Task Activity log
I'd like to see a facility to add log entries to a task. This would allow short notes to be attached to tasks as I work on them. These log entries should be date and time stamped to give the user a feel for the flow of activity.
Such a feature would be a huge help for many, I suspect who need a feature to help remember what got done to a task and when it happened, even though the task itself is not yet done.
This is possible already.
Instead of tracking efforts by just clicking the track button or by using cntl-T, use cntrl-E instead. That will open a new effort, complete with the ability to add text notes to the description for each effort.
You can see a log of efforts by making an effort viewer in View>New Viewer, and you can include a description column in that viewer. You can filter by both category and by text search.
You will probably want to show the description column in the task edit window’s effort tab. You can adjust this by right-clicking in the column header.
If you want instead to make notes that are not tied to efforts, then you might want to vote for this request for adding a date marker to notes:
http://taskcoach.uservoice.com/forums/26465-desktop-version-windows-linux-mac-of-task-coach/suggestions/297451-add-a-column-date-in-the-notes-window-to-show-wh
So I am marking this complete. Please add any comments below if you think there is still something missing. Perhaps there should just be separate requests for other features, or perhaps this feature request should be reopened with a clarified description. But I think this is done, just needs better documentation of how to do it.
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Anonymous commented
This will be a neat feature and a hugely simplify the "effort" tracking of "time" and "content" of what was done. If the active tasks appear on the calander and at the end of the day one could put comments (using the calander) on what was done for a particular task and in a separate field per task put in the time spent (hh:mm) which is tracked by the "Effort", then one could keep track of the effort over a given period and also at the end of the work week one could look at the task based sorted list of comments (per week) to summarize what was done that week on each active task!
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Anonymous commented
it would be great to see the last update from a reporting standpoint.
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Lukasz commented
A mere keyboard shortcut, the equivalent of Ctrl + ; and Ctrl + Shift + ; in most spreadsheet programs, would probably solve half this feature request right now. That keyboard shortcut only auto-types the current day and current time respectively, and that would be useful in any note taking.
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Phil Hannent commented
I would like this for the purpose of helping me fill out my timesheet. If I could have a history of when I created and completed a task it would help me figure out what I had done that month.
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Homer commented
I would second that request by pmatousu below as stated:
I would like to very kindly ask you for simple enhancement -
track the date of creation of notes and have a possibility to sort
notes by date.
With such a feature, the task notes will become log, which will be very
useful. The user will have a chance to log comments to task just by
using the notes feature. -
tray commented
I agree add a button on the Edit Note, dialog box that inserts Date,Time (Or a defined pattern of strings eg YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS: carriage return.
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sfbob commented
Here is a suggestion for using what's already there
1. Add a new effort to a task - this will generate a new effort window with the current date/time as the start date/time
2. Click on the checkbox in the date field to the right of "Stop" - this will create a stop date/time matching the start date/time (or probably a couple of seconds later).
3. Write your log entry in the Description field
4. Click OK to save
You may want to reverse #2 and #3 to account for the time spent writing the log entry.
To view, edit the task, click on the Effort tab. By default (as of 1.2.18) the description field does not show. To change this, right click on a column header field ("Task" is the largest and easiest to hit), then left click on "Description" to give it a check mark, and all your effort entries (including the log entry just added) will show on the list.
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matt wilkie commented
workaround for Windows: going all the way back to v3.1 I think, has a built in time stamp log feature: Create a text file and put ".log" (case insensitve) as the first line. Now every time you open in the file with Notepad* the date & time is inserted at the bottom (9:03 AM 01/03/2011). Attach that file to your task. Now anytime you want to update the log r-click on the task and select "open attachment", and type away. (* also true for some notepad replacements like "Notepad2" and friends).
Long term: The [description] field of [Efforts] are the natural place to add a logging functionality. All that's needed is a feature to auto insert timestamp when adding text, which should be fairly straightforward, and, with more work, a reporting feature where all the efforts descriptions for a single task can be viewed at once.
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Andreas commented
Grat Idea! I also miss some kind of "logging" functionlity.
In my case i want to have a view to see tasks i worked yesterday on with some comments. -
jtrick commented
It would be great to be able to add a quick note to work in progress (from a template associated with a task branch?) and then make minor edits to it. As mentioned, there is the capability to add notes but I was not able to easily associate them with efforts.
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Anonymous commented
I found a workaround (on MS Windows Systems) that works for me.
tested on Win71) To get the current date and time create a *.bat file with the following command: "echo %date% - %time:~0,5%| clip"
date and time will be copied to the clipboard.
%time% --> 16:04:37,63
%time:~0,8% --> 16:04:37
%time:~0,5% --> 16:042) Create a shortcut of the batchfile and right klick on it --> Properties --> shortcut key (e.g.: "ctrl + schift + t") --> apply
3) Use the shortcut (key) to copy current date and time to the clipboard and then use "ctrl + v" to insert it.
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kenkarakiki commented
Ok, it's true, anyway it would be great if:
1) you can quickly add "task log notes" through a keyboard shortcut
2) the "Task Coach" would be able to display the last added log note for the task directly in the main "task view"
3) visualize the task activity log history through the "updates history" button -
pmatousu commented
Hello
I would like to very kindly ask you for simple enhancement -
track the date of creation of notes and have a possibility to sort
notes by date.
With such a feature, the task notes will become log, which will be very
useful. The user will have a chance to log comments to task just by
using the notes feature. -
Graham commented
You can already add a collection of notes to any task. The only thing missing is the automatic date-time stamp