[TW5] Presenting ToDoNow – a Beta Version of my ToDo-List-Plugin

[Thomas Elmiger]

Hello busy multi-taskers!

After I spent many evenings working on this and learning a lot about TiddlyWiki, I am happy to present the first beta version of my first plugin(s). If you are looking for a todo list with priorities (and optional deadlines) to increase your efficiency, this might be something for you. (I use it daily now.)

Everything is on http://tid.li/tw5/plugins.html – I hope my installation tiddler is a help for the first steps. (Important: Remember to back up first. Not important: the last, optional, line will be removed in the next version.)

You will need two plugins, one of them (Listreveal) is not documented yet.

Plugins from other authors can be used as an option:

• to enter dates – deadlines – via date picker, You can use http://kixam.github.io/TW5-datePicker/ – (also this needs two plugins: datepicker and moments.js).
• to edit lists inline – tasklists with subtasks – install https://grosinger.net/tw5-checklist/.

There are language tiddlers for German (DE and CH) and for English (GB – my English is far from perfect, I know) – please feel free to create or  submit your own, I would be happy to add them.

I allready have lots of ideas for addons, improvements and fixing minor bugs – but only limited time. You can look at my ToDoNow-todo-list, which will be updated occasionally and shows an example of my tool in use.

I know there are many other solutions around, but none of them offered exactly what I wanted … so I hope there are others among you who find this useful.

Kind regards and happy doing,

Thomas

[Cully]

Thomas,

Great job on the ToDo plugin. I have been using it for a few weeks now and have stopped using the other ToDo list makers I have used.

I have come across a odd formatting issue I can't seem to resolve. With the browser at full screen and my resolution is set to 1600 x 900 all is good but when I go up to 1920 X 1080 I see "Set deadline" and "Uuups!" or "Do Now" like in the image. If I resize the browser it appears and though they are stationary but eventually go away.

Have any thoughts?

[Thomas Elmiger]

Hi Cully

Thank you for the feedback and the bug report! I am happy to hear that there is at least one other user than me :–)

Seems I am not hiding these texts properly, just moving them out of sight. I never use browser windows that wide. I will have a look at the CSS.

Another thing I am thinking over is the icon on the right: Should I use standard fold/unfold icons instead of "…" and a close-cross?

All the best,
Thomas

[PJO]

Thomas,

I just took a look at this with option 2 (checklists without dates). It works nicely -- though the instructions are a little bit confusing and need some minor clarification, especially for a TW5 novice.

It looks very nice and I'd be interested to see a final version and maybe to convert to a similar TW of my own that I use (zipped copy attached). 

The attached file is a wiki built for implementing the Do It Tomorrow approach to task management. I left a couple of actions in here and there for illustration; just delete them.

I use this for basic capture and processing of personal TO DO list items. For work projects i have used more sophisticated things, of which I think the best is MyLifeOrganized, but this little wiki works nicely for most of what I need and on either Windows or Linux.

Cheers,

Paul

[Tony Grosinger]

Wow, I am so excited to see that someone else is using my tw5-checklist plugin. I will have to get back to working on that and fix up some of the bug reports and feature requests.

[Tony Grosinger]

Thomas,

It looks like there is only one ToDo list which can then have as many items as you want. Is there any way to have multiple lists? For example you might want a "work" list and a "home" list.

[Thomas Elmiger]

Hi Tony

Your tw5-checklist plugin is great, a perfect fit for managing minor subtasks in my daily life! Thank you so much for sharing this!

I have all my tasks in one list and filter them as "projects" by their tags. You can see an example with multiple projects and tasks here:
http://tid.li/tw5/hacks.html#ToDoNow

Well, to be honest, I have separate wikis for private and work notes so there is no confusion about these two domains. If I had only one wiki, I think I would tag my tasks something like:
* work-projectA
* work-costomerB
* home-garden
* home-shopping

Happy do-ing!
Thomas

[Josiah]

Ciao Thomas

This is a WONDERFUL plugin you made. I have taken to it like a duck to water. I'm now using it daily.

OVERVIEW

I think its worth saying WHY it is good. #GTD functional design is not as easy as it first might look. What you really got right on this, for this specific type of GTD, IMO, is ..

1. Clear, uncluttered, interface that gives an immediate OVERVIEW.
2. IN SITU TOOLS. In-line editing, deadline assignment & click prioritisation.That is so good because tasks stay in full CONTEXT.
   
3. Simple THREE SECTIONS (ActionNow, Tasks, Finished) with easy transfer between them
   
4. Overall SIMPLICITY & EFFICIENCY of functional use.

Striking is how you have integrated other people's plugins in such an elegant way. It really adds a dimension to their usefulness. It means I will use them (inside your mini-app) when I otherwise would not have.

USE CASE

You might be interested in part of my use case as it brings out an issue that I hope you might want to look at. I attach a screen shot to make it clearer :-).

My use case is this ...

1. I have several large, long-term projects with lots of very different facets.
2. Over the years I learned to use the TITLES of tasks to express the placement of the Project sub-tasks in a hierarchy.
   
3. That "titled hierarchy" is great because via a simple overall SORTED TITLE LIST I can easily keep the cognitive Gestalt of the project, and the place of each part in it. (See screen shot attachment).
   
4. I use TAGS only for the highest level of grouping because they would proliferate (for my kind of work) beyond easy manageability if I applied them for all the sub-project types. I let the Title do that job for me.
   

My other usage, like for DUE DATES & PRIORITIES, is pretty much like everyone else does with GTDs.

MY REQUESTS

I'm not clear how difficult it would be to implement but I would be in heaven if this were possible to enable the COLUMNS to be SORTED as follows ...

• Task TITLE column sort by A-Z
• DATE column sort by Soonest First - Latest Last
• PRIORITY column sort 1-X
  

Doing this would give me on one page, with one click to sort, THREE available different and equally useful OVERVIEWS of tasks in progress. (As the list gets longer this would get more & more important for my way of working.)

I believe Jed(?) was recently working on a sortable table gizmo. Perhaps that might help with this if you go ahead on it? I'm gonna see if I can find it.

COMMENTS ON GRAPHICS & LAYOUT

These are aesthetic comments ... my purely personal view!

1. The CALENDAR hexagon looks a bit heavy. Why not just a Calendar icon without the black hexagon surrounding it?
   
2. The PRIORITY STARS should maybe be changed? I love the graduation from black to through mid-grey to low-grey of the stars. But, at first, I did not notice the numbers in the stars! I think the numbers are too small. An alternative way might be to simply have GRAPHICS OF NUMBERS scaled to full height of the icon space. The numbers themselves to be in appropriate graduations of black and grey. I think that might convey Priority level more clearly.
3. The LINE immediately below the SEARCH boxes I don't think is needed.
   
4. BTW, the ELLIPSIS seems perfectly appropriate. Its got a general meaning most everyone will understand.

Thank you! Its a great bit of work you have done, which I am seriously benefiting from.

Very best wishes, Josiah

[Josiah]

Ciao Thomas

A footnote to my last message ...

POSITION OF SAVE BUTTON

I can't find any advantage in having the small save button at the base of the list and above it. A save button alongside the other buttons, like "+" that creates new tasks, or the padlock lock/unlock etc would be plenty for me and keeps the elegance of the layout.

Best wishes
Josiah

[Josiah]

Ciao again Thomas

Further to previous ...

In case its relevant, I found the example of Jed's - Sortable table macros

Best wishes
Josiah

[Thomas Elmiger]

Ciao Josiah

Thank you very much for the detailed feedback. I am optimistic that the next release will bring you one step closer to heaven :–)

Jed’s table sorter is not applicable as we deal with lists here. Your other points are either implemented or on my todo list here: http://tid.li/tw5/hacks.html#ToDoNow (sneak peek alert!)

Kind regards,
Thomas

[Josiah]

Ciao Thomas

I been Playing with your new version. I am almost in heaven. Its GREAT!

I will give a fuller report in a day or two.

PLEASE NOTE. I think there is a problem with the plugin implementation. I could not drag and drop it. I had to download your whole TW.

When I looked under $:/ControlPanel > Plugins it did not show. Weird.

Best wishes
Josiah

[Thomas Elmiger]

Hi Josiah

Guess you were playing with the version on /hacks.html – this is where I am working (not plugin-ified.

The (old) plugin is only on /plugins.html

Cheers,
Thomas

[Cully]

Thomas,

I just had a chance to take a look at your sneak peek. Looks Great!!!

Everything is very clear and easy to use. The only exception is I have yet to determine what the Edit\Save mode really does.

Also, where do I edit the default new task? I'm sure it's documented but I just can't find it.

Thanks for your work on this!
Cully

[Thomas Elmiger]

Hi Cully

Thank you for the feedback! The answer to your second question is in the installation instructions: 

D. Further Options

• Adapt the ToDo Item template which is used for new tasks to your needs.

So there is a tiddler "ToDo Item". As it is a shadow tiddler if you have the plugin installed, the normal search will not show it. You have to look for it in the

Advanced Search on the shadows tab.  

There will be a warning when you edit the shadow tiddler – you can ignore this. 

Your other sobject points to the fact that there is a complete lack of marketing ;–)

When you look inside a task in the list using the "…" button on the right you see the task’s tags, text and dates. You can edit the tags from the tag label – using a unique feature I call context tagging (add suggested tags based on the other tiddlers in your list). 

Initially you can’t edit the text. The Edit mode enables you to edit your task description directly in the list (using wiki markup). All tasks are unlocked at the same time. When you hit the lock button again, a background safe is triggered and (if you e.g. use TiddlyFox like me) all changes on all tasks are saved. 

Hope, that helps. 

Happy do-ing!

Thomas 

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[kelsang sherab]

Hi
Thank you for your efforts.
This will sound silly but :
I installed the plugins saved and restarted the browser - what next? How do i actually add the todos ?
Thanks ;-)

[Thomas Elmiger]

Hi kelsang sherab

Not silly at all, this is valuable feedback for me and shows where I will have to improve the documentation!

Following the installation instructions you could:

B. Set Defaults

• Set ToDoNow as default tiddler in $:/ControlPanel on the info tab.

This means, you click the toothed wheel icon below the title of your wiki to open the options in the control panel. If necessary switch to the info tab. Here you can put a new line on top of the field "Default tiddlers:" and type the name of our main tiddler there: ToDoNow

Now save your wiki. When you reload again, the ToDo-List should appear and there you will find the green button with the + which starts the creation of a new task.

Another solution would be to put a link to this tiddler in any other tiddler you have like this: [[ToDoNow]]
Save the tiddler and click the link => same as before.

Hope this helps!

Happy do-ing,
Thomas

[kelsang sherab]

Hi Thomas
Thank you for your kind and helpful reply.
So now every time i click the empty.html[TW] I get indeed a ToDoNow tiddler opening.
When pressing the edit button[pen] an empty text box opens.
is there a special manner of writing in the text that i need to do or am I missing an obvious trick?
I have the following 5 plugins in my list of plugins:

- TiddlyWiki5core
- moments.js plugin for TW5
- listreveal
- Datepicker plugin for TW5
- Checklist plugin

thank you

[Thomas Elmiger]

Hi sherab

Good you included the plugin list! My tododow plugin is missing. See step A2 of the installation instructions:

First back up your TiddlyWiki (TW). – Then drag these plugins to your TW:

• $:/plugins/telmiger/todonow
• $:/plugins/telmiger/listreveal

After you have installed this, you should be ready to go. Use the green button with the plus sign on it to create a new task.

Good luck!

Thomas

[kelsang sherab]

It works!
Many thanks!
I enjoy working with it!!!

On Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 7:45:33 PM UTC+1, Thomas Elmiger wrote:

Hi sherab

Good you included the plugin list! My tododow plugin ist missing. See step A2 of the installation instructions:

First back up your TiddlyWiki (TW). – Then drag these plugins to your TW:

• $:/plugins/telmiger/todonow
• $:/plugins/telmiger/listreveal

After you have installed this, you should be ready to go. Use the green button with the plus sign on it to create a new task.

Good luck!

Thomas

2017-01-25 19:02 GMT+01:00 kelsang sherab <asks...@gmail.com>:

Hi Thomas
Thank you for your kind and helpful reply.
So now every time i click the empty.html[TW] I get indeed a ToDoNow tiddler opening.
When pressing the edit button[pen] an empty text box opens.
is there a special manner of writing in the text that i need to do or am I missing an obvious trick?
I have the following 5 plugins in my list of plugins:

- TiddlyWiki5core
- moments.js plugin for TW5
- listreveal
- Datepicker plugin for TW5
- Checklist plugin

thank you

On Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 4:19:45 PM UTC+1, Thomas Elmiger wrote:

Hi kelsang sherab

Not silly at all, this is valuable feedback for me and shows where I will have to improve the documentation!

Following the installation instructions you could:

B. Set Defaults

• Set ToDoNow as default tiddler in $:/ControlPanel on the info tab.

This means, you click the toothed wheel icon below the title of your wiki to open the options in the control panel. If necessary switch to the info tab. Here you can put a new line on top of the field "Default tiddlers:" and type the name of our main tiddler there: ToDoNow

Now save your wiki. When you reload again, the ToDo-List should appear and there you will find the green button with the + which starts the creation of a new task.

Another solution would be to put a link to this tiddler in any other tiddler you have like this: [[ToDoNow]]
Save the tiddler and click the link => same as before.

Hope this helps!

Happy do-ing,
Thomas

Am Mittwoch, 25. Januar 2017 15:13:21 UTC+1 schrieb kelsang sherab:

Hi
Thank you for your efforts.
This will sound silly but :
I installed the plugins saved and restarted the browser - what next? How do i actually add the todos ?
Thanks ;-)

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[Josiah]

Ciao

Round Two! :-)

I'm immensely enjoying using your ToDoNow. Over the last several days I have been using it constantly (the version from "hacks" with rich sorting). I have comments that I hope you may find relevant.

PRIORITY ISSUES: This is what I have most to comments on...

A - Setting Priority

1. In Priority Sort Order...
2. ... I click to change the priority (toggle order = 3 -> 2, 2 -> 1, 1 -> 3) but on just ONE CLICK the item IMMEDIATELY MOVES to its new position...
   
3. ...BUT that is NOT what I want in all cases...
4. ...SO I have to browse down or filter and locate the item again and click it again.
   
5. The longer the list gets the more awkward this gets.

I suggest ... Priority Setting Change is done through a simple single entry box that allows you to enter ONE CHARACTER to set priority (also see next on using letters, as well as numbers).

B - Priority Flexibility

I noticed that when editing a ToDo Tiddler you can set the priority field to ANYTHING. In MY usage that is GOOD. Why? ...

• By giving a SINGLE LETTER to the Priority field to some items I can track things that are NOT part of Projects but which I do need to pay attention to and have deadlines for. Using single letters lets me keep them together.
  

• Also, by having NOTHING in the Priority field I am able to keep at the top a few "Master Notes". These are NOT themselves priorities, they are not tasks. They are instructions to myself about HOW to co-ordinate what I am doing. Seeing them first in the list is very useful.
  

FYI, in addition to 1,2,3, I'm using ...

[Empty] = Important notes to self.

B = Birthday.
L = Long Date (e.g. renewal dates for contracts, or when Tax is due. These are NOT projects but GREAT to have them listed in context.)
P = Project. For when I'm developing project ideas, but the Project has not gone live yet.
U = Unassigned. Anything else I'd like to have note of.

NOTES ON APPEARANCE: The whole thing is very elegant already. But a few comments ...

• In your notes you mention that the calendar might be replaced with a STOPWATCH. For my usage I think that is a good idea: (1) it looks neater; (2) it expresses the purpose better, as these are DEADLINES.

• I think the ORDER of the ICONS might be improved like this ...

1. Calendar / Stopwatch
2. Priority
3. Move to ToDoNow (the "up" chevron)
4. Edit
5. Ellipsis
   

• I DON'T think you need the word "Project:" next to the dropdown. The filter explains itself because of its location.
  

ARCHIVING: You mention in your notes that to do lists get unwieldy unless you have an easy way to move stuff OFF them. I agree. A few comments...

• In the ToDoDone section an icon (a "down" chevron?) that re-tags the Tiddler "ToDoPast" that moves it off the main Tiddler.
  
• Create a listing Tiddler for "ToDoPast" of a similar visual layout, but NOT to have the complexity of the main Tiddler.
  
• I would NOT need any sort options or filters or anything like that. The ORDER could be the MODIFIED DATE the item entered ToDoDone (maybe that is difficult? Since to move it to "ToDoPast" you have to change the tag & that changes the date? I'm not clear how that works).
• A simple SEARCH filter. NO other filters.
  
• I suggest it might have ONLY the following ICONS ...

1. Move back to ToDo (an "up" chevron)
2. DELETE

The point is that real use in always through the ToDoNow Main Tiddler and you need to move things back there if you are seriously working on them again.

REPORTING: This is an aspect that I'm still unclear on. I have some observations/early thoughts... Probably slightly confusing. Ask if anything in here I need to make clearer ...

Report Thoughts, A

• In the example report Tiddler you give on your "hacks" TW you filter on "Last x Days". That seems intuitively right to me for active work.
  

• Reporting can get extremely complicated. But given what TW can do more complex, "bespoke", lists, complex reporting can be left to users to do for themselves ...

• ... for instance, in MY USE CASE, I already put together different kinds of reports that include transclusions of checklist Tiddlers, not just re-presenting the ToDoNow listings.
  

• SO. As far as I can see, filtering for "Last x Days" gives a good enough general report. Anything beyond that I need to craft myself.
  

Report Thoughts, B

• More than the reporting scope, I got interested in the PRESENTATION. This is because, in my case, I need to produce neat PRINTED reports.

• It struck me that the layout is more or less ideal already. SO, I have a suggestion ...

1. Rather than have a separate reporting Tiddler ..
2. ... have the "Last x Days Report" filter be available on the main Tiddler ...
3. ... WHEN it has any value entered in it, it would (I do NOT know how you would actually do this! :-) activate a CSS change such that ... (a) All unneeded buttons, separators etc would be hidden. (b) And a box would be revealed to allow entry of a REPORT TITLE.
4. The user could then use the "View in New Window" option to print out a neat report.
5. User would clear the "Last x Days Report" filter and everything returns to normal.

Hope this is all clear. And NOT too much to have to read!

Very best wishes
Josiah

[Thomas Elmiger]

Ciao amigo,

WOW! Now I am in heaven :–)
Thank you very much indeed for this well thought and well balanced feedback!

Of course not too much to read, but much to digest and work for months. Great stuff and great to see that we two think in the same box.

What I like extremely well about your comments is that you describe your use cases, offer solutions and even mention things that allready work well or can be left to the user. Really much apreciated!

I will consider every word in your list and come back with thougts or improvements when I am ready.

Overwhelmed regards
Thomas