Synchronize

You can synchronize directly with your device calendar, or via the web with Toodledo.  Although you can do both at the same time, we recommend you choose just one otherwise there can be duplications of data when you are importing your tasks from both your device calendars, and from Toodledo, to SmartPad or SmartCal.

Export to your iPhone or iPad Calendar

SmartPlans automatically places Milestones into the “All Day Events” pane of your iPhone or iPad Calendar.  If you choose to sync Tasks also, SmartPlans will place the tasks from each Project into your calendar as events (appointments) at the specific time slot that you designate for each Project.

Before You Sync

It is important to have the calendar category “From My Mac” or “From My iPhone/iPad” showing on your device Calendar, before you attempt to sync for the first time. Otherwise, you may not see your calendars from SmartPlans, even if you can see the milestones and tasks in the actual calendar pages.

To set up your device calendar for syncing, you can either

1. Sync your device calendar with iTunes on your computer, or
2. Turn-off all google/exchange/iCloud calendars on your device in  Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars

Before

1. Remove other Exchange, Google iCloud calendars
2. Sync with SmartPlans

After

Then, add your Exchange/Google/iCloud calendars back in:

Setting Task Times for your Calendar

Be sure to select times for your different Projects that do not overlap. You can so this in Settings -> iOS Cal Sync.  Select a Project from the list, then choose the time of day that you would like SmartPlans to insert it into your iOS Calendar.  Note that each Project shows an average number of hours per day. This is based upon your settings for each Project. You can refer to this number when selecting multiple Projects so that their insertions times do not overlap.  You can also select all, some, or none of your Projects for syncing Tasks.  This is also handy if you wish to assign a specific time for some Projects, such as Work (daytime) or Home (evenings).

What You Should See

Milestones will appear in the “All Day Events” pane on the top of your calendar, and Tasks will appear in the time slot that you determined, in the calendar itself.  In the List view, you will see both, with unique indicators for Milestone and Task.

Synchronize with Toodledo

You can also connect to Toodledo, the free online task list – and from there, you can share your Tasks and Projects with other apps including our own SmartCal planner for iPhone and SmartPad organizer for iPad.

Just go to Settings -> Synchronization to register your Toodledo account name and password. If you do not already have a Toodledo account, just tap on the link to sign up.

Now, from the main screen, tap on the “Synchronize” button each time you want to sync. That’s it!

Notes about Synchronization:

1. SmartPlans automatically syncs all Projects, and all Tasks, with Toodledo. In Toodledo, Projects are called “Folders.”
2. If you already have Folders with Tasks in your Toodledo account, those will automatically be synchronized over to SmartPad. Some people may find this useful. Or, you may find it helpful to keep your Projects separate from your other ToDo’s by creating a separate Toodledo account.
3. Task and Project information is not transferred over to Toodledo – only the Task name and Duration.
4. You can share your Tasks, and your Projects, with our own SmartPad and SmartCal if you also sync those apps to your Toodledo account. Again, Task and Project information is not transferred.
5. You can share Task and Project information between SmartPlans on your iPhone and SmartPlans on your iPad. There are two ways to do this. Sync them via Toodledo, or import/export via Backup.
• Syncing via Toodledo will lose all information such as Timer status of each Task.
• If you Backup your database from your iPhone then restore it to your iPad, you will be able to retain all information such as Task and Project information, timer status, and reports.

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Integrate SmartPlans with SmartPad and SmartCal

Many people have tried to integrate project planning with integrated organizers – that is, combining the “forest”‘ with the “trees.”  We’ve achieved it with SmartPlans 3.0.  Here’s how you can integrate the Multi-Planning capabilities of SmartPlans with the “Smart” calendars of SmartPad (iPad) and SmartCal (iPhone).

SmartPad

SmartCal

Note: If you don’t have either of these all-in-one organizers, you should check them out. SmartPad (for iPad) and SmartCal (for iPhone) automatically schedule time for your tasks into the open spaces between your appointments in your calendar. The logic is “persistant”, meaning if you don’t mark a task as “done”, it will continue to show up in your calendar until you do it!

SmartPlans 3.0 can export all of your Project detail to your iPhone or iPad calendar.  Because both SmartPad and SmartCal automatically sync with their respective device Calendars, you can view your SmartPlans Projects, Milestones and Tasks right inside SmartPad and SmartCal.

What does this mean?

Because SmartPad and SmartCal automatically look at the free time in your calendar to schedule in your tasks, and because SmartPlans converts tasks into calendar appointments, SmartPad and SmartCal are “aware” of your SmartPlans tasks and will schedule tasks from your task lists AROUND them.

What’s the difference between SmartPlans and SmartPad/SmartCal?

When SmartPlans exports to your device Calendar, it schedules your tasks onto specific days based upon the long-term requirements of each of your Projects.  SmartPad and SmartCal schedule your tasks into the free time based upon the priority order and filters that you determine from your task lists.

Now, for the first time ever in any app, you can see all three types of schedule items integrated into one app:  Calendar Appointments, Project Milestones & Tasks (which must be done on specific days) and Tasks from your List (which can be done any time, based upon the priorities that you assign.)

Best Practices

SmartPlans can sync its tasks with Toodledo, and with your device Calendar. To avoid duplication, we suggest you only sync with one.  Here is the difference between the two:

Sync SmartPlans tasks with Toodledo

If you sync SmartPlans tasks to Toodledo, those tasks can then be sync’d into SmartPad and Smart Cal as general tasks.  SmartPad and SmartCal will then use their logic to schedule time for these SmartPad tasks, together with all other tasks in SmartPad/SmartCal, based upon the overall priority order and filters that you apply in SmartPad/SmartCal.

Tradeoff: you will no longer be aware when your SmartPad tasks are due, and they may not be scheduled into the specific days that they need to be done – because they are integrated with all of your other tasks.

Export SmartPlans tasks with your device Calendar

As we mentioned above, exporting SmartPlans tasks to your device calendar places them into specific days based upon the start and end dates of your Project plans.

Tradeoff: SmartPlans tasks are automatically placed into your iOS calendar on specific days and at the default times that you specify for each Project.  These times may or may not conflict with other appointments that you create in your device calendars. 

An alternative

You may want to consider syncing SmartPlans tasks with Toodledo, but syncing the Milestones with the All Day Events pane of your iOS calendar. That way, you can stil ‘be aware’ of the larger picture while giving the underlying tasks more flexibility.