Steven sent the following question:

This is a problem that apparently no one has been able to come up with a solution for. I have 8 different calendars in outlook that sync with my iPhone and Google calendars. I’d like to start using outlook and see my calendar in the “To-Do” Bar, however, there doesn’t appear to be a way to show multiple calendars in this. Can you figure out a solution to this?

Sorry Steven, in Outlook 2007 only the main calendar is supported and it can’t be changed in the current version.

The only work around that comes to mind is to use categories and custom views instead, but with 8 calendars that might not be feasible either.

Anyone believe otherwise or have a solution? Let me know in the comments!

Part 4 of the 4 part series!

1. How To Sync Outlook Tasks With Your iPhone, For Free
2. How To Sync Outlook Tasks Between Two or More Computers
3. How To Get Alerts for Tasks on your iPhone
4. Sync Tasks: ToodleDo Free Link vs. the ToDo $10 iPhone Application.

Way back in part one I ended up the article with:

There is also a third party iPhone / iPod touch application that will synchronize with Toodledo and allow you to work offline. This application is called Todo and is available from Appigo on the iTunes App Store for about $10 but to be honest I don’t see the advantage of paying for it.

After that, Lonnie77 Wrote:

I’ve been using Appigo Todo for a few weeks now and won’t go without it. The huge advantage it has is that I have my tasks everywhere, even in the mountains where I don’t even get cell coverage. Totally worth the $10 to me just for that alone! Another plus is that it’s a lot more zippy, especially compared to the slow edge network in my area.

I love it when readers leave comments like that!

So I bought the $10 Todo and ran it side-by-side with ToodleDo’s iPhone optimized task list. I found that I did indeed like the ability to quickly check my tasks without having to go online. I found myself leaning more and more towards ToDo when another reader emailed me to let me know that ToodleDo had a new horse in the race . . .

ToodleDo is now available as a native application on your iPhone. You can use it as a standalone application, or you can have it seamlessly synchronized with Toodledo.com, so you will always have access to your important tasks, even when you don’t have an internet connection.

It is available from the iTunes Store for only $3.99!

I have now uninstalled the $10 ToDo application, deleted the link to the ToodleDo web application and absolutely love the $4 native ToodleDo application.

Toodledo on the iPhone has most of the same functionality that you get from using the website, and I am amazed by the amount of stuff you can do to your task list from their website. Check it out here.

But here is the kicker! I was the first person to document How To Get Alerts for Tasks on your iPhone and it has been a very popular article. But get this! It is even easier with the ToodleDo software.

• After you start the program, go to SETTINGS.
• Select SYNCHRONIZATION and set it to AUTO SYNC
• Then go to FIELDS USED and turn on DUE TIME

Now, the chain of events set up in How To Get Alerts for Tasks on your iPhone are even easier!

I will go back to the How To Get Alerts for Tasks on your iPhone post and make a reference to this posting because hands-down, this is the best way to go!

Conclusion? ToodleDo, for $3.99 from the iTunes Store – Go for it!

This is part 3 of the Outlook / iPhone Task syncing posts:

1. How To Sync Outlook Tasks With Your iPhone, For Free
2. How To Sync Outlook Tasks Between Two or More Computers
3. How To Get Alerts for Tasks on your iPhone
4. Sync Tasks: ToodleDo Free Link vs. the ToDo $10 application.

In part 1 you got the directions on How To Sync Outlook Tasks With Your iPhone, For Free. Assuming everything is working for you here is the “Holy Grail” – How to get alert reminders on your iPhone for tasks that are due.

UPDATE: ToodleDo has released an application to the iTunes store for $3.99 Check out Sync Tasks: ToodleDo Free Link vs. the ToDo $10 application.

Step one:

*One way* computer to iPhone can be done by sending (brief) email messages to iphonenumber@txt.att.net These come to the phone via SMS messaging.

We need to figure out your Email to SMS gateway address. Sounds confusing? Not so much. In the US all iPhones are currently AT&T so your address is:

@cingularme.com
@txt.att.net

Preface it with your phone number so it looks like 1112224567@cingularme.com or 1112224567@txt.att.net

To test it, simply send yourself an email from outlook or whatever email program you choose. Once you send the email (Subject: Test, Body: This is a test, etc). You should get an SMS message on your iPhone in a matter of seconds after sending it.

I found that both addresses worked for me.

If you have a different carrier you can try checking this list of Email to SMS gateway Addresses.

Step Two:

You figured out the address. Now log into your free account at ToodleDo and go to the CONNECTIONS SETTINGS. Fill it in!

Keep in mind that you are 100% responsible for any fees charged by your carrier for receiving SMS messages. For this reason, you may want to set a daily limit. If you do not want a daily limit, just set it to 999.

Step Two and a Half:

Go to ACCOUNT SETTINGS and find Your Date / Time: – Make sure you have the correct time zone. This is key!

Now everything is in place to receive SMS reminders for tasks with due dates and due times. Did you catch that? Only tasks that have a due date and a due time will send reminders!

When you create a new task you have one of three programs to choose from. Outlook, ToodleDo or the ToDo application. Only Outlook and ToodleDo give you a field that has Due Date and Due Time. Hopefully the developers of ToDo will fix this oversight in the next release of their application. Their FAQ states “Todo does not currently support specific due times. We are planning to add support for this in a future release.” (You can email them and request it here. Might expedite the process.)

Ok, let’s create a new task:

In Outlook the Due Date and Due Time are called REMINDER.

In ToodleDo it is called . . wait a minute? Where is it? Yup, Due Date and Due Time are not displayed by default! No problem, simply go to your ACCOUNT SETTINGS: and select Fields Used:

Add Due Date and Due Time!

I set up an test appointment with the subject of “8pm” so in the example below imagine that instead of “8pm” it said “Don’t Forget To Buy Dan A Beer.”

This is part 2 of a 3 or 4 part series. . .

1. How To Sync Outlook Tasks With Your iPhone, For Free
2. How To Sync Outlook Tasks Between Two or More Computers
3. How To Get Alerts for Tasks on your iPhone
4. Sync Tasks: ToodleDo Free Link vs. the ToDo $10 application.

I’ll update the links in the posts so everything is cross referenced as I go.

To get Outlook tasks to sync to more than one computer just follow these steps on all the computers you want to sync:

Step 1. Set up a free account at Toodledo.com The direct link for a new account is right here.

That should have taken you about 15 seconds. Let’s move on to step 2.

Step 2. Close Outlook, download Chromatic Dragon’s Toodledo Sync Application and install it.

Almost done! The sync application will want your Toodledo ID number. Leave it open on the tab that wants the ID number.

Step 3. Log into Toodledo and from the menu on the left select Account Settings. On that page you will see your Unique ID, simply copy and paste it into the sync program that you left open.

On the Synchronization tab you can change your Automatic Synchronization to whatever works for you. I don’t add tasks very often so once every 60 minutes is fine for me. To close the Options window select File -> Close. You will see a green checkmark icon in your tool tray. Right click it and hit Manual Sync.

Outlook is now synchronized to ToodleDo. For every computer you do this to, they will all fall into lockstep with one another. Change a task on your work computer? It will sync to ToodleDo, which will sync to your Home computer.

And, as addressed in How To Sync Outlook Tasks With Your iPhone, For Free – you can see the whole shebang on your iPhone!

Next up – getting alerts for task reminders on your iPhone!

Comments and Observations are encouraged – Let me know if you have found a better way if if this works great for you!

This post is going to be divided into several parts:

1. How To Sync Outlook Tasks With Your iPhone, For Free
2. How To Sync Outlook Tasks Between Two or More Computers
3. How To Get Alerts for Tasks on your iPhone

Let’s start with how you can sync your Microsoft Outlook Tasks to your iPhone for free.

I have read several articles about how to do this but I found the process to be convoluted. Let me make it very simple.

Step 1. Set up a free account at Toodledo.com The direct link for a new account is right here.

That should have taken you about 15 seconds. Let’s move on to step 2.

Step 2. Close Outlook, download Chromatic Dragon’s Toodledo Sync Application and install it.

Almost done! The sync application will want your Toodledo ID number. Leave it open on the tab that wants the ID number.

Step 3. Log into Toodledo and from the menu on the left select Account Settings. On that page you will see your Unique ID, simply copy and paste it into the sync program that you left open.

On the Synchronization tab you can change your Automatic Synchronization to whatever works for you. I don’t add tasks very often so once every 60 minutes is fine for me. To close the Options window select File -> Close. You will see a green checkmark icon in your tool tray. Right click it and hit Manual Sync.

Outlook is now synchronized to ToodleDo.

Ready for the iPhone part?

Ok, 2 ways to do this. The Free Way and the $10.00 way.

The free way? Toodledo now has an iPhone optimized version of their powerful, easy to use task manager. Just point your iPhone webbrowser to http://www.toodledo.com/slim and book mark it to your iPhone Home Screen. (Hit the + and select Home Screen, I renamed mine to “Tasks”)

Now you have the tasks that were in Outlook right there on Your iPhone screen!

Make a change on your iPhone and it will sync back to Outlook!

There is also a third party iPhone / iPod touch application that will synchronize with Toodledo and allow you to work offline. This application is called Todo and is available from Appigo on the iTunes App Store for about $10 but to be honest I don’t see the advantage of paying for it.

Do this for me, use the free way I described. I have the Todo software and will write another post later about the differences and let you know if it’s worth the $10.

UPDATE: ToodleDo has released an application to the iTunes store for $3.99 Check out Sync Tasks: ToodleDo Free Link vs. the ToDo $10 application.

So look for 3 more articles coming up:

1. How To Sync Outlook Tasks Between Two or More Computers
2. How To Get Alerts for Tasks on your iPhone
3. Sync Tasks: ToodleDo Free Link vs. the ToDo $10 application.

Questions? Let me know and I’ll answer them in the comments for this posting.