I’ve just been watching the webinar about RM9 and tasks and agree it’s quite powerful and very useful. There is one thing though that’s quite strange. The webinar talks about filtering by a person but unless I open every task and click on the “Use” button in the right side pane, I cannot remember who (or what fact/event) the tasks are associated with. It would be great if another column could be added to the main tasks view to show this. And also to be able to go to that person/fact straight from the task - I think you can edit the association but not go directly to it.
When I create a task, I always put the persons name and Rec# followed by a brief description about what it for. Then I put more details in the goals. This way when I look at my task I don’t have to click on each one to see the goals and more clicks to find out who it is.
I agree we need more columns and one that shows the rec# for the person it attached to.
I do the same, so I suppose what is needed is for that first field “Name” to auto populate with the person/place/event etc that the task is related to and a column showing this. It seems a little unnecessary to have to type in the name of a person that the task is already linked to.
Tasks can be linked to several people, so a column with a person’s name would only be able to show one name. Which wouldn’t be very helpful. That is why there is a way to filter all tasks to a single person. Under the 3 dot menu select Filter Tasks. Click on the Add (plus sign) at the bottom and select Person and the person from the list. Click OK, OK and then the Task list will only show tasks for that individual.
Thanks for that and I hadn’t appreciated that about tasks attached to more than one person. I’ve never done that as I always add tasks when I’m working on someone/something when I’m there, and even if involves others I just write what I need to do in the one task for all of them as the same task relates to them all usually. And I do that because I am likely to forget what it’s about, and the problem for me with the method you describe (which is in the webinar) is I can’t later remember who I need to work on so don’t know who to search for. Which means going through them one by one. So the way @Gpetranek describes is I think the way I need to continue as well.
You may want to experiment with Task Folders. I have one called “!What I’m working on” It appears at the top of the folder list. I add tasks that I am in the middle of working on. I also have a Task called “Start Here”. I add dated notes for myself so I know which task I was last on and how far I got, where to pick up, etc. Personally, I don’t always feel like working on the same task each day. I like moving around. Since a task can be reused it can be added to multiple people, places, folders, etc. The tasks can be organized as you want, but have a shortcut so you can pickup where you left off on current projects.
Another option is to use the Priority and Status settings. You can sort the Task list on those columns.
Thanks @rzamor1 for those tips - good suggestions and I’ll experiment with those. I’ve just started using RM9 again (finally got round that Tabulmage thing!) so good to try and get organised from the beginning. Something you said made me think - can I add to the category list for tasks - the only available are Research, To Do and Correspondence?
There isn’t an option to add a new Task Type. There is something you could do, that is put a personal tag that is searchable. For example if you added #flag to the Name, Goal/Details, Results or Ref# field you could use the search box to find any task marked with a personal tag of #flag. Just enter it in the search box and it will filter the list to any task that contains that. If you wanted to use the Filter List only the Details, Results and Ref# fields could be searched like that. There isn’t a filter for task name, only the task search box looks there.
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It wouldn’t have to be designed that way. Couldn’t a task for several people simply have several rows?
Not to change the subject, but for example the People List View has the same issue if the Census fact is displayed as a column. If a person has several Census facts for several census years, then People List View only shows one of the Census facts. But People List View could have been designed to show several rows for the same person if the Census fact type occurs several times. Any row and column display could have several rows per item if the item has several different values.
Facts have a primary fact option. The Tasks don’t have a primary option. First, I will confirm I have reported these requests for the People List and Task List.
Personally, think it would become a very messy screen. I would really dislike scrolling through multiple rows of the same task just to see every place it is being using. Tasks can be linked to a person, family, event, place, place detail, name, folder, and association. Which means you could have hundreds of links where it is used. If you only showed people then it wouldn’t be a true representation of where that task is used. The thought of how do you sort on that column is a whole different issue.
I would much rather have the ability to pin the Used panel open. Then I can arrow through each Task and scan their list of links.
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This sounds like a good compromise. The feature I liked in RM7 was being able to see who a task was assigned to at a glance; having the Used pinned open as described would provide the same capability in RM9 and save a click.
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