Syncing SmartPad with External Sources

In addition to mySmartDay.com. you can also connect SmartPad to the iPad calendar (events) and Toodledo (tasks).

Understanding Calendars and Projects

Categories

Calendars and Projects are “containers” for Events and Tasks, with different colors for each Category. So if you create a new Calendar called “My Book”, SmartPad will also automatically create a new Project called “My Book.” “My Book” is a Category. Events for the “My Book” Category will go into the Calendar, and Tasks for the”My Book” Category will go into the Projects folder. Tasks are also shown in the Tasks folder and, optionally, are integrated into your Calendar in the free space between your Events.

Events

SmartPad will automatically update your existing iPad Calendars each time you add or edit an Event in SmartPad. However, SmartPad cannot create new calendars in your iPad Calendar – even you cannot directly create new calendars in your iPad Calendar! But there is an easy solution: just create a new calendar first in either iCal, Mobile Me or Exchange, then connect that calendar to your iPad Calendar and it creates the individual calendars for you. If you do not have one of these, you can use Google’s MS Exchange Server for free. For more information on this see our article about Using Exchange to connect to Google Calendars.

Tasks

SmartPad will automatically sync Tasks with Toodledo. All you need is a free Toodledo account. Each time you create a new Project in SmartPad, it creates a corresponding Folder in Toodledo. Likewise, each time you create a new Folder in Toodledo, it creates a new Project in SmartPad.

Best Practices

Because SmartPad can create new Folders in Toodledo but cannot create new calendars in the iPad Calendar, we suggest that you always FIRST create a new calendar in your iPad Calendar using your external source such as Mobile Me, iCal or Exchange. Use this example (tap any picture to enlarge):

  1. In your 3rd party calendar (which you have already linked to your iPad calendar), create a new Calendar called “My Book.”
  2. Check in your iPad calendar to make sure that the new calendar called “My Book” has been created and sync’d You may need to wait few moments for this to take effect.
  3. Perform a two-way sync with SmartPad by tapping on “Sync events” from the action menu in SmartPad. You should now see a new Calendar in SmartPad called “My Book.”
  4. Tap on the Projects folder in SmartPad and you will also see a new Project called “My Book.” Both are now ready for you to add Events and Tasks to.
  5. At any time, perform a two-way sync with Toodledo by tapping on “Sync tasks” from the action menu in SmartPad. You should now have a Folder in Toodledo called “My Book”, with all of the associated “My Book” tasks inside!

 

Manual Two-Way Sync

Any time that you have made changes in your iPad Calendar, or in one of your external calendars, or in Toodledo, you should perform a manual two-way sync to bring SmartPad up to date with your changes. Just tap on the Action Menu from any view in SmartPad, and select “Sync events” or “Sync tasks.”

 

Automatic Background Sync

Notice how things are getting easier? Go to Settings -> Synchronization, and turn Auto Sync to “On” for Events and/or Tasks. From now on, any changes that you make in SmartPad will automatically update to your connected iPad Calendars and Toodledo Folders. Note for Toodledo, you must be connected to the internet.

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