Hi davidfarquhar,

It sounds like this is due to the way that subtasks behave - subtasks will only ever show in your views when the parent tasks do not.

When both the parent and the subtask appear in a List, the subtask is "collected" together with its parent (so it shows within the context of the parent task).

Hope that helps!

Thanks for your response. I think I'm slowly getting to grips with subtasks - I found the note in the help section on this:
"Subtasks will appear in a task list (such as the Today list) if their parent task is not included in the task list."

I do find this somewhat awkward though - if I set up a task "project work" I will make sure it appears in my normal working list perhaps by putting a start date on it and then it is a "current" task.

As I review my list at the start of the week I might determine that it needs subtasks, so I add these.

I want these subtasks to appear at the same level as the other tasks on this list, so when I'm looking what I have to do today I see lots of discrete actions, rather than lots of actions and a project task that I have to click on to see what is under it. I can now do this by removing the start date from the parent.

But when I've completed the subtasks my parent is not in the list anywhere as a current task, so I have to go looking for it to find it.

My initial thinking with subtasks was that I would set them up, they would then appear in my action list, and I'd cross them off. Once they are all gone, the parent would just appear in the action list and I'd be able to then assess whether there was anything left to do on this parent, or to cross it off.

But the current implementation seems difficult to use - I need to actively look for the parent task in a different list.

Am I alone in having this, or do others use subtasks differently out there? I'd love to get a better use of them going

As a workaround to this I've created a Parents list which has search criteria
hassubtasks:true

If I go into this I can see all my incomplete Parents - if there is no subtask count against the task I know it has nothing left to do so I can review it.

If it has a subtask count, this is a useful place to check that I haven't set any criteria that would make it appear in a list ahead of its subtasks.

Not ideal as I have to check this list regularly, but a workaround

I am fairly new to RTM and I have a related question. I have created Parent Tasks with no due date. Only the subtasks have due dates. In this way, I have a page that lists everything I need to do for that Parent Task ongoing. When I look at today's tasks, the subtask doesn't show up unless the Parent Task has that due date as well. I just want the subtask to show up on the date I need to do it. Is that possible? Given the conversation above, it seems what David doesn't want is what I do want. Unless I have not understood.

When you say "look at today's tasks" are you talking about the Today list? I tried but couldn't replicate your problem.

I added a Test Parent with no due date, and a Test Subtask with due date of today, the subtask appeared in the Today list.

When I updated the Test Parent to have a due date, RTM then displayed the parent task in the Today list (because both tasks satisfy the criteria for the list, but it can't display both in the same list at the same time).

@ shendl if your subtasks have due dates and the parent does not, they should be showing in your "today" view (as long as they are due on that day).