Remember The Milk / Forums / Help

Reply to Sync issue. Error msg "Could not connect to RTM" - MilkSync for Windows Mobile & Metro PCS

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

We answer as soon as we can; from our contact page: "generally within a few days"

Your issue report is on my radar for today. ;)

Reply to Prevent Smart Add from recognizing dates?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Yes, use quotation marks, as mentioned in our FAQ.

"Create minutes for 11/18 meeting" due 11/19 would work, as an example that has the "ignored" task name but also some other Smart Add parameters.

Hope this helps!

Reply to Moving an task between lists click-free?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

ranbarton,
That's a good idea. There may be good reason for gbpeter to use lists, but Smart Lists can serve very similar purposes and are very flexible.

As I've mentioned previously, I have only created two lists—one for me, one for things my wife and I share. If I didn't intend to keep my Inbox empty, I could even get by without the list for me. :)

Reply to unable to enter locations

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Can you post the entire syntax for a task you're trying to enter? And does the location "Home" already exist?

Reply to ical objects from RTM tasks

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

iCalendar subscriptions are available for any list. There are no methods to create an ad hoc iCalendar event from RTM data though.

Reply to Task not showing in Google Calendar

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

There's frequently a delay with Google Calendar refreshing iCalendar subscriptions. It seems to be sporadic, and only affects some people. Give it some time and let me know if it continues.

Repeating tasks will only show the current instance (just like the website). Once the iCalendar shows though, you should see events each day. :)

Reply to Dates Randomly Change

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Timezones shifted by one hour will still affect tasks as the internal due date for a task sets the time as midnight. (See a past topic.) That's almost always the issue when you notice this kind of behavior.

Reply to Tag completed tasks

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Hi benster,
Please review our Ideas forum guidelines on questions about upcoming features and why we can't address them.

The post binaryeric initially linked to gives a workaround that you may find useful for your weekly work review.

Milksync to both Blackberry and Windows Mobile at the same time?

sparkyjf (Pro) says:

Hi there,

I've been quite impressed with RTM so far so yesterday decided to go a step further and try out Milksync. I have a Blackberry for work and a Windows Mobile phone for personal use so I thought I would try setting Milksync up on both devices at the same time.

Yesterday all was working well and I was all set to sign up for a Pro account. However today my Windows Mobile phone won't sync - I get the message "Authentication failed. Check username and password or Pro account status." - internet connectivity is ok and I have soft reset the device.

I have submitted a ticket for this particular problem but a thought occurred to me - could this be because I only have a trial account and I'm trying to sync to two devices? I wondered if anyone could tell me if such a scenario was allowed (or even supported) under the trial and under Pro membership.

I hope it is - I thought I'd found my ideal setup until today....

Thanks in advance for any help,

sparky

Reply to Prevent Smart Add from recognizing dates?

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

Jokeeffe,

You can put quotation marks around the date in the name of the task. For example Create minutes for "11/18" meeting should prevent Smart Add from making 11/18 the due date for the task.

Leah

Reply to Does RTM not have a quick add feature that leverages "Smart Add"?

rajjan (Pro) says:

And add more fields like URL etc at the same time.

Reply to Sync issue. Error msg "Could not connect to RTM" - MilkSync for Windows Mobile & Metro PCS

test098 says:

How long does it usually take to get reply?

Prevent Smart Add from recognizing dates?

jokeeffe says:

Is there a way to prevent the Smart Add parser from recognizing a date that should be part of the task description, rather than the due date of the task?

For instance, if I need to writeup the minutes from a meeting that took place on November 18, I might enter my task as

Create minutes for 11/18 meeting

However, Smart Add picks up the 11/18 as the due date of the task, and I end up with a task whose text is "Create minutes for meeting" and a due date of 11/18, which is not what I intended.

I know that I can select the task and change the task title manually, after creating it, but this ends up requiring two extra steps (change the task title and also change the incorrect due date). Any way of dealing with this?

Reply to Twitter bot down?

cathelijne.hornstra says:

I'm afraid I can confirm this.

Tasks are getting through, !confirmon gives me a dm back, but !today or !tomorrow or !getlist are met by total silence...
I have tried the "Delete and start over" routine as well, but helas, it didn't help.

Reply to Moving an task between lists click-free?

ranbarton (Pro) says:

If you do not use lists, but instead use smartlists, you can add attributes to them in the inbox that whisk them to where you want them, all from the keyboard. If you like an empty inbox, then move all of your tagged tasks from inbox to a holding list when you are done tagging them.

I have one list where I keep everything, and then use smartlists and tags, and it works out very well in terms of the issues you raise.

Does RTM not have a quick add feature that leverages "Smart Add"?

we.kanes (Pro) says:

I noticed the Quick Add feature is still old and klunky. Are you all going to add a similar quick add feature that leverages your Smart Add capability?

unable to enter locations

larsonec (Pro) says:

when I type in a new task, I am able to enter a tag, but not a location. It lets me enter, say @home, but when I hit enter, the location disappears. This happens on the pc version and the itouch version. I thought that it was a limitation of the free trial, but I paid for the pro membership and it is still happening. Something obvious that I am missing?

Reply to Choose from list of tags

ginigma says:

Ok, that will work. Thanks!

ical objects from RTM tasks

victoria.beltran says:

Hi everyone!

I am a novice in the RTM development API and was wondering if there is some methods to translate a RTM task into an iCal event. I mean methods to obtain an iCal document from RTM information.

Thanks!
Victoria

Reply to Using Smart Add to create already-completed Tasks

ranbarton (Pro) says:

If you add a new task, and include either a tag or some common marker text (e.g., TAC for Task Already Completed), you can filter these TAC tasks out of other smartlists so they don't clutter things up in your active lists. Then when you are on the website, you can gather and mark the TAC tasks complete in bulk. Maybe that would smooth your workflow?

Reply to Task not showing in Google Calendar

wheretheskygrows says:

I have added the iCalendar service to my Google calendars. I have private addresses turned on, and I've taken the iCal feed for my "all tasks". But my tasks don't appear in the Google calendar. Is there a delay?

Incidentally, I also added the service that gives me the blue checkboxes on the calendar, and while I can see some tasks when I click the checkboxes, I don't see any that are repeating. Ie., "repeat every day at 5p.m." - only shows up today. It doesn't show up when I click on tomorrow's checkbox.

Reply to Google Calendar Sidebar

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Hi Mark,
At this time, it's not possible to resize the gadget, sorry. We're looking into supporting this functionality in the future.

Reply to repeating day won't repeat

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

This works for me: I set a task due next Wednesday (November 25) and set it to repeat "Every month on the last Wednesday". When I complete November 25's, it is set to be due December 30. Then January 27, etc.

If that isn't happening for you, it's likely a browser problem. Which browser are you using?

Reply to Google Calendar Sidebar

echarles says:

I second that. It would be nice if it adjusted to the height of the screen.

Loving the sidebar though. Having my upcoming tasks viewable beside the calendar is going to be great for doing my weekly GTD review. No jumping back and forth between tabs any more. Nice.

One thing I'd also like to see is a way to switch lists displayed a bit faster than having to go into the settings and change it there.

Reply to Netvibes widget in Google Chrome

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Okay, thanks. This is on our list to investigate.

Google Calendar export/copy?

wheretheskygrows says:

I love the RTM integration with Google Calendar! But it appears this is only a one-way street, meaning - I can only get my RTM tasks to show up on my Google Calendar. But what if the task originates from Google Calendar? Is it possible to export that task/event into my RTM tasks?
TIA!

Reply to Dates Randomly Change

uuspoiss (Pro) says:

I have a similar problem, I don't see how the time zone can change that since I usually only move within one hour. Usually, tasks that I have postponed by one day end up getting back on the current day after a few minutes.

It seems to be a recent issue, for the past week or so.

Reply to Tag completed tasks

benster (Pro) says:

@Leah - thx for the reply. I can't imagine that a user script would make a difference since it looks like RTM doesn't support it. There's no tag icon next to the tags in a completed task. I don't know what's going on with your tasks and I hate to be that guy, but are you *sure* that you're changing the tags on completed tasks and not other ones that aren't completed yet?

What I'd love to see is a response by RTM to just flat out answer the question. I don't care about a 'roadmap' or anything at this point - I just need to figure out what to do before my weekly work review tomorrow. I guess I can put some information in the notes of the completed tasks to search by later on but that's far from perfect due to the possibility of having tasks returned for a search that just happen to have a word or two in their note that I'm searching for.

Google Calendar Sidebar

psionmark (Pro) says:

Nice work on the new gadget, folks!

Is there any way I can increase the height of it? At the moment, it's about half the height of the screen, but has a vertical scroll bar. It'd be nice to be able to make it longer.

Cheers,

Mark

Reply to Why are locations and tags treated so differently (SmartAdd pain)?

benb (Pro) says:

@mehardin: Yes, that would work too, but I do have a phone that is location aware, so I find it quire useful.

But I would still love to have multiple locations assigned to 1 task.

Reply to Choose from list of tags

benb (Pro) says:

In the smart add bar, type # and it will show you a list of tags you use. Also, when you edit tags in an existing task it should show you ones that match the partial text you enter.

Reply to Tag completed tasks

binaryeric (Pro) says:

@leah

What browser are you using? Are you able to tag completed tasks at this very moment? :)

Reply to Bug in dueAfter: search (and/or time expressions)

davidbwagner (Pro) says:

BTW, this works as it should in the android app.

But of course in doing so I ran into another issue, see http://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/android/8918/

Reply to repeating day won't repeat

mdfloyd1 says:

Yeah, I've tried all your suggestions with no luck.

For example, X is supposed to repeat the last Wednesday of every month (I copied the wording from the Help section).

So the first instance shows up for November 20, which is a Friday. Nothing shows up for November, but it does show up for December. Nothing for January, Feb, etc.

It's frustrating, and I'm really getting frustrated about not being able to print what I need to print. I know "you" are working on it, but seems like you've been working on it a long time. I don't use RTM on an iPhone or Blackberry; I'm the kind of person who likes real paper.

Reply to Sync issue. Error msg "Could not connect to RTM" - MilkSync for Windows Mobile & Metro PCS

test098 says:

I just submitted issue report via support system.

Thanks.

Reply to Netvibes widget in Google Chrome

dudewad1 says:

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/netvibes/rtm.rtm

I've also tried the widget with this url: http://nvmodules.typhon.net/jerome/rememberthemilk/index.html but it logs me out every few minutes

I'm using Chrome version 4.0.249.0

Thanks!

Choose from list of tags

ginigma says:

When creating a task, is there any way to choose from a list of existing tags so I don't have to type each tag in again? And worry about creating a tag that's similar to an existing tag?

Reply to Tag completed tasks

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

benster,

Sorry to hear that it isn't working for you. I don't think that one of the RTM user scripts I use on the web site is making a difference, but maybe it is. You can find scripts at Userscripts.com (search for Remember the Milk), maybe one there can help you.

Leah

Reply to Reminders not working

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Hi diak,
If you're not receiving any reminders, you may want to review your Reminders settings on the website. Make sure the desired checkboxes are checked at the top, and be sure to press the Save Changes button.

If that doesn't help, you may want to delete any desired reminder accounts by clicking their trash icon to their right and adding them again.

Hope this helps!

Reply to Sync issue. Error msg "Could not connect to RTM" - MilkSync for Windows Mobile & Metro PCS

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

If you haven't done so already, would it be possible to submit a MilkSync for Windows Mobile issue report via our support system?

Please select the issue that you're experiencing from the list on the left, and follow the steps shown. If your issue isn't listed, just click on "I'd like to report a new issue" on the left.

Your report should provide all the info that we need to investigate further, but we'll be in touch via email if we require any more details.

Thanks!

Reply to Netvibes widget in Google Chrome

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Just to make sure, if you click Edit on the top of the widget, can you paste the URL here that shows up? There are some third-party ones that are known to cause some problems.

Also, which version of Chrome do you have?

Reply to Bug in dueAfter: search (and/or time expressions)

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Thanks for this; I've added it to our list to investigate.

Reply to XML not well formed

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Hi scruples98,
Can you tell me the URL and XML error you're receiving when you are trying to view your task? You'd probably want to make sure you're using the mobile site from your BlackBerry.

Also, you should be able to use MilkSync for BlackBerry to view the task and its notes. The website should work too, of course, but that might be a better method for you. :)

Reply to Printing RTM tasks on Google Calendar

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

It sounds like you have Remember The Milk for Google Calendar added, which just embeds a small RTM page behind each checkmark. This calendar isn't printable, but is just meant for viewing.

You may want to subscribe to your iCalendar in Google Calendar and then print that one. Instructions for doing so are listed on our site.

Keep in mind that you can hide that iCalendar from view if you don't regularly wish to see it, but you'll still have it available.

Reply to Reminders via SMS to Google Voice

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Remember The Milk uses email-to-SMS gateways to send reminders to phone numbers. (These gateways convert an email message to a SMS message.)

Google voice currently doesn't support email-to-SMS, so this won't be possible.

If you have a phone number via another mobile carrier, that would probably be best to use; otherwise, you may want to fall back on email. I'd think one of those would work, as I don't know if Google Voice would be able to deliver SMS to your phone without an "actual" number anyway.

Hope this helps!

Reply to How to print notes with task list

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

The best way to print tasks with their notes is to print the Atom feed. You can also use the Atom feeds' ability to look at a specific list/tag/search.

We're looking into better ways to print tasks in the future.

Reply to Why are locations and tags treated so differently (SmartAdd pain)?

be.grohe says:

you could create a smart list with tasks that have the tag Work but not the location Work and another smart list with tasks that have the tag Home but not the location Home...

then check these on a regular base to add the location!

Reply to Reminders via SMS to Google Voice

dylan.eiler says:

I'm curious about this setup. It is something I may attempt for myself. What advantages would have by sending reminders to Google Voice?

Reply to How to make tasks with due times show up first in list?

dylan.eiler says:

yes, that would technically work. But then it would clutter up the due time area so that the tasks with an actual due time would not stand out like they should. Plus it adds an unnecessary step to adding tasks

Not a bad idea, but I hope a better fix is implemented.
Thanks for the idea.

Reply to Tag completed tasks

benster (Pro) says:

I just moved back to RTM from another system this past week due to the Android support. I add tags to my completed tasks every week as part of my weekly review and I just tried to do this after seeing this thread. I can NOT do this, either - the task is pretty much read-only except for being able to add notes. This is not good at all.

@Leah, I tried doing what you described from both a smart list and my Inbox where I keep all tasks and neither one of them let me add tags to my completed tasks.

Reply to Bug when using priority mark first in smart add

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

I understand where Nicola and gomibushi are coming from, but it is intuitive to me to proceed in the order suggested by Andrew.

FYIW - - the locations only work for me if I enter the location information immediately after due date and before other properties.

Leah

Reply to Tag completed tasks

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

Hi. I'm not sure why you can't modify tags for completed tasks. When I go to one of my lists (with no tasks selected) and click on the completed link in the details box, the completed tasks appear. Then when I select one of the completed tasks I am able to change the tags.

Reply to How to make tasks with due times show up first in list?

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

A work around may be to get in the practice of adding a time for all tasks. For example, if you have a task that doesn't need a specific time, add it as due at 11:59 pm that day. Then your tasks with time specific due dates will appear in the list first.

Reply to Dates Randomly Change

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

Koricov,

You might want to check your time zone setting on the settings / general tab.

Reminders not working

diak says:

Hi,

I noticed since some time that I don't get reminders anymore. I registered my Skype account, my icq and my email, nothing works.

I should have gotten a reminder for today yesterday, but nothing, not even in my email.

Reply to is kde4 plasmiod working?

alexandre.jesus (Pro) says:

There is an error on RTM plasmoid on kde 4.3.2 in that it can authenticate the first time but it can't connect after that.
The developer is aware of it

Sync issue. Error msg "Could not connect to RTM" - MilkSync for Windows Mobile & Metro PCS

test098 says:

Hello,

When trying to sync WM I'm getting error msg "Could not connect to RTM". But Microsoft Exchange works perfectly well. How to fix it?

Thanks

reference: http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.support.firefox/browse_thread/thread/aba8519d2568a5e2

Reply to Bug when using priority mark first in smart add

nikee (Pro) says:

This is just incoherent.

Either you parse smart tags and remove them after parsing - or you ignore them and leave them in the task-text.

I also (instinctively) add new tasks by first specifying their priorities, then their due date and lastly the task-text.

This needs to be fixed, it is just ugly, incoherent and counter-intuitive.

!1 ^today Fix Smart Tag Order Problem

Regards
Nicola

Netvibes widget in Google Chrome

dudewad1 says:

My netvibes widget works just fine in all browsers except for Chrome. In Chrome, the widget extends to past the bottom of the screen, with empty white space below my last task. Any tips?

Reply to Tag completed tasks

binaryeric (Pro) says:

tap tap tap... is this thing on?

Reply to Importing from one RTM account to another

binaryeric (Pro) says:

Probably the easiest way is to share each of your lists with your new account. Then go into your new account and accept the shares. Then unshare the lists from the NEW account (which will make them belong only to your new account)

You should be able to then delete the tasks in the old account with no impact on your new account.

This will transfer tasks and tags but unfortunately you can't share locations (silly RTM)

Reply to How to make tasks with due times show up first in list?

dylan.eiler says:

Thanks for your input.

I agree, it seems easy enough to address. I hope it will!

Reply to What to do with my backup file?

steveshay says:

Are there any plans for an import from iCal process? Since there is really no way of getting an iCal file in a format that can be emailed in it seems rather pointless. A backup doesn't help much if you can't recreate what you had from the file.

Dates Randomly Change

koricov says:

I find that due dates for tasks randomly change on me. Usually a day forward, or a day back. This seems to be so basic to me, and so unbelievable important for a to-do and task management service. Any ideas?

Thank you.

Reply to Bug in dueAfter: search (and/or time expressions)

davidbwagner (Pro) says:

Correction: the results of "33 hours" should be just D.

Bug in dueAfter: search (and/or time expressions)

davidbwagner (Pro) says:

I have these tasks: A is due tomorrow (i.e., 12am), B is due tomorrow at 7am, C is due the day after tomorrow, D is due the day after tomorrow at 7am. It is now 3pm. Here are the results of various dueAfter: searches:

Expression Result
"8 hours" A, B, C, D (expected)
"9 hours" B , C, D (expected)
"15 hours" B, C, D (expected)
"16 hours" C, D (expected)
"23 hours" C, D (expected)
"24 hours" A, B, C, D Should be C, D!
"32 hours" A, B, C, D Should be C, D!
"33 hours" B, C, D Should be C, D!

etc. It appears that you are taking the number of hours modulo 24, which is making an unwarranted assumption about what the user means. If the user specifies some number of hours over 24, he's probably got a reason for doing so.

More examples:

"1 day" B, C, D Doesn't seem right
"2 days" D Ditto

If it's now 3pm and B and D are due at 7am, it seems like the first result should be C, D and the second result should be empty, unless you are special-casing "n days" searches to include tasks that are due at any time on the first day that overlaps the n-day period. But if this were so, then the first result should include A and the second result should include C. This may be behaving as intended, but if so the intended behavior violates the principle of least surprise.

XML not well formed

scruples98 (Pro) says:

I am trying to access the notes on a task I emailed to my rtm account. I am using a blackberry 8900 curve with internet browser to access the notes. I am getting a xml not well formed error message and the page will not load

Reply to Getting email support

misterdasher (Pro) says:

Apparently, you just have to be a little more patient than I am. About an hour more patient, in fact. No bribing necessary!

Printing RTM tasks on Google Calendar

tina.stott (Pro) says:

Has anyone been able to print a list of their RTM tasks when they print their Google calendar? When I do print preview, I only get the box that says Tasks for Tuesday November 17,2009 (or whatever day it is). I can't get the list of daily tasks to show up and print along with the calendar. Thanks.

Getting email support

misterdasher (Pro) says:

I signed up for a pro account just so that I could get some tech support when the Android app wouldn't let me login to my RTM account. Silly me - I shouldn't have paid for something that's supposed to have a 15-day free trial. So I submitted a "new issue" in the appropriate category, even though, ironically, the "priority email support" turns out to exclude email support except in very nebulous, undefined circumstances. ("Only if RTM needs more information," and so forth.)

Anyone know who I have to bribe to get a response? Or, barring that, a refund?

Of course, if I have overlooked the link that allows pro users to submit a support request that includes a promise to respond, please provide the link. Thanks in advance for any help...

Reminders via SMS to Google Voice

saul96 says:

I can't get this to work.

Since Google Voice isn't an official cellular carrier, I'm not sure which "network" to choose.

Has anyone found a way to send SMS reminders to their mobile via their Google Voice account?

Reply to What to do with my backup file?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

It's an iCalendar file, which you can open in any iCalendar-supporting application.

Currently there's no import process, so it's not possible to turn around and use that file directly for import. However, you can import a list of tasks via email.

Reply to Current Security

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

How to print notes with task list

bearmeat says:

Is there a way to print notes WITH the task list? In other words I would like to print a list of all tasks, including notes.

Reply to Moving an task between lists click-free?

gbpeter (Pro) says:

Hi andrewski,

thanks for the reply. I know of Smart Add, yes. But this allows me none of
- adding new lists
- moving existing tasks between lists

Guess I'll have a go at userscripts.org or create my own ;-)
Shouldn't be too hard to do

Cheers,
Ben

What to do with my backup file?

barbi.lazarus says:

I've read the help section and exported my backup file, but when I open up the file it's just an unreadable and unuseable mess of text and code.

How do I actually make use of the file if I was to lose my data and need to make use of this backup file?

Reply to Twitter bot down?

douglas.wong says:

is there any update on this issue?

i've tried deleting and starting over, but !today, !tomorrow and !gl don't work. The only command I see working is !confirmon.

Reply to I wish I could nest tasks (subtasks)

gourami (Pro) says:

Not exactly, but what I do is use the note function to add sub tasks.
Example
Task
Buy Car
Note
R&D cars
test drive top three
chose car
etc

Reply to Moved tasks to deleted list

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

If you saw a deleted list on the More Actions menu, something else must be going on. Do you have Gears installed? (If so, could you disable it for RTM?) Are you using Firefox? (If so, can you open it in safe mode to see if that affects the situation? You can find instructions on opening temporarily in safe mode on Mozilla's site.)

Hopefully the tasks aren't actually deleted and you're just not seeing them because of a bad cache problem.

Let me know what you find!

Reply to Stop Dates in tasks from becoming due dates

whizzard (Pro) says:

Funny, I just came in here to ask for exactly this change! Thanks steveshay for saving me the typing.

I've come close to making serious errors due to this issue - so far, I've always caught them before they matter (e.g. in my GTD weekly review) but it's only a matter of time before I miss one and it does matter.

(one thing that compounds the matter is that my "due dates" are more like "start dates" - I may not see an event until its date comes up. My next actions don't have dates at all - if I accidentally set a date for one, it won't appear in my next action lists. This is perhaps not how most people use RTM but I can't be alone here.)

So, +1

Reply to Syncing RTM with my G1

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Does this happen after resetting (removing the battery and replacing it) your device?

And if you edit one of the notes from the website, do changes make their way to the server?

Reply to I wish I could nest tasks (subtasks)

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

This has come up many times before on the forums. There's not a definitive answer on how you should organize your tasks; you may want to peruse the various topics to get an idea of what some other users do.

Reply to Exactly how to create a task by SMS?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

aarondick, you can send messages to Twitter via SMS.

Reply to So how is this different from calandar appointments?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

A lot of task/productivity methods will tell you upfront that calendar appointments are not the same thing as tasks (e.g. for the reasons davidbwagner mentions). Tasks being "due by" a date is a different idea than appointments that will occupy your time from one time to another.

Another (powerful) example of how you can use tasks differently than appointments is sleeper tags, as suggested by rajjan on the forums and highlighted on our blog.

Reply to Why are locations and tags treated so differently (SmartAdd pain)?

mehardin (Pro) says:

benb:

Barring said iPhone application, locations are simply tags with GPS coordinates. If you aren't using a smart phone that can take advantage of the "tasks near by" feature, you are just as well off using a tag instead of a location. Since you generally know if you are at home or at work, you don't really need those set up as locations. For the example you gave with home and work would work well with four tags, no locations.

"@work" for tasks that must be done AT work, regardless of whether they were personal or work related.

"@home" for tasks that must be done AT home, regardless of whether they are work related.

"work" for work related tasks, regardless of where you do them and,

"home" for personal tasks, regardless of where you do them.

Personally I don't use the last one. Anything that doesn't have a "work" tag is personal.

Reply to Adding notes quickly with Smart Add enabled?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Smart Add does make that 1-2 process a bit more cumbersome, so if it's that important to you, you may want to disable Smart Add.

On the other hand, you can use the j/k shortcuts to select the task you want to add the note, or you could click on the task's name in the status message at the top once it's been added; that will automatically select it.

Reply to Using Smart Add to create already-completed Tasks

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

We listen to all feedback, so consider it suggested. :)

Please review our reply policy for future features and development.

Reply to lots of useless locations

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

There's no way to group/tag locations like that, however you could name them as such, e.g. Vacation [temp].

Reply to Smart tag bug

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

It should go away after you refresh the page. (If your browser's being particularly persistent, you may want to clear your cache also.

Reply to lots of useless locations

mehardin (Pro) says:

Just attach the Google Maps link in the URL field instead of adding a location.

I almost never use locations. I use tags beginning with @ for locations because they are much easier to add on the fly than locations, and they don't have to be latitude/longitude specific, i.e. @walmart can be ANY walmart or @groceries can be at any grocery store.

Reply to Moving an task between lists click-free?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Hi gbpeter,
You're right; there's currently no shortcut for this.

One thing to keep in mind, in case it helps: you can use Smart Add to put tasks in a particular list when you create them. And you can change your default list (for things like sending tasks via Twitter or via email).

Reply to Exactly how to create a task by SMS?

mehardin (Pro) says:

You can use Jott$$ to send tasks to RTM via voice without routing through Twitter. I seldom do though because they all go to your inbox. I prefer to send them via SMS either through Twitter or my RTM inbox email address, so that I can use Smart Add to put them in the right list and add whatever metadata I want.

I don't know of a free solution to add tasks via SMS.

Current Security

mfpwork says:

Currently how secure is RTM?
If you are using https are both tasks and log-in encrypted?
Are the servers secure?
How is the user data stored on the servers?

Reply to Exactly how to create a task by SMS?

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

Are you familiar with Dial2Do? It is an application where you can call them and voice create a task for RTM.

Reply to Repeating limitations

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

I don't think so. When I had a task that needed to occur multiple times in a day, I created the task twice.

Reply to Tags with spaces

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

I think that tags a defaulted to have no spaces when they are remembered by RTM. If you want a space to appear in your tag name, you could use the underscore _ key to have workmeeting appear as work_meeting.

Reply to How to make tasks with due times show up first in list?

benb (Pro) says:

I think the reason is that when a due date is set without a time, RTM actually makes it due on 00:00 (or 12:00am) of that day. In other words, a due time is actually set even though you can't see it.

I think this could be easily fixed if RTM set the time to be 23:59 (or 11:59pm) of that day. That makes logical sense too, as the intention is clearly that it can be done at any time that day.

Reply to Completed Tasks This Week

thc says:

Nevermind. I changed it to read: completedWithin:"1 week of today"j and it works as expected. I should have tinkered with it before I submitted the forum post.

Completed Tasks This Week

thc says:

I have a saved search to show me what I've completed in the last week, and when I say week I mean seven days, but my query is based on the work-week, and I'm not sure how to retool it to say "in the last seven days".

Searched for: completedWithin:"1 week of Sunday"

Tags with spaces

binaryeric (Pro) says:

I followed the instructions on this page:

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/help/answers/tags/tagstask.rtm

"Note: To join two words together in one tag, use double quotes e.g. "work meeting"."

However, even when using quotations the above example gets changed to "workmeeting"

Can this be fixed?

Reply to Repeating limitations

binaryeric (Pro) says:

Is it possible to create a task that repeats in a smaller increment of time than 1 whole day?

Tag completed tasks

binaryeric (Pro) says:

I found this (now closed) topic

https://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/help/6050/

It has been a year and you still can't modify the tags for completed tasks. Is there any chance that this is going to change? It greatly impacts the ability of users to improve their organization as time passes. I don't want to modify the completed date if I can avoid it since it provides a useful record.

Sometimes I create a dedicated list for a specific project but after everything has been completed, I move the tasks into another (higher level) list. It would be great to be able to apply the tags to the completed tasks and then move the completed tasks.

Reply to How to make tasks with due times show up first in list?

binaryeric (Pro) says:

Yeah this is definitely a bizarre quirk of RTM.. "no time" is treated as earlier than 12:01am the same day.

I hope that the RTM team fixes this.

Moved tasks to deleted list

g.garrido says:

Hi,

First of all, I started using RTM about a week ago and I love it. It's a great service!

I was just organizing my tasks and I think I accidentally deleted a whole bunch of them. Here's what I did:
1. Deleted a smart list and all my tasks went to the inbox. Now I realize that I also deleted the list that happen to have all those tasks by mistake, so that is why they went to the inbox.
2. Not realizing I had deleted the actual list as well as the smart list I went to the inbox and moved the tasks back to the list they came from, which was actually deleted, but still appeared on the "more actions" menu. I guess that's what did it, because I moved the tasks there, but because the list was actually gone they seem to have gone into a black hole.

I've looked everywhere and they are just gone. They all had the same tag ("tickler") and that is gone as well, so it does seem the tasks were deleted even though I just meant to move them.

Anything that can be done to get them back?

Thanks!

Guillermo Garrido

Reply to Syncing RTM with my G1

vutterflykisses (Pro) says:

Yes. The notes I put into the website sync to my phone, but not vice versa.

Reply to How to make tasks with due times show up first in list?

dylan.eiler says:

Can anyone give me any ideas?
Thanks!

Reply to Due 1 weekday from now

ranbarton (Pro) says:

@steveshay - Terrific, thank you.

Reply to New feature: Introducing Smart Add

janvanderploeg (Pro) says:

Hi,

Are there plans to add the smart add function tot the iGoogle module? I'll use this module a lot, every day. So it would be a huge time saver for me.

Thanks!

Reply to Wildcards in "Tagged with" search field?

roebot (Pro) says:

I'd like wildcard search too.

I want a saved search I call "WaitingFor" that shows all the people tagged with a task. I've been tagging people with a "_" and had hoped I could query all of them.

:-(

I wish I could nest tasks (subtasks)

drumtrucker (Pro) says:

I don't see a way to do this (nubie). Is there?

Reply to "watch" a topic/thread - is this possible?

ranbarton (Pro) says:

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: you can subscribe to the feed of a forum's posts (e.g., http://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/help/?format=atom) and you can use various RSS-to-email services to alert you.

I just use Google Reader.

Reply to Exactly how to create a task by SMS?

aarondick (Pro) says:

The issue I have with using Twitter is that I can't find a good app in the Android Market that allows me to create Twitter messages using voice input.

I am currently using Handcent SMS on my HTC Hero phone and it's voice recognition is really good for creating sms messages. If I had a way to send that sms to RTM to put it on my task list it would make things a ton easier as I think of todo's driving down the road and need to get them on my task list. Sure, I can send them to myself and then cut and paste them later but that's not a very elegant solution. I'd appreciate any help you might be able to provide.

Report

bmr49er (Pro) says:

Is there a way to have a smart list that shows

List Name
Task 1
Task 2
Task...

Where each task is a task under that list name. What I would like to do is print all my list and all the task under them.

Thanks

Reply to So how is this different from calandar appointments?

davidbwagner (Pro) says:

Well, there are two things you can use dates for.

If you are using them for appointments, then you're right, those belong in a calendar and do not belong in a task list.

But if you're using them for a true deadline -- something has to be done BY a certain date but not ON that date necessarily -- then this is more flexible than a calendar. You can use your smartlists to show you all the things you have to get done in the next week. Where would you put info like that on a calendar?

Adding notes quickly with Smart Add enabled?

derek.gurney (Pro) says:

I often add a note when I create a task, and I used to be able to do that quickly by just using the shortcut "y"

Now with smart add, since the task doesn't remain selected, this process seems to have an extra, annoying step: I have to select it and then hit "y"

Am I missing a trick, or do I have to disable Smart Add to get the original functionality?

Reply to Syncing RTM with my G1

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

No, notes should definitely synchronize. Do notes added to the website synchronize to your G1? Let's start there and see what all we're dealing with.

Reply to Using Smart Add to create already-completed Tasks

spamboy (Pro) says:

Is this being considered as a feature? And if not, where can I suggest it?

Reply to Stop Dates in tasks from becoming due dates

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Thanks for posting back; this is on our list to investigate.

lots of useless locations

sek says:

Hello,

is it possible to tag a location with "just visiting 1 time" or something like that, and the u can delete them together?
The point is, i like the location feature, but most of them i visit only once, so atm i just attach a Googlemaps-Link to the task.

Importing from one RTM account to another

mattonthemoon (Pro) says:

I understand i cannot simply change my name of the account for RTM, so if i create a new account and close this account, is there an easy way to import my current tasks in my old RTM account to the new RTM account?

Thanks.

Smart tag bug

dfm says:

Apologies if this has already been reported. I looked for and didn't find it, but may have simply missed it.

When you use smart add and type # and the beginning of a tag name you get a bunch of autocompletion possibilities. Very good.

Now go and delete a tag. I correctly gets deleted from all the tasks that had it. But it still shows up as a possible autocompletion possibility. There doesn't seem to be anyway to make it go away, which can be pretty darn annoying if you've got one that was a one-time typo!

Moving an task between lists click-free?

gbpeter (Pro) says:

Hi all,

is there a way to move a task to a different list without going to the dropdown and selecting move to... from "more actions"?

This is something that I do quite often (esp when cleaning up my inbox), and I don't understand why there is no keyboard shortcut for that.
-- or maybe I'm just too dumb to figure. Can anyone help?

Cheers,
Ben

So how is this different from calandar appointments?

deedubau (Pro) says:

I upgraded to PRO because I love the web UI and the iphone combination is killer but i'm starting to realized that any tasks with due dates could just automatically be entered in google calendar. I do have a list for things I could eventually get done but do you guys have any tips on what else to add here that can't really be done in a calendar?

Reply to Import Google Tasks

anytech says:

Can you provide some more details? I have the same problem (tons of existing tasks, most with due dates).

Syncing RTM with my G1

vutterflykisses (Pro) says:

I have purchased a pro account and it is syncing my tasks, but when I add notes into my G1, it won't sync the notes to my RTM online account? Am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

Reply to Adding a new task - pick priority

steveshay says:

Also remember that if you do need to edit the task you just entered you can click on the link in confirmation message to select that task.

The confirmation method is above the list tabs and does not require you to scroll down to find that task

Reply to Stop Dates in tasks from becoming due dates

steveshay says:

If you surround a task with quotes you get the quotes in the task. I don't believe items should be in quotes unless they have a proper need to be quoted: read book "Getting Things Done" but not "Call Mom about Lunch on Friday"

The current method is especially irritating to me because of the parsing power of the smart add. There are so many ways to enter a date and it can be anywhere in the task so I often set dates by mistake. (interestingly, it appears that "now" has to be at the beginning or the end to set a due date)

You can't even use the word simple words without it setting a due date! (Assuming of course that I don't use quotes around every task)

entering the task: "Throw the milk out it sat on the counter all day" would set the due date for Saturday.

Thankfully I don't know anyone named Tom or simply forgetting to capitalize the T turns "shoot pool with tom" into "shoot pool with" and due tomorrow and would no longer show up on a search for tasks when I mentioned Tom.

"Buy 1/2 Socket Wrench" or "Buy milk, we are down to 1/2 gallon" both come out as due in January! I'll probably need it before then.

Not to mention all of times that I use the name of a day in a task "Update Monday morning reports to include new employees"

------------

You have a setting to turn off smart add can you split that into two options?

- Use Smart Date Parsing (tom or tomorrow sets a due date but the modifiers have no affect )
- Use Smart Add (allows any of the !, #, ^, *,@, = modifiers to work but does not parse a date string)

This way you can choose either or both of the options to use the system in the way that is most natural to you.

Reply to Adding Tasks to Today in Overview

ranbarton (Pro) says:

@Phil You are exactly right - the ability to place a smartlist in the bootom app on the iPhone would be great. I also would love to have the count on the app badge driven by a specified smartlist.

Reply to Gears Task Renaming Bug

eunsung says:

My mistake; there are two different problems. First, tasks are disappearing, and then reappearing upon sync. Second, due dates are being postponed by themselves.

This resulted in having five or six tasks of the same name appearing due today, while some of today's tasks are showing up later in the week.

Suffice it to say that syncing with Gears currently sucks.

Gears Task Renaming Bug

eunsung says:

I use RTM on Google Gears at home, where I have no internet, and then sync it at school, where I have the internet.

The problem is that occasionally, when I sync, some of my recently-created tasks are renamed to match the names of other tasks. There is no way to undo or "unsync", meaning that I essentially lose tasks (although I can sometimes figure out what the original should be if I've added a location or URL, etc.).

This is a deal-breaker. I can't be losing tasks; remembering tasks is why I use RTM. Has anyone else experienced this?

How to make tasks with due times show up first in list?

dylan.eiler says:

I have smart lists for overdue, today, and tomorrow - similar to the overview page. But there is one thing I can't seem to make it do.

I want to be able to make tasks with due times show up first in my today list. When I click on "sort by" and choose "due date", it shows all the tasks with no due time first in the list. Then all the tasks with due times show up last in list.

Thanks for your help!

Reply to Twitter bot down?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Thanks for testing. This is on our list to investigate; we'll see what we can find out.

Reply to Errors in iCalendar(Events) creation

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

The location will be added to the notes field of the event in iCalendar.

Reply to Search for "Emailed In"

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Like I mentioned before, that could be a problem with the message being wrapped onto multiple lines. Does this happen with tasks that have shorter names?

Reply to Can't set default list...

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

This could likely be a browser/cache problem.

Gears may cause loss of data or problems like you're seeing. Can you check to see if you have it installed? The easiest way to do so is to look on the header of the website for either Offline (no Gears) or a green arrow (Gears). You can also look under the Tools menu to see if Gears Settings is listed there or on Google's site for more instructions specific to your OS/browser.

If that doesn't help, which browser are you using?

Let me know what you find!

Reply to Using Smart Add to create already-completed Tasks

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

No, Smart Add doesn't offer the ability to add a completed task; you'll still need to add them and then complete them.

Reply to Adding a new task - pick priority

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

One more thing - see http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2009/09/introducing-smart-add-a-smarter-way-to-add-your-tasks/ for more on Smart Add.

Reply to Adding a new task - pick priority

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

Kristen,

Hi. If you use the Smart Add bar to create your task, you can assign the priority within the task. Use an exclamation point ! then 1, 2 or 3 for the priority. For example:

Check the RTM Blog for helpful information !3.

Hope this helps,
Leah

Reply to Twitter bot down?

biancolo (Pro) says:

Hi Andrew,

No dice, I'm afraid. I was able to delete and start over, and got a SMS confirmation message that that was successful. But then I did:

D rtm test !1

... and it made it into my Inbox, but no SMS confirmation.

Jim

Reply to Managing the priority of whole projects

newmilkentry (Pro) says:

Yes to some extent. Maybe, because of the way I have it set up, it would be easiest after all just to stop setting next actions in the project that's suspended. :-)

Reply to Errors in iCalendar(Events) creation

bergadario says:

That's exacltly the problem I'm stuck into! Thanks for clearing my doubts. What about Location field instead? Is there a similar problem for Location too?

Reply to Search for "Emailed In"

markwilliams12 says:

So here's more SmartAdd goofiness.

Two tasks today I entered via gmail as per usual and with the ^saturday tag and both tasks had no due date when received into RTM.

They appeared in my inbox as two separate tasks named "^saturday" also due on saturday.

What's up with that?

Can't set default list...

headgamer says:

I keep trying to set one of my lists as the default list, so that when my secretary emails me a task to complete it goes into the "Tasks FPS" list, not the Inbox. I set it as the default list, but every time I close RTM and open it back up, it's no longer the default list. How to I get a list selected as default to STAY THAT WAY?

Sean

Adding a new task - pick priority

kristin.mortenson (Pro) says:

It makes me add the task, then the new task goes down somewhere in my list, then I have to find it to set the priority. Can you make a way to set new task priority while creating task? example make the little priority "key" floating on the right actually a selectable way to set the task priority of a new task versus just a read-only thing.

Reply to A list that isn't integrated into RTM

7sl says:

I just realised I could simply put a number at the start of the task to order them properly and without a due date they won't appear on the overview.

Problem solved!

A list that isn't integrated into RTM

7sl says:

Hi,

I want to make a list of things I need to complete on a current project. I don't want them to show up in the overview and I want them to appear in the order I put them in. (Either up or done, I don't care).

Any ideas how I can do this?

Reply to Moving notes

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Notes are inherently tied to the task where they were created; there's unfortunately no way to move/merge them.

You could, however, copy and paste the text into a new note where you want it to be.

Hope that helps. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Reply to Search for tasks with due times but not whole day events

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

You could do something like this for today's tasks by searching for dueAfter:today dueBefore:tomorrow. "Today" internally means "today at midnight", so this bit of searching will work this way.

Maybe you could string this together with some relative searches, one pair for each day, to get something useful to you?

Reply to Twitter bot down?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

biancolo,
I meant to click the "Delete and start over" button on the Twitter service page. Let me know if you still have this problem after doing that.

Reply to Stop Dates in tasks from becoming due dates

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Actually, you hinted at it right there: just surround the name in quotation marks (as mentioned in our FAQ.

You can mix that with Smart Add syntax too, e.g. "Cancel appt with Dr. Smith on Friday" due tomorrow #Phone !1

Hope this helps!

Using Smart Add to create already-completed Tasks

spamboy (Pro) says:

I wanted to know if Smart Add could be used to create a new Task that is already marked as Completed. This is useful to me as follows:

I sometimes complete a task before I have the ability to write it down, but I want to have a record of doing so which I can later recall for use in status reporting at work, etc. Therefore, it would be useful to have the power to Smart Add a task so I can record its completion immediately.

Currently, I have to create the task, then I have to select and complete it.

Reply to Due 1 weekday from now

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Consider it requested. ;)

Reply to Keyboard input for everything about a task

disappearedng (Pro) says:

Wow thanks man that's so convenient

Keep up the good work

Reply to Moving notes

sianliu (Pro) says:

Or if there is a way to merge notes that'd be great too. Thanks!

Moving notes

sianliu (Pro) says:

Hello everyone, i would like to move all my notes one task to another in different lists.

Is there a way to do that?

Thanks and love RTM!

Repeating Task

steveshay says:

Is is possible to have a task that repeats on Thursday following the first Tuesday?

Reply to Search for tasks with due times but not whole day events

seanwest says:

I've been wondering this exact same thing.

My reason for wanting it is that I would like tasks that have a specific time to show up on my Google Calendar but including "all day" tasks clutters it up.

If I could search for items that have a due date with a specific time then I could save that search and use its RSS to populate my calendar.

Reply to Twitter bot down?

biancolo (Pro) says:

Hi Andrew,

Interestingly, when I did "d rtm !confirmon" I got a confirmation text back telling me confirmations are on. But when I then did "d rtm test", the task made it to my inbox, but no confirmation.

When you suggest "starting over the connection", what do you mean? Unfollow/follow rtm, or delete my phone and re-add it?

Thanks!

Jim

Stop Dates in tasks from becoming due dates

steveshay says:

Is there a way to stop the dates in my tasks from automatically turning into due dates?

If I enter a task such as: "Cancel appt with Dr. Smith on Friday"

It isn't due on Friday it would be too late to cancel and I don't want the due date set at all.

If I do want a due date I can always use the smart add syntax.

Reply to Move location

davidbwagner (Pro) says:

You're supposed to complete everything on your "home" list before you move! :-D

Reply to Move location

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

We apologize for the inconvenience!

Reply to Sharing Locations?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Locations are not shared across accounts; you would have to add them separately. You could also use lists or tags to manage shared tasks as those are transferred across.

Reply to Setting a Time Estimate and syncing to ical

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

No; the time estimate does not map to the duration in the iCalendar.

This has come up before with some examples.

Reply to Event iCal for a Smart List

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

We've heard of this problem before. It seems to be sporadic, as it seems to only hit at certain times. Most people have noticed that the calendars will update, eventually, and stay current, just not as quickly as necessary to notice daily updates.

Would it be possible to test in another iCalendar-supporting service? Some are listed on our website (with links to steps for each on setting it up).

That will help us determine whether you're seeing the problem on Google's side (not accepting iCalendar feeds) or something different. As far as we can tell so far, there only seems to be a problem with Google.

Reply to Due 1 weekday from now

chad.burkins (Pro) says:

Bummer, but thanks for the reply. Is there a way to request a new feature ?

Reply to Adding Tasks to Today in Overview

philbowell (Pro) says:

Ok thanks for your help Andrew.

It'd be neat if we could set a smart list to be in the bottom navigation bar on the iPhone to make it easier switching between lists.

@david, Thanks for the pointer. I guess when I was refining the set up of my lists I missed the simple stuff.

Reply to Why are locations and tags treated so differently (SmartAdd pain)?

hansv (Pro) says:

Locations are great if you use (for example) the iPhone application, which is actually location aware. You can create smart lists that display "tasks near by" where near-by is a range that can be set in the search query.

Repeating limitations

binaryeric (Pro) says:

I came across a limitation today that surprised me. I was expecting to be able to express a multiplier along with a unit of time such as

2 x per day

or

3 x per week

1 x per hour

etc.

What I actually needed was twice a day... which is a pretty common medicine taking schedule. It would have been nice to put this into RTM as one task that repeats every 12 hours or 2x per day. The only work around is to create 2 tasks...the "morning" task and the "night" task which I don't think should really be required.

Allowing a multiplier and a unit I would think would be much more extendable.

Reply to Move location

binaryeric (Pro) says:

Sorry RTM team but this seems a bit ridiculous. I find it impossible to believe that this would be a difficult change to the RTM web app.

I just went in to make the exact same type of change and looked around & around & around for how to do it... It didn't occur to me that it wasn't possible, since it seems like such a simple need.

Sharing Locations?

sdague (Pro) says:

My wife and I just started using RTM, and I'm curious how we might share our locations (I'm hoping we don't have to plug them in independently). Makes setting up shopping lists a lot easier.

Setting a Time Estimate and syncing to ical

mymuzeinc (Pro) says:

I am setting a time estimate and syncing to ical. If I enter at time estimate, say 6 hrs, it shows up in ical as a time estimate of 1 hr. Am I doing something wrong?

Reply to Twitter bot down?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Have you tried toggling confirmations? If that doesn't help, could you try deleting and starting over the connection with RTM?

This sounds similar to a problem Twitter experienced last week, but we haven't yet heard anything regarding a system problem this time. We'll keep our eyes open.

Reply to Due 1 weekday from now

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

No, there'd be no way to use the "inheritance" feature within this kind of search; you could use due:tomorrow but, of course, that would include weekends.

Reply to Is there a limit to the number of notes?

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

No, there's no limit; the only problem you may run into is scrolling the page if your notes are very long. :)

Reply to Task not showing in Google Calendar

andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:

Those instructions provide a special "calendar" that shows the checkmark, clicking which gives you an embedded task list.

It sounds like you might want the iCalendar service.

Reply to Keyboard input for everything about a task

funkeye (Pro) says:

Smart add was introduced a few months back. This takes care of this.

Due dates can be parsed out automatically (Do Something Tomorrow)
Tags / lists can be identified with the "#" (Do something with a #tag)
Priorities use the "!" identifier (Do something important !1)
Repeating uses "*" (A task that repeats *daily)
Locations use "@"

If you click the "?" next to the task input box, you will see this exact same information.

Your task could be input as "Grocery Tomorrow #sobe #carpool"

This will (should) also work in any 3rd party applications you use, since this is included in the API.

Reply to Keyboard input for everything about a task

leah.shalom (Pro) says:

disappearedng,

Yes, there is a way to enter all of the data for a task in the create a new task input box - use the Smart Add feature. I suggest you read through Bob's blog post about Smart Add at http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2009/09/introducing-smart-add-a-smarter-way-to-add-your-tasks/. You may also want to search the forums by Smart Add for more information.