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Nested lists would be great

sadia.belanger says:
For simple project management, would be really nice to be able to have some sort of sub list feature. :)
Posted at 7:31pm on November 14, 2006
darylkulak says:
I love this idea too. Lists within lists is a big feature for my needs.
Posted 18 years ago
douglas.mercer says:
It would be really great for both shared tasks and for things that you repeat a lot.
Posted 18 years ago
tbuman says:
Sign me up for nested as well.
Posted 18 years ago
cantello says:
Me as well. Looking for something nested for a long time...
Posted 18 years ago
precise says:
Absolutely totally agree.

For me as a web designer - I have to create a list for each of my clients (which looks aweful and confusing and then I have to create the tasks involved in the job spec whist removing myself slightly from quickly view other tasks on other jobs.

That said, what a great product congrats to those involved. I could be defecting from Basecamp in the not too distant future.... woo hoo

Thanks
J
Posted 18 years ago
darylkulak says:
Hey, you know I think I figured out a temporary solution for nested lists.

I'm using tags to indicate the nested topics.

So, for instance, I have a general List called Consulting.

Then, under that, I just tag the items that I want to "sub-list" with various tags.

Then when I want to see that sub-list, I can hit the tag in the tag cloud.

The problem with this is that I can't see all sub-lists for a list at a glance.

But tags do have a benefit that sub-lists do not, and that is that a single item can have multiple tags, without having to duplicate the item like you would in sub-lists.

Anyway, I've found this workaround that I thought I would share. Please post here whether or not it works for you.

Posted 18 years ago
lionalx says:
i join the request for nested lists.

my solution so far: i write prefix for each task.
for example, on study list i write the course code before the task itself: "FEM: read wittig's article". it's easy to view and they group together in the list (abc order).
Posted 18 years ago
(closed account) says:
I'd also love nested lists. Currently I'm using a combination of tags and selective wording at the start of tasks to group (and sometimes order) them - kind of hacky.
Posted 18 years ago
gui says:
nested lists = hotness!
Posted 18 years ago
phanley says:
The developers had indicated previously that they were reluctant to clutter the interface of the app with nested lists, but maybe they would be willing to reconsider?

Not even for project management, but just for to do lists -- I have tons of things that require multiple tasks, often chained (i.e. getting my med. insurance paperwork submitted -- I need a) get paperwork signed by doctor b) submit forms to insurance c) follow up with what's taking so long, d) yell at call center employee)

I see how sub-tasks could be seen as cluttering the interface, but doesn't it clutter the interface for people to resort to kludges in order to get a semblance of a basic feature?
Posted 17 years ago
cozmokrmr says:
Yes...nested lists would be great.

Maybe it can be an option that can be turned on or off so that those people who don't want it to clutter the interface can keep it off.


I love RTM!...but could use nested lists to make it much easier on myself. I have too many lists already all on one page, that could be organized better.
Posted 17 years ago
hunkdujour says:
I'm not sure nested lists would actually add much for how I use RTM -- and might actually make things a little too complicated.

The simple yet powerful nature of RTM is what originally sold me (and most likely) others on it in the first place... maybe there is a way to help people organize their lists with the user interface?

Perhaps it would be helpful to people if they could arrange their list tabs in ways other than alphabetical?

Perhaps an option to switch from tabs to a drop-down or expandable list? (I know the UI doesn't look as nice when you have two or more lists of tabs going.)

Nested lists would probably require an overhaul of the data structure, while providing different/customizable ordering of lists/tabs could help?
Posted 17 years ago
(closed account) says:
Yes to nested lists. They would be so very useful.
Posted 17 years ago
shryn says:
A big 'YES' for nested lists, from me.
Posted 17 years ago
(closed account) says:
I agree that nested lists would be a huge benefit to my daily management of projects (many have 20+ little daily steps).

I don't see how this would clutter that much... you just need to associate a new list as a parent or child of an existing list, indent or color as needed and have a collapse button on any parent that hides the children associated.
Posted 17 years ago
binghow says:
PLEASE to nested lists, or some variation thereof that doesnt screw up your data structure. SIMPLE is key, its why Im defecting from MLO and chose this over basecamp - but nesting would really help!!!
Posted 17 years ago
fearoffours says:
Yes, nested lists would be great, where the top list is marked complete once all sub lists are!
Posted 17 years ago
dangorin says:
seems to me that the tags, which can all be viewed on the overview screen do the job. there does not seem to be a limit to the number of tags you can put on a task, so it will show up in multiple lists when you look at that tag.

darylkulak above said the same thing basically.

use F on this page and search for replies that contain the word "tag".
Posted 17 years ago
(closed account) says:
dangorin, this is the problem. I have a 20 open project s which each have over 50 steps during which I might need to work on a step for 1-2 hours every 3 days. For each of these projects I CANNOT do step 2 without doing step 1. Your method doesn't account for precedence of operations. Nor does it allow me to see that THIS is the step I need to do next.

What I really need is the ability to track each "sub" project task and have a screen that shows 20 projects with ONLY the next "sub" step necessary to move the project towards completetion.

Does this make sense or am I missing something with how this works?
Posted 17 years ago
hunkdujour says:
We have to look at RTM and think of it in a similar way as GTD...

GTD is so powerful because it doesn't impose a particular system or method, it allows folks to develop their own processes and systems to meet their specific needs.

RTM is similarly powerful, it provides the framework of an incredibly powerful todo list engine WITHOUT IMPOSING WORKFLOW.

Want sub-projects? You could tag them with "Proj1-SubProj3" and create a smart list for that project or sub-project. Everything is alpha sorted, so if you have something that is "Item 1" and want it to show up at the top of the list, you could name it "#1 - Item Name" and it'll always be on top...

And when you've completed it? "#2 - Next Item" will be on top. =)

I've put together a complete GTD system with various tagging and naming conventions (which I've been meaning to post) that includes being able to tickle files and have them appear right in front of my face on specific days, so it IS possible.

Be creative -- try tagging things different ways, creating new smart lists, etc... you'd be surprised at what you can do with some elbow grease and the advanced search features...

Advanced Search:
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/help/answers/search/advanced.rtm

Smart Lists:
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/help/answers/smartlists/whatare.rtm
Posted 17 years ago
ranbarton Power Poster says:
Good post, Hunkdujour. I'd love to see your RTM/GTD system if you ever write it up.
Posted 17 years ago
hunkdujour says:
I'm working on a writeup which I'll post on the board as well as my livejournal. =)
Posted 17 years ago
cainmark says:
I still want nested smart lists. I've settled on using a smushed library of congress categorization for everything I have to sort (in virtual life as well as IRL), so I can always find what I'm looking for within an over-arching call letter subject heading. the problem is that I use multiple sub-headings in certain areas, and none in others.

An Example:

I have a Smart List called "N-Art". Within that smart list I would like two sub-heading smart lists of "NC-Animation" and "NC-Comics". Creating the last two as smart lists crowds the screen up too much. It wouldn't if there were nested smart lists. I have these as tags, but it doesn't quite work the way I would like.

Procedural steps for tasks as mentioned above would work better as sub-headings, IMHO.

Posted 17 years ago
cainmark says:
Another note, the tags get unwieldy when they're too big.

N-Art with the nested lists of NC-Animation and NC-Comics and ND-Painting become

N-Art_NC_Animation
and
N-Art_NC-Comics and
N-Art_ND_Painting

They get incredibly long within Q-Science, especially the computer section.

And the longer they are, the harder they are to read.
Posted 17 years ago
zozure says:
Nested lists are *indispensible* for me.

That's the only reason why i'll be using backpack instead of RTM (despite all its other superior functionalities).
Posted 17 years ago
myosse says:
"Nested lists are *indispensable* for me. "

Me too.
Posted 17 years ago
lhomme says:
Yay nested lists!
Posted 17 years ago
(closed account) says:
I do not know if this functionality would also fall under the "nested list" functionality, but what I'm falling into very often is stuff where I don't want to see "next steps" until I've accomplished tasks they're dependent on.

For example:

1) Locate grocery store nearby me.
2) Call grocery store to see if they have peanut butter.
3) Go to grocery store after work and buy peanut butter.
4) Confirm I have bananas in the house.
5) Make fried peanut butter and banana sandwich.
6) Practice Elvis impression as I eat fried PB&B sandwich.

In the above (hopefully humorous) example, I would like to make these reliant upon each other -- i.e., I only see #2 after #1's checked off, etc. Of course, this could rapidly get complicated ... but as it stands, I'm using an unpleasant alternative of writing "(Follow-up: [second task name].)" in the text of the to-do , which I don't want to do.
Posted 17 years ago
myosse says:
www.todoist.com manage 2do nested lists with one developer in 3 weeks how about RTM???
Posted 17 years ago
paul.rucker says:
Count one more vote for nested lists!
Posted 17 years ago
cainmark says:
The nested list or somehow making tasks dependent on previous actions would still be great.

Since they are just two peopel is there anyone who knows how to code using their api to make a workaround shortcut.

I don't know if that can be done, and I don't know how to code an the whol api thing is still mysterious to me.

wcitypoe's example is a perfect example of the things that I would like to do with RTM.
Posted 17 years ago
cainmark says:
Wahhooo! Check out the blog. This is Now do-able and they can close out this topic.

Thanks, guys, you really made my day when you added that feature.

What a great, great addition.

Posted 17 years ago
(closed account) says:
Cainmark, WTfrak? This feature's not been added.
Posted 17 years ago
cainmark says:
Woops, jumped the gun, read the blog quickly and I saw how the manageble tasks within tasks features were added. Made the mistake of thinking that meant it was using nested lists as well. Discovered it wasn't :( .

Sorry, guys.
Posted 17 years ago
toddt says:
I don't know whether this has been "me, too!"-ed enough already to make it into an official feature request, but I'd really appreciate the ability to nest my lists.

I think it's something you need to really win over the GTD-crowd.
Posted 17 years ago
(closed account) says:
Me too. :)
Posted 17 years ago
dena.grabinar says:
i'm adding my vote to nested lists - it would be a fantastic feature.

*even though* i would prefer to operate using just tags and a flat structure, i'm not sure i can maintain that discipline the whole time, so to have the option to use nested lists (at least when i'm initially entering a task) would be brilliant. i could then sort it out into properly tagged and named tasks if i wanted.
Posted 17 years ago
johnfoland says:
Hunkdujour summed it up perfectly in his post. Before adding in your vote for nested lists, please read his post (on this page). You can't put it any better than that.
Posted 17 years ago
dena.grabinar says:
well, i'd already read Hunkdujour's post, and now i've read it again.

and i still feel that nested tasks would be a very useful addition, because it would give me the flexibility to choose the level of flatness/hierarchy i want.
Posted 17 years ago
herby007 says:
Count my vote too for nested lists. I need a simple one click way for sub-lists. Please, please, please ... :-)
Posted 17 years ago
tcwinter says:
I've read hunkdujour's post and understand how that could work for some people. But, I'm a visual person, and seeing the nests and hierarchies really helps me understand where I am, what I have to do, etc. Right now, I'm using one program that has nests but no tags to capture everything on all of my projects and will be using RTM as my shorter-term calendar so that I can tag with contexts or people. I'd rather use just one system!
Posted 17 years ago
This topic has now been closed automatically due to a lack of responses in the past 90 days.