Previous help article (Working with Budgets)

Back to Version Summary

Next help article (Working with Notes)

The Organized Wedding Consultant Online Help: Working with Task Lists

Views discussed: By Date, By Category, Original Tasks, Custom Tasks

As a professional, perhaps the most important thing to understand about task lists is that you can control which tasks the software creates for you when you add new clients. This feature allows you to mold the whole task-list section to match the particular way you do business. Before we get to using this ability, though, we'll discuss how the task list works for a particular client. The place to start is "By Date", under "Task List" in the left-hand menu.

In this view of the task list, you see all of the tasks associated with a particular client broken down by the time block in which the tasks should be completed. The time blocks tend to be larger the further they are away from the wedding, and they become more specific as you get down to the wedding itself.

If you click the green "+" next to one of the time blocks, it opens up to reveal all of the tasks that should be completed in that interval. You can think of these tasks either in terms of the dates they are due, or in terms of how many days are left before they're due -- there are checkmarks on the right-hand side of the window to show either one sort of information or the other (or both).

You can also click in the "Done" column, without double-clicking to see the details, to mark a task as being completed or not.

If you double-click a task, you'll see a window in which you can change everything about the task: the wording, when it's due, to whom it's been delegated (if anybody), etc.

Reminders

One of the things you'll see when you edit a task (by double-clicking on the task) is a box labeled "Remind me before the task is due." If you check this box, the program will automatically pop up a message reminding you about the task, starting on whatever day you'd like before the task is due. This feature only works when the program is running, so if you use this feature you should get in the habit of "minimizing" the application (shrinking it down to a button at the bottom of the screen) when you're not using the program instead of exiting the program when you switch over to some other activity.

Notes

Find a task in the list that has "(more…)" following the write-up of the task, and double-click the task. You'll see that in the task details, there's an area called "Notes" that gives additional information about the task. There's often useful information in the notes, so double-clicking tasks that say "(More…)" is a good idea. Or, you can click the box labeled "Show notes" on the right-hand side of the task list, and the notes will be displayed along with the descriptions of the tasks.

The List Customizer

If you look through the task list, you'll see that some of the tasks, especially early on, refer to the "List Customizer". If you find one of these tasks and double-click it, you'll see what the list customizer does: these tasks have notes, but the notes aren't merely words. The notes of these tasks contain special "links", in blue, that you can click to make major changes to the task list. Is the reception site "full service" or a place where you'll need to provide a lot of the necessities yourself? Will the event be indoors or outdoors? And so on. Just click the appropriate blue box when you make your decision, and entire new groups of tasks are either added to or removed from the task list to reflect the decision. This feature is one of the great things about the program's task list: as you make decisions, the task list adapts itself automatically to reflect the tasks that are appropriate for the client's particular situation, not just a "generic wedding".

Printing the Task List

If you want to print out the task list for a client, you should first use "Find" (in the "Edit" menu, in the top-left corner of the main window) to search for "List Customizer" (described above) and make sure that any "List Customizer" decisions coming up soon are taken care of. After all, your client won't be able to click on the piece of paper to make the decisions that shape the task list! You might also check "Show notes" on the right-hand side of the task list, so that all of the notes are included in the printed list. To print, click "File" in the top-left menu, then either "Print" or "Print Preview".

Seeing the Tasks You Want

On the right-hand side of the task list, there's a box that indicates which tasks are being shown at the moment, with a button underneath it that says "Change". If you click the button, you can specify what sorts of tasks are displayed in the list: all tasks (including completed ones), only tasks that are left to do, tasks that are coming up soon, etc. If you click the "Additional Conditions" button (which you'll see when you're choosing the kind of tasks to show) you have even more options. If you needed to, you could make the list show only tasks coming up soon related to the cake that have been delegated to somebody other than "Tim"! (If you restrict the list to show only tasks related to a particular event, the task list will reorganize itself so that the time blocks are all relative to the chosen event, not the wedding.)

Adding Pre-defined Categories

Going back to the left-hand menu, you'll see "By Category" underneath "By Date" (where we've been working so far). Most aspects of the "By Category" view are the same as in "By Date" except that they're organized by category instead. There is, however, one additional tool in "By Category" that isn't available in "By Date": adding pre-defined categories of tasks. If, for instance, you need to arrange photography for a shower -- an event that doesn't usually have a photographer -- you can click "Add Category from List" on the right-hand side of the window. Choose "Photography (Paid Professional)" from the window that appears next, and choose the shower as the event. When you click "OK", all of the tasks associated with finding a photographer are automatically added to your list, all referring to the shower instead of the wedding and reception. On a more mundane level, you can also use "Add Category from List" to replace a category of tasks if you accidentally delete one.

Controlling what Goes in the Lists

As a professional, you'll find that the real fun with task lists starts here. Instead of simply accepting the task lists that we create for you, you have the ability to tailor your own lists to be created automatically when you add new clients. You decide which of our categories you don't want and which of your own custom-made categories you do want to include with every new client. This process has two parts:

1. Getting rid of categories you don't want: this part is controlled by "Original Tasks" under "Default Client Info" in the left-hand menu. This list shows all of the task categories that the software knows how to add automatically and the conditions under which it normally adds them. Orange circles under a category indicate that a task in that category uses the "List Customizer" (described above) to add some other category to the list (the category that can be added is named after the orange circle). The orange circles are there to remind you that if you get rid of the category, you might also get rid of the ability to add the categories listed beside the orange circles. (Although you can always add the categories yourself by clicking "Add Category from List", described above). The point of the list as a whole, however, is the checkboxes on the left-hand side -- if you uncheck one of these boxes, that category will no longer be automatically included in new clients' task lists. This procedure allows you to get rid of our task categories.
   
   Note: A common question is why you uncheck whole categories at once, instead of turning on and off individual tasks. We do it this way because there is no "list of all possible tasks" stored somewhere in the computer. The way the software creates tasks to match a particular set of circumstances (combinations of religions, events, time frame, whether the couple is traditional or same-sex, etc.) is quite dynamic, and there are thousands of distinct tasks that the software could create. Because there is no complete list of tasks to display, there's no way to let you turn them on and off one at a time.
2. Adding your own task categories and tasks: this part is done in "Custom Tasks" under "Default Client Info". Buttons on the right-hand side of the view control adding and removing both your own categories and your own tasks within those categories. When you create one of your own categories, you first specify what type of event it's related to, and then you have the option of checking the box labeled "Add automatically". If you check the "Add automatically" box, then when you add a new client who is planning that kind of event, the software will add the task category you've pre-created to the task list for the client. If you leave the "Add automatically" box unchecked, then the task category won't be added automatically, but it will be readily available if you decide that circumstances warrant adding it: you can add the task category by clicking "Add Category from List", described above.

Any changes you make in "Original Tasks" and "Custom Tasks" will take effect when you add a new client. Changes in these areas have no effect on the task lists of existing clients.