Question: How can I see only projects that have subtasks with due dates this week?

Solution: A hierarchy filter comes in handy for this. But how to use it?

Probably, your first thought would be to open the standard 'Projects' view and set a hierarchy filter for the child items. It seems logical, but in this case all(!) projects would be shown: projects that have the required subtasks, and projects that do not. In our case, we want to show only the projects with subtasks scheduled for this week.

How to set up

1. Use the main filter to find tasks that have a due date on or before this week.

2. Show parents for the tasks. Сlick "include parent items" in the hierarchy filter.

 

 

3. Since we need to show the subtasks of the projects only, we need to set the parent filter.

4. For the parent items we create the rule "This is a project".

 

Done! 

 

This way, only projects that have at least one subtask with a due date this week will be displayed.

Lean more about the hierarchy filter in the user's guide.

Question: Can I assign points to tasks? And see the total number of points earned for the day? This is needed to motivate you to meet all the goals.

Solution: Instead of using points, you can use the effort field to track your progress.

How to set up

1. Create a project "Target for the day". 

 

Set the effort for it to 0. This is to ensure that the completion of the project itself is not counted in the project completion percentage. If the effort is set to 0 for the project, then progress will show 100% when all the subtasks are completed.

2. Add subtasks. For example, I plan 5 tasks for today:

• Task 1: difficult, set effort to maximum.
• Task 2: medium difficulty, normal effort
• Task 3: medium difficulty, normal effort
• Task 4: easy, less effort
• Task 5: easy, less effort.

3. Enable the "Project Completion %" column.

The percentage of progress for the entire project is calculated upon completion of the subtasks.

4. You can also create a Trigger&Action, so that when the project is completed (i.e. when all targets for the day are met) an achievement message is shown:

 

Tip. You can find this option in Tools → Options → Triggers&Actions.

In the new version of our task manager for Windows we added a a simple solution for creating typical tasks. It allows you to create a task or a whole project based on an existing branch. Unlike standard duplication, this functionality shifts dates to the actual ones, while keeping the intervals for the set dates. See the instructions on our website.

Learn more

We would like to inform you that we have fixed a serious problem with Cut&Paste in the dark theme in version 6.0.0. We identified the root cause and developed an understanding on a possible fix on Friday, and on the weekend it was fixed and tested. A release with a fix was released on Monday. 

 

It is very important for everyone to update to the new 6.0.1 version. 

 

It is also important for us to be open, therefore we would like to explain what happened in more detail below.

What was the problem and who is affected

The error appeared ONLY in the dark theme:

•  if the dark theme is enabled and you cut/paste the task, instead of transferring it, a full duplicate of it is created
• during synchronization, only one of these duplicate tasks is transferred to the second device
• if you delete one of the duplicates, and *synchronize*, then all tasks (the original one and all its duplicates) are deleted
  

Note. If you did not cut the task (Cut/Paste) while in the *dark theme*, this error does not concern you. But it is still necessary to update to 6.0.1 with the fix as soon as possible.

What to do if you cut tasks in dark theme and synched

• If you did not delete duplicate tasks, the new version 6.0.1 will automatically correct the situation. After that, the remaining duplicate tasks can be safely deleted, leaving only one.
• If in version 6.0.0 you deleted duplicate tasks and *synchronized*, then the lost tasks must be restored from the backup (see below).

 

Users who have been with us for a long time know that we always try to communicate publicly about any serious problems we notice and analyze them to get better. Fortunately, thanks to our well-established processes, these things don't happen very often.

Why it is important to back up data

Security of user data is our highest priority. That is why for the desktop version we have created an advanced system of backups of your local files, which the application recommends to set up. Please do not ignore this recommendation.

 

If set up correctly, the following backup copies are created:

• the most recent 5 copies
• one backup file at the beginning of each day
• one backup file at the beginning of each week and month

 

Thus, in case of accidental deletion or error, you can find the lost task in the backup for the desired date and transfer it back to the main file.

How to restore a lost task from a backup

1. Find the backup file (extension *.bak) for the required date in the folder configured for storing backups (check it in menu Tools -> Options -> Backup)

2. Make a copy of the backup file, just in case.

3. Open this backup copy in MLO

4. If you use Cloud synchronization, the application will ask if you want to synchronize this backup file with the cloud.
Answer NO so that the synchronization does not delete the tasks in the backup file

5. Find the required tasks and copy them to your main file.

Tip: To open two data files enable this option: menu Tools -> Options -> Behavior -> Allow Multiple instances)

 

More details about the bug

If you are interested, here are some technical details from Andriy Tkachuk about the nature of the bug and why it was difficult to detect:

• When you start the application, the main window is created, the descriptor of which never changes under normal conditions (i.e. the main window as an object is not destroyed while the application is running)
• However, in my implementation of the dark theme I missed the point that the library used in its depths completely recreates the main app window, and as a result its descriptor changes
• Since the first versions of the application, this descriptor has been saved by several objects during initialization for subsequent sending of messages to the window (updating counters, deleting tasks after cutting, handling global hotkeys)
• As a result, when switching to the dark theme, these messages continued to be sent to the old handle, which no longer existed. No error occurred, but no one processed the message either.
• When cutting a task, a message was sent to delete the cut task in the old place after creating a full copy in the new one. But the message was not processed. A complete copy of the task with the same ID appeared.

 

During several months of testing, neither we nor the beta testers noticed this problem. We apologize for this situation.
    
Thanks to everyone who provided details and allowed us to analyze bit by bit, quickly fix the problem and draw conclusions!

You can now change open/closed hours for contexts on Android!

How it works: A context can be open or closed at certain time. For example, the context '@Office' can be open on weekdays from 9 am to 6 pm. The rest of the time the '@Office' tasks will be hidden in To-Do. So you won’t be distracted by office routine on your weekend.

To configure, go to the main menu -> Contexts and Location -> Select a context -> Open hours.

More about contexts here. 

When you are working on lots of different things, it is nice to get an overview of everything you have to do. In the new version of our to-do app for Windows it is possible to display multiple views in one window. Without constantly adjusting it after re-starting the app!

You can see the hierarchical Outline and simple To-Do side by side, drag&drop tasks from Inbox to where they should be in a hierarchy, track projects and see high-level goals, and more. Dashboards help you stay updated on what is happening in multiple views, and they are especially handy if you use multiple screens. 

How to create a Dashboard

To create a new dashboard go to menu View → New Dashboard:

A new dashboard opens in Edit mode. Here you can click to add more columns and rows and change the view displayed. 

In dashboards you can display any view from your list of views. If you need to add filters to tasks, hide/show completed tasks, you can do it in the main MLO window, save that view and the changes will be reflected in the view in the dashboard. 

Manage Dashboards

You can find all your dashboards in menu View → Manage dashboards. Click the ‘eye’ icon next to the dashboard(s) you want to open. 

Assign hotkey 

You can assign hotkeys to a dashboard to quickly open it.  

Tip. If you want your dashboards to open immediately when you start MLO, just don't close them when you exit the program. Close the program window.

Add new task

Use hotkeys if you need to add a new task (Ctrl N) and subtasks (Shift Ctrl N) in a view inside the dashboard.

Drag&Drop tasks between views

You would typically need it for moving tasks out of Inbox. Just select the tasks and drag&drop them to the required position in your list. 

Double-click to switch to the main window* 

 If you double-click a task in the dashboard, it will bring you to the main window where you can view and edit all its properties. 

*This feature is already implemented in the private beta, and will be available in the public version soon. 

Use cases

As with most other features in MLO, you can tweak and tune dashboards to what you need. We’ve collected some feedback to give you more ideas on how you can use dashboards:

Calendar Dashboard

Another use case shared by our user Andrei is the "Calendar dashboard." The idea is to display tasks for each day of the week in a column, like this:

Tip. If you want to add several columns full-height to a dashboard that already has rows, just create another dashboard and place next to the first one. 

Kanban board

You can also create a Kanban board using dashboards. They weren't designed for that, so this was a nice surprise to us from our beta testers!

No magic here though. You definitely need to take some time to set up the views you want to open in each column, but then the dashboard works pretty well. You can move tasks from one column to another by dragging & dropping them to the group name - the corresponding flag will be assigned automatically. 

Here is our example on how to manage the “Kitchen Project”. The view in the columns “ToDo”, “Doing” and “Waiting” shows tasks filtered by flag. “Done” shows completed tasks, and “Backlog” shows tasks that have no flag.

Tip. For your convenience, we've saved this configuration. You can download it, and import the views, flags and dashboard to your data file in MLO:

• To import views right-click in the Views pane→ Import → Select the .mfv file. 
• To import flags go to menu File → Import → Select the .xml file → Open → Select  'Flags'.
• To import a dashboard go to menu File → Import → Select the .xml file → Open → Select  'Dashboards'. 

Another example of using Kanban is managing the delegated tasks: the first view - John's tasks, second view - Mathew's tasks, etc.

Eisenhower matrix

Similarly, you can create a dashboard that displays the urgent-important matrix, four quadrants. This tool helps you divide your tasks into four categories: the tasks you'll do first, the tasks you'll schedule for later, the tasks you'll delegate, and the tasks you'll declutter.

In our example, we used the following filters:

• Important are tasks with importance more than normal
• Urgent are tasks with a due date tomorrow or before. 

Tip. For your convenience, we've saved this configuration. You can download it, and import the views and dashboard to your data file in MLO:

• To import views right-click in the Views pane→ Import → Select the .mfv file. 
• To import a dashboard go to menu File → Import → Select the .xml file → Open → Select  'Dashboards'. 

We are sure there are many other ways of using dashboards. Feel free to share your findings in the comments!