White Flag

After messing around with Evernote for six months or so I have returned to Onenote.  I just can’t live with out the task integration with Outlook.  However, Outlook and I have been having our own little go round.  But first I should fill you in on the goings on since the last update.

What spurred the move to Evernote was a change in phones.  I traded the windows 6.5 phone in for an Android.  I figured as I was already using Google Calendar to sync my iPad calendar, I may as well mix my Apple Kool-Aid and my Microsoft Kool-Aid with a good portion of Google flavoured Jim Jones drink as well.

At this point I will take you through my thought processes..because when I can’t really understand why I couldn’t leave well enough alone……

“Evernote apps are free on both ‘droid and the iPad. Cool. Free is always good!! Damn……. Lost the task integration…… that’s OK. Cheap will keep the pocketbook happy.”

“Tasks.  No problem, Toodledo is syncing with Outlook so finding an app to sync the droid will be no problem.  no really good free ones but a few and I only really look at the tasks to see what needs to be done.”

“Mail. No problem Exchange Active Sync on the ‘droid will complement the mail on the iPad and I already am using imap folders in Outlook for Gmail.  I should really use the Outlook connector to bring in my Hotmail so I can have two active calendars.  I’ll just add a shortcut to the favourites pane.  Hmmmmmm.  Shortcuts seem to go missing occasionally……weird.”

“I still do most of my Project organization in Onenote, and now they have a free iPod app.  What??!  I need Onenote 2010 to access it on the web??  Oh well, I was wanting to upgrade Word and Excel anyway. Why not.  No, no, I don't need to buy Outlook 2010 as well. My copy is too customised now for me to have to figure it out again. Besides I can hide this expense from my wife for a bit.  I’ll kill the premium subscription to Evernote while I am at it”

“I see Chromatic Dragon is not supporting the toodledo sync tool.  The have a couple of links to other sync software.  Hey… gsyncit will sync tasks with toodledo, my notes with Evernote, and my calendar with Gmail.  Little bit of money but not too bad,  maybe it will solve my missing shortcuts issue. I'll go back to Evernote too.”

Three minutes later

“Trial works well i should buy the full version.  Done.  My wife won’t even notice the bill.  Whadda ya mean Outlook needs to submit a crash report?  Hey where did my shortcuts go!!”

“OK, start disabling COM Add-ins one by one until I figure out which one is causing the problem.  Figures….Gsyncit and Onenote don’t play well together.  Well bye-bye Gsyncit. Let's look for another sync program.  Here’s one….install….nope……uninstall….and another….and another.  Well back to Chromatic Dragon and Google Calendar sync.”

Anyway to make a long story a bit shorter, even my return to Google Calendar sync failed.  probably because I had stressed out Outlook beyond recognition.

So where am I now?

Two Days worth of cleaning to get Outlook 2007 working again.  It is now connected to Office 365 through exchange.  Tasks, Calendar, Mail, and Contacts stored in the Cloud.  Office 365 is gathering up mail from all my accounts an pushing them to Outlook.  iPad connected to same Exchange Server for Calendar, Mail, and Contacts.  Tasks on iPad are through Exchange server with Task Task HD.  Same with Droid, except Task app is called TaskSync.  Outlook only is running Onenote, VBA, and Windows search plugins.   (Holy Crap is it ever fast when loading and closing.)  So everything syncs, and five hundred bucks or so later I am back to where I began.

She where does the white flag come in?  With me now paying twelve bucks a month for office 365……the one expense my wife complained about.  I give up.

iPad and GTD

 

Ok, so I bought an iPad yesterday.  I spent the day adding and removing apps in order to make the thing usable in my GTD set up. 

My Calendar and Contact list sync’s through iTunes, which is always running on my PC.  Of course there is no native task app that will sync with Outlook so a little set up was required to get things up and running.

A quick web search led me to Daniel B. Curran Jr.’s blog, in specific to this page, where he details how to sync Outlook tasks with an iPhone using Toodledo. What I found to be the real PITA remover for me was the link to Chromatic Dragon’s Toodledo Sync application.  Awesome application for what I want it to do.  The application translates Outlook’s categories into contexts automatically.  Almost no set up required, well maybe a little, but Daniel covers it so well, that I will not repeat his work.  Go read his blog, and then come back.  I will wait.

Back? Good.  Wasn’t that easy?

The only thing I changed was to set the Mappings tab in Toodledo Outlook Sync to look like this:

 

I then added the Toodledo app onto my iPad rather then use the mobile site that Daniel recommends.  I am still exploring all the in and outs of the application, so as I become more fluent in it’s use I will report back.

I have now, however, found myself back in a similar situation as I had with my Blackberry, no automatic sync.  I will try out this system for a while and see if that lack will be a deal breaker in my iPad use in a business setting.  I also may be going back to Evernote if I continue to use the iPad, as the interface is really well done. 

My only complaint , so far, about the iPad is that it will not charge very well while plugged into my PC.  This apparently is due to the power usage of the iPad which is a fair bit more than what a current usb port will provide.  The new Macs can do it but the older ones and most Windows or Linux based PCs need to have the iPad in standby mode without the screen on in order to be able to charge it up.  Most powered usb hubs do not have the power requirements yet either, but I am sure that will change soon.

So there it is.  Drop me a note in the comments if you have any favourite apps.  I have have a feeling the iPad will be used mainly as a media consumption device, but am open to any other uses you may come up with.  Let me know.