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Synchronizing with iCal

Life Balance now synchronizes with iCal using Sync Services under Mac OS X Tiger and later. This means that your Life Balance calendar and to-dos are available anywhere that iCal is: on your iPod, published on your MobileMe web site, or synchronized to other computers that share your MobileMe account. Best of all, data flows in both directions so that tasks you check off in iCal or events that get rescheduled are immediately updated in Life Balance. A new preference panel lets you control exactly which iCal calendars will be synchronized to which projects. Or if you're new to Life Balance and want to get started quickly, just choose "New from iCal" from the File menu.

Syncing Safely

iCal synchronization is a powerful feature, but with great power comes great responsibility — in this case, the responsibility to back up your data!

To Make Backups

If Anything Goes Wrong

If you find that synchronization is causing problems, be sure to turn it off before restoring any data! If the Life Balance document is currently open, you can choose "iCal Sync Settings..." from the File menu and either uncheck the "Sync with iCal" box or change it to sync manually.

If your Life Balance document is not open, you can hold down the Option key while you open the document to access a special dialog box to change from automatic to manual syncing. This will prevent Life Balance from doing an automatic sync when the document is opened, giving you time to adjust or disable the iCal sync settings.

Creating a new Life Balance document from iCal

If you've been using iCal but are new to Life Balance, the easiest way to get started is to choose "New from iCal" from the File menu. This will create a new Life Balance document with one top-level item for each calendar you have in iCal. The calendar events and to dos from iCal will be imported under these top-level items.

Note that the outline that you get using the "New from iCal" command probably won't be as well organized as one that you create by yourself from scratch, but it can be a good starting point. You'll probably want to create projects under the top-level items, and then drag the imported tasks into these projects in order to better organize them. If you haven't been using the location field in iCal to assign events to places, then you'll probably want to assign places in Life Balance so that you can filter your Life Balance to-do list by place. See How to set up Life Balance for more suggestions.

When you use the "New from iCal" command to create a new Life Balance document, that document is set up for manual synchronization. This means that the changes that you make in Life Balance will not be reflected in iCal until you either choose the "Sync with iCal" command from the File menu to sync manually, or use the "iCal Sync Settings..." menu item to switch to automatic syncing.

Basic iCal Synchronization Settings

If you've already set up an outline in Life Balance that you're happy with, or if you just want more control over how Life Balance syncs with iCal, you can choose "iCal Sync Settings..." from the File menu to control exactly which iCal calendars sync with which Life Balance projects.

The basic operation of the iCal Sync Settings sheet is simple. The left side shows your iCal calendars, and the right side shows your Life Balance outline. To synchronize a calendar to a Life Balance project, simply drag the calendar into a numbered synchronization group in the center, and drag the Life Balance project into the same synchronization group. A synchronization group containing one calendar and one project is the most basic kind of sync group, and is the easiest to understand. Each time you synchronize, tasks and calendar events will flow between the calendar and the project in both directions.

To synchronize different calendars to different projects, just create separate synchronization groups. The iCal Sync Settings sheet will make sure that there is always an empty group available for you to create new synchronization groups from.

Advanced iCal Synchronization Settings

In addition to basic one-to-one synchronization of calendars to projects, Life Balance lets you set up more complex relationships involving nested projects, multiple calendars and multiple projects. Life Balance also has a special setting for customers who use Life Balance for Palm OS together with The Missing Sync for Palm OS by Mark/Space, Inc.

Creating Exceptions for Sub-Projects

You can put a Life Balance sub-project into a different synchronization group than its parent project, creating an "exception" for the syncing of that project. For instance, say that you have a toplevel goal in Life Balance called "Take care of my family" and one of the sub-projects in this is "Attend Little League games". You can create one synchronization group that syncs the calendar "Home" to "Take care of my family", and a different group that syncs the calendar "Little League schedule" to "Attend Little League games". That would allow you to share the Little League schedule with others using iCal's Publish and Subscribe commands, while keeping the rest of your home activities private.

Synchronizing Multiple Projects to one Calendar

You may have several Life Balance projects that you'd like to sync to the same iCal calendar. For example, you might want to sync both "Take care of my family" and "Keep the house clean" to your Home calendar in iCal that you share with your spouse. In this case, create a single synchronization group that has one iCal calendar on the left, and two or more Life Balance projects on the right. All of the items from both Life Balance projects will be synchronized into the same calendar.

The order that you list the Life Balance projects within the synchronization group is important. Any new calendar events or to do items that you create in iCal will be created in the first Life Balance project listed in the synchronization group, so this becomes the default project for imported tasks.

Synchronizing Multiple Calendars to one Project

Just as you can synchronize multiple projects to one calendar, you can synchronize multiple calendars to one project. For instance, say that you, Bob and Sue are collaborating on a project, and you've each published iCal calendars for your portion of the work. You can create a single synchronization group that syncs all three calendars to a single Life Balance project. By listing your own calendar first in the synchronization group, any new tasks that you create in that Life Balance project will be posted to your own calendar.

Including LB Numbers for Palm HotSync

If you use Life Balance for Palm OS along with the Macintosh edition, and you also synchronize iCal with your Palm directly using The Missing Sync from Mark/Space or Apple's iSync conduit, then you should turn on the "Include LB numbers for Palm Hotsync" option in the iCal sync settings. This option exports events and tasks to iCal using the same LB numbers in the notes field that Life Balance for Palm OS uses, which avoids synchronization conflicts when syncing the three products together.

Note: Palm users will also find that the Life Balance conduit automatically assigns calendar events on the Palm to a category with the same name as the Life Balance calendar they are syncing to. This feature is automatic and will occur regardless of the "LB numbers" setting.

Changing Synchronization Settings

If you've been synchronizing with iCal for some time and then decide to change your synchronization settings, you may find that Life Balance asks you a series of questions about how to handle items that have already been synchronized between the two programs.

For instance, if you have been syncing the calendar "Work" to "Earn a living", and then you remove that synchronization group, Life Balance will ask you if the tasks that are currently shared between the two programs should be deleted from iCal, deleted from Life Balance, or left intact in both programs. In other cases Life Balance may ask you if the shared items should be moved to a different Life Balance project, or moved to a different iCal calendar. Consider your answers carefully so that you don't end up having to fix a large number of mistakes.

Note: The choices that Life Balance provides you when you change your iCal sync settings will never cause an item to be deleted from both iCal and Life Balance. The items will always remain in one program or the other, so you can always re-sync them if you change your mind.

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