Maintain a To Do list

The task
Using the utility
Settings or Options
Download the utility

The task

For years I started the week (or even a day) with written list of tasks to be done during the period. With a checkmark I inidcated that it had been done. But by the time I missed a visual feedback on my screen and a record of the various sheets of paper. On the other hand some tasks are not performed at the computer but 'in real world' and I hence need something written/printed. I also wanted to accumulate the done tasks in a list. So I created this small utility with the following properties:

• Display the currently open tasks
• Mark a selected task as done and move the description to a file "done".
• Allow to edit an existing task and also to save the list of done tasks to a file with date prefix.
• Be able to print both the current and the done tasks

Using the utility

Enter a new task Type the description into the field New task and click button Add to open tasks. ➔ The date is automatically added in front of the description in the list. The tasks are listed in the order of the date of entry into the list. Task has been completed Select the task in the list and click button Mark as DONE ➔ The item will disappear from the list and appended to the Done file. Edit an open task Select the task in the list and click button Edit item ➔ the item is removed from the list and appears (without date) in the edit field. Edit the text and click button Add to open tasks. ➔ The item is added with its old date and hence may appear at the same place as before. Delete an open task Select the task in the list and click button Edit item ➔ the item is removed from the list and appears (without date) in the edit field. Leave the utility with OK, all done.

Get a list of the open and done tasks

Clicking the button List open + done tasks generates a HTML file which is displayed by your default browser. You may print this file. In print the two tables appear on separate pages. Hence you can easily print only the first table.

If you want to have some formatting of the table items, you can use HTML code not conflicting with the table tags. for example::

<br /> to break a line. This is useful for adding results while editing an item.
<b>xxxx</b> for bolding (although this is depreciated HTML, it is still accepted by all browsers as <strong>.

You may enter unicode characters (such as ➔) into the edit field. Depending on the character it will not be displayed correctly (font is MS SansSerif)

This HTML code appears as text in the task list — its is executed only in the output tables by the browser creating it.

Delete the file of done tasks

Click on the button Clear DONE list (del. file).

Since you may want to save the list of already done tasks, the file is not deleted but renamed with a prefix of the current date and time, for example to 2011-11-07_11-46-02_todo-done.txt . You will get a message, if the file does not exist. This may happen, if you have not 'marked' an item since the last Clear operation.

Close the utility

Clicking one of the buttons OK, all done or Cancel essentially does the same thing: leaving the dialogue without doing anything. After each action the dialogue is re-built with the lists. Hence the files are always current. You can also close the dialogue via the X button top right.

Program options

There is no special function to set some properties of the utility. Modifying some properties is done by editing the file todolist.ini. The lines in the html sections must start with the number of the line. If you insert or remove a line, renumbering is required.

Data files After installation of the utility no data files exist and the definition of path is empty. Data files are created as soon as you Add and/or Mark items in the To Do list. You may change the file names for current, done and out in the lines 6 … 8, but please keep the extensions of the files. If you want to place the data files not in the scripts directory, define a path as in this picture. The file todo-current.txt is sorted for display, hence also sorted after the first use in the utility. The file todo-done.txt is not sorted. Lines are orded by the Done date. Headings in the generated lists As you can see from the lines 11 to 38 the tables are generated as HTML. Hence you can adapt the presentation of he tables to your requirements. But never change the items indicated in the examples hereafter in red and the HTML tags (until you know what you are doing). For example, change the headings to another language: Line Default settings Modified for German 17 <title>Lists of my tasks</title> <title>Listen meiner Aufgaben</title> 25 <h1>Open/current tasks as of [When]</h1> <h1>Aktuelle Aufgaben per [When]</h1> 30 <h1 class="hh">Done tasks as of [When]</h1> <h1 class="hh">Bis [When] Abgeschlossene Aufgaben</h1> The item [When] is exchanged by the program with the current date in ISO format. Style of presentation In line 15 you see a style definition which allows to place the second table on a new page when the generated HTML is printed. Knowing how to define styles allows you to extend the style definitions to shaded tables etc.

Getting the utility

Date	Installation file(s)	Latest changes
2011-11-07	ToDoList.zip	First issue of ToDoList
2018-06-15		Utility is now Unicode enabled. You can enter characters like ➔
2018-10-05		Input area enlarged, hint about input

 

The utility ToDoList is freeware. Copy it from here. Of course no obligations included whatsoever. The utility is a compiled AHK script On request to the author you may get the source code for free.

Expand the ZIP file to a directory of your liking and run the utility todolist.exe.