calendars to your iPhone calendar.
3. Go to your iPhone calendar, and select those under “Calendars.”
4. SmartCal will automatically map to those calendars, and will sync with them each time you tap on “Sync Events” from the main menu on your Calendar page.

Tips for SmartPad users

1. Create calendars in Google that have the same names as your calendars in SmartPad.
2. Follow the instructions above, to connect those calendars to your iPad calendar.
3. Go to your iPad calendar, and select those under “Calendars.”
4. Go to SmartPad. From the main menu, tap on Synchronize. This will bring in a list of all of these new calendars.
5. From the main  menu, tap on Settings then Calendars.  The new calendars should appear there. Select which ones you would like to sync with.

Tips for sharing between SmartCal and SmartPad

Just make sure your calendars on Google, SmartCal, and SmartPad all have the same names. The rest is done for you.  And don’t forget to customize by choosing your own colors.