Forums / Ideas

How would you sort by tags? Considering you could have 10 tags, which one would it sort by and how useful would that really be?

Posted 4 years ago

erik

I think I suggested this a long time back, but how about showing the tags directly in the list? Something like the way gmail displays labels from the list view. In my opinion, the hover properties thing is flashy but not so functional. I'd rather have more information available on my tasks all the time and not just when I have selected a single task.

Posted 4 years ago

ranbarton

Perhaps you could specify the tags that mattered for the sort? So that of my 300 tags, I only cared about my six context tags?

Much more on sorting over here: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/ideas/3145/#12497

Posted 4 years ago

ranbarton

Erik, Gmail's labels are a great model for how tags could be exposed within the list - this would be very helpful in smart lists where the context of a task may be lost.

Posted 4 years ago

I agree - I would love it. I would set my next actions smartlist to sort by tag. I would probably keep the rest of my lists sorted by task name and/or priority.

Posted 4 years ago

Sort by tags would be helpful because it would group tags together. It would be fine if it sorted the tags alphabetically. I would really appreciate this added functionality.

Lowell

Posted 4 years ago

My vote is this option

Posted 4 years ago

+1
I organize my projects per tag and I am not going to create 10 smart lists for each project

Posted 3 years ago

+1, for exactly the same reason as garnierjm

Posted 2 years ago

osmaneralp

This is a great idea. I would love to be able to print one list that had all my @phone tasks listed together, all my @phone tasks together, and so on.

Posted 2 years ago

I use a list for my grocery shopping - and I think it would be really great to sort a list by the tag -- so that my "grocery shopping list" could be sorted by items tagged produce, dairy, meats, bakery etc. I can think of lots of good uses for this, this is just an example.

Posted 2 years ago

YES! I'm eager to be able to sort by tags and, as osmaneralp says, be able to print groups of tasks relative to the context/location of what I have to do

Posted 2 years ago

I figured it out: use smartlists! Check out "Tips & Tricks" forum for Tuesday, June 23, 2009 by Emily Boyd about how to make smart lists. I made one for each of my 6 tags and now they show up right along with my folder tabs at the top of the main tasks window.

Posted 2 years ago

ranbarton

Smart lists are wonderful, but the desire of sorting by tag is to permit one to have one list where the tasks are logically grouped within it, rather than having to refer to multiple lists. This is useful for export, for Gcal, for printing, and for assessing relative effort across multiple areas.

Per-list, multi-variate, customizable sorting remains in my mind one of the areas RTM could really easily improve their task management without having to revamp the UI drastically.

Posted 2 years ago

wohler

I'd like to see sorting by tags too.

To answer lwallach's question using sarah.whitfield's example, let's say you have the following tags: groceries, produce, dairy, meats, bakery. All of your groceries are tagged with groceries and one of the others.

Your smart list would filter on tags:groceries. RTM would then sort on tags by first removing any tags from the sort that appear in all items in the view--groceries, in this case. It would then sort the remaining tags and then sort the tasks with those tags in that order. Within each tag, it would sort by priority, due date, and alphabetical order (as it does now by default). If a task has more than one tag (not counting the primary tag such as groceries), the task is sorted by the smallest tag.

In addition to groceries, my use cases include packing lists.

Thanks!

Posted 2 years ago

I'd much prefer to just click the Sort by box and select Tags.

Posted 2 years ago

wohler

Yes, that's precisely what the user would do!

I was describing what the user would expect to see after he or she selected "tags" in the sort by list.

Posted 2 years ago

tobias.voigt

+1 for what mdfloyd1 said. "Sort by tag" as an option in the "sort by" box, that is definitely the feature I miss most in the entire RTM universe.

Posted 2 years ago

This is a tough situation. Since we all have different tagging schemas, we all want different tag sorting schemas. The systems suggested above would work for the individuals suggesting them, but not for most of us. And it seems like the only use for them is for a secondary use of RTM - keeping shopping lists. And there have been some excellent suggestions in other threads on this subject to get a grocery list sorted by aisle without having to add a major feature to RTM that would suit but a few.

I'd much prefer that the developers devote their time to something like incorporating weekdays into the duration and repeating schemas that are more directly in concert with RTM's primary purpose, task management, and more likely to benefit the majority of users. I very much doubt there's a tag sorting methodology that would suit more than a small fraction of RTM's users.

Posted 2 years ago

wohler

@cdhsman: Your view is in the minority, at least in this thread. The workarounds in other threads (creating additional lists) are really unacceptable; my list tabs already fill the page! I have absolutely no need of duration, and I can say as easily as you that this is the same view as the majority of users (since you didn't cite a reference).

Note that a shopping lists is not the only use case. I would use the sort by tag feature for a half-dozen packing and standing todo lists that I have. Others can certainly cite additional use cases.

Note that your post was not constructive in any way and was too full of subjective opinion. It is up to the developers to determine which feature is the most popular, and negative posts such as yours do not help. It occurs to me that you've probably added this note to all feature requests which don't suit your personal fancy.

Definitely not cool.

Posted 2 years ago

Thanks for you're highly objective, totally constructive and utterly cool reply! :)

I guess if no negative opinions are allowed, that would explain why mine is the only one. Someone please point me to the guidelines saying one can't post against a suggestion, if done politely and in a constructive way.

Posted 2 years ago

+1 for Sort by Tag ... surely this would be quite easy to implement ? pleeeeeease RTM :)

Posted 2 years ago

bseils

+1 this would be great, for organizing shopping lists. I currently have to pre-pend all my shopping items with a code to sort them for easy access at the grocery store.

Posted 2 years ago

+1 totally... please please please... ;)
i was quite surprised that this does not already exist along with all the other cool functionality you already have ;)

Posted 2 years ago

I just came on to post about this and see that I already did back in January of 2008. I really hope we can add this - even just a simple alpha sort by tags of a list (just like priority, due date or task name). Would be so helpful!

Posted 2 years ago

kirbydanielle

I agree with tobias.voigt, mdfloyd1 and others to "Sort by tag" as an option in the "sort by" box. Not just for grocery lists: I tag my work tasks by project, and would like to sort by project without having to go through multiple smartlists. This is a huge big deal in my world and is making me look at exporting my lists to another program in January when my pro membership runs out.

Posted 2 years ago

ranbarton

This was a good suggestion two years ago, and it is still a good idea. I know that sorting by tag can present a range of UI difficulties, but I think it would be very powerful for a wide range of users and use cases.

Posted 2 years ago

mossoffa

Are we still waiting for sort by tag functionality? I'd like to use tags to group my grocery list, and a sort by tag is the only way I can think to do it.

Posted 2 years ago

wohler

Yes, we are still waiting.

I've found yet another need for sort-by-tags at work. I'm working around the problem by creating a single task and adding the sub-tasks to the task's note (rather than create separate tasks with additional tags). I make the sub-tasks active by cut and pasting them from the note into tasks. But it would be much better to make them all tasks and just give them additional tags.

I'd suggest that a RTM representative add a note here to give us the status on this request. If we don't hear in a week. we can only assume they have not seen this thread at all. In that case, the Pro members should probably all submit a support request and reference this thread (forums/ideas/3158).

Posted 2 years ago

wohler, we read every post in these forums (and take everything into consideration as we further develop RTM!), but we can't comment on individual feature requests -- please see our FAQ for more info. Thanks! :)

Posted 2 years ago

Also need this badly.

Posted 2 years ago

sambagrrl07

+1 ditto on sorting grocery lists by aisle, which sorting by tags would help implement

Posted 2 years ago

dftranslink

+1 - would largely make up for my desire for nested tasks/subtasks

Posted 2 years ago

+1 here for tag sorting as well! This is an awesome product. If there was a Palm app for my Centro, it would be well worth the Pro membership...

Posted 2 years ago

+1 here for sorting by tags!
It would be nice to just click the Sort by box and select Tags.

Posted 2 years ago

ianfong1000

I'd also like sorting by tags within a list... like others have said, it would partially compensate for not having subtasks...

Posted 2 years ago

Just started using this program on my MotoDroid - LOVE it and will be showing my husband how to use it tomorrow so that he can add things quickly from his Blackberry instead of trying to call or e-mail while it is on his mind (and before he forgets it again).

Honestly, I was confused when I tried to do a "sort by tags" within a task tab. I simply *assumed* (yes, horrible I know) that with all the other functionality RTM has, that this was a "given". I really thought that I had stayed up WAY too late and was missing it. But now I see after searching and searching, that it is not a part of the current program.

PLEASE add this function!

Subtasks would be great as well, since there are so many things that have many parts to be completed before they actually are *complete*. But I respect that you want to keep the function simple. Adding one more sort field would be GREAT.

Posted 2 years ago

+1 I was wondering how to do this as well, my shopping list is all over the place and sorting by tags would put it all in nice neat groups

Posted 1 year ago

+1 for the same reason as lowelltindell.

Posted 1 year ago

+1 I just changed over from using ThinkingRock and was really surprised that RTM does not have a more powerful sort feature. Like darcey.denton above, I just assumed that this feature would be available given the pleathora of other excellent features RTM offers. Please add this feature! I'd even pay extra for it.

Posted 1 year ago

I didnt read the whole conversation here but for me it would be really useful to print out a check list that is sorted by tags or lists then priority and due date....
Eg
I have 10 key accounts to work with
Company X
Company Y
Company Z

When I print out a checklist I'd like to have everything on one sheet
Company X
task1
task2
task3

Company Y
task1
task2
task3

Company Z
task1
task2
task3

Cheers,
Meli

Posted 1 year ago

I also understand this is an individual request but it looks like it's not only me who's missing this feature.

Posted 1 year ago

alice.carback

For the list I am looking at, sort by tag (tag name a-z or z-a) then by the regular priority and date

Posted 1 year ago

Please do this. More sorting options don't seem that difficult...just sort tags alphabetically as if they were prepended to the start of the task's name.

For the record I also want sorting by date added...why not do both at the same time? :-)

Posted 1 year ago

azziee

+1 for Sort by Tag!
It will be obviously Good Interface about default pageview!

Posted 1 year ago

+1
I agree with the others.

Posted 1 year ago

christopher.baker

YES!!!

Posted 1 year ago

+1
Could be a useful also to have a sort of "subtasking" (main task = tag).

Posted 1 year ago

+1

Posted 1 year ago

why don't you do it by colour coding the task groups?

Posted 1 year ago

jrcroom3

Sort/group by tags (like melinda.balazs said) and color code. Outlook has done it for years.

Posted 1 year ago

tatiana.colli

@ olivetre But there are only 3 colors available and I'm sure many of us have more task groups than that

Posted 1 year ago

+ more

Posted 1 year ago

+1

Posted 1 year ago

osarjeant

It sounds like a similar issue that google is against in gmail. The claim is that the search functionality provides a more robust method for finding items with a given tag/label while maintaining a simple interface. Given the many variations of possible tags, the UI for sorting tagswould never satisfy the majority of users without becoming overly cumbersome. If 20 task have the tag "office" the they still need to be 'sorted'. If a task has multiple tags how do you place it in the grouping. Sorting is best left to the three main segregations: priority, due date, name.

However, there is a compromise. Custom sorting. Simply put, if each task in a list (not a smart list) could have a 'csort' number this would allow anyone to arrange their list as they see fit. It would also give RTM checklist functionality. The only programing needed would be to add a feature to the general task class called 'csort', which is a simple integer. You don't even need to provide error checking, because task could have the same 'csort' number and simply show up together similar to the priority sorting functionality.

This would allow me to have three task:
Read
Write
Publish

Show up in my list like:
1) Read
2) Write
3) Publish

If I added the task 'Think' with csort=2 then it would appear as:
1) Read
2) Think
2) Write
3) Publish

And a task 'No Sort' with csort=null as:
1) Read
2) Think
2) Write
3) Publish
No Sort

To make it more robust there could be a function in the drop down menu to increase/decrease csort value for task, allowing easay multi task editing of the csort index.

That's my 2 cents. Feedback is appreciated.

Posted 1 year ago

I use the GTD system whereby tasks are sorted by context. Therefor I use lists to group Projects/Areas of responsibility and tags to define context. I would LOVE a sort by tags feature. I just want the list to group items of like tags together, so simple and so frustratingly absent.

Posted 1 year ago

+1 .. showing tags and being able to sort by them is OBVIOUSLY needed as an option

Posted 1 year ago

kkiarsis

Yes please! An alpha sort on tag name would be fantastic.

Posted 1 year ago

jondcoleman

+1 PLEASE!!!

Posted 1 year ago

yes, please !

Posted 1 year ago

+1 badly needed

Posted 1 year ago

goombagrl

Shocked this feature isn't there... please add this!!!

Posted 1 year ago

+1

Posted 1 year ago

I would also love to be able to sort by tags, I'm trying to set up a GTD system, and would like to be able to sort my next actions by project

Posted 1 year ago

kanzlr

yepp, same as tobbesjufem.

tagged "na" on top, tagged "waiting" at the bottom. as easy as that :)

Posted 11 months ago

A definite need!

Posted 11 months ago

rawfish61

amazing that after 6 years still talking about sorting by tags...I am a consultant and have work tasks for multiple clients. I use the tags by client. Would love it if they grouped together...I'd settle for alpha sort.

Posted 10 months ago

Agree with sentiments here - crazy you cannot sort by tags. Competitors can, but not RTM.

Posted 9 months ago

tdekov

I agree sorting by tags will be very helpful!

Posted 9 months ago

Also agree and would love to be able to sort by tags. Even better would be a multi level sort - for example sort by tags then by priority.

Posted 8 months ago

polyhedralbliss

Yes, a custom "multi-level" sort function would be one of my primary requests.
Thank you.

Posted 8 months ago

timgtd

Sorting by tags (contexts) when using RTM for GTD is mandatory!

Posted 7 months ago

ranbarton

I think this sorting request should be merged with this one here (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/ideas/11914/), which is (as far as I can tell) the mother of all "More sorting options, please!" thread.

Posted 5 months ago

jeremy.richardson

this is the same as idea 6479.

please merge these so we can get the voting weight correct!

Posted 8 weeks ago

anavas

Please add this feature. Thank you

Posted 8 days ago