Description

Tasks To Do was created because I couldn't find a program that fit my needs. With little projects that came my way while I was working, I needed something to keep track of it.

This program was initially written in Visual Studio 2008 Express edition, using C# .NET 2.0. Since then I've upgraded to Visual Studio 2010, and I've updated the code to C# .NET 3.5.

I've added some functionallity to version 1.5. These changes include being able to add priority to tasks, and a history of changes.

Usage

When the program opens for the first time, it will look just like this:

Opening Screen

There are three types of categories in here.
To Start - Tasks that have not yet been started
In Process - Tasks that are being worked on
Complete - Tasks that have been completed

Notice that there is a in front of To Start and In Process, they represent the priority of the tasks. Now notice there is no in front of Complete. If the is complete then there really isn't a need for a priority.

Under the file menu is a few options

File Menu

If there are multiple tasks list, then the open menu will read it in with a standard open dialog. The Save section will save the task list. Print will create reports (this will be discussed later). Then there is a Quit menu item. If quit is chosen and the document has yet to be saved, a prompt to save it will come up.

Under the Nodes menu is a few options

Nodes

These three options will be discussed later, this menu is also used as a context menu for the displayed nodes.

The about menu is a simple about menu (won't waste time by describing it).

New Entry

New Dialog

All fields should be filled in, they are not required however. Priority will be defaulted to Normal, there are four priority levels. They are:
  1. Low
  2. Normal
  3. High
  4. Critical
    5. If for any reason the entry isn't satisfactory, the clicking the Cancel button will exit from the window.

    Once the Submit button is pressed it will be added to the task list. The screen will look like this:

    New Added

    Things to note here. In the node pane, the node is added to the list. All new nodes are put under the To Start node parent. Start date is filled in with the date that the task is created. Status is set to Start. In the History window, it will put a log entry for when the task was created.

    Update Entry

    Update Dialog

    This screen will allow the hours, priority and completion status of the task. It can be used as much as needed, even when the task is completed, the update can still be used. The Cancel button will close the window without making any changes to the task. When the Update button will change the status of the task if it started as a new task, otherwise it will be left alone.

    . Updated screen

    Notice that the History has been updated as well as other information on the screen. A new text box has appeared displaying the last update date of the task. More importantly the status has changed to In Process and it has changed nodes from To Start to In Process.

    Complete Entry

    When A task is completed then the check box that says Completed should be filled in.

    Checked box

    This looks much like the previous screen that the update occurred. The status changed to Completed as well as Moving to the Complete node. Noticed that the Complete node doesn't have Low, Normal, High, or Critical in it. If it is completed, then there doesn't seem to be a reason to have it catergorized.

    Complete Task

    Delete Entry

    Delete Entry

    The Delete screen only has one text entry to it. It is a reason to the delete the task. This reason will be added to the History of the task. Once the OK button is press, then the task will disappear from from all of the nodes. This file will be stored in the XML file that the tasks are stored in.

    Save file

    If there have been change to the tasks and it hasn't been saved, the a save prompt will appear. If it is new, then it will prompt for a location and a file name to save it to. Once a file has been saved or opened, the program will remember the location and filename of the save file.

    What does the future hold

    There can be improvements to this program, what they are yet I don't know. I've started a list, which only has one item so far (Minimize to the task bar). If there are suggestions, please send them to programs@wasacola.com and put in a subject of "Tasks To Do Enhancement". I'll add it to my list of enhancements to the program.