URL Links or Projects with Similar behaviour as Contexts

[equan...@live.ca]

I got MLO today ... , so far it is impressive.

Is it possible to add a feature that would allow:
- linking one entry to another, similar Windows Explorer Shortcuts or
- associate one entry to more than one project, similar to the way an entry can be associated to more than one @context or to more than one tag?

Example: if i have 3 projects as listed below. Some of the Subprojects & Subtasks are repeated. As an enduser when in rush it would be much easier to add tasks right away to inbox & then late associate a task to multiple contexts, tags or projects. rather than create a new top level project & move items from inbox & older projects to the new top level project. Creating a new context to act as an index to same subtasks does not guarantee that if "Buy L" gets done in the 3rd project it would also gets done in the 2nd Project.

1 - Make ABCLMNO
--Make ABC
--- Make A
--- Make B
--- Buy C
2 - Make LMNO
-- Make LMN
--- Buy L
--- Make M
--- Make N
-- Buy O
3 - Make BCDLMN
-- Make B
-- Buy C
-- Make DLMN
--- Make D
--- Make LMN
---- Buy L
---- Make M
---- Make N

If each new entry is getting a new hidden ID providing links would probably be easier to implement. The added benefit is that the URL links could also be called from other powerful apps such as "Trunk Notes" or "WorkFlow".

Thanks!

[robisme (Olivier R)]

Hi,

Let me see if I understand your request. Is it a kind of "ghost copy" of a task that would be placed in several project. If you check it done in one project, it will also appear as done in the other project.

If so, that's something that I ask for several years.

There is actually a link function, but it creates a link to another task, it is not exactly a shortcut or ghost copy.

The software "ultra recall" does have this function.

Olivier 

[Joel Azaria]

On Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 4:12:46 AM UTC-5, equan...@live.ca wrote:

I got MLO today ... , so far it is impressive.

Your question is intriguing.  Mostly because I think I don't understand it.  But I'm gonna try to help.

 

Is it possible to add a feature that would allow:
- linking one entry to another, similar Windows Explorer Shortcuts or

 so like a url or address you can paste into the notes of an mlo item (be it a task or folder or project or whatever)  that you click and jumps you to another mlo item? 

If yes, I don't think there is such a feature.

- associate one entry to more than one project, similar to the way an entry can be associated to more than one @context or to more than one tag?

I'm not sure what you're trying to do here.   What do you mean by associate an entry with a project?  

In MLO there is no real association to a project - an item can itself be marked as a project - and then any items "under" it (in the tree views) are considered part of that project.  Other than that however, there's really no other "association" to the project.

And what confuses me is, how can any one item belong to two projects at the same time?   In my mind, if an item exists/needs doing as part of a project, even if I'm doing a similar or even same task for another project, it's still distinct and I want to track them distinctly so it needs to be two separate items.

For example if "Buy C" is buying a bus ticket and it's part of two different projects, isn't it still two different bus tickets?  One for let's say "Steve" and one for "Sharon"..  I would want in my to do list two items, one for each of them. Wouldn't you?  How would it suck to remember to go to the bus depot and buy Sharon's ticket and get home and remember you forgot Steve!

Or else, what are you trying to achieve?  You say you just got MLO, maybe (usually) there's another way to get where you're trying to go.

[Joel Azaria]

I just saw your reply - how do you create a link to another task?

[Andrei Bacean]

hi Joel
move a task with the right button above another task. you'll see a pop-up menu which will give you an option to add a task link to the notes.
best regards
Andrei

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi. MLO does not currently have the ability that you seek, although there are a couple of things that come close. As Olivier noted, this has been requested before but there's no sign that it has yet caught the attention of the developers. By proposing it in this user forum you have the attention of other users but not necessarily the developers. The most effective way to get the developers attention is to make the request on mlo.uservoice.com and then use this forum to get a lot of users to vote for your proposal on uservoice. This is a slow process so don't hold your breath.

The two features that come close are:

task links. select a task and bring up the task notes display (in the right hand panel. If task properties are displayed click on the word "Properties" to maximize task notes). Right-click in the notes display to bring up a context menu and select "insert link to task". From the popup window, select the task whose URL you want to insert and click "OK" (Joel, doel this answer your question?)

The URL that gets inserted will let you link from one task to another within MLO. It does not work from other programs so far as i can tell. There's probably something missing in the system registry to tell Windows that "mlo:" is a resource indicator handled by mylifeorganized.exe - if you are at all into hacking windows you could try to make this change yourself.

Drawbacks: this link does not do anything unless you open the task that contains it, and then click on it. In your example if you buy L for project 3 and later you get to the "buy L" task in project 2, unless you open the task, notice the link in the notes section, and click on it, you will not know it was linked.''

The other feature is "dependencies". You could remove "buy L" from the second project and edit "Make M" in the second project to have a dependency on "Buy L" in the third project. Or, if you don't actually need L to make M, you only need it when you get to making LMNO, then you would edit "Make LMNO" and make it dependent on "Buy L" in the third project. That way, if you get to the point in the second project where you need L, it will wait for you to buy L and mark it complete in the third project, then proceed.

This is less than ideal for you because you have to guess that project 3 will get to "Buy L" before project 2. If not, project 3 will get suspended and nothing will show up in your to-do list or next-action list until project 3 gets to that point. However, if you guess right about which project will get here first this will do the job, and if you guess wrong it's easy to discover what happened: the next task in project 2 will be inactive, and if you look at the task status information it will show you that it's waiting for "buy L".

I hope that this description is clear for you - if it's confusing please ask a question and I will try to explain it more clearly.

-Dwight

On Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 4:12:46 AM UTC-5, equan...@live.ca wrote: