Inkflow user Phil recently asked a question about backing up his over 200 (!) Inkflow books. We thought other users might want to know more about this too.

There are three ways to keep your files safely backed up:

1. If you activated your iCloud account and turned on iCloud backups, your device automatically gets backed up when you charge it. This includes the device settings and all App data (unless you individually turn them off). You can completely restore your device (or a new device) from the iCloud backup in case of a catastrophic failure. This is a good failsafe, but the problem is that it's an all or nothing proposition (i.e. you can't choose to just restore one or two Apps at a time).

2. iTunes backup works in the same was as iCloud backup, but it's to your computer. There's a WiFi backup option, so you don't need to physically connect your phone. This is a good idea, just to have a second backup available.

3. There's a new feature available in Inkflow 3 that activates iTunes File Sharing. This lets you copy individual Inkflow (*.inkflow) files to your computer. To use it, connect your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch to your computer, and then:
    a. Select your device in the iTunes sidebar (View menu \ Show Sidebar).
    b. Navigate to the Apps tab, and select Inkflow.
    c. Copy the Inkflow files (all of them if you like) to your computer.

You can then copy these files to an external backup disk or cloud backup solution of your choice. To restore them, simply copy them back to the same Apps tab, or to a new device.

This is also a good way to “archive” older books that you don’t need to carry around on your device all the time. First backup the files, then delete them from the device.

Vittle also supports iTunes file sharing. You can similarly copy project files (*.vittle) and their associated video clips to your computer, and back them up in the same way.

Bonus Trick: Backing up to Dropbox Directly

There’s one more way to backup individual files in Inkflow directly on your iPad or iPhone. In Inkflow 3, we added the ability to export the native .inkflow file. Tap the “Action” toolbar button, select “Export…”, then select the Inkflow format. If you have the Dropbox App installed, you can open .inkflow files with it. When you do, it will prompt you for a folder and then upload the file immediately.

This is a great way to save an important backup of a file when away from your computer.

You can also open Inkflow files from the Dropbox App into Inkflow. First view it in the Dropbox App. It will say “Unable to view file”, but don’t worry. Tap the download button (top right on the iPad) and selecting Inkflow from the list. Just be aware that this will create a duplicate copy in Inkflow if a book already exists with the same name.

 

Create a Backup Plan that Works for You

When it comes to backing up data, having multiple levels of redundancy is a good idea. Pick the combination of options (or all three) that best suits you.

In case you’ve somehow missed it, Photo Stream in iOS5 is quite a game changer. Once you’ve upgraded all your devices, whenever you take a photo on one, it auto-magically syncs to all the others. Let’s say you are projecting a presentation with Air Sketch and want to quickly add a photo of something in the room. You can take a photo with your iPhone, tap on the insert photo button,  open the Photo Stream album, and your photo will appear after a few seconds. Instant new feature that would have been pretty hard to do before. No wires, no new hardware needed, no mess. Apple really did a great job with Photo Stream, and we’ve found that it does indeed work as advertised.

Note that it does take a few seconds to a minute for the photos to sync, depending on your network connection. If you are doing this in a live presentation, it would be a good idea to take the photo first, finish your current slide, then try to add it.

Works with iPhoto too:

Bonus tip: It seems that the latest version of iPhoto ‘11 also automatically synchs newly imported photos to Photo Stream. We found that if you drag a photo from the Finder and add it to iPhoto, it will appear in Photo Stream shortly. However, it seems that the Photo Stream is sorted by the File date, not the added date, so older files may appear at the beginning of the Photo Stream album, not the end as you would expect.

*** Update: Download our brand new App, Vittle, which turns your iPad into a Recordable Whiteboard. You can now make videos right on your iPad! ***

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to record your live sketches using Air Sketch on your iPad and QuickTime Player on the Mac.

Most people may not be aware that QuickTime X that ships with Snow Leopard has a built-in screen recording feature, which works great with Air Sketch. Here’s how to use it to create quick videos of your live sketches:

 

1. Start Air Sketch on your iPad.

2. Open Safari on your Mac. Under the bookmarks menu, select “Show All Bookmarks”, then select the Bonjour category on the left list. Double click on “Air Sketch by qrayon”. If you are using a different browser, such as Firefox, tap on the server icon on the bottom left of Air Sketch and type in the displayed address into the browser’s address bar.

3. Adjust the size of your browser window to show the full drawing area. It may be easiest to just make it full screen.

3. Open QuickTime Player. Under the file menu, select New Screen Recording, or Control+Command+N.

The Screen Recording window will appear:

4. You can choose to also record sound via your computer’s microphone, or not via the dropdown. This also let’s you set the quality and destination of the recording.

5. When you are ready, click the record button, then “Start Recording”.

6. Create your masterpiece.

7. Click “Stop Recording” in the menu bar or Command+Control+ESC when you are done. This will open the movie you just created.

8. You can trim the movie using QuickTime Player. Useful to remove the inadvertent pause at the beginning and end.

 

9. You can now rename your movie file, and perform any additional post production work you need.

Here’s an example of a movie that was produced this way:

For Windows users, check out the amazing and free CamStudio recording tool.

Feel free to post links to your own creations in the comments!