#Taskpaper app software#

Just click File-Open Application Folder in the menu to open a Finder window, open the theme.less file in a text editor, and add your theme code. You can theme TaskPaper using Less/CSS syntax or grab one of the themes posted in the TaskPaper support forums. In other words, TaskPaper is more suited to the way I work. Moreover, my outlining needs are task-based and rarely require different templates or styles from one project to another. Too often I find myself fiddling with how various levels look instead of getting tasks out of my head. I have often used OmniOutliner for this sort of outlining/task planning process when working on a big project, but OmniOutliner’s styles system has always been a little confusing to me. I can brainstorm ideas, move them around, and because everything is plain text, I can easily move items to other apps later if I want. At the early stages when I’m still unsure of what I need to do and in what sequence, TaskPaper is perfect. TaskPaper is essentially a task outliner, which is one reason I enjoy it so much for planning a task-heavy project. If what I just described sounds a lot like an outliner app, it’s because it is. You can also focus on one project at a time by selecting it in the left sidebar or Option-clicking a project’s handle. The dot, which is a pale red outline when expanded, becomes a brighter filled-in dot when items are collapsed, giving you a visual cue that there are items hidden from view without being distracting. Collapsing tasks under a project or a parent task is easy too – click on the same red dot that you use to reorder items. To reorder items, drag them by the little red dot at the beginning of an item. The ‘ tag can also be added by clicking on the dash at the beginning of a task. Tags are added by using an followed by a keyword, like ‘ ‘ is a special tag for finished tasks that display as strikethrough text. Notes are any text without a dash at the beginning or colon at the end, and are displayed as italics in TaskPaper. Shift-tab shifts a task to the left, promoting it in the hierarchy. Just press the Tab key anywhere within an item and it shifts to the right.

You don’t have to be at the beginning of the line of text to make it a subtask, which I love. To make a task a subtask of another task, press the Tab key. Planning my part of MacStories Weekly #25.Ĭreating a task is as simple as typing a dash and a space. As soon as you type the colon, the text is formatted in a bold typeface that distinguishes it from tasks or notes. The colon is the key that lets TaskPaper know you are creating a project. You create a project by typing something link ‘ Write TaskPaper review:’. The lack of UI chrome and fast, easy access to features through keyboard commands makes dashing off a list of tasks for the day effortless. TaskPaper feels like my Field Notes in many ways. Other times, writing a list in a notebook is a good way of thinking through and organizing a project in a way that doesn’t work as well for me in 2Do. 2Do is great, but when I have a lot to get done and limited time, writing down the three or four things I need to (and can) get done in a day is sometimes better than wading through 2Do where I have dozens of tasks stored. The allure of a short list written in a notebook is simplicity. I currently use 2Do, which is powerful, flexible, and cross-platform, but I still find myself jotting down task lists in a Field Notes notebook frequently. I have used several task managers over the years. Using a simple syntax reminiscent of Markdown and an abundance of keyboard shortcuts, Taskpaper’s straightforward interface conceals considerable power under the hood. The cornerstone and greatest strength of TaskPaper is plain text, which is portable, adaptable, and as future proof as you can get.

#Taskpaper app software#

TaskPaper 3 by Hog Bay Software is a deceptively simple task manager.