Note for Beta/Sync users: We’ve also released a new Beta with corresponding features.

Preview Recurrence

When you are feeling unsure when setting up a recurring tasks, this new feature can be of great help. The Recurrence tab in the Add Task and Edit Task windows now has a Preview link label. When you click it, you will be able to preview the recurrence times of that particular task.

The actual preview looks like this – it lists the next 10 dates when the task is going to recur. If the task will never recur, it will tell you, too.

Recurrence “After Completion”

We’ve added new task recurrence pattern, called “Recur After Completion”. Many of you have requested this kind of recurrence.

Basically, it regenerates the task X days after you’ve completed it.

You can use it in the Recurrence tab of the Add Task and Edit Task windows. As of now, you can configure how many days after the task is set done it should recur, and the ending date of the recurrence. The task always recurs at 5:00 AM.

Example: You create a new task and set it to recur 1 day after completion. You then set it as done later today (complete it). The task will recur tomorrow. And if you set it as done again 15 days after that, it will once again recur the next day. It will keep recurring as long as you keep setting it as done (unless you disable the recurrence).

You can find more info about recurrence (in general) in our Task Recurrence Guide.

Permanently delete to-do lists with Shift + Delete

You can use Shift + Delete in the to-do list tree to permanently delete to-do lists and any tasks in them. The difference between regular and permanent delete is that the permanent delete will not archive the tasks.

You can also use Shift + Delete in the task-view to permanently delete tasks.

Even though it is a permanent delete, you can undo this using the Undo feature.

Also, you don’t need to necessarily use Shift + Delete. You can also just hold down the Shift key, and use the “Delete” toolbar button or menu item.

Install without administrator privileges

The new version also comes with a new installer that doesn’t require administrator privileges. The installation is now even easier and faster. You can now install Swift To-Do List even on a non-admin Windows account.

“Collapse Tree” and “Expand Tree” now undoable

You can now undo the Expand Tree and Collapse Tree actions, using Edit – Undo.

Drag & Drop text into task-view

You can now drag & drop text (eg. from WordPad) into the task-view. This will open the Add Multiple Tasks window, or Add Task window if the text has just 1 line.

You can also paste the text into the task-view – this was possible even in older versions. Remember that the new versions also allow you to drag & drop emails into the task view to generate tasks.

Other fixes

As always, the new version also includes some misc. fixes and little improvements.

Your comments and questions

If you have any comments or questions, don’t hesitate to contact us! Just post in the comments below.

Related Posts:

• What’s new in 7.20: Email reminders, hourly recurrence, Task ID column and more!
• How to create a recurring task and extra tips
• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?
• Is your to-do list impossible to finish?
• How to use Due Dates in your to-do list correctly
• Endless to-do list

Preview task recurrence, recur tasks after completion, and more in Swift To-Do List 7.33 is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

You can easily turn any task into a recurring task. All you have to do is to Edit the task, go to the Recurrence tab, and set up the recurrence pattern.

What is a recurring task?

A recurring task is repeating task. It is a task that needs to be done more than once, and it needs to be done periodically. It can have an ending date specified (check Ending on to set the date).

What happens when the task recurs?

Multiple things happen -

First, the recurrence Action for that particular task is executed. These actions are task-specific. You can select from these different actions for each of your recurring tasks:

• Set undone – When the task recurs, it will by simply unchecked (set as undone)
• Set undone and remind me – Same as the previous action, but a reminder window informing you about the fact that the task has just recurred will also be shown
• Duplicate – A new identical copy of the task will be created. The copy will be unchecked (set as undone). The original task will be left untouched, only the recurrence settings will be carried over to the new task and removed from the original task.
• Duplicate and remind me – Same as the previous action, but a reminder window informing you about the fact that the task has just recurred will be also shown
• Just remind me – When the task recurs, a reminder window will be shown.

Second thing that happens are actions based on recurrence settings that you can configure in the Options window. These actions are not task specific. These options apply to all recurring tasks.

Use File – Options, then go to the Recurrence tab. Here, you can configure what happens when a task recurs. For example, the Due Date of a task can be automatically set to the date of its next recurrence.

And finally, third thing that happens is that you can receive an email notification (in Professional edition only) that the task has just recurred. This is purely optional – if you want the email notification, check “ + Email me” in the Recurrence tab of the Add/Edit Task window.

What’s “Immediate” recurrence? (NEW SEPTEMBER 2014)

In version 9.10, the following option was added into the Options window, Recurrence tab (you can open the Options window using menu File – Options):

“Recur tasks immediately after I complete them”

This option is enabled by default for new users of Swift To-Do List. Existing users have it disabled by default.

With this option enabled, tasks will recur immediately when you complete them. This allows you to work with the next instance of the task immediately and gives you move overall flexibility.

Even with this option enabled, you will still receive recurrence reminders based on the original schedule at the appropriate time. Recurrence reminders are generated when you use recurrence action “Set task undone and remind me”, “Duplicate and remind me” or “Just remind me”.

With the immediate recurrence enabled, if you use the recurrence action “Duplicate” for any of your recurring tasks, the task will also recur based on the original schedule even if you won’t complete them in time. If you don’t want the task to recur unless you specifically complete it, then use the recurrence action “Set undone” instead.

How can I tell when a task is going to recur next?

Since version 7.33, you can use the recurrence Preview feature. In the Add Task or Edit Task window, go to the Recurrence tab, and click Preview. This will show you the next ten times and dates when the task is going to recur.

Another way is to use the Recurrence column. To display it, use the menu: Go to Manage – Columns, and in the Manage Columns window, check “Recurrence” to display the Recurrence column. The recurrence column displays the day when the task is going to recur next, and also the recurrence pattern for that particular task (None, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, hourly, etc).

How can I tell if a task is recurring?

You can either use the above mentioned recurrence column, or, you can also use the Flags column. The icon with green circular arrows symbolizes recurrence.

Can I disable recurrence for multiple tasks?

Yes. Select the tasks, then right-click them, and use Batch Edit – Disable Recurrence, as shown below:

Need repeating reminder? Use task recurrence!

One of the actions that you can choose from is “Just remind me“. This is perfect for repeating reminders. For example, you can create a task with hourly recurrence that will remind you every 1.5 hours to stretch, drink some water, etc.

What happens when I archive/delete recurring task?

When you delete (archive) a task, the task won’t recur anymore. If you restore it, it will start to recur again from the next closest recurrence date. (All recurrences that should have happened when it was archived will be skipped).

Any other questions? Post them in comments

Please post any other questions in comments, and I will expand this post promptly based on your input.

Related Posts:

• Preview task recurrence, recur tasks after completion, and more in Swift To-Do List 7.33
• How to create a recurring task and extra tips
• What’s new in 7.20: Email reminders, hourly recurrence, Task ID column and more!

Recurring Tasks – All About Them is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

To keep the program simple, we’ve removed hourly and daily reminders – you can use recurrence for the same purpose. Your existing reminders will be automatically converted to recurrence (if possible).

More detailed information about the new features follows.

Hourly task recurrence

Hourly task recurrence allows you to make a task recur every X hours, or X minutes. You can specify if you want it to recur only when the program is running, and the time from which it recurs. The time can be absolute (Eg. 4:00 PM), or relative (“From now on, and then from the next program start”).

Hourly recurrence completely replaces the hourly reminder feature. Hourly recurrence has far greater flexibility.

Email reminders and email recurrence notification

If you have Professional edition, you can now receive reminders and recurrence notifications via email. All emails are sent directly from the program, so the email reminders work only when the program is running and you have correctly set the outgoing mail server (SMTP).

In case of email reminders, normal reminder window will be still displayed.

Emails are sent only if you check “Send me also email reminders” in the Reminder tab of the Edit Task window, or “+ Email me” in the action configuration of recurrence (in the Recurrence tab). You have to do this for each task individually.

Reminders before due date and start date

Before version 7.20, you could set any custom reminder, sure. But there were also due date and start date reminders. However, you could only set reminders on due date or start date. Some of you have requested the ability to set reminders before due date, so we’ve added it! But not only that, you can now have both reminder on due date and at the same time a reminder before the due date. (Same goes for start date).

You can now easily set reminders like “3 days before due date”.

Ability to edit snoozed reminders

This feature is long over-due. When you snooze a reminder, it will show up in the Edit Task window when you later edit the task. You can then edit the reminder or disable it just like a common simple reminder.

New Task ID column + ability to find tasks by ID

Some of you have requested a “Task ID” column that displays a unique number identifier of the task. We’ve added this column. You can display it using Manage – Columns…. All task IDs remain constant for your tasks.

You can also easily find tasks by ID. Open the Find Tasks window (eg. using Edit – Find Tasks), and enter ID=number, or ID:number (or just ID number) as the search term.

Smarter task recurrence

This is basically a fail-safe for “duplicate” recurrence that is supposed to happen multiple times at once. It makes sure you are not flooded with recurred tasks when you haven’t been using the program for a while.

For example, if you were on holiday and haven’t started Swift To-Do List for 2 weeks, you will not find 14 new copies of each of your daily recurring tasks in your to-do list. Instead, Swift To-Do List will ask you for each task if you really want it to recur 14 times, or just once (or not at all). Just like this:

What’s next?

We will now focus on automatic online synchronization between computers. It will take us some time, but it is absolutely the most important update. This will also allow us to introduce mobile and web access to your tasks soon, and much more.

Related Posts:

• Preview task recurrence, recur tasks after completion, and more in Swift To-Do List 7.33
• How to attach emails from Outlook to tasks (Video)
• Swift To-Do List 7.10 released: Embedded file attachments, attach emails to tasks, and more
• Swift To-Do List 8 launched!
• Coming Soon: New Swift To-Do List 8 with subtasks!
• Overcome procrastination with new Swift To-Do List

What’s new in 7.20: Email reminders, hourly recurrence, Task ID column and more! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

What is a recurring task?

Recurring task is a task that is repeated. It needs to be completed multiple times. Swift To-Do List 7 supports tasks that need to be done daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, etc. It even supports complex patterns like “Every second Sunday every three months”.

The great thing about Swift To-Do List recurrence feature is that you can choose what happens when the task recurs. It can be either just marked as undone, or it can be duplicated (copied). Swift To-Do List can also automatically remind you that the task has just recurred.

Creating a sample recurring task

Example task: You need to feed your panda every Friday, otherwise it would get very grumpy and eat your bamboo furniture. And we don’t want that, do we? Swift To-Do List can automatically mark your task “Feed the panda” as undone every week and remind you of it.

This is how to do it:

1. Click the “Add Task” button. Or, if you want to make a task that already exists recurrent, you can simply edit the task.

2. Go to the “Recurrence” tab:

3. Select “Weekly” in the drop-down: (or any other pattern)

4. Configure the recurrence pattern and optionally select an action: Everything else is optional, eg. you can select recurrence time at the top-right corner. You can leave Starting date set to today. Ending date is usually not needed.

5. Press OK and you are all set!

More recurrence options, you ask?

Some additional recurrence options that apply to all recurring tasks can be configured in the Options dialog, in the Recurrence tab. For example, Swift To-Do List can automatically clear Percent Done and Time Spent fields when a task recurs, or automatically set its Start Date and Due Date, and more.

The Recurrence column looks like this:

We will talk about more advanced recurrence features in one of the future posts.

What is planned for the future

These are our planned recurrence enhancements for the future 7.xx versions:

1. Recurrence preview: Ability to see the next 10+ dates of the task recurrence before the task actually recurs
2. Recurrence after completion: New recurrence pattern (=Recur task X days after completion)
3. Hourly recurrence: New recurrence pattern

Related Posts:

• Preview task recurrence, recur tasks after completion, and more in Swift To-Do List 7.33
• Recurring Tasks – All About Them
• What’s new in 7.20: Email reminders, hourly recurrence, Task ID column and more!
• Strike-through style for done tasks added
• Swift To-Do List 10 with scheduling calendar released!
• What we are up to in 2016: Swift To-Do List 10 is coming

How to create a recurring task and extra tips is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog