+387
Planned

Todo lists inside notes

Roger 14 years ago updated by Cassandra D. Everhart 4 years ago 28
It would be nice to be able to make todo lists within notes (like in MS OneNote).

I imagine this could be done by using a button to add checkboxes, or even better, automatically generates after writing some text preceded by a dash or by the word "todo" and having either the dash or the "todo" swapped with a checkbox.
editing complexity:hard
+1
also possible with docuwiki syntax
+3
EverNote supports some sort of ToDo's with checkboxes and all, too. Or at least EverNote 2 did. What they do is to combine that with their auto-categories feature and auto-assign the "ToDo" category to notes containing ToDo items. To me, this innovative approach seemed very promising at first, but it turned out that in practice it felt less organized than I needed.

My point is that a harmonic mixture of time management and note taking, however appealing, is really hard to design right (at conceptual level) for it to support a smooth work flow in all its varieties. In fact I think it's even impossible, as no one concept will ever fit all needs. So I sure hope this is going to be implemented as an optional add-on.
+1
Thanks for the input. I'm actually more inclined to support "notes as tasks" strategy, it is IMO more flexible and is more likely to fit the bill for the majority of users.
What I see coming up with "notes as tasks" are requests for hierarchical tasks (and hence hierarchical notes).

You've gotta be sure if you want to go down that road. ;-)
Tabs + Hierarchic tags will deal with that ;) Hierarchic notes - no thanks.
I really do appreciate the notes-as-tasks" strategy. Is there a section where I can vote for that option?
Hi Alex
May I add my personal thoughts...

It took me years to develop a useful strategy to handle tasks
and I am very happy that CN supports it nearly perfectly.

I too use notes as tasks and hierarchical tags to manage them.
This works great with CN as the base to make this possible.

  • tag = project
  • tag = status eg. (*) open, (..) in progress, (...) waiting, (#) planned, (x) done and so on
  • note = task
  • remark = task_ID

But there is one thing where I have not yet developed a final strategy...
Often a task requires several steps to get completed and I found it to be
cumbersome to use notes for every little step.
Yes, it is doable - but doesn't make life easier.

Let me use an example like a shopping list:
I don't want to add milk, butter, water, bread,... as seperate notes!

So what I do is:
Yes, the main tasks are notes
BUT single steps to complete the tasks are simple lists within the note like:
(x) ask Mike to send me the report
(..) review the report
(*) ask Ann for her opinion
() clear facts with Bill
() organize meeting with...

A little checkbox list would be nice and I think for many use cases this would be helpful
(e.g. for a shopping list).
For other cases I would stick to my simple bracket list because I can give it addition meanings within the brackets.

Summary:
I don't think that using notes as tasks should exclude using checkbox lists ;-)
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your comment. I agree that checkboxes in notes can be useful.
However even now I can get by with crossing list items out using Cltr+K; did you try this?
+2

This is the function I wait for the most.. checkboxes. I just bought a Pro licence, and since it's been 3 years this option is planned.. I wonder if it'll be available before the end of my free updates period.


Anyway, great soft, can't live without it anymore.

+1

Mélanie, thanks a lot for supporting us. I certainly hope that this feature is implemented before your updates period runs out. However we are a small software company and our resources are limited - we can do only that much. 


Let's do the following: if this feature is still not there in a year, I'll give you a free license renewal :)

Wow! Thank you, that's very nice of you. But I just read alainsr's post and his way looks very simple to implement, so maybe I won't need it. :)

Let's hope for that :)

Well, let's see if you're a man of your word, my license ends on 30/05/2014 ;)
Well a deal is a deal ;) Hope you won't mind if I do that 5 days earlier?
Please check your mail!
+3

Stickies is another software I use and it has a simple yet satisfying solution: typing "[", then "]" and "space" generates character 0xA3 of Wingdings2 font, which looks like an empty square (an unchecked mark): .


Then, if you double-click it, it becomes character 0x52 of that same font, which looks like a checked square (it's on the fourth line of the third column of that image):


And vice-versa: if you double-click it again, it becomes unchecked.


At the end, any note can contain this:


It would be AWESOME to be able to do this inside any CintaNotes note, and it shouldn't be hard to code...


:-)


(Source of the first two images: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wingdings2.png)

(Source of the third image: personal screenshot)

Wow, this is a really cool idea. Will make this much easier to implement. Thanks, alainsr!

How will you search/filter for items "done"?

Remember that we are talking about lines of text within a single note. As items are marked as done, you can just move them to the bottom for example.

Thanks for sharing that info :)

+1

The idea of todos is simple. Too simple to me. I am suggesting a GTD (getting things done) like solution. Introduce a state field, which allows for the following values:

0=regular note
1=Next Action 
2=Action/Open
3=Waiting For
4=On Hold
5=Done/Completed
6=Someday/Maybe
7=Out-dated/Obsolete


This is still a simple solution, but has priority support built in.

IMO this is much better handled by a number of hierarchical tags: Type/Regular, Type/NextAction, Status/New, Status/WaitingFor, Status/OnHold, Status/Done, Prio/Today, Prio/ThisWeek, Prio/Someday, etc.

A state can have one value at a time only, whereas you could assign multiple tags the same time. It should be possible to have a shortcut for each state, so it can get assigned quickly. A shortcut sould be available to filter states quickly. It might even be interesting to sort by state. All this can not be achieved using tags.

But we are talking about lines of text in a single note.. And I get the impression that you're talking about adding a new field to the note itself - do I understand correctly?

Yes, you are correct. Sorry. I missunderstood the feature. When reading about "Todo lists" i was focused on a GTD-system, so i did not realize, this feature request here is limited and can not compared to what i was thinking about. Therefore i have created a request on its own: state field to support GTD-like features

No problem. There's already something similar: http://roadmap.cintanotes.com/topic/3386-add-simlpe-status-flag-icon/, and it already has 87 votes, so if it fits the bill it would be much better to re-use an existing idea.

As I already mentioned on the Simplenote thread, I use CN for task lists, too.  Let me throw in my vote for this collection of features.