ToDoList HowTo
This page mainly gathers information given on the ToDoList-Forum on http://www.codeproject.com/tools/todolist2.asp
Naming convention:
- Entries written in ItalicBold refer to identifiers as seen in TDL
- Things in ItalicBold containing > like Menu:Tools > Preferences > Tasks > Attributes refer to a place to navigate to within TDL (for example the above is a shortcut: Open the Menu Tools, select Preferences ...)
- Text in rounded brackets indicate mouse or keyboard press (for example {ctrl}+{del}
- Something like: TDL 4.10|Date: 20060607 indicates that the description was added using TDL Version 4.10 when the corresponding Howto-Entry was verified on the local machine (that means: in most cases the described features should work from this version) The date is the date of the last change of the entry.
Navigating and editing the main page
Dropdown Lists
On the main page of TDL there are a couple of dropdown Lists, which do not contain any entries right at the beginning, like:
- Allocated To
- Allocated By
- Category
- Status
I will call them "self-extending dropdown lists".
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Adding entries to self-extending Dropdown-Lists
Adding entries to the drop-down lists is quite simple: just type your desired text into the corresponding textbox and the dropdown menu will have this entry available the next time (self-extending dropdown lists)...
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Deleting entries from self-extending Dropdown-Lists
An unwanted entry can be removed by dropping down the list, highlighting the item, and pressing {ctrl}+{del}.
Hint: The self-extending droplists are populated by what is referenced by the tasks themselves, so if an item reappears despite your attempts to delete it then some task must be using it and you'll need to remove that reference rather to have it permanently disappear.
References:
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Column View
The a central part of the main view is the column view of the defined tasks. Within the main view several columns are shown.
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Controlling which columns are displayed
The columns which are visible on the main screen can be easily configured within the program preferences: Menu:Tools > Preferences > User Interface > Task List > Attributes > Column visibility > Column visibilty
A shortcut to get the configuration is {right mouse click} on the column name in the main view and selecting Select columns ...
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Following Links in Column View
Some columns like File Reference (the column header is a little disk icon) or Dependency (column header: Arrow) do contain symbols when the corresponding task has a file reference or a dependency. You can follow the link to the file or the dependent task by {control}{left mouse}
Reference
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Filters
Immediately above the column view you find filters to generate a custom view within the column view.
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Filtering by Category
You can filter your tasklist by selecting your filter properties in the Show column at top of the ToDo-List - you can also filter by Category there. Multiple categories may be selected. As a default the selected categories are associated via a boolean AND. The result of this filter is, that only tasks which meet all the selected categories are displayed.
If a task has multiple categories, you might be interested in filtering those tasks which meet a single of the multiple categories. Therefore the association has to be changed from boolean AND to boolean OR. This can be achieved by deselecting the switch Menu:View > Filters...>>All categories must match.
References:
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Interdependent Tasks
The following concepts allow to define dependencies between tasks:
- Defining Subtasks
- Putting a link to another task into File Ref.
- Putting a link to another task into Comments
- Putting a link to another task into Dependency
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Linking to other tasks
You can link to other tasks, using the following syntax:
tdl://<filename.tdl>?<taskID>
This generates a link to the task with the given taskID in the tasklist with the given filename.
filename may be
- a simple filename (Example: tdl://filename.tdl?100)
- a fully qualified path to the tasklist containing the linked task (Example: tdl://C:\Temp\My%20List\filename.tdl?100)
- a relative path to the tasklist (Example: tdl://My%20List\filename.tdl?100)
- missing. If filename is omitted, the link refers to the current tasklist. In this case you must not use the ? in front of taskID. (Example: tdl://100)
Use %20 to escape spaces in "filename" like you do with all other URLs
Links to other tasks can be used in following places within TDL:
- Comments
- File Ref.
- Dependency
References:
*http://codeproject.com/tools/todolist2.asp?msg=1387300&searchkw=tdl+%2520&sd=1%2F19%2F2006&ed=4%2F19%2F2006#xx1387300xx
*http://codeproject.com/tools/todolist2.asp?msg=1422092&searchkw=tdl+file&sd=1%2F19%2F2006&ed=4%2F19%2F2006#xx1422092xx
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Dependency
Defining a Dependency
- A dependency can be defined by putting a link to another task in the Dependency field of the task ("parent task").
- The task, which is referred to by the link, acts as a blocker for the parent task: the parent task can only be completed after completion of the blocking task
Viewing and Navigating Dependencies
- It is trivial to navigate from the parent task to the blocking task by clicking on the button next to the Dependency field of the parent task.
- To see in the tasklist, whether a blocking task exists, there is a column, which can shown. The column can be made visible by activating the entry Menu:Tools > Preferences > User Interface > Task List > Attributes > Column visibility > Dependency
- There is no possibility yet to go the way vice versa: you can neither navigate from blocking task to the parent task(s) nor see whether the current task acts as a blocker for any parent task ...
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How to use built-in source control in multiple user environment
Here's how multi-user works best with ToDoList:
1. In 'Multi-User' preferences, enable 'Simple Source Control'.
2. Disable 'Attempt checkout when opening tasklist'
3. Enable 'If a tasklist cannot be checkout, then keep trying periodically'
4. Enable 'Checkin tasklists when I close them'
5. Enable 'Checkin tasklists if no changes have been made ...' and set the time to 1 minute.
Now whenever a team member needs to make a modification, they click the check-out (padlock icon) toolbar button. If successful they make their change and either check the tasklist back in (same toolbar button) or the tasklist will be automatically saved and checked in after 1 minute (see step 5).
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Making best use of ...
This section shows how to make the best use on several features of TDL
Outlook
Linking Tasks to Outlook
Support for 'Outlook' links added to comments field was added in TDL5.
To link to outlook using the 'outlook:' protocol read this posting.
Note: If you are using Outlook 2007 then you will also need to download and install this to reactivate the outlook protocol in Outlook 2007.
Importing Tasks from Outlook
Tool > Import Tasks ... > Microsoft Outlook
Can someone add details here. It seems it only imports from the default folder. Does it work with all Outlook versions? (see http://www.codeproject.com/Messages/1852117/Re-Improvement-shortcut-to-Outlook-emails.aspx)
Exporting Tasks to Outlook
You can export tasks to outlook using the iCal export.
External ID
Using External ID as a Link
There is no direct way of using the External ID as a link - but you can configure a Tool, which takes the External ID as an argument. Using this trick, you may create a link to an external application using your External ID
For example lets consider the connection to a bugtracking system like Bugzilla (http://www.bugzilla.org):
- Within the External ID field you can place your bugnumber as shown in Bugzilla
- In Menu:Tools > Preferences > Tools press the button >New Tool
- Fill in the path to your preferred browser into the field >Path
- Fill in the following URL in the field >arguments: http://bugzilla.somewhere.org.de/show_bug.cgi?id="$(selTExtID)"
- Choose an appropriate icon in the field Icon
Using this a new toolbar button will be available. If your task has an External ID and if your pressing the new toolbar button on this task, your configured application will show up, using your External ID
References:
See also:
prefs
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