A Mac application review on a pen website? What's this about?

Well it is called Task"PAPER".

So, what is TaskPaper [1] you ask?

Well it is a very "simple to use" version of software that implements the GTD (Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity [2]) method of task organization and list keeping. Actually, you don't have to "do" GTD to make use of the application but the framework is there.

Here's a screenshot of TaskPaper to give you an idea of the application.

There are a bunch of other GTD applications and other todo applications. So, what makes this one different? Well, simplicity is the big difference. Most other applications maintain their data in a database of some kind. Most other applications often require some setup and some steps to follow to process your tasks. "Click here to create a task, click on this button to process tasks, click here to view history, click here to setup contexts, etc." With TaskPaper you just type. But you ask, what about creating new projects and how does it handle contexts. This is where the brilliance of the interface comes in. For projects you simply type the Project name and follow it with a colon ":". Press return and TaskPaper formats the Project appropriately.

For context simply proceed them with the "@" symbol. What about tasks? How do you get the cool little check circle to the side? Simply proceed tasks with "-" the hyphen. TaskPaper is smart enough to figure you are probably going to want to enter several tasks in sequence and automatically sets up the next entry as a task with the "- " entered.

Now some more coolness. Lets say you want to concentrate on a particular project. Just click on the project name and the list instantly switches to a project specific view. Or maybe you want to see all tasks associated with a particular context. You guessed it, click on a context. All tasks with that context are displayed.

You can mark things complete by simply clicking on the open circle to the left of your tasks. After you've done that a number of times and you want to clean things up you can "Archive" them. Basically creating an Archive project at the bottom of your list with the items that have been completed.

So, basically the cool thing about TaskPaper is that you just type. It's a lot like writing stuff down on paper. With simple punctuation you end up with a nicely formated list of projects and tasks.

The other thing about this simplicity? The file format. It's a plain text file. You can easily bring it with you and open it on a PC or another Mac and just use a text editor. When you get back to your Mac running TaskPaper you can load it and TaskPaper will take care of the formatting. There are even plug-ins for other text editing environments to work with the file.

One issue with many GTD systems is that people are apt to tinker with them and end up messing with their system instead of actually "DOing". This is so simplistic that allows you to concentrate more on the doing.

For a 1.0 version if feels very complete. However, there are some things I'd like to see.

A way to collapse the projects, hiding the tasks.
Perhaps some sorting capabilities. Some way to drag and drop to move things around.

Others have requested "calendar" type capabilities. The ability to have due-dates [3].

To find out more and try out the application yourself head on over to Hog Bay Software [4].

Regards,

- Mark