Swift To-Do List Blog

How to get organized, how to be productive, Swift To-Do List tips and tricks

What’s New in Swift To-Do List 7.46

Blog Post by Jiri Novotny published on Monday, 23 January 2012 in Dextronet News, Swift To-Do List

Perhaps you’ve noticed that we’ve rolled out new Swift To-Do List 7.4 recently shortly followed with a lot of subsequent releases with mainly fixes. This is an enormous update.

Download the latest Swift To-Do List here.

So, what’s the big news? Well, compared to 7.3x, the new Swift To-Do List 7.46 brings you:

Creation of tasks from HTML-only emails

You can now Drag & Drop emails that only have HTML content into Swift To-Do List to create tasks from them. The HTML content will get properly processed and inserted into the task notes, retaining the formatting. See a quick video how to create tasks from emails.

Numbered lists in notes and memos

You can now create numbered lists in task notes and memos, not just bullet lists. There is a new toolbar button that you can use for this, shortcut for it is Ctrl+Shift+N. You can also use the Ctrl+Shift+L shortcut to cycle between list styles (including Roman and alphabetized list style).

Numbered list in task notes

Drag & Drop from Word, OpenOffice, WordPad, etc

You can now Drag & Drop stuff from Word, WordPad, OpenOffice Write etc. You can even Drag & Drop tables inside Swift To-Do List now!

Export notes and memos to PDF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, MHT

It is now possible to save (export) notes and memos to PDF, Word 97-2003 (DOC), Word Document (DOCX), OpenOffice (ODT), Web Archive (MHT), as well as into the previously supported Rich Text (RTF), Plain Text (TXT) and HTML formats.

Import notes and memos from DOC, DOCX, ODT, HTML, MHT files

You can import (load) notes and memos from Word (all versions), OpenOffice, HTML (including images) and MHT web archive files now, as well as from the previously supported Rich Text (RTF) and Plain Text (TXT) files.

Paste images into notes

It is now possible to paste images into task notes or memos using clipboard. Just make sure that you have disabled “Paste plain-text using Ctrl+V” in File – Options – Notes. If it’s enabled, you can still paste rich text and images using Ctrl+Alt+V.

Previously, you could insert image only from files using the Insert Image notes toolbar button.

Images in notes and memos are now being printed/exported

One previous limitation in Swift To-Do List was that images in notes or memos were not included in HTML export or printing. This has now changed! All exports and printouts properly contain images inserted into notes.

Smarter default notes font

When the default notes font is changed in File – Options – Notes, the new font will be applied to all notes that use the old default font. So it’s now possible to change the font (name & size) for all your notes that use the default font in just 1 step.

This wasn’t previously possible – already created notes retained their fonts even when you changed the default font.

Move lines up/down in notes and memos

You can move lines up/down in notes with keyboard shortcuts: Alt+Up and Alt+Down. Yes, these are the same hotkeys that you can use to move tasks up/down!

I personally love this feature and use it often. Especially if you work with bulleted or numbered lists in your notes, this will make your day.

Much better Find/Replace window

It supports direction (up/down), and can be left open while you continue working with notes in Swift To-Do List. It also informs you when the search has reached the end of document.

Both Print and Print Preview for notes and memos

The older versions had only Print Preview for notes, but you can now directly print the notes or memos. Additionally, the Print Preview dialog for notes and memos has been greatly improved. It looks great and the preview is sharp. We will improve the main preview dialog for tasks export in the near future, too.

New “Remove Formatting From Selection” notes/memos action

There was just “Remove Formatting From Notes” action, but now you can also remove formatting just from selection. This is useful if you paste some formatted text and want to get rid of the colors or different fonts. There is also a new hotkey for the removal of formatting from selection – Ctrl+Alt+R.

Drag & Drop of text and images inside notes and memos

You can now re-arrange text and images inside your notes and memos just using your mouse – drag & drop.

Better indenting and outdenting in notes and memos

You can now use Tab to indent text or to insert tab character, and Shift+Tab to outdent text or to remove preceding tab character.

Better selection in notes and memos

You can now see text colors and text background colors behind the selection:

Better selection in notes and memos in Swift To-Do List

That’s not all though!

Other smaller improvements regarding notes and memos -

  • Better font dialog which allows you to change only certain font properties
  • “Clear Notes” action is now undoable
  • “Remove Formatting” action in notes is now undoable and preserves selection
  • “Import” and “Append to notes” actions are now undoable
  • Hyperlinks can be visited using the Enter key (when the caret is inside them)
  • Hyperlinks can be specified for any text (like in Word)
  • Hyperlinks can be created for local files, too (but the Attachment feature use more appropriate for this)
  • Address of hyperlinks can be easily copied from the right-click menu of the hyperlink
  • When task note or memo is exported to HTML, the title tag will now include the task/memo name
  • Faster of inserting images into notes and displaying of notes with images
  • Improved printing of notes and memos (better formatting)
  • Improved behavior of “Insert line” command in notes/memos
  • When you create a bulleted list, all lines will automatically get the same indent
  • When exporting to HTML, the length of notes is no longer limited
  • Nicer task notes/memo panel border

What’s next?

We are still working hard on the online sync feature. It is in beta and the development is going well.

Why is it so important? Well, it allows you all the following:

  1. Synchronize Swift To-Do List 7 for Windows between computers
  2. Invite other people to collaborate
  3. View and edit your tasks using mobile devices; all smart-phones and tablets are supported, including iPhone, iPad, Android devices, BlackBerry, etc.
  4. View and edit your tasks using web browsers (like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, IE) from Windows/Mac/Linux; so you can work with your tasks even on computers where Swift To-Do List 7 is not installed.
  5. Merge multiple databases into one
  6. Remotely backup your Swift To-Do List data

If you would like to try it, contact us and we will tell you how to enable it.

Other important things that are coming: Sub-tasks, calendar, custom columns (fields) and more. Stay tuned! Year 2012 will be swiftly great.

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Tags: development, dextronet, memos, notes, swift to-do list, sync, what's new
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Managing Actions Horizontally and Vertically

Blog Post by Jiri Novotny published on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 in GTD

As we’ve established in past GTD Basics posts, the adage that “knowing is half the battle” generally rings true wherever productivity is concerned. In order to succeed in Getting Things Done, you can’t just jump right into the tasks at hand (however tempting that might be). Instead, you need to approach tasks more slowly so that you can move quickly once you’re actually working. Preparation is essential, and as David Allen explains in Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, a crucial component is managing your actions.

The practices that promote productivity and GTD are somewhat akin to fractals – if you keep looking closer and closer, the same patterns inevitably recur. At a macro level, GTD requires managing your commitments and tasks through organization and clarification. And at a micro level, GTD requires managing the actions, or steps, each task requires.

Horizontal task management is the macro level. Vertical management is the micro level.

Managing actions helps to further the process of converting the overwhelming mass of your commitments into a coherent, organized and, most importantly, workable set of steps you need to take. Managing actions gives you a clear plan of attack, a manageable group of goals and an improved perspective. And, because breaking things down as far as possible helps make things easier, we’re going to divide your actions into two categories: horizontal and vertical.

Horizontal Action Management

Horizontal action management may sound like a complicated fitness move, but it is simply a means by which you can accomplish actions relating to a number of tasks efficiently. You can think of it as your ‘two birds, one stone’ system, because horizontal action management looks at all of the tasks you have and identifies a common action or actions that moves multiple tasks toward completion.

For example, if your tasks include washing your dog and taking a shower, securing towels is an action that will help you move toward completing each task. Instead of getting one towel when you need it, a horizontal action management system would have you get both towels at once so they are ready when you need them.

If horizontal action management sounds difficult, you can use Swift To-Do List to simplify matters. The program allows you to attach notes and documents to tasks on your list, which is perfectly suited to action management. I like to create bulleted lists of actions for each task in the notes area so I know what steps I need to take to complete a given task. To perform horizontal action management, I look at the bulleted list for each task and identify actions common to multiple tasks. Then, I create a sub-list and enter these actions as my priority/efficiency actions – the steps I can take to make progress on multiple assignments at once.

After a while, you may notice that your horizontal action management tends to reveal preparatory actions, like gathering supplies or research. If the same actions recur in an organized manner, you can use Swift To-Do List 7 to send you reminder e-mails on a consistent basis. Often, the common actions are “first steps” in completing tasks, and by managing them all at once, you can have a head start on future projects.

Vertical Action Management

Vertical action management doesn’t have as much of a “big picture” scope as horizontal task management, but it is still important. Vertical action management is, as Allen puts it, “’project planning’…focusing in on a single endeavor, situation, or person and fleshing out whatever ideas, details, priorities and sequences of events may be required for you to handle it.”

You can think of vertical action management as a checklist or a to-do list, which makes Swift To-Do List 7 such an effective tool for this technique. For vertical action management, you need to list all of the steps required for completion of a task. It’s important to be as detailed as possible and list even preparatory actions. Breaking down tasks into as many actions as possible is important because it makes them more manageable and allows you to identify common actions in the horizontal action management process.

Discover more about the benefits of “breaking tasks down” in the very popular post called “10 best tricks of fooling myself to work“.

The smaller the actions, the more likely you will be to knock them out during the time you have between meetings, lunch or major task work. If you don’t break down your tasks, they can be overwhelming and you’ll need to set aside large blocks of time to accomplish anything and you’ll miss out on the consolidation of actions offered by horizontal action management. Additionally, having a list of actions enumerated for each task allows you to assess your progress more often.

Putting It All Together

Both horizontal and vertical action management are effective tools, but they are most effective when used together. Typically, beginning with vertical action management can be helpful, because when you finish you’ll be able to see the common actions you need to consolidate in the horizontal action management stage.

While action management is time-consuming initially, it will save you time later and can help keep you focused while working on projects. Breaking tasks into steps will also help you understand what tasks need to be completed and how you should work on them. Finally, action management gives you a better appreciation of the scope of your tasks and how much time will be required for completion. With experience gained while using this approach, both your time estimates and productivity will soar.

Post by Brian J. Willet

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Tags: consolidate tasks, david allen, getting things done, GTD, horizontal management, horizontal tasks, horizontal to-do list, macro management, macro task management, micro management, micro task management, save time, task consolidation, task management, vertical management, vertical tasks, vertical to-do list
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