Set reminders to go off at a specified time before the time the task is due?

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Holmes245

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Jun 26, 2017, 9:16:13 AM6/26/17
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One of the things I like about using Google Calendar is that I can specify in the notifications area to have notifications go off 10 minutes before each event that I enter in GCal. I would like to do this in MLO if possible. Is there a way to do that? Am I able to set a default for reminders to sound 10 minutes before the time the tasks are due? I don't want to have to manually change the time on the reminder every time. I've been looking through the manual and don't see anything on that so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Joel

MOK | MATSURU

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Jun 28, 2017, 12:24:11 AM6/28/17
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As of now, i don't see any settings that do that. Only manual change is possible.

Unless i miss something. Anyone has found anything?

On 26 June 2017 at 21:16, Holmes245 <joel....@gmail.com> wrote:
One of the things I like about using Google Calendar is that I can specify in the notifications area to have notifications go off 10 minutes before each event that I enter in GCal. I would like to do this in MLO if possible. Is there a way to do that? Am I able to set a default for reminders to sound 10 minutes before the time the tasks are due? I don't want to have to manually change the time on the reminder every time. I've been looking through the manual and don't see anything on that so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Joel

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Holmes245

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Jun 28, 2017, 7:53:15 AM6/28/17
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I'm thinking there isn't. Haven't seen anything on that myself but was just hoping I was missing something. Definitely would be a good feature to add. 


On Wednesday, June 28, 2017 at 12:24:11 AM UTC-4, MOK | MATSURU wrote:
As of now, i don't see any settings that do that. Only manual change is possible.

Unless i miss something. Anyone has found anything?
On 26 June 2017 at 21:16, Holmes245 <joel....@gmail.com> wrote:
One of the things I like about using Google Calendar is that I can specify in the notifications area to have notifications go off 10 minutes before each event that I enter in GCal. I would like to do this in MLO if possible. Is there a way to do that? Am I able to set a default for reminders to sound 10 minutes before the time the tasks are due? I don't want to have to manually change the time on the reminder every time. I've been looking through the manual and don't see anything on that so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Joel

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Stéph

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Jun 29, 2017, 7:05:27 AM6/29/17
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Hello Joel and Mok,

The MLO help file says that it should be able to parse "Call Jim in 3 days at 4pm remind 10 min in advance " - However, I've just tried a few variations on that and the "remind" switch doesn't parse successfully. So, I'm afraid it doesn't work.


This is an example of a particular frustration I have with MLO - Reminder dates can't be tied relative to start or end dates, so if I reschedule a task (which I have to do, a lot), I then have to spend the same amount of time manually changing its reminder date.

It's the same with other parameters which, in my mind should be possible to link so that I don't have to edit them all manually. For example If I complete a project, I can't just click on the checkbox - I have to also go in and manually change its status to "completed".

I hope, one day, that Andrey and the team will add a feature to allow us to link some of the task parameters in this way and to pre-set dates and categories for new tasks. Anything which allows me to spend less time managing my task list is a good thing, I think.

Stéphane

Ray Emerson

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Jun 29, 2017, 5:55:13 PM6/29/17
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Hi, Steph. 
I put your exact phrase through Rapid Text Entry, and it appears to work for me:

Joel Fannin

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Jun 29, 2017, 6:12:41 PM6/29/17
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I tried it myself and it parsed correctly as well.

Joel

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Stéph

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Jul 1, 2017, 12:31:47 PM7/1/17
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Interesting - you're right. That exact text parses correctly.

Where it starts to struggle is if I have both start and due dates, then add a reminder. The problem is if you use phrases, because it often stops parsing before reading the whole phrase. For a start, the -s and -d switches shouldn't have spaces after them:
"Call Jim -sTuesday -dThursday remind Wednesday" works
"Call Jim -s Tuesday -d Thursday" doesn't work - both the start and due date get set to Thursday.
"Call Jim -sTuesday -dThursday remind Wednesday" works
"Call Jim -sTuesday -dThursday remind 1 hour in advance" diesn't work - it sets the reminder to 1 hour from now.

This deserves more research and experimentation but, in the meantime, thank goodness for ctrl-Z to undo!

Ray Emerson

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Jul 1, 2017, 2:33:28 PM7/1/17
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I remember a thread where this was discussed at length a few months back. I'll see if I can find it when I'm back at the computer. Definitely recall odd behaviors when using both start and due dates in the same task.




Interesting - you're right. That exact text parses correctly. 

Where it starts to struggle is if I have both start and due dates, then add a reminder. The problem is if you use phrases, because it often stops parsing before reading the whole phrase. For a start, the -s and -d switches shouldn't have spaces after them: 
"Call Jim -sTuesday -dThursday remind Wednesday" works
"Call Jim -s Tuesday -d Thursday" doesn't work - both the start and due date get set to Thursday. 
"Call Jim -sTuesday -dThursday remind Wednesday" works
"Call Jim -sTuesday -dThursday remind 1 hour in advance" diesn't work - it sets the reminder to 1 hour from now. 

This deserves more research and experimentation but, in the meantime, thank goodness for ctrl-Z to undo!

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Ray Emerson

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Jul 2, 2017, 8:16:51 AM7/2/17
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Steph - 
   We went into some detail about the text parsing subtleties/limitations in this thread: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/mylifeorganized/-d$20rmd%7Csort:date/mylifeorganized/DlCY6XSzTRc/GKxGus9tBgAJ

Ray


On Saturday, July 1, 2017 at 2:33:28 PM UTC-4, Ray Emerson wrote:
I remember a thread where this was discussed at length a few months back. I'll see if I can find it when I'm back at the computer. Definitely recall odd behaviors when using both start and due dates in the same task.




On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 12:31 PM -0400, "Stéph" <St...@senglish.plus.com> wrote:

Interesting - you're right. That exact text parses correctly. 

Where it starts to struggle is if I have both start and due dates, then add a reminder. The problem is if you use phrases, because it often stops parsing before reading the whole phrase. For a start, the -s and -d switches shouldn't have spaces after them: 
"Call Jim -sTuesday -dThursday remind Wednesday" works
"Call Jim -s Tuesday -d Thursday" doesn't work - both the start and due date get set to Thursday. 
"Call Jim -sTuesday -dThursday remind Wednesday" works
"Call Jim -sTuesday -dThursday remind 1 hour in advance" diesn't work - it sets the reminder to 1 hour from now. 

This deserves more research and experimentation but, in the meantime, thank goodness for ctrl-Z to undo!

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Andrei Bacean

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Jul 2, 2017, 8:30:37 AM7/2/17
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Hi Ray
Link not active.
Br
Andrew

Ray Emerson

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Jul 2, 2017, 8:33:36 AM7/2/17
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Working for me. :-\

Original post title was "input parsing : new task -s1/30/17at8am -d1/30/17at9:30am rmd10min".

b.ca...@gmail.com

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Jul 3, 2017, 5:26:29 AM7/3/17
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It's the image which is missing from that post. :-\

Ray Emerson

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Jul 3, 2017, 7:05:10 AM7/3/17
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Ah, you're right! Here's a new one.

We ran similar tests to what Stéphane described earlier.


Long story short, whitespace handling in the text parser isn't consistent when using multiple rapid text entry options. As Steph noted in the linked thread, this appears to be a bug, but not one that could be fixed easily. The same happens when using the in-line parsing option (Alt+Enter) in MLO Desktop. 


It does seem to work best if you remove all the whitespace for each flag. So if you wanted something due tomorrow at 5PM, the entry would be "Something -d7/4/2017at5PM". Unfortunately, the natural language option ("Tomorrow" or "Tuesday" instead of "7/4/2017") does not work.


To work around this, I use RTE to get the task into my Inbox with a few options (due date, context, urgency, importance). Then, when I do my daily Inbox clean-out, I set other options, as required.

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