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About manual sorting
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rmwade55

Posted: Aug 22, 2017
Score: 0 Reference
ToodleDo's response to a request for manual sorting was this (a couple of years ago): "Toodledo's Task section does not currently support manual reordering. This is for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that we provide a bunch of powerful ways to automatically sort your tasks and if you could also sort them manually, it isn't really clear and intuitive how these two things would interact."

Check with the Ultimate To-Do list developer (Android app). It has added (for a price) the option of sorting manually. You can use the automatic sort functions, or do it manually. Surely the ToodleDo folks can figure out how to do this.
Jake

Toodledo Founder
Posted: Aug 22, 2017
Score: 0 Reference
Thanks for the suggestion. We do not comment on timeframes for implementation, but this is on our to-do list.

Thanks
PetrV

Posted: Aug 23, 2017
Score: 0 Reference
It looks to have so low prio that it actually never comes :-)

As a workaround, I am using alphabetical sorting as the 3rd option, and for the top tasks I am modifying task names to have prefix "10 ..., 20..., 25..., etc." to resort manually.

Any other ideas?


This message was edited Aug 23, 2017.
Jake

Toodledo Founder
Posted: Aug 23, 2017
Score: 0 Reference
You could give each task a date and time that you want to do them and then sort by that.
coolexplorer

Posted: Aug 24, 2017
Score: 0 Reference
I tried Tags and sorting by date and time, but they take too much effort and time.
I dont use the Location field for Location reminders (and moved some regular Locations to Context) so that I can use the Location field for manually sorting only my Custom Saved Hotlist tasks.
I use a mix of numbers from 1 to 4, and other categories like "morning, evening, tomorrow, this week" to manually sort my Hotlist into an order of doing.
Would prefer another custom sorting field, but I make do.


This message was edited Aug 24, 2017.
didymus74

Posted: Aug 29, 2017
Score: 1 Reference
I've been waiting my whole life for manual sorting of tasks!

I quit using Toodledo because of the inability to manually sort tasks. As soon as this feature is added, I'm back in with an ultimate, premium, top of the line subscription and I'm telling everyone I know to use Toodledo..

Thanks, Jake!
eric.bromey

Posted: Aug 30, 2017
Score: 0 Reference
I wrote about this a long time ago and I'm still interested in this option. FYI, in JIRA, it is possible to use the manual sorting to organize the tasks within a sprint. This manual sorting feed an internal field call Ranking.
Robertbergeron

Posted: Sep 07, 2017
Score: 1 Reference
I have asked a question along the same line in "Ordering Tasks - Same as subtasks" in this same forum.

I am just about to drop Toodledo even though it is a fantastic tool I use daily.

I just don't get it that the ability to manual sort is available in subtasks but not in main tasks... Just allow manual sort for tasks due today and I am sure I can convert quite a few people to use Toodledo.
J. Michael Stahl

Posted: Sep 08, 2017
Score: 1 Reference
Not defending Toodledo, seeking to understand...

What value do you get out of manual sorting? I find the automatic sorting more effective and efficient for my workflow. I am always looking to improve so I am curious why so many folks like the manual option.

Thanks in advance!
Purveyor

Posted: Sep 09, 2017
Score: 0 Reference
Here's a previous post by Jake:
Toodledo's Task section does not currently support manual reordering. This is for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that we provide a bunch of powerful ways to automatically sort your tasks and if you could also sort them manually, it isn't really clear and intuitive how these two things would interact. If your list is sorted alphabetically, but then you drag and drop a task higher in the list, what happens when you refresh the page? Does it go back to alphabetical, or does it remember that you want it alphabetical except for this one task that you moved. It gets really complicated and unintuitive pretty quick. We may figure out a way to do this in the future, probably with some sort of "manual sort mode" where all other sorting is disabled.


This message was edited Sep 09, 2017.
coolexplorer

Posted: Sep 09, 2017
Score: 1 Reference
TDs intelligent sorting is fine for 95% of the database except the Hotlist. No one can realistically manually sort hundreds of tasks so TDs intelligent sorting by the importance algorithm is fine.
It is only in the Hotlist, where the rubber actually meets the road, and there are only 10 to 20 tasks to be done today or tomorrow that I require greater human control.
There are some tasks that I must or would like to do first thing in the morning and others later on in the afternoon, evening or night. Rather then expending time and energy repeatedly evaluating and deciding what to do next from a list of 30 items each time I see my list, if I sort them with an intelligent and realistic 'order of doing' the previous night, I can just quickly get down to the task of doing them and ticking them off.
I use custom saved searches, and have tried using Tags and Start Date Times to mimic the above but these fields take too long to enter, and tags bunches up the tasks if there is more than one tag.
My current way around is to hijack and use the Location field (since I don't use it for location reminders) with numbers and 'morning', 'evening', and 'tomorrow' to mimic a manual sort. Would like something simpler though without using a hack. Cheers!


This message was edited Sep 09, 2017.
boydston01

Posted: Sep 13, 2017
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by coolexplorer:
TDs intelligent sorting is fine for 95% of the database except the Hotlist. No one can realistically manually sort hundreds of tasks so TDs intelligent sorting by the importance algorithm is fine.
It is only in the Hotlist, where the rubber actually meets the road, and there are only 10 to 20 tasks to be done today or tomorrow that I require greater human control.
There are some tasks that I must or would like to do first thing in the morning and others later on in the afternoon, evening or night. Rather then expending time and energy repeatedly evaluating and deciding what to do next from a list of 30 items each time I see my list, if I sort them with an intelligent and realistic 'order of doing' the previous night, I can just quickly get down to the task of doing them and ticking them off.
I use custom saved searches, and have tried using Tags and Start Date Times to mimic the above but these fields take too long to enter, and tags bunches up the tasks if there is more than one tag.
My current way around is to hijack and use the Location field (since I don't use it for location reminders) with numbers and 'morning', 'evening', and 'tomorrow' to mimic a manual sort. Would like something simpler though without using a hack. Cheers!

I feel like this is the right direction for how to integrate manual sorting along with the rich auto sorting/filtering. Special list (maybe hotlist) with determined criteria for which tasks auto appear in that list. But once they are in that list, all sorting is manual.
boydston01

Posted: Sep 13, 2017
Score: 0 Reference
A potential workaround is to use subtasks. You could make a task for "today" and then add all of todays tasks as subtasks.

This workaround did not work for me because the mobile app does not support dragging tasks to reorder.
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