Syncing With The Google Docs™ Program
Syncing Overview

The Google Docs™ program is an online web-based application for creating, editing, and viewing documents. NoteMaster can sync its notes and categories with the Google Docs™ program, allowing you to backup your notes, view and edit them online, and transfer them to and from your computer.
NoteMaster syncs its notes to a special Google Docs folder calledl the sync folder. The sync folder represents the location in which all NoteMaster notes and categories will be stored. The fist time you sync, NoteMaster will create a new sync folder for you called "NoteMaster Sync". Using a sync folder allows you keep you NoteMaster notes separate from your other Google documents.

Performing a Sync

In NoteMaster, syncing to the Google Docs™ program is always a manual process initiated by the user. To start a sync, press the Sync icon on the toolbar:

Tap the Sync icon to start the sync. The first time you sync, NoteMaster will ask you for your Google login and password.
When syncing begins, NoteMaster will display a screen showing the progress of the syncing activity.

You can press the Stop button at any time to interrupt the sync. Doing so may result in a partial sync, but you can choose to sync again at any time to complete it.

Syncing Notes and Categories

Syncing allows you to maintain a copy of your NoteMaster notes and categories in the Google Docs™ program. Notes and categories are converted to and from the equivalent Google Docs™ entities in the following ways:
NoteMaster categories are converted to and from Google Docs™ folders.

NoteMaster categories:

And the equivalent Google Docs™ folders:

NoteMaster notes are converted to and from Google Docs™ documents. Notes belonging to a category are stored as documents in an equivalent folder. Uncategorized notes are stored as documents in the sync folder itself.

NoteMaster notes:

And the equivalent Google Docs™ documents:

Syncing Restrictions

• The Google Docs™ program allows you to have a document reside under more than one folder at the same time. However, since NoteMaster only supports a note residing under a single category, you must make sure that each document only resides under a single folder. To do otherwise can confuse NoteMaster during the syncing process.
• The Google Docs™ program supports unlimited nesting of folders, meaning that any folder can have a subfolder inside it. However, since NoteMaster does not support nested categories, you must make sure not to use nested category folders in the Google Docs™ program. To do otherwise can confuse NoteMaster during the syncing process.
• The Google Docs™ program does not support the concept of "locked" folders. All locked NoteMaster categories will be converted in regular folders in the Google Docs™ program, and all documents inside these folders will be directly accessible. Since the Google Docs™ program requires its own login/password, your documents will still remain private. The locked categories in NoteMaster will still remain locked; syncing has no effect on this.

When converting from a NoteMaster note to a Google Docs™ document, all note text, images and formatting is preserved and the document should look nearly identical to the note.

This is not the case when convertin the other direction. Since documents in the Google Docs™ program contain features, styles, and formatting options not available in NoteMaster, NoteMaster will do its best to convert the documents into a format closest to one it can use. There may, however be some loss of formatting during this conversion. As long as you stick with the elements that NoteMaster can understand (paragraphs, headers, images) you should be able to convert a document to a note completely intact.

Advanced Sync Settings

In addition to the Google login and password, NoteMaster makes some advanced settings available for more specific adjustments.

• Sync Folder - This is the Google Docs™ folder you want to sync to. You will be presented with a list of all top-level folders in the Google Docs™ program. The Login and Password settings (above) must be set first so that the list of possible folders can be retrieved from Google. Note that changing this folder after you've synced to a previous folder will cause the sync system to be reset (see #6 below, "Reset Sync System").
• Default Action - This is the action that will be performed when you start a sync. The options are as follows:

• • Full Sync - Transfer new and updated notes from NoteMaster to the Google Docs™ program AND transfer new and updated documents from the Google Docs™ program to NoteMaster. This is the option you would normally use if you want to use full two-way syncing between NoteMaster and the Google Docs™ program.
• • Local to Remote - Transfer new and updated notes from NoteMaster to the Google Docs™ program ONLY. Updates made within the Google Docs™ program will NOT be transferred to NoteMaster. Use this option if you just want to backup your notes to Google Docs™.
• • Remote to Local - Transfer new and updated documents from the Google Docs™ program to NoteMaster ONLY. Updates made within NoteMaster will NOT be transferred to the Google Docs™ program. Use this option if you just want to import documents into NoteMaster.
• • Ask - You will be prompted to choose one of the above three options every time to start the sync process.

• Allow Delete - Allow for syncing of delete actions. A note or document deleted in one place will be deleted in the other place as part of the sync. Having this options set to "ON" will allow true mirrored syncing; that is, the list notes and categories in NoteMaster will exactly match the list of documents and folders in the Google Docs™ program. Setting it to "OFF" prevents notes and documents from ever being deleted during a sync.
• Image Compression - The type of lossy compression to be applied to images in notes uploaded to the Google DOcs™ program. Since Google Docs™ has a size limit of 500K for each note uploaded to its service, it can be beneficial to apply compression to the images in order to keep the note size smaller. None means that no lossy compression will be used and that the image will be uploaded at full quality. Values of Low, Medium, and High indicate that lossy compression will be used.
• Reset Sync System - A button to be used when you want to "start over" with your syncing setup. NoteMaster maintains some internal data to keep track of syncing operations. This internal data allows NoteMaster to know which notes or documents need to be updated during a sync operation. Pressing the "Reset Sync System" button causes NoteMaster to reset its internal data so that you can start over. You should never need to use this button during normal operation.

This section will address some common syncing scenarios and show how to configure NoteMaster to handle them.
Mirrored Two-Way Syncing
Maintain an exact synced copy of your notes in the Google Docs™ program. Use the "Full Sync" sync action, and set "Allow Delete" to ON. And updates, additions, or deletions you make in either NoteMaster or the Google Docs™ program will be synced to the other side.
Mirrored Two-Way Syncing (with archiving)
Maintain an exact synced copy of your notes in the Google Docs™ program. Use the "Full Sync" sync action, and set "Allow Delete" to OFF. And updates or additions you make in either NoteMaster or the Google Docs™ program will be synced to the other side. However, any deleted notes or folders will still be kept on the other side, allowing you to keep an "archive" of all notes you've ever created.
Backup Only
If you only wish to maintain a backup of your notes, use the "Local to Remote" sync action, and set "Allow Delete" to OFF. Each sync will backup your latest note changes to the Google Docs™ program.
To restore a backup, use the "Remote to Local" sync action to restore the notes you had previously backed up.
Importing Notes From Outside NoteMaster
If you have notes that you have created using a different piece of software, you may be able to upload them into the Google Docs™ program. The Google Docs™ program supports many different types of documents including Plan Text (.txt), Rich Text (.rtf), Microsoft Word (.doc), OpenDocument Text (.odt), HTML (.html), and StarOffice(.sxw). Once the notes are in your sync folder, you can perform a sync (either "Remote to Local" or "Full Sync") to transfer them to NoteMaster.
Transferring Notes To And From Your Computer
While you cannot transfer notes to and from your computer directly, you can transfer notes to and from the Google Docs™ program. To transfer a note to your computer, first sync with the Google Docs™ program, and then save it from there to your computer. To transfer a note from your computer to NoteMaster, first upload it to the Google Docs™ program, then perform a sync.