Introduction Including Publisher’s Summary
I
must confess I’m a bit addicted to task managers, information managers and even
my often-neglected todo list. I presently use two applications for such tasks.
At one time, I’d even used my favorite database FileMaker Pro for such tasks,
but simpler shareware solutions came along and claimed my attention. For
everyday todo, I’ve installed the simple ToDo X 2.2 application from Omicron
Software Systems, Inc. For managing hundreds if not a thousand
or more tidbits and snippets of information I’m firmly anchored with DEVONthink Pro’s Office from DEVONtechnologies, LLC.
Long
time macC readers will surely have noticed that I no longer test alternatives
to heavy-duty PIMs such as DEVONthink Pro, but I’m always on the lookout for a
new todo list/memos manager. Why
the later you ask? All of the simple todo list managers I actually used, not
just reviewed, have a ‘faceless’ blah interface. Perhaps if I found a tool that not only was functional, but
also somewhat attractive, I might really use it for more than a collections
spot for medium or low priority tasks — my “promises” conscience.
According
to Hog Bay Software, it’s publisher, TaskPaper [TP2] is a simple to-do list
that's surprisingly adept. Unlike the competition, TaskPaper's text based
interface offers you paper-like simplicity and ease of use. Today’s task
managers have evolved into complex database-like applications. TaskPaper
provides an alternative that harkens back to simpler (and faster) times. With
TaskPaper you just type your tasks. As you type, TaskPaper recognizes and
automatically (intuitively) formats
projects, tasks, notes, and tags. After reading the posted descriptions, I
decided I better find out if the product lived up to its developer promises.
I’m pleased to say it did.
Getting Started
Drop
the application into your applications folder, register it, (or not) and start
getting into the product by reading the “getting started’ instructions on the
opening welcome page. Just to show
how simple an interface can be, I’ll duplicate it for you.
Remember
there are only four functions associated with Task Paper:
Projects
- Group related tasks and notes. These
start with a colon symbol [:]
Tasks
- Actions that you must take to complete
project. These start with a dash and a space
Notes
-Extra information related to a project or
task.
Tags-Add context or other information to your task
including due date, completion dates
Instructions
for Getting Started — TaskPaper
knows about four things: projects, tasks, notes, and tags. As you type, these
items are auto-formatted so that your lists are easier to read.
- To create a task, type a line starting with a dash
followed by a space.
- To create a project, type a line ending with a colon.
- Any line that isn't a task or project is a note. Notes
serve to clarify task information
- To create a tag, type '@' followed by a tag name
anywhere in a project, task, or even a note.
- To mark a task as done click on the dash handle in
front of the task and a "@done" tag will be added.
You
use these basic parts (annotations, functions… whatever) any way you like.
TaskPaper doesn't force a particular system on you; it provides the basic to-do
list elements and then you use them as you see fit. Here are a few more tips and
tricks.
Task Paper makes adding new entries easier in two ways:
- To add
an entry with your mouse, click the Plus (+) toolbar item.
- Press the Keyboard
shortcuts, listed in that popup menu, for an even faster approach.
- To use
TaskPaper’s auto-formatted lists, press Enter when on a task
line—the
- Next
line will automatically be formatted as a new task at the same indentation
level.
Here’s more…
- To filter on a single project click the arrow handle
next to the project name. That allows you to focus only on the elements of that
project
- To drag and drop tasks click and drag on the handle in
front of the entry.
- To show an overview list of your projects choose the
menu item "View > Show Projects List".
- To quickly enter a task in a project that's not visible
use the "Quick Entry Window".
- To associate a value with a tag, add it in parentheses
after the tag. For example @priority(1)
- To change fonts and colors use the "Theme
Options" popup in Preferences.
If
that guidance was not enough — it wasn’t for me — then watch the 10-minute, easy to follow, screencast to
help get you started using this already mostly intuitive product. It’s
available under the TP2 help menu
as the “web page and screen cast.” There’s also a 20 page, short but well written Users Guide accessible from the
help menu.
The TaskPaper application interface floats in its own
window, so you can position my to do list anywhere on your screen. [I’m not
sure I like this since my screens usually run cluttered despite a 42-inch
monitor.
I found the easy to follow
screencast to help get me started using this already mostly intuitive product.
Although it took me 20-25 minutes to get through it, I cheated. I was gathering
notes for this review.
More on Using the Software
In testing the product, I transferred some of my ToDo
X files (todos and to do categories) to Task Paper, experimented with the
tuning the interface, by way of the preferences, to my liking and generally
played around with the product. I’ve provide screen shots of my ToDo X starting point and my partially
completed migration to Task Paper. Although I had to transfer items from one
product to another using click and paste, it gave me time to check, weed-out or
consolidate projects, tasks and more clearly rewrite my notes. That’s not at
all bad!
Interesting and useful features I checked out during
my testing or noted in reading are listed below.
- TaskPaper’s “look”
(appearance) can be easily customized. You can change the base font size, and
change the color in which identification tags are displayed using the
preferences pane.
- A MacUpdate reviewer noted an unpublished function
— “One extremely useful thing the developer doesn't mention in the
screencast, but which I found in the (very good) user's guide is that you can
use the Tab key to indent tasks and notes, which will then be attached to the
parent task (and move with it).” Doc sez, aren’t outline formats wonderful.
- TP2's speed and flexibility is unlikely to tax older
Macintosh’s making the application good for the rest of us who are still
delighting in their older Macintoshes.
Organizing your list or reorder the item in a project
is simple, its all drag and dropping using the “handle” on the left side of a
project title or task item. Since notes follow tasks, moving them is automatic.
Indeed you can edit the content of your individual projects or the complete
lists by selecting it and typing in the needed changes. After all it just text,
and you know how to edit that. - Unlike todo managers
based on either a getting things done paradigm or one that add more complexity
such as OmniFocus,
the simple interface in neither distracting nor waste my time with needless complexity.
Discomforts:
New
Documents — When opening a new
document in Task Paper, I automatically get the welcome page. Clearing it to
allow me a fresh start is easy; select all, ad then backspace. But why should
that be needed?
Indeed
all of the demonstrations and manuals help files and web information a showed
residual elements of the “welcome page” on the example images. Since I at time want to create both a
personal, and a special project list, say a fund-raiser; I’d use two separate
TP2 document to deal with them. {Perhaps more if I were exploring alternative
strategies for an event.
A
Bit More Text Style Control —
Although I checked out the various Task Paper themes, I retained the ‘standard’
default theme. It was not obvious from what I read that TP2 also gave me style
control [font style, color and size] until I stated fooling around with the
preferences theme options. Since
such control, which made task Paper’s list more attractive, was meets one of my
needs, I would have welcomed finding it the beginning of my testing, not at the
end of writing this article. Okay, I found the feature and I’ll set up a
Theme-Style ‘temp-ate’ for all my TP2 documents.
I’m
not sure whether adding text-editing capabilities, such as those in Apple’s Text
Edit would interfere with Task Paper’s
function, but it would be valuable for users wanting to highlight text on the
fly, rather then setting up a theme based style sheet in the TP2 preferences
pane.
Filtering
and Search Features — Once again
what I read and watched did not convey the uses of these feature in a fashion I
could quickly grasp them. So back to being a Macintosh user — Trial and
Error.
The
Power of Tags — Once again I got
too little from the material studied. If there’s a way to tag a due date, other
than by typing it in, I could not find it. The five ways to access tags, and by
default limit their type and use, was less complete than every other PIM I’ve
tested. Here’s what TP2 provides.
- To
create a new tag, type the @ symbol followed by the tag name.
- To
begin tag auto-complete, type the @ symbol.
- To
apply an existing tag, choose Entry > Tag With.
- To
apply @done, click on the entry’s handle, or press Command-D.
- To
apply @today, press Command-Y.
Nowhere could I find a way to create and keep
specialized tags such as due date, or critical path.
Conclusions and Recommendation
This
is an excellent todo list application, which I’m likely to finish port my ToDo
X lists, this 4th of July weekend. Getting started was a snap after
I spent of few minutes with its online tutorial. That was all the learning
curve I needed.
It
took me less than a half hour to transfer a key portion of my ToDo X list to
TP2, and I’ve learned enough to finish that task and even make my document
visually attractive.
This
app has the promise of making easier for me to organize tasks and a bit more
attractive to me when #@XWD%$# over the undone items. Although at $30.00
it’s a bit pricier than I’d like; Task Paper 2 becomes an excellent value if I
pay more attention to it’s contents, my project-task list, rather then spending
my late evening hours playing Shanghai and downloading recipes or shareware.
The product is rated as 4.5
macCs
