New actions that are immediately hidden

[soundsgoodtome]

I was reviewing the remaining tasks for a project, with the "Available" filter enabled, when it occurred to me that I needed to add another task. So I typed the shortcut -- but "nothing happened." I tried 3 more times, but each time, "nothing happened."

I place that in quotes because it finally occurred to me that something *was*, in fact, happening: I was adding new actions that were disappearing, faster than I could name them -- due to the "Available" filter. However, I'm puzzled by this, because shouldn't a new action be considered "available"? The 4, unnamed actions I'd created weren't visible until I changed the filter to "All." Why wouldn't new actions be considered "available"?

Regardless, this got me thinking: Could there be a friendlier, more elegant way to handle the creation of new tasks that will not be visible, due to the current filter settings?

One method might be an alert that pops up, saying, "The action you're about to create will be hidden because you are only displaying Next Actions [or Flagged Actions or whatever]. Would you like to show All?" (Yes/No/Cancel.) Clicking "yes" would show all, and clicking "no" would allow the item to be created, although it wouldn't be visible -- but at least the user would be aware that the action would be hidden. (There could also be a preference to determine which of the "liberal" filter settings would be used, in this case. Seems to me the only choices for displaying a new action would be "All," "Available," or "Remaining.")

There may be more elegant ways to handle this; these were just my initial thoughts. Either way, I think it's something worth considering.

Thanks.

[GeekLady]

The problem is that actions aren't considered available until they have a context, and new actions don't have a context yet, so they get hidden.

Agreed, there should be a more elegant way to handle it.

[AmberV]

I think it should be handled the way they are currently handling it elsewhere. If you create actions that would otherwise be dismissed by the filter settings, they hang around until you press Cmd-K or change views. That gives you time to review what you've added, and a clear way to intentionally dismiss them when you are done.

[curt.clifton]

I think it should be handled the way they are currently handling it elsewhere. If you create actions that would otherwise be dismissed by the filter settings, they hang around until you press Cmd-K or change views. That gives you time to review what you've added, and a clear way to intentionally dismiss them when you are done.

This makes sense to me and I suspect the current behavior is a bug.

It would be nice if the Clean Up button in the toolbar was somehow highlighted if there was clean up to be done.

[AmberV]

Indeed! And that would also serve as an ancillary reminder to see if there is anything in your Inbox that needs to be processed.