LeftCoastLogic

Synchronizing SmartTime Pro or SmartTime Task Organizer to Google Calendar is very simple.  All you need is an account with Google and you’re set.  Then, map your SmartTime projects to your Google Calendars, and you’re done. Just press the sync button from the main menu to refresh data on both GCal and SmartTime.

From Google Calendar, you can use a variety of solutions to sync to iCal, Outlook, and the iPhone Calendar. We do not support these directly but you can visit our Forum where many of our users have found excellent solutions.

Here are the details.  For you quick-starters, we also have a couple of video clips that show it all.

1. Click on the “Tools” icon to go to your Settings.

2. Scroll down to the GCal Syncing section.

3. Tap on “Google Calendar Account” and type in your Google User Name and Password.  Then tap on “Check Validity” to make sure you have the settings correct.

4. Go to the “Sync Setup” page, shown here:

5. Tap on the “Refresh” button. It will bring in all of your existing Google Calendars.

Note: If you do not yet have any calendars set up in GCal, we suggest you go to Google Calendar and create calendars that match your SmartTime Project Names.

Suggestion:  Create separate calendars for your SmartTime Events and Tasks, and name them so that you can tell the difference between the two. For example, if you have a SmartTime Project called “Family” then you will want to set up two separate Google Calendars, one called “Family (Events)” and one called “Family (Tasks).”

Warning: First map and sync only Events.  Make sure the selection bar at the bottom of the Mapping page says “Event” and not “Task.”  We’ll do Tasks later.

You will see our Sync Wizard arrow suggesting that you drag a Google Calendar with your finger, to map it to a corresponding ST Project.  Just touch the Calendar name on the right side where you see the little hash-marks. Move it up to  map.

6. After you drag a Google Calendar up to map with a ST Project, you will see another hint arrow suggesting that you tap the Project in order to lock the mapping. Could it be any easier?

7. After you tap on the ST Project to lock the mapping, it will be highlighted in the color of the project.

How cool is this? SmartTime automatically changes the color of your Google Calendar to match that of the mapped SmartTime Project.  That way, you’re comparing apples to apples, so to speak.

8.Continue dragging other Calendars to map them in the same way.

Note: You don’t have to map every ST Event to a Google Calendar.

Hint: Sometimes if you go to another page and come back, the Google Calendar side will go blank (except for your locked mappings). Just tap on “Refresh” to bring in the Calendar list and continue mapping.

9. SmartTime can also change the name of a Project to match that of an existing Google Calendar.  In the screen shot above, I have mapped the Google Calendar “US Holiday” – which is a public calendar – to my Project with the default name “Mustard.”  Just tap on the little blue arrow-chevron next to the name, to bring up this edit screen:

10.  You can either change the Project Name manually, or tap on the “Use GCal Name” button to automatically use that name.

It will then look like this:

11. Synchronizing Tasks

The setup is exactly the same as mapping Events just tap on the “Task” button on the bottom and map to your Google Calendars that you have designated specifically for tasks.

Suggestion:  As we suggested in step 5, you should use names for your Google Calendars that specify when a Calendar is being used for Tasks.

Warning: It is important to understand the difference between syncing Events and Tasks.  Events have assigned (fixed) dates so they are fairly easy to sync between SmartTime and Google Calendar. However, SmartTime handles tasks very differently:  SmartTime finds time for tasks and then assigns temporary time slots for them.  Those time slots are dynamic and constantly changing, depending upon whether you finish a previous task earlier, or whether you change the order, or whether a meeting takes longer than intended, or whether you add a new task that has a higher priority. So SmartTime is constantly changing and rearranging the order and placement.  When you synchronize those tasks to a Google Calendar, they will appear in a specific time slot in the calendar – but only until the next time that you sync.  Be careful not to map a SmartTime Task to a Google Calendar that has your events in it! That’s why we suggest you name your Google Calendars as (Events) or (Tasks).

12. About handling large amounts of data

Some people have large numbers of calendars with many appointments, in Google Calendar.  Other people have iPod Touch or older model iPhones that use less memory and have a slower processing capability. All of these effect performance. We have provided an ability to synchronize only a subset of your GCal Calendars.  We suggest you start with syncing only 3Weeks, and see how that works. We also suggest that you first sync only Events, not Tasks.  See how that works. Then gradually add more as you feel comfortable with the performance of your hardware and the number of items you are syncing across.