TaskPaper 2.0 Development Version 51

Posted July 1, 2008 by jesse in development

This release has been replaced by version 53

I'm running out of time before I head of on vaction for a month... so this is a hurried release.

I'm trying to get all the "major" pieces for 2.0 in place before I leave. This release has a lot of new stuff to play with (themes being the big new part), but I'm sure it also has more then the normal number of bugs and not quite complete features. Please try it out as soon as you get a chance, and let me know about any show stoppers. I'll try to get those fixed in the next day and will then get a new release out that will hopefully serve everyone using the development version well until I get back on June 5th.

Here are the changes to look for:

Added menu item and keyboard shortcut for replace all in selection Command-Shift-A.
Added Clean up line endings when reading file so that you can once again edit your files on Mac and Windows without things getting messed up.
Added Selection is restored after canceling search and after revealing search result.
Added Command-F (Find) should work when the search field has focus.
Improved group by tag search results. Projects no longer scattered in with results.
Rearanged search menu items, hopefully it makes more sense and the keyboard shortcuts are easier.
Added menu item with shortcut to "Go Home".
Added first try at preferences... Highlights include
- Setting for global quick entry shortcut.
- Themes panel

Mark Grimes - May 8, 2008 5:48 PM

Thanks for the new dev release. Do you think you might get to font handling like was present in 1.x to make better use of screen real estate for notebook use?

jesse - May 15, 2008 9:22 PM

Themes should provide this and more.

Zsolt Benke - May 8, 2008 5:49 PM

I don't know what to say, simply awesome, I think I switch to TP2.0 now. It's a little bit buggy, but the functionality is really cool. Thanks Jesse! :)

nbert - May 8, 2008 6:13 PM

Looking very clean! Good work.

How do I take advantage of themes? Have we lost the ability to change and set font preferences? Is that coming back as a part of themes?

Nick

michael walsh - May 8, 2008 6:31 PM

This is almost too cool.

To set fonts, etc. go to Preferences:Rules. Select the Rule you want to change. For example to change the font of Notes, choose "Type Note." Then click "Choose Attributes" below. Then control-click on the text of the pop-up window and choose font.

To do the same for Tasks, create a new rule!

Awesome.

m

jesse - May 8, 2008 8:15 PM

I'm glad that themes proving to be fun. If you haven't noticed you can export and import them (click on the action popup in the themes preferences view), I'd love to see anything cool that you come up with. And in particular I'd love to get a few more default themes to include with TaskPaper when it launches. Free license to the creator of any theme that I include as a default :)

Jordan Sherer - May 8, 2008 10:14 PM

Looking good. Windows carriage return strip works great.

Something I noticed off in this version is that indented (sub) projects aren't stylized any longer.

jesse - May 9, 2008 5:36 AM

Opps, forgot the rule for that... if type == project && indentation level != 0 then make bold.

Maarten - June 25, 2008 7:58 PM

Just downloaded 51 to try. Aside from the missing styling on indented project headers, the sub-projects are also missing from the P> Project menu.

michael walsh - May 8, 2008 10:30 PM

Jesse, the rules will be an extremely powerful styling tool. So far, I can't trigger a format change by the content of a note (begins with, contains, or ends with). Is that a feature that's coming or am I misunderstanding how the rules work?

For example, I was trying to change the color of the text in a note, depending on whether the note began with a particular character followed by a space (similar to the trigger for a task). It does not seem to work (yet?).

Also, do you plan to have other effects beyond "text attributes" be triggered by the rules?

Regards.

m

jesse - May 9, 2008 5:38 AM

I'm pretty sure that this should be working now, but things can get a bit complex when applying rules... ie one can overwrite another (or order in the rules panel counts). Maybe let me know the exact rule that you are trying to build. I Just did one if "name contains 'create'" then color yellow, and it seemed to work.

michael walsh - May 9, 2008 12:39 PM

Jesse, I understand now -- rules farther down the list take precedence (because they are applied last). It would be great if we had a way to move rules up or down.

I was able to set up a rule that changes the text color in a note (or task) to red, based on starting the line with a tilde followed by a space. I can also control the whitespace between notes or tasks. However, I can't get any of the attributes related to the Ruler to work, such as hanging outdents. I assume that's because you hardwired indentation of notes and tasks to the tab key. Is that correct?

What is the difference between the "name" of a note and the "line" of a note for purposes of the triggering rules?

Regards.

m

Rob Cope - May 9, 2008 9:00 AM

I'm playing with AppleScripting again and getting some good results, but am having trouble figuring out how to use the items in the document window controller suite. If I try this:

tell application "TaskPaper-2.0-Development" to get selected projects of front document

The result is "missing value". If I try this:

tell application "TaskPaper-2.0-Development" to get selected entries of front document

Then I get an AppleScript Error: "AppleEvent handler failed".

Any advice on how to use that suite? I would like to write a script to add a specific tag to the selected tasks.

Thanks, Rob

jesse - May 14, 2008 7:05 PM

I think the UI part of scripint just isn't implemented yet.

Rob Cope - May 9, 2008 9:09 AM

I just noticed that queries on subprojects are not working. When a query returns just a subproject, then the contents of the window are empty. You can see this by simply clicking on the subproject's control (i.e. a query on "project name is xxx"), but it also happens for more complex queries.

Rob

Sean - May 9, 2008 2:28 PM

The themes are awesome - especially the rules. I haven't yet begun to play with it but I'm sure that they'll enable some new creative uses. I did notice that when you use the CMD-] to focus on a project, the tab name suddenly changes to "Search: xxx" but yet it is clearly not in search mode (nothing is filtered out). Incidentally, I do believe "Filter" is a clearer description than "Search".

Finally, have you ever considered placing the @tags into a column of their own - or perhaps that would be moving away too much from the text like nature of the app?

Nick Brawne - May 9, 2008 7:21 PM

Looking awesome.

Just came across 2 small bugs (possibly features to be added ?)

Quick entry window does not retain position if moved. It goes to the middle of the screen TP is on. If TP is on a second screen quick entry should honor new position and be allowed to open on primary screen.

Quick entry does not recognize command-, for cancel.

Hoping to spend some time messing with themes over the weekend, the possibilities look endless.

matt trent - May 9, 2008 7:31 PM

Yah. I'd asked about the separate column for tags as well. I'd really really like an option for that.

jesse - May 9, 2008 8:38 PM

Thanks again for everyones feedback. Tomorrow I'm headed off to Korea and Japan until June 5. Big family vacation! The only bad part is that means TaskPaper development is frozen until them. I hope this latest version gives you something fun to play with in the meantime. Keep a nice big list of the bugs you run into and when I get back I'll be so energized and looking for computer time that I bet I can fix them all the next day!!! :)

Thanks again to everyone who's been testing the development versions.

pascalv - May 12, 2008 4:49 AM

works smoothly, with no report of crash Jesse, compare to dev. 50.

global hot key for Quick Entry Window fantastic!!

enjoy your break

Sean - May 14, 2008 6:04 PM

The one thing about the Quick Entry that irks me is that you can't tab to the Project drop-down. Unless I'm missing something, it requires me to use the mouse/trackpad.

Nick Brawne - May 14, 2008 6:23 PM

You also can't cancel out with the keyboard.

Remember its just an interim development release at the moment and these things should get fixed in the next few months.

jesse - May 14, 2008 7:04 PM

Maybe they need different keyboard shortcuts... but you can do both of these things from the keyboard. Command-L to open list of projects. Escape key to cancel.

Ayjay - May 12, 2008 3:19 PM

I'm wondering whether (a) I'm missing something, or (b) I'm the only one who finds the new Themes option an incredibly convoluted way of making changes to the appearance of my text. Version 1 has a simple, straightforward way in Preferences of setting the appearance (color text, color background, font, etc.). If the Themes panel is going to replace that method — and I'm not sure that it is — then that strikes me as a bad move. Look at how many clicks and selections you have to perform in order to establish a rule. This burrowing deeper into menus for options strikes me as antithetical to the simplicity which I am looking for in TaskPaper.

I say all this knowing that Jesse still has a lot of work to do — I don't think there's any way, at this point, of changing the appearance (at least the font) of existing text, is there? — and will be making changes when he returns from vacation, but I have to say that I'm dismayed by this new direction. But that may be because I'm not grasping something, so I would be happy to be instructed or corrected.

Nick Brawne - May 12, 2008 6:05 PM

Your right, it is convoluted, and the UI is a mess, but once you get the hang of it, it is workable (as an interim solution).

To change the font of a note do the following:

Open preferences and click on "Themes".
Select the "Rules" tab.
If you are working in the default theme and have not re-named anything you will see an item "Type Note".
Select "Type Note" and then click on the "Choose Attributes..." button, a drop down sheet should then appear.
Control-Click in the text area of the sheet. (The text is not editable, and can not be selected.)
Choose "Font" and then "Show Fonts" from the Contextual menu.
The standard Fonts palette will appear.
Select the font, style and size you want in the font palette. Your selection will be immediately visible in the drop down sheet.
Once you have the font, size and color you want click the "OK" button on the sheet.
Click the "Save & Apply Theme" button on the bottom right of the preference pane to see your change reflected in your document.

Ayjay - May 12, 2008 6:36 PM

Thanks, Nick -- I actually followed all those steps (before I wrote my earlier comment) and while the background color changed nothing else did. But even if the theme changes were working for me, that's a very long sequence of steps to perform basic actions -- actions that could be done much more easily in 1.0.3.

So far, I have to say, I see the development versions as significant steps backward in almost every way from version 1.

Jordan Sherer - May 12, 2008 11:02 PM

In my opinion, the special/custom style rules should be a separate function. Everyday users, like Ayjay, are not going to enjoy the sheer power of the custom styling. I feel that there should be a preference pane for the old way of styling the default styles. (I.e., color, font, etc).

@Ayjay, keep in mind that this IS a development version that Jesse is working on. There will be many more iterations before a final, public version is released. Have faith that Jesse will take your suggestions to heart in the next releases ;)

jesse - May 14, 2008 7:13 PM

So far, I have to say, I see the development versions as significant steps backward in almost every way from version 1.

Yikes... almost every way...

Anyway I agree there is a bit of a trade-off on themes... added features, but also added complexity. But it's a trade-off that I'm willing to take. In general I don't really feel that complex preferences are a huge problem. (see WriteRoom). My goal here is to make the "application" (ie the general function of the app) clean and easy to use... my goal with preferences is to provide as much power as I can, I'm not so concered with ease of use.

As far as themes in particular... yes quite a few things can be cleaned up to make them easier... but they will still remain fairly complex. But I'll be providing a good default set. so most users can just choose one of the default themes and just make minor modifications to adjust the theme if they want.

Ayjay - May 14, 2008 10:04 PM

Jesse, I think you should definitely focus on what you want the app to be. You can't please everyone, after all. The direction you've taken is not one that's right for me, but it seems to be appealing to many others.

The one development I like in the newer version is clickable links — the lack of those in version 1 has been keeping me using Backpack (many of my daily tasks involve managing links). Other changes in the interface have, I think, brought unnecessary complexity and confusion to an app that was attractive primarily for its simplicity.

So, while I'm glad I supported Taskpaper by buying a license, I won't be using it any more. But I wish you the best!

Stephen Lang - May 13, 2008 11:41 AM

I love the new global preferences system! I have been using an older development version (with the bubble tags) for awhile, but with this version I am confident in finally deleting the last stable TP from my apps folder, and using this one. I think we're going to see some great themes in not too long.

I can see how the rules system is not as intuitive as the old way, but I think the tradeoff in versatility is definitely worth it. Especially as I imagine you will include some theme sets in the final release, that will help people figure out how things work too.

Have a great trip!

Hans - May 14, 2008 9:18 AM

Jesse, are tags not linked anymore?

The whole concept of my usage relied on linked tags.

Can I switch them on or off somewhere?

PS: Just found smart links in the Preferences. What are smart links, then? Do they have something to do with my tags?

Hans

Jim - June 21, 2008 12:31 PM

Same here, the tags are not clickable (whether "smart links" turned on or off).

jesse - June 21, 2008 8:39 PM

They are not linked in 51, but will be in the next release.

DaveInLA - May 14, 2008 2:41 PM

So for everyone that's been using this version, what's the general consensus - is this dev release "stable enough" for daily use?

Nick Brawne - May 14, 2008 5:39 PM

The interface has some peculiarities, but the app is solid. I'm running it full time instead of v1.03 and have had no issues (other than rules being applied inconsistently).

DanH - May 14, 2008 9:19 PM

I'm runnng it full-time, too. It's much more stable than earlier dev versions.

MarkN - May 15, 2008 8:49 AM

The best version so far!

Minor problem: New Tab (command-tab) does not work since I updated to .51. Anyone else experiencing this problem?

Roy Judd - May 16, 2008 3:32 PM

Try [cmd]T...

MarkN - May 16, 2008 9:00 PM

thank you, actually that was a spelling error. command-tab is, of course, for switching programs. I experienced this behaviour with the usual cmd-t combo.

Anyway, it is working properly now, after a restart. It happened after I was remapping keyboard shortcuts, although I did not alter cmd-t. my computer still manages to puzzle me sometimes. after all these years...

Mats Sjöberg - May 20, 2008 3:04 PM

This version still has a weird problem with the scrollbar that has been present (as far as I remember) in all development versions of TaskPaper 2.0. The part that you drag seems to overlap on the top arrow of the scrollbar and seems not to reach the bottom arrow.

I made a screenshot with Skitch showing the effect:

http://skitch.com/msjoberg/jqcp/taskpaper-scrollbar

Otherwise I think TaskPaper 2 is shaping up to be really good. Keep up the good work!

DanH - May 20, 2008 6:48 PM

Hi Mats,

I saw this problem, too, but after I deleted ~/Library/Preferences/com.hogbaysoftware.TaskPaper.plist the scrollbar problem went away.

Rob Cope - May 20, 2008 9:20 PM

Here is what I did (at Jesse's suggestion) to clear up the problem:

Quit TaskPaper
Open System Preferences->Appearance
Set "Place Scroll Arrows" to "At top and bottom"
Launch TaskPaper, verify that scroll bar works OK.
Quit TaskPaper
Switch "Place Scroll Arrows" back to "Together".
Launch TaskPaper. It should be OK now.

Rob

Mats Sjöberg - May 21, 2008 1:06 PM

The suggestion by DanH (deleting the preferences file) did not work for me... I don't know why. But switching the system preferences back and forth did work! Thanks!

Conny Lo - May 22, 2008 12:57 AM

Live could be so easy, thank you for your service instructions ;-)

jmck - May 22, 2008 5:46 AM

i see this issue as well.

Elias - May 29, 2008 10:24 AM

I came looking for an answer about 1.0.3(26) but figured I'd download 2.0(51) just to see!

Funny scrolling issue -- when TaskPaper 2.0(51) is over other windows, scrolling in TP scrolls the window behind it too (based on where the cursor is).

I'm running Leopard 10.5.2.

Thanks for a helpful little clean piece of software!

Nick Brawne - May 29, 2008 1:52 PM

After weeks of running TaskPaper 2(51), it has become more and more crash prone.

Previously it would sometimes crash 4 or 5 seconds after launch but the next launch would be fine. Now I am at a point where TP 51 always crashes on launch.

I have done a couple of re-starts, and removed com.hogbaysoftware.TaskPaper.plist file from the preferences. Trashing the file and then emptying the trash appears to have fixed the issue for now but also means that I have lost all the work I did in creating custom themes.

Rather than store themes in the plist it would be better if they were stored in Application Support so that they are less likely to be corrupted or corrupt the other items in the plist.

I have saved the crash log files and can provide them if you want.

jesse - June 9, 2008 11:20 AM

Yes please send crash logs. Also you can export/import your themes so that you won't lose them when replacing the plist. To do that go to the themes preference pane and then click on the "Action" popup (next to the plus and minus buttons for creating and deleting themes).

Greg Cooksey - June 3, 2008 10:41 AM

I'm seeing that issue also, where two-finger scrolling in TaskPaper will scroll the window behind TaskPaper also. I'm running OS X 10.5.3.

jesse - June 9, 2008 11:23 AM

I'm trying to reproduce this but can't. Does anyone have more info on this? Does it have anything to do with making the window partially transparent... ie can you fix it by making the window completely opaque?

jimmy - May 30, 2008 7:52 PM

im not on leopard yet but i would like to have a look a taskpaper 2.0

could someone please post some screenshots of "Taskpaper 2 Devolepment Version 51"

Sean - June 2, 2008 9:56 AM

I came across some weirdness. I'm not sure if it's a bug or not-yet-fully-implemented feature that I don't understand. I posted an image and comments up on Skitch at:

http://skitch.com/sychou/c2gf/personal-tasks.ta...

Basically, on a tab with search, it's missing a section header, the dashes are goofy, and there's some random enlarged fonts.

jesse - June 9, 2008 11:24 AM

Are you able to reproduce this problem? If so can you give me the exact steps needed to reproduce it?

ryan erwin - June 16, 2008 11:02 AM

Jesse-

I love TaskPaper 1. These days, I basically use just Taskpaper and Wrike to manage all task oriented things. The two are very different, and that makes them quite complimentary.

I use TaskPaper to jot down the dozens of little things that I need to do, or have others do, and enjoy that feeling of excitement each time I get to add "@done"!

I don't quite understand the TP2.0 direction just yet -- maybe after I experiment with it more it will make sense, but I did notice TP2 is significantly slower on my Macbook Air than v1.0.

Also, there are a few things I would love to see happen in TP:

CMD+1 to CMD+9 goes directly to Tab 1 to Tab 9
CMD+SHIFT+T triggering a Text Mate like "function search" instead of the not quite as flexible dropdown box (project names often aren't that great... but if i can search in the name I can find the one I want faster)
CMD+SHIFT+F does the find box stuff

Basically, with some exceptions (i18n!!!) TextMate is a great UI. Would love to see more of it's simple navigation features leveraged in TaskPaper :-)

Best-

-Ryan

jesse - June 16, 2008 11:28 AM

I don't quite understand the TP2.0 direction just yet -- maybe after I experiment with it more it will make sense, but I did notice TP2 is significantly slower on my Macbook Air than v1.0.

Is it possible to send me the file. In general I "think" that TaskPaper 2.0 should be faster then 1.0. But there may be cases, maybe lots of links or lots of tabs?, where it gets slowed down.

Or if you can't share that file, can you try reproducing the problem with a pretend file. I just took my file, copied and pasted a bunch to make it really big. And for me typing in that file seems much faster in 2.0 then it does in 1.0.

David Aguilera - June 26, 2008 12:17 AM

I have just started using TaskPaper...great app! One bug I discovered is if a file is saved with no content (I created a few blanks for the major categories of my life) and then I try to open it - TP hangs. Let me know if you need any additional information.

jesse - June 30, 2008 8:18 AM

I just tried to reproduce this and wasn't able to... is this a problem that you are able to reliably reproduce?

David Aguilera - June 30, 2008 4:31 PM

Yes. I cleared the default content of a new TaskPaper file and saved it to my Desktop. I then attempted to open the file and the program hung. I did this several times. My setup is: Macbook Pro 2GHz Core Duo running OS 10.5.3.

Please let me know if you need any other information.

Rockwell Schrock - June 29, 2008 11:34 PM

Looking slick! It would be nice if the tutorial dialogs had "Do not show this message again" checked automatically. I feel that this will be the most common decision; the user won't often want to see these dialogs more than once. Then, in Preferences, there could be a button to reset and show all the help dialogs again. It just saves a lot of clicking.

David Aguilera - June 30, 2008 4:41 PM

I performed my first archive of last weeks completed tasks but the associated notes did not move to the archive section. Did I do something wrong or is this a bug?

I apologize if this has already been presented / answered, but I only found a thread related to version 1.

jesse - June 30, 2008 9:45 PM

This should be working in version 2.0 beta, but the notes need to be indented under the task.

David Aguilera - July 1, 2008 9:56 AM

Thanks...that was my error. I didn't indent the notes.

David Aguilera - July 1, 2008 10:19 AM

I am unable to get the not done filter to work. Here is the filter:

Any of the following are true
All tag names
are not
done

When I apply this filter tasks tagged as @done are still displayed. Based on my experience with notes this may be user error again, but thought I would mention it in case it is actually a bug.

I am really enjoying using TP...great app overall!

jesse - July 1, 2008 10:46 AM

That rule sounds right. For the tag name value you should type in "done", not "@done". Is that what was causing the problem?

Also I added a prebuilt search for "Not done", but I can't remember if it's in 51, or only in my still unreleased 52 version. Anyway you can look for it by clicking the magnifying glass in the search field at the bottom of the screen. That will pop up a list of saved searches, one of which may be "Not done".

For me, in version 52, this seems to be working fine. I'll be releasing version 52 later today, so if you can't get things to work with 51 wait till later today and try again please.

David Aguilera - July 2, 2008 10:44 AM

I installed v53 and am still having the same issue. I am using the pre-set not done filter and items tagged as @done are still showing. Would it be helpful if I sent you the tp file?

jesse - July 2, 2008 10:51 AM

Yes please email me your file. Thanks.

jesse - July 2, 2008 2:51 PM

Your file had me stumped, now I see that TaskPaper is doing the "right thing", but not really the "clear thing". The problem is that in your file many of your @done tasks also had notes as children. When TaskPaper displays search results it actually displays the search results, and also shows the search results parents so you have some context for the result. So in your file the search results for "Not Done" we actually the comments on your @done tasks, not the done tasks themselves... they were only showing because there children matched the search.

To get closer to what you want you could modify the default "Not Done" search to look something like:

- all of the following are true
    - type is Task
    - all tag names are not "done"

Note, when comparing against tag names you shouldn't enter the @ in the tag name search field to match against.

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