This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Syncing with iTunes
Whether you are on a Mac or PC, you need iTunes to sync your iPad with your computer. If you are on a Mac, you already have iTunes. All you need to do is run Software Update to make sure you have the latest version. If you run Windows, you can get the Windows version of iTunes from Apple’s site: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/.
There are many advantages to syncing your iPad with a computer.
- Each day you sync your iPad, iTunes stores a backup of its content. You can restore all your data from these backups if you lose your iPad.
- Syncing with a computer is the only way to get a large number of photos from your collection on your iPad.
- Syncing is how you get your music stored in iTunes onto your iPad. If you have a large collection of music, you can opt to copy only a selection of it to your iPad at any one time.
- It can be easier to arrange your app icons on the Home screen pages using iTunes, rather than doing it on your iPad.
- On a Mac in the Calendar app, you have far greater control over setting recurring and special events, which appear on your iPad in the Calendar app, even though you cannot create them there.
You might get a message on your computer the first time you connect your iPad and open iTunes, asking if it is okay to sync your iPad to this computer. The message won’t reappear.
After connecting the first time, iTunes should automatically open when you connect your iPad. While connected, you can always resync to apply changes by clicking the Sync button in iTunes.
You can also check Sync over Wi-Fi connection in your iPad’s options in iTunes. This allows you to sync when your iPad isn’t connected by the cable. It only needs to be on the same network as your Mac or PC that is running iTunes.
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After your device is in sync, you can change some general options for your iPad from the Summary screen in iTunes. Most of the options are self-explanatory, such as Open iTunes When this iPad Is Connected.
One option that dramatically changes how your iPad syncs is Manually Manage Music and Videos, which turns off automatic syncing of music and videos and enables you to simply drag and drop songs and movies from your iTunes library onto the iPad icon on the left. (You might need to scroll down the Summary page to locate this checkbox if your screen size is too small to show the entire page at once.)
As we look at some of the syncing options for the iPad, the Mac version of iTunes is used as an example. The Windows version of iTunes is similar but not exactly the same. One difference is that on a Mac, iTunes syncs data with Mac applications such as Address Book, iCal, and iPhoto. On Windows, iTunes must find this data elsewhere.
Syncing Contacts, Calendars, and Other Information
Use the Info page in iTunes to sync your contacts, calendars, and a few other things to your iPad.
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- Click the Info button in iTunes to see options for choosing how to sync your contacts. You can sync all your contacts from Address Book or sync only selected groups.
- You can also sync with contacts you have stored with either Yahoo! or Google. You need to enter your login information so that iTunes can access the contacts on that service.
- Choose to sync all the calendars in iCal or just selected ones. In addition, you can choose not to sync old events.
- Next, you can sync email accounts with Apple’s Mail program, which syncs the settings between your computer and your iPad, not the mail messages. See Chapter 8, “Communicating with Email, Messaging, and Twitter,” for more on getting mail on your iPad.
- To transfer your Mac’s bookmarks to your iPad and keep the bookmarks synced between the iPad and the Mac, check the Sync Safari Bookmarks check box.
- Use the Advanced options (Contacts, Calendars, Mail Accounts, and Bookmarks) to indicate that during the next sync the information should be erased from your iPad and replaced with the corresponding information from your Mac or PC.
- Click the Sync button to sync.
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Syncing Apps
iTunes keeps your apps on your computer and your iPad in sync and helps you organize them.
Note that you cannot run apps on your computer, just store them. You can store all of the apps you have downloaded and purchased on your computer and only have a subset of those set to sync on to your iPad.
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- Click the Apps button of your iPad’s settings in iTunes.
- Use the list on the left to check or uncheck apps to determine which ones to sync with your iPad.
Drag the app icons around on the representation of the Home screen page.
- Select another Home screen page by clicking a page on the right.
- You can drag an app from the main representation to another page on the right to move it to another page.
- You can also drag apps in and out of the iPad’s dock area at the bottom.
- Click the Apply button if you want to apply the changes now.
Syncing Documents
Apps sometimes have documents. For example, Pages is a word processor, so it would naturally have word-processing documents. Documents are stored on your iPad, but you might want to access them on your Mac or PC as well.
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- Click the Apps button of your iPad’s settings in iTunes.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the Apps page.
In the File Sharing section, choose an app.
- Select a document from the right.
- Click the Save To button to save the document as a file on your computer.
- Click the Add button to import a file from your computer to your iPad. Each app has its own document space on your iPad. So if you have two PDF readers, and you want the PDF document available to both, you need to add it to each app’s documents.
Syncing Music
The easy way to sync music is to select Entire Music Library In iTunes on your computer. If you have more music than can fit on your iPad, though, you must make some choices. Syncing Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Tones (ringtones for messaging and FaceTime), iTunes U, and Books all work in a similar way to syncing music, so you can apply what you learn in these steps to those items as well.
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- Click the Music button of your iPad’s settings in iTunes.
- Click the Selected Playlists, Artists, and Genres button.
- Check off any playlists in the Playlists section that you want to include.
- Check off any artists for which you want to include every song by that artist.
- Check off any genres to include in their entirety.
- Check off any albums you want to include.
- Use the search box to quickly find specific artists.
- Click the Apply button if you want to apply the changes now.
Syncing Photos
Syncing your photos actually isn’t that much different than syncing music. You can choose to have all your photos transferred to your iPad, or choose them by albums, events, or faces.
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- Click the Photos button of your iPad’s settings in iTunes.
- Click the Sync Photos From check box. If you use iPhoto, you should choose iPhoto from the drop-down menu. Other choices for Mac users include choosing any folder or the Pictures folder.
If you use Windows, you can choose your My Pictures folder or another folder. Any subfolders are treated as albums, and you can select or deselect any of them.
You might sync photos to your iPad by selecting a photo tool, such as Photoshop Elements, as your sync companion. If you choose that program, you can use the groupings in that program as albums.
- Choose whether to sync all photos or only selected ones.
- If you choose selected photos, you can also choose a number of recent events or all events from a recent period of time.
- Select any albums that you want to sync.
- Select specific events you want to sync.
- You can also select to sync all photos tagged for a specific person in iPhoto.
- Click the Sync button to apply the changes.
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