Archive for September, 2008

Introducing GTDInbox 2.0.10b1

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

This is a bit of a special release, because it’s quite a leap. It’s still far from 2.1, but I really like where this has gone.

I’m actually leaving for a short break (Spain!) in an hour, but I wanted to share this before I went. It’s only a beta, and there’s lots of new stuff, so use it at your peril, but so far it’s been okay for me.

Code Refactor
I tidied up some of the label add/removing code, which you make adding/removing labels both faster and more consistent (as well as more maintainable in the future) when you right click an email in the ThreadList (e.g. Inbox). The real aim here was to make it that little bit easier to add Statuses and other labels to your messages before archiving them (Did you know you can double click a label in that Preview box to apply the label and archive the message? Useful for applying Statuses and archiving much faster).

More Actions Menu
Has some new tricks! You can now Remove All Labels from selected threads, or in a conversation, you can “Delete and Move Next”.

Multiple Label Categories
You are no longer contrained to just Statuses/Projects/etc.! Using the settings, you can now add your own label types (e.g. “Focus” with the prefix F/).

Options has Moved Home
GTDInbox Options are now part of Gmail Settings, as a new tab. That has made it much easier to find, use and extend.

Search Filter Box
Next to Gmail’s Search Box there is now a (fully customisable – see Settings) filter box. For example, you can choose to apply your search text just to Files, or People, or within the Last Week, or just to Actions, or maybe just within Sent Items.

Label Box Action Count
I haven’t got a good name for this, but it is definitely the best new feature! Often asked for in the forums, I was always concerned it would either confuse people or be too slow. I found a way to do it quickly, and I’m happy to say I was wrong, not only if it very intuitive, it makes the world of difference to task-management. You can now see – by glancing at the Labels box – has many actions you have outstanding (for each Status), or how many Projects/Contexts have outstanding actions; just as before it showed you unread emails. (For the record, in the case of a Project, e.g. P/GTDInbox, it will show you #actions+#unread. So, if it had 3 unread, and 2 statuses applied; it would show you P/GTDInbox [5]).

You may be wondering what the status is on 2.1 and the Pro account…
The Pro account is about 80% complete. We need to buy a new server, move the system over to it, and hook it into GTDInbox. The Pro developer is currently focused elsewhere, but he should be able to help us again in about a month. I’m sorry this has dragged out, I really want to start using it myself; but in the meantime GTDInbox development is bounding forward!

2.1 is underway – I’d estimate about 70% implemented. To be honest, lots of bits and pieces that were going to be unveiled as 2.1 are sneaking into the 2.0.9/2.0.10 builds, they’re just too tempting; but there is more cool stuff in the wings. It is really focused on closing loops and managing all active ‘things’ in your inbox. So, it goes a long way to help you decide what to pay attention to, and when you attempt to close one loop, to ensure it really is closed. It adds quite a bit to the UI, so I’d love pay bring in our old designer again to make it appealing and useable. If you’d like to take part in making that happen, donations are really appreciated right now – just scoot over to the Donations page (if you like the way GTDInbox is going of course!).

And finally, you can download GTDInbox 2.0.10b1, by going to http://gtdinbox.com/#install and clicking ‘Install 2.0.10 Beta 1′.

GTDInbox 2.0.9.3 Beta 2

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

The second beta of GTDInbox 2.0.9.3 is ready right now!

Download it from http://gtdinbox.com/gtdinbox_2-0-9-3b2.xpi
(Apologies I haven’t automated this part of the update just yet, Máté Rémiás has suggested it and I agree it would be handy for beta releases).

I sneaked a few things I was going to put into 2.0.9.4 into this release, including:

1) Fixed Bug: When load Options, the screen greys out
2) Fixed Bug: When click Finished for many items on ‘More Actions’ it fails to archive them.
3) Add Unread email as an inbuilt Modify Reviews
4) Make Statuses & Recent Projects switchable between inline/drop-down menus (see UI options)
5) Hide labels dropdown after clicking to add/remove a label (rather than staying open) (see UI options)
6) Fixed Bug: Make sure Label’s colour boxes stay in place even with long, nested label names

More to come soon!

GTDInbox 2.0.9.3 (Bug Fixing!)

Friday, September 12th, 2008

Just a quick announcement, GTDInbox 2.0.9.3 is ready as a beta release for the blog. There’s no new functionality, but it was due some bug fixes.

Thanks to Jim Passmore for keeping an eye on ongoing bugs, and Nathan Sudds for a few recent pointers!

Things fixed in 2.0.9.3:
1) Make sure it installs ok (was grey-screening it)
2) Make Options work properly (again, grey-screening it)
3) Question whether to install Status labels on new accounts (some accounts don’t want to be GTD!)
4) Make sure Finish works when you double click
5) STOP “GTDINBOX FAILED TO LOAD” (capitals here because it was such a pain, and I think it’s under control… touch wood)
6) Make sure Reply to Self always shows who it is sending the message too (just in case it develops a bug)
7) Ensure the ‘More Actions’ menu works even when invoked with a keyboard shortcut (.)
8 ) Make the colour box on the Labels always show (may still fail if label nesting too deep)

I tried to look into some problems reported on the forum, but could not replicate them. Any ideas are welcome.
* Hipster Print has weird results with Context or multiple accounts (worked fine in every condition for me).

Ok, coming in 2.0.9.4 (due within 2 weeks):
1) Add Unread email as an inbuilt Modify Reviews
2) Make Statuses & Recent Projects dropdown/inline an Option (like the other types of label)
3) Add ‘Remove All Labels’ to the More Actions drop down and the popup
4) Option to disable Labels box modification (if want to use Folders4Gmail)
5) Option to hide labels dropdown after adding/removing a label (rather than staying open)
6) Correct Status counts in Labels box
7) Make sure colour boxes stay in place even with nested labels
8 ) Add new Label types (more like ‘Statuses’ ‘Contexts’ etc.)
9) Do more to backup/share Modify Reviews
10) In More Actions, add the ability to Delete and Move Next

You can download direct from http://gtdinbox.com/gtdinbox_2-0-9-3b1.xpi