TDL and MLO both have their place on my desktop? Differences?

[bs27975]

Can anyone comment on the pros/cons of mlo vis a vis AbstractSpoon's todolist? (http://www.abstractspoon.com/tdl_resources.html)

I seem to be heading towards a conclusion that both have their place on my desktop (along with Pimlical for calendar, as with the loss of Agendus there is no one PIM app for all any more).

I can see mlo as my personal task organizer (sadly without calendar functionality). I wonder if TDL will / won't be equal. Although I believe TDL does have some calendaring functionality, if extremely limited. Perhaps only being able to post an event to google calendar. (Same as android mlo, but on the desktop, at least.)

However, I can also see the value in separate workspaces for wrapping my mind around things / projects / tasks. (Perhaps once gelled imported into mlo at that point.)

(Particularly given that the multiple file usefulness of the desktop app does not appear to have been carried through to the cloud / android, where a single monolithic file seems de rigeur.)

e.g. I can see publishing a checklist via tdl stored in dropbox, the act of saving of which would also automatically produce a companion .htlm. That .html being shared would automatically become visible and printable by those for whom I make up the checklist.

And it would just land on Android (via dropbox), where another party's tdl app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hg.hgTdlList) can pick it up (for myself). Other's could have the shared file land on their dropbox / android if they so chose. No cloud or single file only sync required. ['It just works.' (?)]

Although I could import/export into mlo, for those checklists where appropriate, leaving / maintaining it in the separate tdl app appears to make sense.

So, mlo vis a vis tdl - still makes sense to have both, tdl does not replace mlo? In what ways?

Thanks.

[Andrei]

Hello,

If you feel that you need both of them, use both TDL and MLO on your computer.

Later, when you will study both applications you will decide which one suits more your needs, and maybe you will decide to use both apps too.

I used both applications during one month. The feature which i like in TDL is the ability to record the time which you spend on the task.

Instead, MLO was much more flexible, it offered me more possibilities to customize the workspace for my needs.

Best regards

Andrei Bacean

пятница, 22 ноября 2013 г., 22:31:21 UTC+2 пользователь bs27975 написал:

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

I am not sure I like the idea to advertise competitors with direct links on mlo forum.

Just a thought.

Thanks,
A.

[bs27975]

I get that, I sure do.

But it seems to me you are thinking about this the wrong way around - it's not advertisement, it's opportunity.

Anyone interested in this message thread is facing a buying decision. And excellent comments such as from Andrei B., or any other contributors, helps traversing that decision tree.

And it's an opportunity (for anyone) to say, mlo works better (for me) because of ...

- and good info for the potential customer to help make that buying decision in mlo's favour.

The result of which is a potential customer more likely to become a paying customer, and therefore opportunity to upsell to the cloud and so on.

If the information presented isn't sufficient to stop them from going to tdl instead of you, then they were never going to be a happy customer of mlo in the first place - and so no loss to mlo. And an unhappy mlo customer with unrealized, unreasonable, expectations, is going to be problematic for mlo. Even if not directly, they won't likely be recommending mlo to anyone else, and probably the opposite - doing actual harm, if not actually consuming mlo, let alone google group, time addressing, defending, and explaining, the unaddressable. Avoidable for better information up front, such as I hope to be in this thread.

Good discussion is good information and that's never a bad thing. After all, the google group is in the public domain, it's not proprietary, controlled, mlo content. Good information is why, for example, there are links on the web site towards reviews - which also helps that potential customer make a happy buying decision in your favour, and accompanying revenue for mlo. There's not much difference between posting links to such reviews and pros / cons / use cases here in this public forum.

I really appreciate Andrei B.'s answer - both, and here's why ...

I can make a more informed buying decision, and have a higher likelihood of having a better, productive, out of box experience, with appropriately managed expectations. And spend more time using the hammer (doing) than wrestling with what hammer to use, or how to use it.

It's not advertisement - it's public discussion, and an opportunity for mlo.

CDN$0.02

[Lisa Stroyan]

Two comments:

On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 1:31 PM, bs27975 <bs2...@gmail.com> wrote:

(Particularly given that the multiple file usefulness of the desktop app does not appear to have been carried through to the cloud / android, where a single monolithic file seems de rigeur.)

The cloud and Android can support multiple profiles, and each profile can correspond to a desktop file if you want, so I do think this is supported.

Regarding discussion of competitors...I think the tradeoff is worth it. You have enough happy users here that the number that would go investigate and tell you either why MLO is better or how similar features could be added to MLO (both of which can be useful to the dev team), is much higher than the number that go switch. I think you can assume a pretty sophisticated user base, that knows other ways to find other software...just my thoughts!

--
Lisa

---

Lisa Stroyan, mailto: lstr...@gmail.com

[bs27975]

On Saturday, 23 November 2013 20:12:17 UTC-5, Lisa S wrote:

Two comments:

On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 1:31 PM, bs27975 <bs2...@gmail.com> wrote:

(Particularly given that the multiple file usefulness of the desktop app does not appear to have been carried through to the cloud / android, where a single monolithic file seems de rigeur.)

The cloud and Android can support multiple profiles, and each profile can correspond to a desktop file if you want, so I do think this is supported.

But not via local sync, and, as I remember my testing, switching profiles is painful. Which is to say, using multiple lists or switching lists is not as simple or as easy as on the desktop, let alone (in essence) simultaneous use.

- sync is to the currently open list on the desktop, only. Not all lists all of the time.

Perhaps achievable by multiple instances on Android? If such were even possible to program.

Not that I'm entirely certain this is a deal breaker / how much this matters, it was more of an observation of a welcome desktop element that didn't carry through. Or at least not intuitively. I suspect this is more of a use / learning curve issue - since a task can be blessed as a project, and zoomed to a view wherein that project task looks like the root task (for the moment). 

 

Regarding discussion of competitors...I think the tradeoff is worth it. You have enough happy users here that the number that would go investigate and tell you either why MLO is better or how similar features could be added to MLO (both of which can be useful to the dev team), is much higher than the number that go switch. I think you can assume a pretty sophisticated user base, that knows other ways to find other software...just my thoughts!

Sorry, not sure what you're saying here. Tradeoff of what, to what.

I think you misunderstand (or I'm misunderstanding you, it feels like you are making both positive and negative points to such discussion):

(a) this public group is the first point of presence for further info / help with mlo. It is where someone looking for a solution is going to come, first. Looking over the fence and asking the neighbour what they might know or have experienced.

(b) It is this very user base that you talk about, which is to say, those that ultimately chose MLO over TDL, that know the answer, and the good solid reasons for making the choice they did.

And that is what my question was: Why did you choose MLO over TDL? (i.e. Help me choose it too, or figure out why to choose it, or what solutions it brings to my party that the other does not.) [All such software is way too intensive to properly evaluate for oneself quickly - it means pouring one's life into it, and migration is always a headache, and using it for some months. 'Failed' trials are too painful and time expensive.It's prudent to ask such questions in order to keep the number of forays down. ]

Which is all I have done.

[bs27975]

Oh ... also ... followup to TDL / calendar mention earlier ... No TDL can't post to Google (either). It does have a calendar view, unlike MLO, but that view is it's own - nothing external. (Both Android apps can share, at least one way.)

[Dwight]

Lisa wrote: The cloud and Android can support multiple profiles, and each profile can correspond to a desktop file if you want, so I do think this is supported.

BS wrote: But not via local sync, and, as I remember my testing, switching profiles is painful. Which is to say, using multiple lists or switching lists is not as simple or as easy as on the desktop, let alone (in essence) simultaneous use.- sync is to the currently open list on the desktop, only. Not all lists all of the time.

Dwight wrote: Wifi sync (local) requires that the two devices being synched be present on the same network at the same time. Wifi synch is performed for the currently loaded profile on each device provided that the current profiles have been paired with each other. That's the nature of wifi sync. If you want to be able to sync any profile on any device at any time without concern about what your other devices are doing, that's available too, via cloud sync.

I find switching profiles to be incredibly easy.  Please explain why you find it painful.

One more thing: you don't have to make an item into a project in order to zoom to it. You can zoom to a project, a folder or a simple task so long as it has subtasks.
-Dwight MLO Betazoid & Moderator Via k@mail on sgn2

[Christoph Zwerschke]

One thing that TDL does better is providing a rich text mode of the
comment area. One thing that does it worse is the filtering. Though TDL
has list and tree views/tabs, they use the same filtering rules. And I
always confuse the controls for filtering with those for editing, as
they look similar. In MLO the filtering is nicely tucked away into
views. Having to manually set filters is cumbersome and error-prone. The
principle of MLO of having views/tabs on the same data with different,
customizable filtering rules is much better. By the way, that's one
thing that many other task management tools get wrong.

-- Christoph

[Scott Morrison]

I don't don't sync multiple profiles, so this isn't an issue with me. Syncing a single file is a huge issue though. While the price is low, I already have a cloud service that I use, for all my files that I need synced. The idea of paying an additional fee just to sync one programs files isn't something I'm interested in. I'm still testing the application, and have it installed on 3 desktops, two netbooks, and one tablet. Optimally, I'd like to install it on an additional tablet, and two Android phones. But to sync those requires a monthly fee on top of paying for the desktop version, and paying for the mobile version, if pro features are wanted/needed, which they are for me.

The program seems decent, and looks like it would meet my needs, and then some. But not likely I'll use it much on mobile platforms, and without that, not sure it truly meets my needs.

[Andrei]

Hello

I have used the calendar in TDL. It provides some basic features but it's not handy enough. It's very limited.

In MLO you can create a view which groups tasks by start or Due date.

An example is below:

I've added some flags to the tasks (morning, day, evening). And the tasks have been sorted by those flags.

Also the tasks which start today have a vertical red line to the left (achived by a new custom rule in the Automatic Formatting).

I use this view as a calendar. It's not bad at all for my use case.

воскресенье, 24 ноября 2013 г., 5:31:48 UTC+2 пользователь bs27975 написал:

[Holmes245]

Thanks Andrei for sharing that. I forgot that flag icons could be added. Good idea by the way. I had a question re: flags now that I'll pose in a separate post.

Joel

[Lisa Stroyan]

I am only familiar with cloud sync, but switching between profiles seems very straightforward there.

My comment about discussing platforms was directed at the developer but it's moot now.

Lisa Stroyan, lstr...@gmail.com

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