Filter out projects w/future actions?

[jasong]

When viewing a list of projects in Planning mode, projects with actions that have a start date in the future show up in italics and greyed out.

Since these projects can't be done until a certain date has come, seeing them is usually useless for me.

In planning mode, it's valuable to see these items sometimes, but I think there should be a filter to allow me to focus only on projects which have current actions.

I've filed official feedback on this, but I'm curious if others have a similar interest.

[cyleigh]

I usually filter on active projects - and then review the on-hold and pending projects seperately. Does this help you?

[jasong]

Filtering on active projects includes projects with actions that are set in the future. These aren't pending projects, they're active projects with action starting sometime later.

[Tim Wood]

If the project legitimately has only future actions, then it seems like its start date should be the minimum of the start dates of its remaining actions. That is, you could review the project and verify that, yep, all the actions are there and none of them can be done. As with the discussion about marking projects completed automatically, this isn't something we could do w/o the chance that the user would have added another action had they reviewed the project.

This might be a cool AppleScript, actually.

[brianogilvie]

When viewing a list of projects in Planning mode, projects with actions that have a start date in the future show up in italics and greyed out.

Since these projects can't be done until a certain date has come, seeing them is usually useless for me.

As Tim implies but doesn't quite say, if the project can't have actions that start now, you should set the start date on the project to a future date. A "pending" project is just one that has a future start date. It's conceptually distinct from an on hold project.

If the actions are all in the future, but the project doesn't have a future start date, that says to me that I might decide I need to do something now and add a new action.

If a project with a future start date is visible when you have the view bar filter set to Active projects, that's a bug that should be reported.

[jasong]

I'm sorry, I'm perhaps not being clear. Let's make up a project, say "Get Mac Fixed":

* Get Mac Fixed
[x] Something
[x] Something
[x] Call Apple Store for Appt
[_] Take Mac into Apple Store (Start/Due Friday)

I've checked off all the items except for the last, which is due Friday and set to show on Friday.

When I'm scrolling through my list of projects, I don't always need to see the Get Mac Fixed project. I can't do anything with it until Friday, and seeing it doesn't provide me with information.

I don't want to have to do add a future date to the projects; that's needless fiddling. But I would like to not show those projects I can't do anything about at this moment.

I can appreciate the concern that upon review, a project may need a new action, and hiding the project may prevent that, but that same argument can be made for any of the available filters.

I'm merely asking for an additional filter that works the same way that Next/Available/Remaining filters work. This seems to be a better solution than putting the project in Pending as I consider this filter temporary the way I consider the rest of the View bar items temporary.

[dave256]

The available filter in the third pull down from the right should take care of that for you if the start date for that item is in the future.

[brianogilvie]

I'm merely asking for an additional filter that works the same way that Next/Available/Remaining filters work. This seems to be a better solution than putting the project in Pending as I consider this filter temporary the way I consider the rest of the View bar items temporary.

I'm not sure I follow you. If you *know* that you can't do anything more on the project until Friday, why not just put in Friday as the start date? I don't get your point that you "consider this filter temporary." I almost always use the Active project filter in planning mode except when I am doing my weekly review.

[jasong]

The available filter in the third pull down from the right should take care of that for you if the start date for that item is in the future.

That's not true. It hides the action but not the project, which is what I'm looking to do.

[jasong]

I'm not sure I follow you. If you *know* that you can't do anything more on the project until Friday, why not just put in Friday as the start date? I don't get your point that you "consider this filter temporary."

I do have "Friday" as the start date:

* Get Mac Fixed
[x] Something
[x] Something
[x] Call Apple Store for Appt
[_] Take Mac into Apple Store (Start/Due Friday)

Or perhaps you meant put the start date on the project? I think that's useless because it means putting a fake project start date into the system, and potentially changing that fake project start date every time I add a new action that has a start date of its own. To extend my previous example, what if I had

* Get Mac Fixed
[x] Something
[x] Something
[x] Call Apple Store for Appt
[_] Take Mac into Apple Store (Start/Due Friday)
[_] Call Apple for Status (Start/Due Monday)
[_] Pick up Mac from Apple Store (Start/Due Wednesday)

Your suggestion means going in every couple of days and changing the start date on the project, first to Friday, then to Monday, then to Wednesday.

Instead, there could be a checkbox in the interface that says "Show/Hide Projects with Future Actions" or some such.

I don't get your point that you "consider this filter temporary." I almost always use the Active project filter in planning mode except when I am doing my weekly review.

I too live in Active Project Filter mode. The "temporary filter" I refer to is this hypothetical checkbox to "Show/Hide Projects with Future Actions". I call it temporary, because it, like the displayed actions filter, has a temporary effect on my list: when I change to display "Remaining", it's short term, often to see what's coming next.

Likewise, when I change my duration filter to 30 min, it's temporary, meant to limit the items I see so I can effectively plan or act on them.

[omnibob]

I think I may be in the same boat as jasong. I'm trying to avoid seeing any reference to Projects with a future start date, in Planning mode, using "Show Actions with Status: Available", but I have three Projects set this way (with no start or due dates on their Actions) -- Start Date of 3 days from now (no Due Date), and the 3 Project titles are showing anyhow.

Grouped by Start
Sorting (makes no difference)

Bob

[whpalmer4]

I think I may be in the same boat as jasong. I'm trying to avoid seeing any reference to Projects with a future start date, in Planning mode, using "Show Actions with Status: Available", but I have three Projects set this way (with no start or due dates on their Actions) -- Start Date of 3 days from now (no Due Date), and the 3 Project titles are showing anyhow.

Grouped by Start
Sorting (makes no difference)

Bob
But what are you using as the project selector over the sidebar? If you choose Active, projects which have a future start date will not appear in your view. If you've chosen All, or Remaining, then you will see those future projects.

The "Show Actions with Status: Available" selector only acts on actions, not on projects, so if the project in question would be in your view, but none of its actions are currently available, you'll still see the project header.

[omnibob]

But what are you using as the project selector over the sidebar? If you choose Active, projects which have a future start date will not appear in your view. If you've chosen All, or Remaining, then you will see those future projects.

I have "Active" chosen as the project selector.

The "Show Actions with Status: Available" selector only acts on actions, not on projects, so if the project in question would be in your view, but none of its actions are currently available, you'll still see the project header.

I think you correct on that, although it seems out of kilter with what you first wrote. I do, however, expect that if a Project has a start date in the future, with Active Projects set, and with available Actions only set, that all of the Project's Actions (especially if they have no current or past start or due dates) would virtually inherit that virtual start date, and that the Project heading would (or at least should) not be displayed.

Thanks for pointing out the behavior.

Bob

[whpalmer4]

I think you correct on that, although it seems out of kilter with what you first wrote. I do, however, expect that if a Project has a start date in the future, with Active Projects set, and with available Actions only set, that all of the Project's Actions (especially if they have no current or past start or due dates) would virtually inherit that virtual start date, and that the Project heading would (or at least should) not be displayed.

What was out of kilter? The "Show Actions: Available" filter in project mode only strips out actions, not projects. The project selector over the sidebar strips out projects and their contained actions.

If a project has a future start date, and you view Active Projects, no trace of the project should be seen, no matter what you set the Action selector to. With a future start date, it isn't an active project.

Think of the selectors as filters or operators being applied in order from left to right to the collection of stuff selected in the sidebar. If you are in project/planning mode, you'll have project headers as well as actions. I don't understand how you could possibly be seeing project headers for projects with start dates in the future if you've got Active set for the project selector, as they shouldn't even appear in the sidebar.

[omnibob]

What was out of kilter?

You wrote:

"If you choose Active, PROJECTS [my emphasis] which have a future start date will not appear in your view. [...] The project selector over the sidebar strips out PROJECTS [my emphasis] and their contained actions."

You said "Projects" will not appear in your view, but they are (in the main/right pane).

I now understand that you meant Projects in the left sidebar won't show up. Since you said that would strip out (not only) Projects, but also their contained Actions, I understood you at the time to mean the right pane (since Actions don't show up in the left pane). I thought that when I mentioned 'Grouped by Start' and 'Sorting (makes no difference)', that it was understood I was only referring to the right pane, which is the only pane affected by those choices.

Thanks for the clarification.

Bob

[whpalmer4]

You wrote:

"If you choose Active, PROJECTS [my emphasis] which have a future start date will not appear in your view. [...] The project selector over the sidebar strips out PROJECTS [my emphasis] and their contained actions."

You said "Projects" will not appear in your view, but they are (in the main/right pane).


When I said "Active", I was referring to the project selector which I had just mentioned in the preceding sentence. "If you choose Active for the project selector, projects which have a future start date will not appear in your view in the right-hand pane." is how I expected it to be understood. I guess I left some wiggle room, and it's a good thing I'm not a lawyer :-)

I now understand that you meant Projects in the left sidebar won't show up. Since you said that would strip out (not only) Projects, but also their contained Actions, I understood you at the time to mean the right pane (since Actions don't show up in the left pane). I thought that when I mentioned 'Grouped by Start' and 'Sorting (makes no difference)', that it was understood I was only referring to the right pane, which is the only pane affected by those choices.

I didn't think you meant anything else. I confess I'm still confused; I don't see how you could have seen any project headers in your right-hand pane if the projects had start dates in the future and you had the project selector over the sidebar set to Active projects. But you said:


I'm trying to avoid seeing any reference to Projects with a future start date, in Planning mode, using "Show Actions with Status: Available", but I have three Projects set this way (with no start or due dates on their Actions) -- Start Date of 3 days from now (no Due Date), and the 3 Project titles are showing anyhow.

Grouped by Start
Sorting (makes no difference)



Thanks for the clarification.

If that clarified anything, you're welcome :-)

[brianogilvie]

I think I may be in the same boat as jasong. I'm trying to avoid seeing any reference to Projects with a future start date, in Planning mode, using "Show Actions with Status: Available", but I have three Projects set this way (with no start or due dates on their Actions) -- Start Date of 3 days from now (no Due Date), and the 3 Project titles are showing anyhow.

Grouped by Start
Sorting (makes no difference)

I just read through this thread from the beginning, and I'm confused too, since you clarified that the project selector is set to Active.

Given the back-and-forth that followed, I wonder if the situation wouldn't be clearer if you could post a screenshot with the View Bar, the relevant projects in the sidebar and in the main (right) outline pane, so that we could see what you're seeing. If you select the projects in question in the sidebar and Focus, you should be able to get a tight screenshot.