Outlook and due date question.

[Philb]

Good MLO Folk:

I am currently testing the Outlook sync function with a view to sending
data to my Palm, and have a question regarding how due dates are
treated. If I assign a due date to an item (start and due date the
same) in MLO, and that date is greater than today, the task will not
appear in Outlook until the date its due. If I search on the task text
in Outlook I cannot find it. Does that mean when I sync the tasks
down to the Palm I will not be able to see it there either? It seems
normal that one would want to see tasks that are upcoming. Is there a
setting that I can alter that will allow me to see these tasks in
Outlook? Or is the only solution to assign a start date that is ahead
of the due date. ( Not a feature I use a lot).

regards,

Phil.

[Daniel Walker]

This has been a minor irritation of mine as well.  I wish due dates and start dates were seperate entities, so you could set one without the other.  Here, in order of frequency, are the types of tasks I have:

1. No particular due date, just "as soon as possible subject to other priorities."  This is handled well by MLO - just don't set a due date, and give the task or project an appropriate importance.

2. Hard due date, but no particular start date (presumably as soon as possible).  I could handle this by always setting today as the start date, but this requires more clicking than I'd like, considering how frequent these tasks are.  I often end up forgetting to set the start date back, resulting in the task getting "lost" (as Phil has described) until I'm at the due date (yikes).  It's also pretty inelegant, as you're storing bogus information (the "Start date" has no real significance, used this way), and if you move the due date back, the start date slavishly follows it to keep lead time constant.  If you move a task into the future by more than its lead time, then it drops off your list again.

3. No particular due date, but there is a "can't start before" date.  Often one has to wait until some date passes until work on a task or project can begin.  In this case I'd like to set the start date where it belongs in order to keep the task off my todo list until it's doable, but I have to set some arbitrary due date as well in order to be able to do this.

4. Hard start and due dates.  This comes up pretty infrequently, but when it does, MLO handles it fine.

This is something I'd really like to see changed.  On an interface level, it should be pretty simple.  You can get rid of the "Set due date" checkbox - just have a "None" option in the date picker for both dates.  The Outlook 2003 task form has this and it works great.  I imagine there's some kind of architectural hang-up that's kept this from being done already, but allow me to cast my vote that it would make MLO a significantly better product.  I wish I had thought of it when the "Top 7" poll was going on.

-Daniel

[RD]

The issues raised by Phil and Daniel have been showing up in a number
of, sometimes unrelated, threads, including some of my posts, and once
again I wish to make some points. Phil wants to see both task due
dates and start dates Outlook and on his PDA. Me too. Apart from any
other factor, it is important for review and planning purposes when
setting start and due dates for new tasks in MLO, that one can see what
is coming up. Too often, I set task dates which have to be changed
later, once already-entered tasks show on the MLO to do list as a
function of their start dates and cause task overload. In this regard,
I currently find it incredibly useful to sync the MLO To Do List to
Outlook and view tasks in a custom Calender View in Outlook, either by
week or month. If start dates could also be viewed as well in such a
View it would be even better. I believe this can be accomplished
simply by having a new filter for the To Do List to select Dues and
Starts and for a selected time period (next week, next month).
Incidentally, changing task dates by dragging and dropping in the
Outlook Calendar View is way simpler than doing it in MLO.

As a side note, there have also been requests from time to time to have
MLO tasks synced into the Outlook Calendar, to appear alongside
appointments. Personally, I would not want my Appoinment Calendar to
be cluttered up with tasks. I suggest that my practice of creating an
additional Outlook Calendar View only for tasks is preferable.

I also strongly support Daniel's idea of getting rid of the "Set due
date" checkbox -
and just have a "None" option in the date picker for both start and due
dates.

RD

[Philb]

I have found a workaround for this. In the Outlook sync options in MLO
(Hit the advanced button), on the general tab, I have deselected
"Remove Tasks from Outlook not visible in MLO To-Do list." This lets
the items show up. However downside is that it also allows anything
else that you have filtered out of your MLO todo list to show up also.
I can live with that for now. It would be nice to have the parameters
for this setting ignore items with dates set for them.

regards,

Phil

[RD]

Not a great workaround, as you point out and not useful for me.
Filtering is the key.

RD

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

I will add your ideas as #F536 "How to display task not yet start in
Outlook" for consideration.

Andrey.