Simple UI request: don't hide checked-off tasks immediately

[brianogilvie]

Situation: in context view, "Available" tasks filtered. I check off a task I just accomplished. It immediately vanishes. This makes sense because it is now filtered out. But it drives me nuts. Would it be possible to do one of the following:

1. Have a preference for how soon tasks that are checked off become unavailable?

2. Keep them on the screen until the filter is reapplied?

Either solution would be OK with me, though I'd plump for #2 if asked. I have two problems with the current setup:

1. If I accidentally check off the wrong task, I have to change the filter, uncheck it, and then change the filter again.

2. It's mentally jarring for the task to immediately disappear without changing a filter setting. I'm not troubled by a new task appearing because it has become available, but taking tasks away without my altering the filter seems a bit weird.

[HiramNetherlands]

1. If I accidentally check off the wrong task, I have to change the filter, uncheck it, and then change the filter again.

2. It's mentally jarring for the task to immediately disappear without changing a filter setting. I'm not troubled by a new task appearing because it has become available, but taking tasks away without my altering the filter seems a bit weird.

Ad 1: Doesn't Undo work? I'm just asking, I can't check.
Ad 2: These are, from what I've seen in the screencasts, live filters. They are supposed to be always up to date, without the need to be reapplied after something has changed. I think I understand what it is that you don't like, but having to reapply filters seems the bigger evil, to me.

[LizPf]

The first preference in the General pane is: Automatically Hide Completed Items and you get a choice of times.

I set it to daily last night ... why was it back to "every hour" this morning?

The joys of alpha ...

--Liz

[brianogilvie]

Ad 1: Doesn't Undo work? I'm just asking, I can't check.
Ad 2: These are, from what I've seen in the screencasts, live filters. They are supposed to be always up to date, without the need to be reapplied after something has changed. I think I understand what it is that you don't like, but having to reapply filters seems the bigger evil, to me.

Undo does work.

And as Liz points out, there's a preference for how soon to automatically hide completed items. I take that to mean that they should remain visible for some time, not disappear immediately. Since they should always be visible in the "All" filter, the hide completed items preference must, it seems, apply to the other filter settings (next, available, and remaining). But others may have different expectations.

[brianogilvie]

To follow up from my previous gripe: in another thread it was proposed that current filter settings not be reapplied until the View > Clean Up command is issued. The reason is not just completed tasks but also adding tasks to a project when the filter is "Available": in that case, hitting return produces a task that is not visible because, until it has a context, it's not available.

I think it's a great idea to use the "Clean Up" command to reapply the current filter. It would solve the problem I mentioned in starting the thread while retaining the simplicity that characterizes Omni apps.

[kmarkley]

I'm not sure the setting in preferences actually does anything. I set the pref to "immediately" and then made a simple test project, checked off the first task, and looked at all the filters. The checked task appeared (only) in "all" and "completed". Then I set the preference to "never" and checked off the second task - same result. I think this may be a placebo feature.

[brianogilvie]

kmarkley: yes, it appears that this preference does nothing at present. It's worth reporting via Help > Send Feedback.... I did it but the more voices, the more likely it is to be implemented (or removed, if the Clean Up approach seems better).

[Brian]

adding tasks to a project when the filter is "Available": in that case, hitting return produces a task that is not visible because, until it has a context, it's not available.


To clarify - both problems you're mentioning here are caused a problem we plan to fix before the app goes final. Filters are always applied immediately. Thus, the general preference not appearing to have any effect.

When you add a new row after we fix this, we won't apply any filters you have active until you finish editing and (I believe) select another row. If the row didn't match your current filter, it would then disappear at that point. (Or not, I suppose, if you then added a child task as your next action...)

[brianogilvie]

When you add a new row after we fix this, we won't apply any filters you have active until you finish editing and (I believe) select another row. If the row didn't match your current filter, it would then disappear at that point. (Or not, I suppose, if you then added a child task as your next action...)

Brian: Thanks! I would be happier, though, if it were possible (via a preference, if you don't think it should be default behavior) to not reapply the filters until View > Clean Up is issued, or the filters are changed. Maybe it's my Life Balance experience here, but I like the idea that applying a filter changes the data that I see, but that the data I add should remain visible until I either change the filter or tell the app to clean up the view.