Feature Request - Notes at bottom of ToDo list

[Steve Wynn]

Hi,

At the moment the Task Notes are to the side of ToDo list, on tab with the Properties pane. Now although you can display notes on the properties  if you have everything expanded it tends to go out of view. I don't know if others agree but notes in themselves just don't see that easily accessible to me, well not as they should be overall.  For the most part you either access notes or access properties.  You tend to find yourself switching between the two a lot and it would be nice if I could look at notes, while checking the properties or adjusting the properties for a task.

I had an idea that if there was a notes window at the bottom of the ToDo list and the Outline view, that was a read/input box for notes. This might make things easier and then right hand side could be kept specifically for properties.

So in other words something like this,

ToDo List

Task 1
Task 2
Task 3

Notes_______________________________
Task 1 Notes, selected when Task 1 Highlighted
____________________________________

The notes window would allow for notes to be read and edited. If the size could be expanded/shrunk, and there was a hotkey to switch on/off notes that would be great.  But it would mean notes and properties could be accessible at the same time easily.  Things don't seem that intuitive to me at the moment. If I have a task selected and I want to make a quick note, I have to either select the notes tab. Scroll down through the properties etc. If there was a little window at the bottom of the ToDo list, that if shown automatically gave me note entry/review, I think as a whole I would tend to utilise notes a lot more.


All the best

Steve.

'If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.' –
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German-born American Physicist

[Luciano Passuello]

+1 here.

[BOC]

HUGE +1!

Great simple idea (well, I don't know if implementing it is simple)

[Kudos]

I like the idea!

+1

On Jan 13, 2:19 pm, "Steve Wynn" <steve.w...@startupcomputer.com>
wrote:

> 'If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.' -

[Michele C]

+1 here too.  I've thought that for a long time.

[Graham Foster]

+1 2

[LondonTrader]

+1

In the meantime it would help if Task Notes appeared at the top of the
Properties window, or if the order of sections could be customised.

As it stands with only General and Timing sections opened, there is
just room to see the Notes on the Properties pane.

L

On 14 Jan, 07:25, Graham Foster <gandalfmeis...@gmail.com> wrote:
> +1 2

[Martyn]

+1 more

[Eberhard]

+1 here

[Chris]

I agree that notes need to be more visible. I think being able to
rearrange the sections of the properties tab would be a good way to do
it. The other controls could possibly be rearranged/formatted to take
up less space... maybe after the task has got it's initial setup (set
contexts, time, etc; maybe moved out of "inbox") it defaults to
showing a summary of it's settings and only has "controls" for stuff
that's changed as the task is worked on such as notes and ???.

[Masago]

I think this is a good idea too. However, if accepted, I think the
final solution should at least provide a way to display the notes as
one long column, as it does now. I have some tasks in which I store a
long history of notes. I would not want to have to scroll through a
short (e.g. 1-inch) high window to read the text.

~Vaughn Seward

On Jan 13, 7:19 am, "Steve Wynn" <steve.w...@startupcomputer.com>
wrote:

> 'If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.' -

[Andy Red]

+1 Notes at the bottom. Great.

Also would like to be able to make them be where they currently are as
well - sometimes if you are looking at long outline list and working
on lots of notes or have very long notes you might want them on the
right hand side. Like the Outlook reading preview window, three
buttons (hotkeys in this case?) for bottom, right and off.

Andrew

[vikram.sjn]

+1

On Jan 13, 7:19 pm, "Steve Wynn" <steve.w...@startupcomputer.com>
wrote:

> 'If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.' -

[pet...@gmail.com]

+1 on notes being ever-present on the bottom of the UI.

-Mike

[Mike_A]

+1 An always visible Notes window is essential. If possible make it a
docking window (dock bottom or side of todo/outline list window).

On Jan 13, 9:19 am, "Steve Wynn" <steve.w...@startupcomputer.com>
wrote:
>

[JuddMuir]

MINUS 1

I use the notes extensively, and the column layout is perfect. Eye
patterns naturally go to the right, not down to the bottom of the
page. Much better as is! Use the ALT+1 shortcut to get to the notes.

[James Murphy]

Which leads us to the "right" answer which would be to split things
into 3, 1 being the outline/list pane, 2 being the properties and 3
the notes and then allowing the user to decide how to arrange same to
suit.

How much of a challenge this is depends on the capabilities of the UI toolkit...

--
Murph

[Jay Levitt]

I think part of the problem, at least for me, is that the way the
shortcuts work currently isn't intuitive, because there's no symmetry.

Alt-1 toggles between the task list, on the left, and the task notes,
which is a tab on the right.

Alt-2 through Alt-6 toggle between the task list, on the left, and a
portion of the properties tab on the right; they also show and hide that
part of the properties accordion.

Alt-F1 says "Properties pane", but it really shows and hides the whole
right-side pane, which includes both Properties, Task Notes, and the
text box with the full name of the task.

It's very awkward to use; I always have to think about what exactly I
want to do, instead of just doing it. I can't particularly think of an
easy fix, or desired behavior, but if nobody else has suggestions I'm
sure I could come up with something.

[Jay Levitt]

I think I found another example of "MLO should be more task-oriented,
and less a GUI for a database":

Check the checkbox on a project to show that it's completed. Look at
the status: Not started.

Uncheck that checkbox, add a task, and check off the task. Now the
project is still "not started", but 50% complete.

I can't think of any reason it should work that way! It seems that the
attribute "This is a project" doesn't mean anything to MLO, other than
setting its own checkbox. It should affect behavior, in these ways and
probably others.

Jay

[Steve Wynn]

Hi Murph,

I agree this would be the ideal solution.

Steve

[Steve Wynn]

Hi Jay,

Again as with a lot of things in MLO there are two ways of looking at it overall. The first is that the project status should be configured by the user. The second is that projects should automatically have their status updated by the system, depending on the actions that are taken.

Now if the status is configured by the user, it means the user has control. Completing a project related action, doesn't start the project. Marking off all the actions for a project doesn't mark it as complete. It is up to the user to decide on the status of the project. So you could have a project with multiple actions already completed, that you might want to record as part of the project. But the project doesn't start in earnest until some time later, sort of prep work for example. Personally I like the status being a manual option, it means I have to actively participate in updating and setting project status. I personally think it makes me review projects more than I would if it was an automated process, I have a better handle on what is started, suspended, complete etc.

At the same time, there is obviously a second viewpoint. That project status should be an automated process, if you complete an action the project should be flagged as started. If you complete all actions the project should be marked as complete. If you suspend a project it should hide actions in the ToDo list etc. I see the validity of this point of view as well.

I wonder if this should be handled by confirmation dialogues? So in other words if you complete an action on a project that is not started, it questions you 'Project has not been started, do you wish to update the status to started?' sort of thing. All actions complete 'Mark Project as Complete?', If these confirmations could be turned on and off, then you could have a happy medium between the two different perspectives. An automated approach if they are on, a manual approach if they are off. I must admit I am not a big fan of confirmations, I think they get in the way. Perhaps alternatively having a separate option, manual project control, automated project control. Depending if this is on or off, indicates which behaviour you want to represent.

All the best

Steve

[Mark Roberts]

I had the same problem with the poor for me assignment of shortcuts.

So I went to options on the tools menu and changed the hotkey
assignments. I suspect many are not aware you can do this. I just
assigned the important keys I used frequently onto the function keys I
wanted. It's pretty simple.

Mark