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Add another task focus state

paddyinhr says:

Currently there are two task selection states: hover and checked. This can be difficult to work with because clicking anywhere on the task also checks the box. I would like to see clicking on the task merely giving focus to the task (say a dark border around the row containing the task), so that I could edit the currently focused task. There should only be one task with focus at any given time.

This would allow rapid task editing without worrying about whether another task is checked, and thus having to proceed all my editing tasks with a press of the "n" key. This is esp. an issue when using the Delete key.

The check state would thus work only with the menus above the task list, which seems more intuitive. But I haven't used RTM that much yet, so perhaps other experienced users would disagree. I would be interested to hear others' thoughts on this.

Posted at 11:04pm on June 1, 2006

paddyinhr says:

Just to clarify, the three states would be: hover, focus, checked instead of just the current hover, checked.

Posted at 5:53am on June 2, 2006

tombodger Pro says:

I'd be happy with only one way of selecting. I find the current system of ticking tasks to use the top menu and focusing on them to edit the details of a task counter-intuitive.

It would be nice to be able to tick multiple tasks and then change the details (eg due date or tags) all at once.

I find that if I'm not careful I'll select a task at the bottom of the list, then roll over another one and end up editing the wrong one...

I'm sure I'll get used to it - it's just a bit different to how I'd expect it.

Posted at 3:29am on June 4, 2006

michael.fessler says:

I am also getting frustrated with the way that focus works. I support the idea of one focussed task at a time, with control-click or shift-click, or checkboxes, being required to select multiple tasks. This is particularly problematic when a task list is longer than can fit on the screen, so I don't know if something else off-screen is checked -- especially if it remained checked after I did something to it.

This is frankly my biggest UI headache with RTM, and I'm considering switching to something else like voo2do because of it.

I suppose that there could be a preference setting for old-style or new-style selection, to avoid inconveniencing those who like the way it works now.



Posted at 3:31pm on June 7, 2006

shane.patrick says:

couldn't agree more with regard to the "focus frustration" and agree that at least for some of us, the current approach is very counter intuitive. I am currently evaluating several to-do list tools right now and RTM is in the running, but Toodledo may win out because of this navigation headache (that and RTMs lack of sub-tasks).

Posted at 7:53pm on July 14, 2008

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