[Flex]

I have a task that I want to do somewhere between today afternoon and tomorrow evening. It shows as "due soon" 24 hours before the end date. This timeframe can be changed, but why can't it be connected to the start date? At least I don't see how.

[philrob]

I'm not aware of a way of getting that to work.

Things should stay hidden until the start date, then appear, then become 'due' (and all to often in my case, overdue!!!)

Have you considered using flags to show the stuff that needs to be done? A flagged perspective then might give you what you need.

[Flex]

Actually it did work just like this just now, with a task for which I didn't want it to work like this.

Maybe I'm finally going insane.

[whpalmer4]

Start and due dates are independent concepts. Start date is just the date before which you do not wish to be shown this action (or project) as available for action, because you either do not wish to work on it or are not able to work on it. Ideally, the start date will be prior to the due date, but as far as marking something due soon (or overdue), the start date doesn't matter; it gets the due soon (or overdue) styling based on the due date. It's worth noting that this is done based on the actual time of the due date; if you have your "due soon" window set to 2 days, something becomes due soon exactly 48 hours prior to its due date. Something due Wednesday at 11pm is marked due soon Monday at 11pm, even though some might regard Wednesday evening as in the next 2 days on Monday morning...

[Flex]

If the start date marks the earliest time I want to or can take care of a task, wouldn't it make sense to not mark it due before that date has arrived..?

[whpalmer4]

No, this is a safety precaution. What if you fumble-fingered the start date? Also, it brings it to your attention sooner in the Forecast view (not on Mac yet) because you see that it is due that day even if you can't quite start it yet — much better in most cases than discovering at 4 PM that you've only got an hour to get something done by 5 PM, and you let a bunch of other things slip into that block earlier in the day!

[Flex]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

No, this is a safety precaution. What if you fumble-fingered the start date? Also, it brings it to your attention sooner in the Forecast view (not on Mac yet) because you see that it is due that day even if you can't quite start it yet — much better in most cases than discovering at 4 PM that you've only got an hour to get something done by 5 PM, and you let a bunch of other things slip into that block earlier in the day!

If you fumble the dates for the tasks, you're screwed either way, that's always going to be the case.
An additional warning is a nice thing, I just would prefer the option to not be annoyed with future tasks.

[whpalmer4]

No, if you fumble-finger the start date, you still get warned.

If you want to request a change, use Help->Send Feedback, but I rather doubt they'll want to remove the safety net.