Better control over task order
I think there should be a smoother way to re-order tasks. I'm a bit long-winded here, but I do think finding a way to address this would be a major improvement for taskcoach...
Here's how i see the problem: Task dependency (not yet implemented) partially address this, but falls short if you plan to tackle subtasks from more than one parent task in the short term. Priority is helpful, but falls short in that you have to manually go in and increase or decrease tasks one at a time to get them into an order of what you would like to do next. Due date falls short in that some tasks might not have due dates, or may actually be very low priorty.
I see a few possible ways to implement this:
1> Allow sorting by more than one criteria. I think this would be a partial solution, but a definite improvement.
2> Allow tasks to be re-ordered by drag and drop. Perhaps each task would have an order index number which would be controlled by taskcoach by default, but if the user drags the task to a new position, it would "stick" in that position and a checkbox would be enabled for "user position". Meanwhile the rest of the tasks would continue to flow around this position.
3> A more complex system allowing the user to sort by an algorithm. This is what I would prefer, although I can see it might be difficult to implement. For instance, taskcoach could account for how much time i've budgeted and how long until the due date, calculate a daily time budget. Then I could sort my tasks by 45% daily time budget, 30% priority, and 25% off of an urgency field. I like this idea, but I'm guessing it's too complicated...
4> Allow another view that only shows tasks that I explicitly choose to do next. These would be assigned an order number for this view. There could be a keyboard shortcut to enable the task in this view, perhaps even one to go to the top of the list and another to the bottom. Re-ordering the list should be easy. Since the list would be small it seems reasonable to have it automatically numbered (as opposed to the maximize/minimize option for priority which ends up creating negative numbers or leaving gaps in the numbering). It is said that we are able to focus on no more than 7 items at once so i think this could be limited to a small number, like 10 or 20 items. This idea seems best to me, because it sounds very easy to implement, wouldn't slow taskcoach down, and easily allow me to plan my day.
I'll donate $10-30 if any of this gets implemented. thanks for all your hard work
In the latest versions, both reordering by DnD and stable sort across multiple instances work.
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edo commented
I actualy bought a paid program "swift to-do-list" because this simple but crucial feature was missing. I would start a to-do-list program with that feature and then add other things. Task Coach is almost getting to complex to use whil a simple 2 buton option "taks up" and "taks down" is not an option. You would have to tweak with dates or priority's to get this setup. And if you have a lot of task(the reason in the first place to use a program like this) you need an extra task just to make time arange you priority's. A taks could change from priority in minutes. Then it would just be nice to select, taks up when it is more important. Just like those download programs, you can always setup the priority to download by up and down.
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kennethwjennings commented
On the iPhone version there is choice to sort by Status
I would like to see a similar choice to sort by Status on the desktop version.
On the Desktop version the drop down menu works thusly:
View > Sort >
Subject
Description
Category
Start Date
Due DateI realize that I can get close to sorting by Status by using Due Date but it is not giving me the same display order as Status does on my iPhone. The desktop version when sorted by Due date shows the occasional inactive Task before ordinary Tasks. Please follow the link.
Note that the i-Phone apps when sorted by Status shows the inactive Task "Sensors for batteries cabin temp in the correct grouping (Inactive Tasks)
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kennethwjennings commented
On the iPhone version there is choice to sort by Status
I would like to see a similar choice to sort by Status on the desktop version.
On the Desktop version the drop down menu works thusly:
View > Sort >
Subject
Description
Category
Start Date
Due DateI realize that I can get close to sorting by Status by using Due Date but it is not giving me the same display order as Status does on my iPhone. The desktop version when sorted by Due date shows the occasional inactive Task before ordinary Tasks. Please follow the link.
Note that the i-Phone apps when sorted by Status shows the inactive Task "Sensors for batteries cabin temp in the correct grouping (Inactive Tasks)
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B.J. Herbison commented
The request from Kyt to have the tasks never sorted can be handled by giving each task an "order created" or "date created" field and allow sorting by that field. (Thunderbird and Eudora have a similar field "Order Received".)
The change or order that happens every time I search for task makes it hard to keep track of which tasks I have reviewed. Some level of stability in task order would be appreciated.
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A Kn commented
I'll echo the request for a multi-level sort. I'd sort by Priority and Start/Due date.
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Amanda commented
I agree -- organization and ordering is key here. So far I'm able to sort pretty well using combinations of category lists but I would like the ability to designate an action in a complex task as the Next Step and then see just those Next Steps. You can do this with Priorities to some degree but the overall sorting would be great. Drag and Drop would be great.
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Clive Morris commented
I would love to have drag and drop task ordering too. Having to go in and change priority on each individual item is very tedious. Being able to arrive at work and just drag and drop each task into its relative priority order for the day would be great. Thanks
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Ben commented
I have *tried* to use TaskCoach several times now. The fatal flaw always ends up being that it will not let me position the tasks where I want them. I think TaskCoach would be near perfect if it would do this but until then it is almost useless for my purposes.
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robusta commented
First of all, thanks a lot for this great product!
I would be happy if TaskCoach could handle tasks with due dates and prerequisites.
For example, I have task A which is due tomorrow, and task B which does not have due date. But task A has task B as a prerequisite. Then task B should be automatically added due date as earliest due date of all tasks which have B as a prerequisite.
Thanks!
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tmetro commented
As I've suggested on the mailing list, I think it would be worth exploring the idea of hiding the actual priority values, instead letting TC manage them internally, and the user just controls relative positioning of tasks.
> Allow another view that only shows tasks that I
> explicitly choose to do next.I'd love to see this to support GTD. I'd like a task-viewer filtering algorithm that showed the highest priority subtask from each parent task or task designated as a "project".
I suggested this here:
http://taskcoach.uservoice.com/forums/26465-desktop-version-windows-linux-mac-of-task-coach/suggestions/831475-create-a-next-action-filter -
Allen Gould commented
While any of the solutions in the original post would be nice, just a simple multi-sort would make my life much easier.
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Phil Norris commented
I'd like to support the ability to sort on more than one field to give greater flexibility.
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Daniel Kimberlin commented
All I want is drag and drop re-ordering of task priority. I'm new to uservoice but it seems like this request and others in this thread should be split out. Any thoughts?
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rich zatorski commented
Along with this feature, it would be nice to save views as well as associate the current view with the current TaskCoach file.
I actually use different files for different things, and the main thing I need to do is create different views. The ability to "remember" and associate a view with a file would be great. Creating a template view would be useful too.
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Jason McWhorter commented
As with the others, the ability to sort on multiple levels (columns) for a view would be a great addition to the product!
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Paulo Terca commented
I find that the most important feature missing in this great tool is the ability to sort by more than one column. This may not be as hard as some other more complex features demanded here, and it would improve immensely the tool. My main columns of choice would be Priority, Due Date and Category, and I would be happy with just that. Obviously the best would be any combination of columns, by any order, ascending or descending on each column, which might be more challenging and difficult to keep elegant in the UI.
It would be great if it could just do what gtodo does. -
releve1403 commented
Sorting on 2 or 3 columns would be nice. In Outlook, I used to sort tasks by date and then by priority.
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bart2pub commented
>3: Maybe could be accomplished by integrating calculated user fields (as in your example 45% daily time budget, 30% priority, ...). If then these fields could be used in sorting and filtering, opens many possibilities ! (In Outlook you can make such user fields, but they can't be used in sorting/filtering)
>4: I now use a category 'asap'. The tasks I want to do, I toggle this category on, so I can filter them with the category view. Just toggling the tasks 'asap' category on and off is a bit clumsy (using the context menu). If you could add just one category as a column in the view, with a toggle button or context menu on/off ... that would rock ! -
Eric Kaiser commented
I like 4> setting the focus on what to do next is vital for humans I think :-)
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Bill commented
I like this idea as well. I made a comment under 'Calendar View' about a daily planner tool but a list that you can reorder tasks on by moving them up and down might be easier to implement.