NickThissen
Jun 2nd, 2010, 02:18 PM
Hey,
I'm working on a nice and simple Todo manager, which basically keeps a list of things I have to do and optionally 'pins' an item to the desktop (basically a window with some text on it, like a sticky note). Additionally, each todo item will belong to some category, and the user (me, really) can add or remove categories as required.
I've worked on it for a short while and I've got all the underlying code done with a very simple GUI.
I now want an extremely functional GUI. The basic GUI I have right now is just a main form with a TabControl, one tab shows the todo items in a grid, the other shows the categories. Both tabs have a ToolStrip with items such as Add, Edit, Remove and Search.
You can open a todo item simply by using Edit or doubleclicking in the grid, and then you can change the name, description, priority, category, etc. Also, you can mark it 'completed' with a simple checkbox.
In addition to being able to mark an item completed by opening it, you can also just select it (and others at the same time) and using the 'Toggle Completed State' toolstrip button. The same thing goes for showing the item in a sticky note window.
So basically, I've got everything working OK, but it's just not as useful as a simple notepad with a pen... The only reason I'm doing this is because I've got lots of different things to do at work lately and I wanted to organize stuff a bit.
At the moment I'm using pen and paper, obviously, but even though it's easy to write stuff down, I am now starting to lose the papers and it's hard to find stuff. Also, I don't tend to look at anything but the first page so all else gets forgotten :p There's also no useful way to keep track of a 'priority' for every item (some are more important than others).
So what I really need from you guys is some ideas to make my todo manager just as useful as pen and paper, just as easy to use, except with added features such as being able to filter on category, sort on priority, etc, and without the constant danger of losing the papers :lol:
Right now, finding the todo item I need is easy (filtering by category, priority etc), but to change or even just read it I need to open it by doubleclicking, get to the newly opened form, edit it, then save it back.
This works fine for most business like applications (most database applications I've seen use this system), but with a todo manager it just feels as if I were better off just using pen and paper.
What I really need is to have it ready whenever I need it, so I was thinking at least make it have a system tray icon, and maybe even have it open up by some shortcut. I could even go as far as letting the shortcut open a new todo item already. That way, whenever I think of something I need to do I can just hit the shortcut, type whatever I had in mind, hit enter to save and be done with it.
For the sticky note windows I've also got the idea to place them all on top of each other, and cycle them every few seconds so that it 'loops' through all of them and I don't have to waste precious desktop space with 15 sticky note windows.
But other than that I'm kinda out of ideas... You must have some ideas? Remember, I'm not looking for implementation details, just some ideas I can use to make this application that much more useful.
Thanks!
I'm working on a nice and simple Todo manager, which basically keeps a list of things I have to do and optionally 'pins' an item to the desktop (basically a window with some text on it, like a sticky note). Additionally, each todo item will belong to some category, and the user (me, really) can add or remove categories as required.
I've worked on it for a short while and I've got all the underlying code done with a very simple GUI.
I now want an extremely functional GUI. The basic GUI I have right now is just a main form with a TabControl, one tab shows the todo items in a grid, the other shows the categories. Both tabs have a ToolStrip with items such as Add, Edit, Remove and Search.
You can open a todo item simply by using Edit or doubleclicking in the grid, and then you can change the name, description, priority, category, etc. Also, you can mark it 'completed' with a simple checkbox.
In addition to being able to mark an item completed by opening it, you can also just select it (and others at the same time) and using the 'Toggle Completed State' toolstrip button. The same thing goes for showing the item in a sticky note window.
So basically, I've got everything working OK, but it's just not as useful as a simple notepad with a pen... The only reason I'm doing this is because I've got lots of different things to do at work lately and I wanted to organize stuff a bit.
At the moment I'm using pen and paper, obviously, but even though it's easy to write stuff down, I am now starting to lose the papers and it's hard to find stuff. Also, I don't tend to look at anything but the first page so all else gets forgotten :p There's also no useful way to keep track of a 'priority' for every item (some are more important than others).
So what I really need from you guys is some ideas to make my todo manager just as useful as pen and paper, just as easy to use, except with added features such as being able to filter on category, sort on priority, etc, and without the constant danger of losing the papers :lol:
Right now, finding the todo item I need is easy (filtering by category, priority etc), but to change or even just read it I need to open it by doubleclicking, get to the newly opened form, edit it, then save it back.
This works fine for most business like applications (most database applications I've seen use this system), but with a todo manager it just feels as if I were better off just using pen and paper.
What I really need is to have it ready whenever I need it, so I was thinking at least make it have a system tray icon, and maybe even have it open up by some shortcut. I could even go as far as letting the shortcut open a new todo item already. That way, whenever I think of something I need to do I can just hit the shortcut, type whatever I had in mind, hit enter to save and be done with it.
For the sticky note windows I've also got the idea to place them all on top of each other, and cycle them every few seconds so that it 'loops' through all of them and I don't have to waste precious desktop space with 15 sticky note windows.
But other than that I'm kinda out of ideas... You must have some ideas? Remember, I'm not looking for implementation details, just some ideas I can use to make this application that much more useful.
Thanks!