(note: this is my first time trying to publish a blog entry from Microsoft Word 2007 to WordPress. Yes, you heard me. Using a Microsoft product to publish directly to an open source blog. And I cannot believe how simple it was. I’ll probably write a blog post on it. From Word.)
Do you cross through your to-do list? Here’s why I ask.
I really like the To-Do Bar that Outlook 2007 has, especially when working on a laptop with a wide screen:
I’m a “bottom feeder” with email, which means I keep my newest items on the bottom of my inbox. I keep my folders way on the left, my headers and title information just to the right of that. I keep a healthy amount of real estate reserved right there in the middle to view the entire email.
The To-do Bar shows me a quick calendar, my upcoming appointments below that, and my to-do items, with flag and categorization colors. I’m pretty big on colors and formatting – you can see in my inbox, the items in blue were sent directly to me, while the items in black were part of a distro list. I also color emails from my boss(es) differently, and when I win the lottery, the computer actually pops out the CD-ROM drive and throws a disc at my face to make sure I’m paying attention.
However, one thing that always bugs me about the To-Do Bar is that it always defaults to a view that shows all my completed items with strikethroughs:
You see, these tasks being displayed are tasks I did more than a year ago. Some of them are 2 years old. I want them to go away! I completed you, oh vile task list of death!
Ode to a task that still shows up with strikethrough
Lo! Hear me. I thus did spake forcefully upon thee.
For that spaking I am remorseful. I did not see thee there.
Please to wipe my spittle off thy face.
To continue my rant, I speaketh of such divine divinity.
By this, I mean the stupidethness of the strikethrough format.
It has forced itself unto my task list, and displays as such!
Depart, oh Task That Has Completeness!
I have banished you unto the world of DoneDom.
Why do you torment me so?
You are not welcome.
Oh sure, I can right-click on the header, click “Custom” and add an advanced field filter that hides completed items
But it forgets the view sometimes. I don’t know how to make it the default! ARGH!
So, what about you? Do YOU track your tasks and to-do items and then show them with strikethrough font? Do you delete the task? I don’t like deleting things because even though I’ve completed the task, there might be information in the notes field I want to keep.
UPDATE: Wonderful Melissa - commenter below, and Microsoft employee – worked with me on some suggestions, and they worked like a champ! Thank you Melissa.
You can see in the comment below that she suggested to reset the to-do bar. I tried that and no love. Her next suggestion was to maybe “re-tag” the task as complete, because maybe the task was marked Completed in some offending or non-compliant way. I tred right-clicking on the task to re-complete it, but it has “Mark Completed” greyed out.
However, if I multi-selected the tasks and right-clicked, I got a “Mark Completed” option, and when I selected that, those tasks stopped showing up! Will wonders never cease!?!!?
