Russian/Русская версия UPDATE : MyLifeOrganized v.4.0 has been released as stable release. Use "check update" from the applicat...

MyLifeOrganized v.4 PUBLIC Release Candidate


UPDATE: MyLifeOrganized v.4.0 has been released as stable release. Use "check update" from the application or install it from our site.
 
We have great news for all MyLifeOrganized fans before the New Year! We are excited to announce that MyLifeOrganized v. 4.0 PUBLIC Release Candidate is available for download and upgrade.
 
Well, it was a long way to this new major release of our flagship product and I personally like this new version very much.  We are proud that MLO v.4 is a team effort of more than 550 beta testers from all parts of the world gathered together to improve the application we all love and use every day.
 

Just to give you an idea of the effort made I will show you some numbers:
  • MLO v.4 initial alpha was released to beta testers in August 2012
  • 547 topics were discussed on beta forum since this first release with uncountable posts
  • 318 small and big improvements made in MLO v.4 based on the feedback from beta testers
  • 25 application updates have been released during beta testing

Some beta testers think that MLO v.4 still needs some improvements before releasing. I agree that there are always ways to improve things but I decided to release MyLifeOrganized now to make all of us a good present before New
Year :-) The current state of MLO v.4 is awesome and we decided to show it to you now. We are not going to stop the improvements and will keep listening to your suggestions.

Why is it still Release Candidate?
The current version is absolutely stable and can be used in real life. I have been personally using it for 5 months already and did not have any data loss. The beta testers have been using MLO v. 4 for ~4 months and can confirm that it is stable.
We still plan to do the following before the final release:

  • update help documentation. For now MLO 3 help file is included to the installation. If you have any questions about using MLO v.4 you can post them on our community forum and our beta testers will be happy to help
  • improve some functionality and minor visual issues

 

The links for downloading MyLifeOrganized v. 4.0 PUBLIC Release Candidate:
Installer:  http://mylifeorganized.net/downloads/files/beta/MLO-Setup.exe
Zip archive:http://mylifeorganized.net/downloads/files/beta/MLO.zip


UPDATE: MyLifeOrganized v.4.0 has been released as stable release. Use "check update" from the application or install it from our site.


About upgrade procedure
Let me remind you our standard upgrade policy: if you purchased MLO less than 12 months from the new major release date you will get the free upgrade. If you purchased MLO more than 12 months from the release date you will get a significant discount for the upgrade.
With MLO v.4 we wanted even more people to get free upgrade. So anyone, who purchased MLO on or after July 25th, 2011 will get free upgrade to MLO v.4. As you can see it is more than 12 months to the release date so more people will be able to get this update for free.
The rest of the registered users will get significant discount for the upgrade.
You can perform your free or paid upgrade on this page:

http://mylifeorganized.net/shop/upgrade.htm

When you install MLO v.4 over your current registered version it will give you 15 days of trial period so that you can try it and decide when to upgrade.
IMPORTANT: once you save your data file in new MLO v.4 format you will not be able to read this file with MLO v.3. So please make sure you have backups. The best way to backup is to use MLO-Cloud. You can always download your data from MLO-Cloud to MLO v.3 or to MLO v.4 and use them in parallel.

What’s new?
Here I will list only main improvements in MLO v.4:

  • New interface with tabs making it easy to manage big task lists
  • Open tasks in new window to drag&drop your tasks from one branch to another
  • Advanced hierarchical filtering (see my previous post about it)
  • Review functionality – make it easy to perform your GTD weekly reviews
  • Automatic cloud synchronization – never forget to sync your data to cloud anymore
  • Password protection to open your data files
  • and more!





FREE MLO-Cloud offer
To celebrating our MLO v.4 release we are currently offering a month of FREE MLO-Cloud for those who upgrade! Please note that the offer is time limited. Please upgrade
before 10-feb-2013 to get this FREE cloud offer.
How to get your free cloud:
1. Run MLO v.4 registered with your Activation Code
2. Open About dialog: Help->About...
3. If MLO is connected to the Internet you will see the free cloud offer announcement. Click this announcement and follow the instructions.

Once you receive the free cloud subscription code you can apply it to your existing or new MLO-Cloud account.
 

Thank your for your feedback which really help us to make MyLifeOrganized better!

Andrey Tkachuk
MyLifeOrganized.net

30 Comments:

One of the long-awaited feature in MLO4 is the Outline Filtering. The following post will demonstrate how you can use the outline filterin...

MyLifeOrganized v.4 - Outline Filtering

One of the long-awaited feature in MLO4 is the Outline Filtering. The following post will demonstrate how you can use the outline filtering when creating your custom views in MLO4.

More Predefined Views in MLO4

As you know MLO already comes with the list of predefined views which could be used to see your tasks from a different perspective. In MLO4 we have added even more predefined views. So you can start using MLO4 with the views we have already prepared for you. There are views like "Active Starred" or "Due next 7 days" which will show your tasks in different ways.

Active Starred: one of the new predefined views in MLO4.
However people always wanted to create their own views. So let's see what has been added in MLO4 here.


Show Filtered Tasks at Their Correct Places in the Hierarchy


One of the most useful features in MLO-Windows is the custom views you can create with virtually any filter conditions. This flexibility is essential for many MLO users since they can customize the application to their to-do management style. 

So let's see how we improved this power in MLO4. I would like to create a view which will show me all flagged tasks. In the picture below you can see the full outline with projects, tasks and subtasks.

Outline in "All tasks" view without filter. There are flagged tasks we need to filter here.

Let's filter only flagged tasks from this outline. I have created a view with the name "Flagged" and added a filter to show only flagged tasks. The picture below shows how this view looked in the MLO3 filtering system. You will see only the plain list of the filtered tasks. These tasks can be grouped or sorted. Nothing new so far. So let's see what we can do next.

New view created with all flagged tasks as plain lists.


In MLO4 we've added even more power to the filtering - the hierarchy (or Outline Filtering). If you open the filter setup panel for your new "Flagged" view you can find the option "Show Hierarchy" in General section. Switch this option to "Yes, show in hierarchy" and ... wooohoo! Now you can see your filtered flagged tasks at their correct places in the hierarchy! In the picture below the filtered flagged tasks are automatically highlighted with bold to distinguish them from their parents.

In MLO4 the filtered flagged tasks can be shown at their correct places in the hierarchy. Flagged filtered tasks are highlighted with bold.

Note: only those parts of the hierarchy containing tasks that match the main filter are now shown.

So now we have filtered our initial outline to see only flagged tasks. Now in MLO4 you can see your filtered tasks together with their parents by clicking one simple option!

For those who only wanted this functionality may stop reading here, since it is powerful enough to suit the needs of most MLO users.

For those who want even more power for filtering I will explain additional features of Outline Filtering we've added to MLO4 :-).


More Cool Stuff in Outline Filtering.

Filtering parent items

So what if you want to see not all of your flagged tasks but only those which are from running projects? To configure such functionality click "Config" button next to "Show Hierarchy" option. In the setup dialog you will be able to configure how hierarchy should be shown for your view. Under "Include parent items" checkbox click "Set parent filter". This additional filter will apply only to the parents of the items that have matched the main filter and you can set additional condition here.

Hierarchy setup dialog to set additional settings for outline filtering.

In the advanced filer setup add filter for the projects with "In Progress" status. So together with main filter which searched only flagged tasks we've also configured additional filter for their parent tasks which should be projects with "In Progress" status. Now you can see that only flagged tasks from such projects are visible in the list.

Separate filter set for parent tasks. Now filtered flagged tasks are shown only from projects with "In Progress" status.

Filtering Child Items

In the hierarchy configuration dialog you can also check "Include child items". This will display all the child tasks of all filtered flagged tasks in your view.


Child tasks of the filtered flagged tasks have been added to the view.


For example the flagged task "Invite friends" from running project "Throw a party" now show their subtasks "Count guests" and "Send invitations" included to the view.

We can go further: lets say that I want to only see the starred child tasks of the flagged items selected by the main filter. To do this I will just set additional filter for the child tasks.

So as a result in addition to the a) main filter to search flagged tasks we have b) parent filter to search "In Progress" parent projects and c) child filter to search starred subtasks.

In the picture below you can see that our "Invite friends" flagged task now only shows the subtask that was starred: "Send invitations".

Additional filter added for the child tasks. Now only starred child tasks of the flagged tasks are visible.

As you can see in the picture above we've filtered our initial outline to see only flagged tasks from the running projects together with their starred subtasks.

I hope this new feature of MLO4 will help you to increase your productivity even more!

One more little thing :-)

In the future post I will describe another long-awaited feature we have added to MLO4. It is about opening your tasks in a new window to see different views together side by side. Stay tuned!

Thanks!
Andrey Tkachuk
MyLifeOrganized

6 Comments:

The first alpha version has been published to the beta team. Here are some screenshots: The look and feel inspired by Google prod...

MyLifeOrganized v4.0 published to beta testers

The first alpha version has been published to the beta team.

Here are some screenshots:



The look and feel inspired by Google products. 






As usual you can hide not used panels.



 You can even configure a minimalistic view without toolbar and properties as in MLO3


The final release is planned after beta team reported all the critical issues and we fix them.

Before the release of MLO4 as final we will release MLO 3.6.2 with all fixes we made during MLO4 implementation.

Let me remind you our upgrade policy: if you purchased MLO less than 12 months from the release date you will get the free upgrade. If you purchased MLO more that 12 months form the release date you will get a significant discount for the upgrade. 

With MLO v.4 we decided to fix the upgrade date. Even though the MLO v.4 release date is not known yet we decided to set the specific date for the upgrade, so that everything is clear while MLO v.4 is still in the testing stage. Anyone who purchased MLO after July 25th, 2011 will get free upgrade to MLO v.4. The rest of the registered users will get significant discount for the upgrade. As you can see it is already more than 12 months to the release date so more people will be able to get the free upgrade.

And as always if you do not want to upgrade to the new major version now you can still use the MLO version you purchase your license for. 

We are looking for serious people to join our beta team. Details on our forum.


Thanks!
Andrey Tkachuk
MyLifeOrganized

16 Comments:

As you know we recently released MyLifeOrganized for Android. Thanks to all who stayed with us during the beta period and helped us to intro...

Location Based Reminders in MLO-Android

As you know we recently released MyLifeOrganized for Android. Thanks to all who stayed with us during the beta period and helped us to introduce really great and solid task management product! Your feedbacks and comments were really helpful. We are looking forward to receiving more suggestions from you for further improving MyLifeOrganized application.

Now I would like to say a few words about one new feature we’ve added to MLO-Android in this release. It is about Location-based reminders. Also I have to explain why this new MLO feature is smart and why it is not just “yet another simple location based reminder” like those available on Play Store.

To enable location based reminders in MLO you will need to do the following three easy steps:

1. Create a context and assign GPS location for this context;
2. Set option "Notify when I arrive" for this context;
3. Assign this context to a task you would like to be alerted about;

Now once you are in the specified location MLO will play the alert about this task (if the Location Monitoring enabled in MLO settings). Below are three important things you need to remember:

1) MLO will remind you only about Active Actions
It means that if, for example, you set the start date for the task in the future or if your task still depends on other open tasks in your list, or if the assigned context is closed now – the task is not an ‘Active Action’ and you will not get a reminder when you are at the specified location. This will help you to receive alerts only about task which are really ready for your attention. The list of all conditions considered to identify the task as an ‘Active Action’ provided in the help for MLO-Windows.

2) Monitoring schedule to save battery of your device
The Location monitoring is a battery consuming operation for all devices. To help you save your battery, MLO can start and stop monitoring with a custom schedule. When monitoring is disabled due to schedule the battery is not consumed by this MLO function. You can configure your personal schedule for each day of the week when you usually moving around your key locations so that MLO monitors the location-based reminders only during this time. You can also disable this functionality completely in MLO settings.

3) Set different radiuses for contexts to tune the alerts distance.
In MLO each context location has the radius property. The location based alert will be shown when your current location identified inside the radius of a context. The default radius for the new context is 100 meters. So you will see the alert for the active tasks only when you are 100 meters near it (considering the precision used by your device to get the location). Adjust the radius of different contexts to better suit your needs in different situations.
For example you may want to get all alerts about things to do in the other city when you have a trip to it. Just set the radius for all contexts in that city to 10-30 km and you will get alerts about all tasks in this city when you arrive to it.



You can see your tasks on a map in MLO.  Just click Menu->Map in the NearBy view. When you see your NearBy view on the map you can tap a pin to see the Active Actions associated with it. On the map you can also notice three types of circles (radiuses) used in MLO for location based functionality. Let’s explain how they are used.
a) The Context radius used to get alerts when your current location is inside this radius (as explained above). This circle has green colour around a context (default 100 meters).
b) The NearBy radius configured in MLO settings and used to include tasks to NearBy view (default 30 km). This circle is transparent grey. When context with its radius included into NearBy radius the tasks are included to NearBy view and the context pin is highlighted.
c) The Location precision circle shows the precision used by the device to identify your location. The colour of this circle is blue. The precision depends on the method used to get your location by the system (Cell/WiFi or GPS) and current conditions. It may be several meters or kilometres.

So to summarize the usage of different radiuses in NearBy functionality:
1. The contexts will be included to NearBy view if context’s radius (a) included to NearBy radius (b).
2. You will get an alert when your location precision radius (c) included to the context radius (a).

Please let us know in the comments your thoughts on this new functionality in MLO-Android.

Andrey.

UPDATED: 7/23/11 - added a screenshot for Nearby map

7 Comments:

We are excited to announce new feature of MLO Cloud - Task By Email. When you send email to a special address it is automatically moved t...

Task by Email Released on MLO Cloud

We are excited to announce new feature of MLO Cloud - Task By Email. When you send email to a special address it is automatically moved to <Inbox> folder in your Cloud file and then synced to your MLO Client.

How to configure Task By Email feature:
1) Login to your MLO cloud account:
https://sync.mylifeorganized.net/mlo/Login.aspx
2) Click "Stored Files" on the left
3) Locate your data file and click "Task by email" on the right for this file
4) Enter your secret email address in the field.
 For example: "BobMLOTasks"
5) Now you can send emails to "BobMLOTasks@sync.mylifeorganized.net" and they will be converted to tasks in your <Inbox>. The text of the email will be placed to task notes




Please note that only plain text is placed to the task notes. Attachments are not supported.

We are working on improving the functionality of this feature. For example to move the task in a specified project or set a context.

To protect from spam we implemented the following:
1) You can set "Allowed senders". Emails sent from other addresses will be ignored and not placed to your cloud file.
2) You can change your secret email at any time if your current email was compromised by spammers.
3) It is not allowed to send more then 60 emails per hour to your account. If more emails sent they are ignored.


Andrey.

21 Comments: