SmartCal 3 – Handy Guide

What’s New in 3.0

SmartCal 3.0 is completely new. Here are the main features that we have added. You can see the detail in the Handy Guide, below.

Thumb Planner

When you start SmartCal3, the first thing you see is a full-page calendar that resembles your iPhone Calendar. But wait. You can see an entire week at the top of the page. Tap the grab bar and drag it down – view up to an entire month, right inside your day calendar! That’s called the Thumb Planner. Drag and drop to plan. All at the tip of your finger. Or thumb.

Task Drawer

Inside the Thumb Planner, the Task Drawer drops down to show you what Tasks start today and are due today. Also shows All-Day events. Full drag-and drop into and out of the drawer, for flexible planning with your finger or thumb while you walk or run.

Week Planner

The Tasks list looks the same, but now it looks at your entire week, and schedules your tasks for you. Take another look and you’ll see that the tasks in your list are now separated by day. Drag them up and down to change priorities, and change days. Go to Settings to customize different working hours for each day of the week.

Contexts

Everybody from the GTD world asked for this, so we delivered. One-tap Contexts. Apply globally at the Project Category level, or individually to any task or event. One-tap filter to see any combination of Contexts. Sweet.

Tap-Drag Resize

Now you can change the duration of any appointment or task in the calendar, simply by dragging one of the edges. No more edit screens.

SmartCal – What’s New, in One Minute

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3.0 Guide

Calendar View

Calendar Basics

SmartCal starts with a calendar. You can create new appointments and events right from the Calendar View. Just:

  • Tap and hold anywhere on the screen, on any time…
  • Or Tap the “+” icon.

You can also populate your Calendar with Calendars from the iPhone Calendar and, by extension, from other calendars such as iCal, Outlook, Mobile Me, Google, and Exchange. To learn more, Go to Synchronization.

Event Types

You can create normal Events, Repeating Events, and All Day or Multi-Day Events such as birthdays and holidays.

➤ Note that if you sync with your iPhone calendar, you will automatically have a calendar called “birthdays” which is made up of birthdays in your iPhone’s address book.

Alerts

You can also create Alerts to remind you about Events. Tasks also!

Navigation

  • Tap on the date bar to jump to another date or apply a filter.
  • Tap and hold anywhere on the time line to create a new Event.
  • Swipe left or right with your finger to to go other days.
  • Flip your iPhone or iPod sideways to see Week and Month views.
  • Pull down the Thumb Planner to see one or more weeks. Tap on any day to go to that day.
  • Tap on the Thumb Planner bar (above, far right) to pull down the Task Drawer. See what tasks are Due today, and Start today. Also see detail for any All-Day events.

Tasks Integrated into the Calendar

  • SmartCal automatically inserts tasks from the Task view into the Calendar. You will only see the ones that can be fit into your schedule for today. This is a great organizational tool. For more, see Tasks.
  • Now, SmartCal inserts Tasks into your calendar for the entire Week!

  • If you would like to turn this feature off, just go to Settings -> Tasks -> Show in Calendar and flip the switch to Off.

Moving Items in the Calendar

  • You can move Events up and down to change the times, just by dragging them with your finger.
  • With Tasks in your Calendar, you have two options for what happens when you drag to move. Moving a task will either re-arrange the order of your tasks, or will automatically convert that task into an Event (see illustration above). You can change your preferences in Settings.


Re-sizing Items in the Calendar

  • You can change the duration of Tasks or Events, simply by tapping to select then dragging one of the edges up or down!


Thumb Planner

We designed the Thumb Planner to satisfy two needs:

✔ “I want to see everything at one glance, on one page. Not just my day, but my week and my month. And my tasks. And what’s due. Yeah, I know, tall order.”

✔ “I need to view, edit, manage, change, re-schedule, and re-prioritize ‘hand free’ – that is, using just the hand that I’m holding my iPhone in. Beacuse I do other things with my other hand. But I promise that does not include driving.”

To Navigate: Pull down the Thumb Planner and tap on any day.

To view what Starts or is Due on any day: Dap on the bottom drag bar, and the Task Drawer drops down.

To Re-schedule Events from the main Calendar: Touch an Event then, in the same motion, drag it up inot the Thumb Planner and drop it into the day that you want to reschedule. Note that the item becomes smaller so that you can see where it fits into the Thumb Planner’s calendar. You will automatically jump to that day in the underlying day calendar, to confirm the move.

To Re-schedule Tasks from the main Calendar: Touch a Task then, in the same motion, drag it up into the Thumb Planner to the day that you would like to reschedule. A pop-up will give you a choice of there actions: Start On, Due By, and Do On.

Start On changes the Start Date to the date that you dragged to;
Due By changes the Due Date to the date that you dragged to;
Do On changes both the Start and Due Dates to the date that you dragged to.➤ Okay, but what does this actually do?

– It changes which day the item appears in the drop-down Task Drawer.

– It changes the task’s appearance in the “Start” or “Due” sort filters in the Tasks Folder (see below).

– It changes the date of any Alerts that have been assigned to the Due date/time of your Task.

➤ And what does it not do?

– It does not change the sort order of your Tasks, because you alone determine that. (Unless you quick sort by Start or Due.)

– It does not change whether a Task show up in your Task list or not. Best use the one-tap “Star” filter for that.


Task Drawer

Touch the bottom of the Thumb Planner and the Task Drawer drops down. It shows you tasks that are Due, or that Start, on the day that you have selected in the Thumb Planner. It also shows you which All Day Events apply to that day.

Actions that you can apply in the Task Drawer:

  • Double-tap any Task or All Day Event to edit its detail.
  • Drag any Task from the Task Drawer into the Thumb Planner to change its Start or Due dates.

Week Calendar

The Week Calendar has several unique and helpful features. See illustrations below.

  • You can see all of your “busy” time at a glance, by looking at the ‘busy bars’ for each day. The colors correspond to your different Calendars.
  • You can tap on a day to expand it. It zooms out to show detail and the time line.
  • When the day is expanded, you can tap on the time line just like in the Day Calendar, to create a new Event.
  • Tap on the “Month” button to go to the Month Calendar
  • From any selected day, if you flip your iPhone back to portrait view, you will see that day in the Day Calendar.
  • Tap on the Date Bar to Jump to any other date, or to apply Filters
  • Tap on the Month button to view the Month calendar.

Week View with All Day Events pane and calendar-colored busy bars

Week view with expanded Day calendar

Tap to quick-add a new Event in Week View

Month Calendar

The Month calendar also has several unique and helpful features.

Month view with fully editable Day detail

  • The busier your day, the darker the shading. In this way, you can get a quick overview of your entire month.
  • You can select any day in the calendar, and see a list summary of meetings in the Day Panel on the right side.
  • If you tap on the Day Panel to expand it, you will see a time line. Tap anywhere on the time line to create a new Event.
  • Likewise, select any day then flip your iPhone back to portrait and you will see that day in the Day Calendar. This is a useful navigational device.

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Tasks View

Task View Basics

You can certainly use it as a basic Task list. But it does so, so much more…

  • You can create new Tasks simply by entering them in the “Quick Add New Task” bar at the top of the view.
  • You can add more detail to the task by tapping on the blue arrow-circle.
  • Details that you may wish to add to a Task include: Duration, Start date, Due date, Repeating task feature, Calendar/Project color, Pop-up alerts, Notes, and Contexts. Wow!
  • You can prioritize by dragging tasks up and down the list with your fingertips.
  • When you create a new Task, it is helpful to estimate roughly how long you think it will take. SmartCal provides you with three easy-tap buttons: 15 minutes, one hour, and three hours. The default is 30 minutes. Or you can specify other durations if you prefer. Just double-tap to edit.

Task Types

There are many different types of Tasks that you can create. It’s helpful to understand each one separately. One thing they all have in common is an estimated duration. If you do not estimate a duration when you create it, the default will be used.

Active Tasks

These have no specific Start or End; they can be done at any time. By default, the Start time of a Normal Task is the moment that you create it. That means, you can “start” doing it at any time.

Inactive Tasks

These are Tasks that have a Start date in the future. For example, if today is Monday and you want to mow the lawn at some point over the weekend, you do not really want to see that task in your list until Saturday. So you can assign it a Start of Saturday. Then, if you tap on the “Star” filter, you will tasks sorted by when they are set to Start.

Deadline Tasks

These are Tasks that must be completed by a certain date. When you assign a deadline to a Task, it does not change the priority but it does show a little badge with the number of days until the Task is due. You can also tap on the “Due” filter to sort your tasks “by Due.” This will not only show just your Deadline Tasks, but it will sort them by due date. For more on this, see Filters.

➤ As an organizational aid, Deadline tasks are always shown in Week and Month view on the date that they are due. In this example you can see “Mow the Lawn” – which is due on Sunday – in both week and month views.

➤ Assign a pop-up Alert to a Deadline task, to remind you that you need to finish it! Alerts are based on number of days or hours before a Task is Due.

Repeating Tasks

This is a unique feature. You can have Tasks repeat. For example, you want to mow the lawn every weekend.

    • You can assign your Task to repeat daily, or on specific days of the week, or monthly or yearly.
    • You can assign it to repeat based on when it is due (for example, Mow the lawn by Sunday 5:00pm, every week)
    • You can also assign it to repeat as soon as the previous one is completed.

GTDo Tasks

GTDo tasks don’t behave any differently than other tasks. They are simply tasks from your Projects list that SmartCal automatically places into the Task View. In each Project, the task at the top of the list is automatically placed into your list in Task View. This way, when you are looking at the list in Task View, you can focus on “What I have to do today.” For more on this, see the section on Project View . GTDo tasks have a cute little flag on the left side, like this:

Oops! I guess mowing the lawn is at the top of my “Personal” projects!

Tip: When you mark a GTDo task as “Done,” guess what happens? Right! The next highest task in that Project becomes the highest task. And so it becomes a GTDo task and automatically moves into the Task View. Shezzam! Now I get to “fix the photocopier.” Ugh.

The Day Manager

The Day Manager our most unique feature. It has a patent pending. Day Manager is the slider bar at the top of the Task screen. At a glance, you can see your default working hours for the current day – it will display your start time and the normal end time.

You can then change your work times by sliding either end of the slider to the left or right. This, in turn, shows you how many tasks you can complete today: The tasks that fit into the current working hours will appear above the day line for the current day.

Now, the Day Manager is a Week manager! Go to Settings, and set your preferred working hours for each and every day of the week, individually. SmartCal then uses those hours to calculate how many tasks can fit into each day, taking into account their sort order, durations, and the appiontments that you also ahve scheduled for hte next week. Now that’s Smart!

Completing a Task

When you mark a Task as “Done”, it will disappear from the Tasks View. However, you can find it in two places: In History View, and in Project View inside the Calendar/Project that it belongs to – where it will have a red line through it to show that it has been completed. You can mark a task “Undone” from either of these views, and it will pop back into your Task View. Now that is very cool.

Starring Tasks

Tap the star next to any task to illuminate it. By starring tasks you can select exactly which tasks you want to accomplish on any given day. This is a powerful tool. For example, at the end of your work day, you can “Star” the tasks that you want to focus on the next day. When the next day begins, tap on the “Star” filter to see only those tasks. Simple, quick, easy, efficient.

Quick Filters

The one-tap filters are a great new feature. Its so easy, why do we even have it in this Guide? Task Filters work in concert with the Day Manager to make SmartCal the most flexible organizer on any platform because when you apply a filter, you see your tasks organized in a different way – not only in the Task view, but also in the Calendar for the current day. No other organizer does this.

  • You can view tasks that you have Starred. This is the perfect organizational tool for those who want manual control.
  • You can view only your GTDo tasks. This will show you, at a glance, the current active items at the top of each of your Project lists. Wow!
  • You can view Tasks by Due. This not only shows all Deadline Tasks, but also automatically sorts them by due date.
  • You can view Tasks by when they will Start. This shows you everything that is relevant, and nothing that you don’t need to see until later.


GTD-Style Context tags

SmartCal now supports GTD-style Context through a nifty Tags feature. Here’s how it works.

Create Tags

  1. Go to Settings -> General -> Tasks list.
  2. Create your own Context tags list.
  3. Select up to 9 to appear as one-tap Presets. These will be available for quick tagging whenever you create a new Event or Task from any view.

Add Tags to new Tasks and Events

When you create a new Task or Event, be sure to choose from one of your Context Presets. You can also create a new Context tag on the spot.

Apply Tag Filter(s)

Here’s the fun part. To see ONLY those Tasks and Events that have a particular Context tag, just tap on the Action menu at the top of the Calendar or Task view. Select your Context tag to apply it as a Filter. That’s it!


>➤ You can also apply other filters on the fly. Just type in a Keyword.

➤ You can select more than one Context tag or filter. SmartCal will then show all items that have any of those tags.
Now remind yourself, “Why did I even consider any other organizer?”

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Projects View

Project Basics

The Projects View is a place to store all of your Tasks under their Categories. There are there different types of Projects.

Structured Projects

You can build structured projects in which the underlying tasks follow a specific order. Just drag the tasks into the order that you wish them to be. Then keep them there. When you finish the top-most task, mark it done and move on to the next one.

Unstructured Projects

You can use Projects to simply house a list of Tasks that you need to do. For example, I have one Project called “Work” and another called “Personal.” I throw all my junk into either of these bins.

Recurring Lists

You can create shopping lists, packing lists, or any other kind of check-list. These are lists that you actually want to keep and use again and again. For this we have a handy feature that allows you to “Reset” all of the items that you mark “Done.”

  • For example, you have a Project called “Grocery List.” It contains everything that you normally get when you go to the grocery store.
  • While you are walking around the kitchen, if you notice that you’re about to run out of milk, go ahead and “Star” the item called “Milk.” Do the same for other items, as you do your kitchen stuff.
  • Go to the store. Flip to your Grocery List. Filter it by Starred. Wow. There’s everything you need to buy. Done deal!
  • As you pick up items and drop them into your basket, mark each one “Done.” It disappears from the list in Project View, and in Project Detail view it gets a line through it. Great. I like that.
  • After you finish checking out, you want to reset the list back to the original. From Project Detail (see below), just tap on Settings then “Reset.” All the items jump back into view in Project View, and the crossed-out lines get removed from Project Detail.
  • Don’t forget to select “UnStar All” as well, unless you think you’re going to run out of all of those before you go back to the store next time! 🙂

Recurring Lists: Reset, UnStar, done!

➤ List-style Projects are not shown in the Task view. That way, items from your shopping and packing lists won’t get dropped into your to-do’s!

Project categories = Calendar categories

Projects and Calendars have the same categories. It’s just the top-level category for stuff. Calendars are generally for holding Events, and Projects are generally for holding Tasks (and lists). So each time you create a new Calendar under Settings -> Calendars -> New, you are creating a new Project as well. And each time you create a new Project in Project View, you are creating a new Calendar as well. This is handy because I can have both a Calendar and a Project called “Work”.

Tip: Once you create a new Project in Project View, you can go back and change the color and the name from Calendar View -> Settings -> Calendars. We like to keep that control in one place.
 
!! Warning: If you delete a Project in Projects View, you will also delete the Calendar of the same name, and any Events that are associated with that Calendar. Don’t worry, we’ll give you a pop-up warning first time around.
 
!!Another Warning: If you delete a Calendar from Settings – > Calendars, you will also delete the Project of the same name, and any Tasks that are associated with the Project. Are the connections beginning to make sense?

All Tasks are in a Project

You can create new Tasks in two places: Tasks View, or in Project Detail View. Regardless of where you create a new Task, all Tasks are shown in the Project View. That’s because every Task belongs to a Project. If you don’t assign it to a Project, then it automatically get assigned to the default Project/Calendar, which is “Work.” You can change the default in Settings.

Not All Tasks are shown in Tasks View

This may seem confusing at first, but actually it’s the beauty of the GTDo System. Not all Tasks are shown in Task view, BECAUSE we realize that most of you don’t want to see everything in your Task view – unless you enjoy being inundated with information. So here is what Task ARE shown in Tasks View:

  • All Tasks that you create in Tasks View.
  • All GTDo Tasks from Projects View (remember, a GTDo task is the task that is at the top of each Project list. It has a cute little flag to remind you.)
  • All Tasks created in Project Detail View that you MARK by tapping on the “Task View” icon (see next section).

Tip: You can “Hide” tasks from Tasks View at any time. In Tasks View, select the Edit button from the top, then select the Tasks that you wish to Edit, then choose “Hide” from the Edit Menu. Those tasks will then “disappear” from Tasks View but they will never, ever, disappear from your Projects View. Unless of course you Delete them. Or mark them as Done. Which you can Undo. From History View. But that’s review. You already know that.

Project Detail

To quick-add new Tasks to the same Project, just go to the Projects folder and click on the “more” arrow on the right side of any Project. This takes you to the Project Detail view:

Okay so here’s where you manage your Projects. You can create new Tasks from the Tasks View, which is basically stream of consciousness (“Yikes, I have to mow the lawn before it hides the house”) but from Project Detail view, you can focus in on creating and manipulating your Tasks specific to each Project.

  • Quick Add in the top pane. Any new Task will automatically be associated with the current Project.
  • Drag up and down to change the order.
  • Star/UnStar
  • Double-tap any Task to view/edit its detail.
  • Tap Edit to select multiple Tasks for editing: Mark Done, Delete, or Show (in Task View).

That’s it. Now you are organized.

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History

Here you can view a history of completed Tasks, sorted by Date.

  • Select any item to Delete it from History, or to mark it UnDone. The item will then re-appear in the appropriate Project.

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Settings

This is where you change your default settings.

  • Create special names and colors for your calendars and projects.
  • Set the defaults for your Task durations, and default calendar name for new Tasks.
  • Choose whether to show your Tasks in the Calendar. Some people may prefer to keep Tasks in the Task view only. Just switch it to “Off.”
  • Choose whether to allow Tasks to be moved in your Calendar. This is a powerful tool because when it is set to “On” (the default), you can drag a Task to any specific time slot. For example, you are working on one task and you decide that you want to Mow the Lawn at exactly 4:00pm. You want to set aside time to Mow the Lawn at 4:00pm, and you do not want any other Tasks or Events to occur at that time. Simply drag the Task to the 4:00pm time slot on your calendar. Of course the effect of dragging a Task to a specific time slot is that it becomes an Event. And that’s fine. If you want to convert it back to a Task and do it some other time, just double-tap the Event to edit it, and switch it to “Task.” Easy!
  • New! Choose where to place new Tasks – at the top of your list, or the bottom of your list.
  • You can also control your Synchronization settings. See the next section.

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Synchronizing Events with iPhone Calendar

Synchronization is extremely easy in SmartCal GTD. There is no need to go to the internet; you can sync direclty with calendars from your iPhone Calendar. This means that if you sync your iPhone Calendar to Exchange, or iCal, or Mobile Me, or Outlook, that information can be read immediately and seamlessly by SmartCal.

How it Works

Go to Settings -> Event Sync and flip the switch to “On.” You’re done.

SmartCal automatically maps, and syncs, to all calendars in your iPhone Calendar That’s it. Just tap “Sync Events” from the Menu in your Calendar View.

Tips

  • Before you start, either create calendars in your iPhone Calendar to match the names of the ones you have in SmartCal, or create calendars in SmartCal to match the names of the ones you have in your iPhone Calendar. Or both.
  • Unfortunately, you cannot actually create new calendars directly in the iPhone calendar (at least as of the time of this writing). You have to do that with either iCal on your Mac, or with an Exchange calendar such as Google. Here is a link to a blog that explains how to do it using Google Calendar and Exchange.

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Synchronizing Tasks with Toodledo

Now with SmartCal, you can synchronize your tasks with Toodledo, the free web-based task list. Because SmartPad also syncs tasks with Toodledo, you can use Toodledo as a conduit to share tasks between SmartCal on your iPhone, and SmartPad on your iPad. Read this article to see how.

How it Works

Two steps to set up.

  1. Go to Settings -> Toodledo Sync and flip the switch to “On.” You’re almost done.
  2. Tap the “>” button and key in your Toodledo Account information. Press the “Check validity” button to make sure you entered the information correctly.

Hint: If you don’t have an account with Toodledo yet, Just follow this link. Don’t worry, it’s free. http://www.toodledo.com/signup.php

SmartCal automatically maps, and syncs, to all Folders in Toodledo that have exactly the same name as your Projects in SmartCal. That’s it. Just tap “Sync Tasks” from the Menu in your Tasks View.

Tips

  • Before you start, either create Folders in Toodledo to match the names of the Projects in SmartCal that you wish to sync to, or create Projects in SmartCal to match the names of the Folders you already have Toodledo. Or both.
  • Remember, Projects and Calendars are the same in SmartCal. So it helps to have the same names for (a) your iPhone Calendars, (b) your SmartCal Calendars/Projects, and (c) your Toodledo Projects – at least, the ones that you want to sync to.

Troubleshooting

  • If one of your Projects does not sync to a Folder in Toodledo, check the spelling of the names.
  • If that does not work, then try changing the name of both the Project (in SmartCal) and the Folder (in Toodledo). For example, change “Work” to “Work1”. Sync again. That should do it. Once you have established a mapping, you can then change the names back to the original names.

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