Lightweight checkbox that isn't a task
If I want to make any kind of checkbox in a note, I am required to use a Task, which ends up in the global Task view. For ephemeral tasks, this may not make sense, as I may want to keep track of when something is finished or not, but it's not something I want to use to plan a day. Or I may want to keep track of whether a set of things is true or false that aren't "things I need to do".
Contrived examples: if I make a grocery list, using tasks means an unfinished list will pollute my work project tasks with "Milk" and "Eggs" unless I manually go clean up the unchecked items. Or maybe I'm bird-watching and have a list of birds in the area, and I'd like to check them off as I see them. I know ahead of time I won't see all of them, as that's not entirely in my control, but I'd still like to keep track of what I do see.
You can work around this with a bulleted list + strikethrough, but a one-click solution would be helpful, especially on mobile.
Comments: 10
-
06 Jun, '21
Bill AdminHey Kendall--yours is definitely a common point of friction when users first adopt the product, which was what spurred me to create the https://www.amplenote.com/help/work_on_tasks_in_project help page. The "Amplenote way" to create tasks without having them pollute your tasks view is to use tagging. There will always be some notes that you create that contain tasks that aren't worth the time to work on. So we recommend our users use at least one or two tags to demarcate the notes whose tasks should be shown within the global Tasks View mode, and within the Task Domains that feed into the calendar.
A couple other options if you don't want to set up tagging:
* You can use bullet points for tasks. They take advantage of the same Ctrl-Space hotkey to mark them as complete, which can be handy
* You can use emojis to create artificial or "faux" tasks that won't show up in any context outside the note/jot they're created in -
19 Jul, '22
ColinWhat if we want to put the main task in calendar view but not the subtasks? Extending the groceries analogy, we might want to schedule a shopping trip but not have the individual items show up. Also, the ctrl-space hotkey doesn't work on iPad or mobile (which is precisely what you want when grocery shopping).
1 -
28 Jul, '22
Marjolein MergedI have a few checklists for recurring processes, such as packing my work bag, an end of day routine, and a user story writing checklist.
1
I would like something that I can check and uncheck as I desire, and that is not tasks, as that is far too complicated for this purpose.
Interesting read about the power of checklists: http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/ -
01 Aug, '22
Lucian Admin"Checklists that are not tasks" (suggested by Marjolein on 2022-07-28), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
-
05 Mar, '23
CurtisThis is an excellent workaround. Thanks, Bill!
"* You can use bullet points for tasks. They take advantage of the same Ctrl-Space hotkey to mark them as complete, which can be handy" -
28 Aug, '23
John SmithIt may not be planned, but having separate Task and checklist items would be a very, very good feature to have and is one of the best parts of Evernote's new tasks module.
3 -
29 Aug, '23
Lucian AdminHello John! What would be the most useful properties of "checklists" that you would need in Amplenote?
-
05 Nov, '23
TrevorI would still like a checkbox feature that is not a task because I would like to take attendance in meetings. I can also see this as a useful feature for groceries and classroom attendance.
1 -
03 Dec, '23
David TrappThis is one major thing missing for me coming from Evernote. That's why I now created my own solution in the form of some plugins and a userscript, which you can find here: https://www.amplenote.com/plugins/d29oSqj1cQmVUeAgvwzgRAFt
2 -
07 Mar
Lucian AdminThanks to David for creating the Checklists plugin! 🙏 Much apprecited.
For everyone else, here is a help page I've put together explaining the most common workarounds: https://www.amplenote.com/help/using_checklists