Best Practices for Synchronization

If you have SmartPad or SmartCal, here is the best way to synchronize your Tasks and your Events.  It’s also the best way to keep SmartPad and SmartCal connected to each other. These instructions are for SmartPad but they also apply to SmartCal.

 

Events

SmartPad will sync with your existing iPad calendars but it cannot create new calendars in your iPad Calendar – even you cannot directly create new calendars in your iPad Calendar! However 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 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.

Here’s How

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 SmartPad (or SmartCal), or in your iOS calendar, just perform a Sync.

Automatic Background Sync

The new version of SmartPad 2.1, coming soon, will feature automatic background sync. SmartCal will also have that feature very soon.