ForumsQuestionsSave Sort Order with Saved Search
Save Sort Order with Saved Search
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Folke X |
The Search feature is excellent. Being able to save such searches (filtering criteria) for repeated future use is also excellent.
The only little annoyance is you have to click the heading (or use the Sort bar) to reorder the filtered list, say from Due date sorting to Status sorting. This is a pity, because usually there is a particular sorting order that is most useful for each type of list, and it would be so much smoother if that particular sorting order came up automatically when you click that particular Search. I imagine, both from a programmer's and a user's point of view, that it would be very easy to have an additional drop-down field (with a choice of sorting orders) available next to where you click Save. Or even simpler, to just have a check-box for "Also save current sorting order". |
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Jake Toodledo Founder |
This is often requested and it is on our to-do list for a future update. Thanks!
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Folke X |
Wonderful! Many thanks!
I just thought of an even simpler way to achieve it, though (simpler than the two ways I mentioned in my first post). The simplest and best way is probably to automatically use the last search order that was used for that particular saved search - no need for any active choices. In other words, keep it all as it is today, except that the last sorting order is remembered separately for each saved search rather than for the whole Search tab collectively. |
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Folke X |
I was hesitating whether to write this or not, since Toodledo is already by far the best tool I have tried as regards saved searches and sorting, but after some deliberation I decided to share another thought with you - just in case you would like to implement some really strong "power user" features:
Let me first define what I mean when I say Toodledo is the best as regards saved searches and sorting. Most recently, before switching to Toodledo, I used Remember the Milk (RTM), and before that I used Todoist. Before and during all this I have tried a dozen others just to see whether they would suit me better. RTM has equally powerful task filtering (saved searches aka smart lists) as Toodledo. If it were only for this filtering I probably would not have switched. But what Toodledo has in addition to powerful filtering is the additional capability to: 1) sort the list by any one of all the available fields (not just by Priority, Due date or Task, but also by Status, Context etc - and Toodledo has a few more such fields available, too, which is also important.) 2) grouping of the tasks with section headings (not just getting the list sorted, but also getting it grouped into easy-to-see sections with headings) Grouping into sections is important in many ways. Not only does it make the list easier to overview. It also reduces the number of different saved searches (aka smart lists) that you need to have. As a simplistic example, with Toodledo today, simply by sorting a list by due date in itself gives you both a "Today" list, a "today or Tomorrow" list, a "Week ahead list" etc. You do not need to save all those variations as separate searches, because it is so easy to disregard (to "optically" filter out) the tasks that are further down than you want to be looking at the moment. Even for heavily filtered lists I prefer having fewer but longer lists with appropriate group headings rather than having a larger number of shorter lists. Although Toodledo is better than anyting else I have tried, the shortcoming is that the grouping of the lists is not as flexible as I would like. And the solution to this actually does not seem all that difficult - at least not overwhelmingly difficult: The ultimate sorting - user-defined grouping The auto-grouping feature that already exists in Toodledo should remain to be the default. It is certain a nice feature and it is often convenient for many purposes. In addition, when designing a saved search, it would be very useful if there were an option for a "power user" to: a) disable auto-grouping b) define any number of separate list sections, each section having its own user-defined heading, user-defined filtering criteria and user-defined sorting order. Example As an example, with such user-defined grouping functionality built in, it would be possible to define multi-purpose lists such as the following : (Section 1) User-defined heading: "Today" User-defined filtering: Anthing due today or overdue, plus anything that is a Next action Sorted by: Status, then Due date (Section 2) User-defined heading: "Upcoming" User-defined filtering: Anthing due in the next week, plus anything that is classified as Active, minus anything that repeats daily or weekly, minus anything that is already listed in section 1 (it would be convenient to be able to just check a box for "Exclude scetion X", "Exclude all previous sections" etc) Sorted by: Due date, then Status (Section 3) User-defined heading: "Errands" User-defined filtering: Anything that has a Context (or tag) of errand, regardless of wheteher it has alreday been listed in the previous sections or not (but maybe with an optional graphical highlighting or "lowlighting" available for tasks that have already been mentioned in previous sections - not a necessary feature, but nice) Sorted by: Location With this kind of flexibility built in I would be able to consolidate all my needs in just a precious few lists. The above type of list would be my normal general-pupose "Do" list. I probably would want to define additional special lists for project review etc. And the standard lists - Folder, Tag, Context etc - will remain to be useful for data maintenance and other occasional needs, just like today, whenever I do not want any of my self-made, possibly ill-defined, user settings to spook me ;) |
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Jake Toodledo Founder |
Thanks for the suggestion. Good idea. We will think about it.
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