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frindley

Score: 1
  • frindley
  • Posted: Aug 07, 2018
  • Score: 1
I use Toodledo exclusively for work. (I choose to use other solutions for my personal life as it helps me keep home and work quite separate.) I'm a writer/editor responsible for at least one, sometimes two, 32-page books each week and, as you can imagine, the editorial and production schedules overlap. Through folders, tasks and subtasks, Toodledo allows me to keep track of each publication with ease and prevents things falling through the cracks.

In particular, I love that I can assign an estimated duration to each task and that Toodledo will provide a total at the bottom of the list: this allows me to know exactly how much work I've scheduled and to adjust if I've been too optimistic about what I can achieve in any given day (or week)! This particular feature was an instant winner when I first tried Toodledo. And while some might say that the "optics" aren't very pretty, I actually appreciate that Toodledo is compact and functional and allows a lot of information to be viewed and assessed. There are prettier apps, sure, but they don't necessarily give you a good overview of your tasks or let you sort or manage them with flexibility and ease.

One feature that I enjoy very much although I don't implement it that often, is the Scheduler Tool. It's kind of fun as well as useful to tell it that I have, say, 2 hours in the office and see what it proposes I work on :)

Disclaimer: I'm still using the old/classic interface. I gave the new interface a decent trial, but I found it frustrating to use, especially when it comes to date selection in the calendar view, so I've switched back.

Yvonne
Performing arts
Publications Editor
Toodledo user since 2010
frindley

Posted Aug 05, 2017 in: New Layout
Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Aug 05, 2017
  • Score: 0
SquidgyFishy: Or are you simply experiencing the new animations for these dropdown lists and date selectors? Previously there was no animation and response was quick. Now they are animated and I suspect many users are experiencing that as a delay (I know I am). Elsewhere I've asked if Toodledo can make the animations an optional thing that users could turn off. Got the usual "on the list, no promises…" response.

This message was edited Aug 05, 2017.
frindley

Posted Jul 27, 2017 in: Printing tasks in new layout
Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Jul 27, 2017
  • Score: 0
Posted by Brian_14:
Returned to original TD…


Off topic, I know, but how did you return to the original TD. I can't find a way to do that…
EDIT: Don't worry. Found it.


This message was edited Jul 28, 2017.
frindley

Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Jul 27, 2017
  • Score: 0
When batch editing, it would be quicker and more intuitive if the change switch could automatically toggle to "On" in response to selecting a date or list item for that field.

I really can't imagine a scenario where you'd select an item for a field and then not want that field to change.
(I can understand why you might change your mind or make an error and then want to manually change a switch to "Off" but not a reason why, having chosen a change, you wouldn't want it on as a matter of course.)

This used to bug me in the old version too, where you had to click the radio button as well as select the change for the field. The number of times I wondered why my changes hadn't been made and then realised I hadn't clicked one or more radio buttons and needed to go in and repeat…

In most other apps and websites, when you choose something from a list or type in a field or whatever the associated radio button (or "on" switch equivalent) is automatically selected. It would be great if Toodledo could exhibit the same behaviour.


This message was edited Jul 28, 2017.
frindley

Posted Jul 27, 2017 in: Option to remove animations?
Score: 1
  • frindley
  • Posted: Jul 27, 2017
  • Score: 1
Can there be a user setting that allows us to turn off animations when selecting from dropdown lists, calendar selectors and so on?
These can be slow and visually annoying.

(Or perhaps there is one and I'm looking in the wrong place?)
frindley

Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Jul 27, 2017
  • Score: 0
Posted by Jake:
The behavior that you are describing is the way that it has always been. When you toggle a task open, it will gather all the subtasks under it and leave them there until you refresh the page.


This post has been entirely edited.

You don't actually refer to the behaviour as a result of toggling the task closed (which is what I was recalling), but I now see that my memory was faulty. (Unfortunately I can't edit my original post to reflect that… Apologies to other readers)

It was indeed the case that, on toggling a task closed, the previously visible subtasks would disappear again.

So why did I remember it differently? Because previously all one had to do was click once on the date in the calendar and the view would resume the previous view with all tasks due on that date visible. I suspect I wasn't even bothering to toggle the task closed, but simply clicking on the date. And evidently that was such a quick, painless thing that it had become automatic and unnoticed by me.

Unfortunately that's no longer the case.

Now the options are clicking twice on the date or refreshing the screen using my browser controls which brings up the "Loading…almost there" and is fairly slow. Clicking twice is quicker, unless I do it too quickly in which case… but don't get me started… :)

I guess I can get used to clicking twice on the date as I'll used to the other aspects of the new calendar sidebar, but it would actually be nice if the toggling action for opening and collapsing the subtasks of a task really, truly toggled, i.e. toggling off restored the previous view rather than taking the user to a third, different view.


This message was edited Jul 28, 2017.
frindley

Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Jul 26, 2017
  • Score: 0
Scenario:
Single day view, subtasks filter is set to Inline
A task is due on that today, together with at least one subtask of that task.
Both are visible, with their relative task hierarchy icons

Action:
Expand the task in order to temporarily view the other subtasks, which may include subtasks due on previous days.
Then collapse task to return to original view

Previously:
The subtasks on other days would disappear but the subtask due on the selected day would remain in the inline list as in the opening scenario

Now:
The subtask due on the selected day disappears as well, effectively as if the user has switched to "Hidden" view under subtask filters (although the filter still shows as "Inline")

Can this be fixed? At present I have to click twice on the date in the calendar to get the view to refresh and display correctly.
frindley

Score: 2
  • frindley
  • Posted: Jul 24, 2017
  • Score: 2
Posted by Jake:
…To use the new calendar, you click once to select the start date and then click again to select the end date. If you wish to select a single day then you would click that date twice to make it both the start and end date.


I believe the main problem I was experiencing is that there is clearly a difference between what I would call a "double-click" (i.e. two clicks in close succession) and what you are referring to as "clicking twice" or "two clicks" (where the clicks can be separated by an indefinite amount of time).

In Toodledo's calendar I need to learn that "two clicks" is what it's all about. If I double-click too quickly and it isn't registered as such then that counts as one click and then it's essential that I click only once again to correct this. If I try a second double-click then Toodledo registers that as the second click plus a new single click and I end up both not selecting the date I want and inadvertently dragging my mouse over some unwanted date range.

Obviously I can learn this, but it's not very intuitive…
frindley

Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Jul 19, 2017
  • Score: 0
Posted by Ummagumma:

I am re-thinking the use of subtasks, anyway. When I signed up for a paid plan, I had this misunderstanding that the subtasks could be hidden away / collapsed inside the main task until they hit their trigger point (start or due date). (*) This is not the case.


I may well be mis-imagining your use of Toodledo but I don't find the subtasks a problem in this way. Assuming I have assigned the tasks/subtasks to a date, then they are only ever visible to me when I'm viewing that particular date and the rest of the time I don't see them unless I choose.

I find I spend most of my time in Toodledo viewing specific days in the Dates/Calendar view, sorting by context, then folder. (I use the Inline view for subtasks because that's by far the cleanest and doesn't mess with my preferred sorting hierarchy.) And in fact one of the reasons I'm totally wedded to Toodledo, despite some of the flaws you mention, is the feature of estimated task Length with Total Lengths (and Total Timers). No other tasks app allows me to assess so easily how much work I'm planning for myself on any given day and to then adjust things accordingly.

The other feature I quite like is that I can see a task (which technically is almost always a subtask, since I have only three parent tasks per project) and then click to view the parent task/companion subtasks, at which point it will bring up tasks that might be scheduled for other days. That allows me access the bigger picture very easily when I need to, while ensuring that most of the time I'm only seeing the tasks for the chosen day.

I'll do bigger planning/initial due date assignments using the Folder view, reviewing everything for a particular publication project (folder), but for the most part I find the Dates/Calendar single-day view the most useful.
frindley

Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Jul 19, 2017
  • Score: 0
Ummagumma: I work in publishing with weekly projects (sometimes more) and my solution, while not quite as elegant or speedy as what you describe (I would love that too!) and not covering all the things on your wishlist, might be at least a little less fussy than what you are current dealing with.

It centres around the use of the "Permanent Link" feature in the drop down menu for each task. For a long time I had no idea what that was about and simply ignored it. Then when I complained about how tedious it was to have to manually copy the subtasks to a new folder when duplicating a parent task, the helpful admins pointed me to the Permanent Link feature and it has since saved me a lot of time.

In my project template I maintain just three parent tasks, each with various subtasks. (Three parent tasks is the maximum for efficiency and my patience!) The template versions of these have no folder assigned so I can always find them in the No Folder category in the Folders list.

To set up a new project:
Duplicate (Clone) the template parent tasks and then rename the new versions.
Click on the down arrow for each parent task and right-click on Permanent Link to open the task in a new tab.
In this new tab, expand parent task to show subtasks and then use the Batch Edit feature to set all tasks to the required project folder (already created in advance in the folder management area) as well as assign a common due date (which can then be fine-tuned for individual tasks).
Repeat for the remaining two parent tasks.

This system works pretty well for me and I can be pretty speedy with it. It does require you to think of your templates at the tasks/subtasks level rather than the folder level and if your needs require numerous top level tasks (as opposed to my system of just three tasks with many subtasks under these) then it likely won't work for you. But perhaps it might work for someone else who stumbles on this thread.


This message was edited Jul 19, 2017.
frindley

Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Jul 19, 2017
  • Score: 0
I'm sure I raised this some years ago. The new user interface has just reminded me that it remains an issue.

I frequently use the total times at the bottom of a task list to work out how much time I need/whether I've over-scheduled myself and so on.

Which means I'm also often needing to subtract the Total Timers value (i.e. elapsed time on any partially finished tasks) from the Total Lengths value (total estimated time).

While it's probably good for my mental agility, I find it annoying that Total Timers uses hh:ss to display the time while Total Lengths uses a decimal value, so 1.5 hours, for example, instead of 1h 30m.

Is there any reason why they can't be the same?

I don't really much care whether it's decimal or hours/mins (although the latter makes more sense overall) but it would be really, really great if they could both be the same. The provision these totals (which is great and one of the things that made me choose Toodledo in the first place!) would be so much more useful if they allowed users to quickly calculate the total time required for the task list in view.
frindley

Score: 1
  • frindley
  • Posted: Jul 18, 2017
  • Score: 1
I'm having difficulty navigating/using the new Calendar view under Tasks: Dates
Have basic how-to instructions been posted anywhere for this yet? If not, could some be prepared?

For example, I quickly worked out that I had to double-click on a date to select it rather than single-click as in the past. This is a bore but I'll get used to it. But the process for selecting multiple dates (including not selecting multiple dates when I don't want to!) isn't very clear/intuitive. I thought I had worked out how it operated but it's not behaving consistently/as expected.

So prominently posted instructions (for desktop/laptops as well as mobile devices) would be nice. I expect they don't have to be very involved, just available.
frindley

Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Sep 01, 2015
  • Score: 0
That's excellent news. I'm a happy chappy again :)
frindley

Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Aug 31, 2015
  • Score: 0
On an old thread about social media integration from 2012 Toodledo Admin Jake says:
"I am sorry if this isn't something that some of you will use. Nobody is making you use it, and if you don't set it up, it won't be displayed on your action menu, so you can just pretend this never happened."

Well, I have never configured either network in Toodledo (no interest in posting to social media from this app) and have not been bothered by the "Tweet" and "Update Facebook status" commands in the Action menu. Until now. In the most recent update to the web interface, both these commands have appeared in my Action menu.

I would like to remove them (or at least move them to the bottom), partly because I'll never use them and partly (mainly!) because I keep accidentally selecting them when I what I want to do is delete, a task. Grr!

I would have expected these commands to remain invisible to me since I hadn't configured the networks, but apparently that's not the case anymore. (And I can't find a more recent reference apart from the thread in 2012.)

What can I do?
frindley

Score: 0
  • frindley
  • Posted: Feb 21, 2015
  • Score: 0
I have a set of "template" Tasks with Subtasks that I use to speed up the creation of projects and to ensure I don't forget items.

Basically I copy the template Tasks and rename them at the top level, then pop them in the Folder I've created for the relevant project. However, I then have to go in and place all the subtasks in the project folder as well. Which is pretty tedious.

Have I been missing something? Is there a way of automatically moving all subtasks to a folder when the parent task is moved to that folder?