Best To-Do List Software? 532
JojoLinkyBob writes "Greetings, Council of Slashdot. I am curious what everyone here recommends as their favorite organizational software. Specifically, I am trying to find a simple freeware/open-source todo list manager. In the past, I've dabbled with TreePad,
Shadow Plan, Mantis, and various virtual sticky- note apps ..all with mixed success. Currently, I'm back to my old-school ways of scribbling my todo's on the back of each Daily Dilbert Calendar page, which sadly means today is June 23 :)"
data managers (Score:5, Informative)
If you're looking for a structured way to store your random bits of data, there'
s treeline [bellz.org], a really simple but rea
lly effective little app.
I'm not really a bells & whistles type of guy, i like my apps streamlined and effective
iCal! (Score:2, Informative)
stickies (Score:2, Informative)
Omni Outliner! (Score:4, Informative)
They also have some teriffic charting software, OmniGraffle [omnigroup.com], that I use to do flowcharts for all of my coding. You guys all do flowcharts, right?
-S
Palm Pilot. (Score:3, Informative)
Notepad (Score:1, Informative)
Theres a good post-it-note program on planet source code [pscode.com], but you'll find yourself not using it.
freemind (Score:2, Informative)
a little more complex than a traditional to-do list, but you can interconnect tasks and lay out projects in a freewheeling yet ridiculously detailed manner.
Omni (Score:4, Informative)
Mozilla Sunbird (Score:5, Informative)
Booby PHP App (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.nauta.be/booby/
oby provides Web-based management for bookmarks/favorites, contacts, todos, notes, and news, allowing the user to import and export to common standards (Netscape/Opera bookmarks, Opera contacts/vCards, etc.).
The application is fully themeable (by using phpSavant) and has support for multiple users and languages.
Booby is written in PHP and is database independant (sort of) by using the database abstraction layer 'ADOdb'.
Action Outline and Ecco Pro (Score:2, Informative)
The best, in my experience, was Ecco. After NetManage bought it and destroyed it, it died. Luckily, they still (ostensibly) offer it via FTP, but I haven't been able to access that link for a long time. Plus, it's the last build, so it's a very stale Win16 app now. Still usable, though, if long in the tooth.
Re:Low-tech (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Apple's iCal software (Score:1, Informative)
Sex (Score:3, Informative)
Yay Nullsoft.
http://www.nullsoft.com/free/safesex/
I use ToDoList (Score:5, Informative)
Simple Yet Elegant Solution for Windows Users (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.codeproject.com/tools/ToDoList2.asp [codeproject.com]
Very simple to use and the author is very responsive to suggestions.
Jim
qtextender.com [qtextender.com]
Re:Wiki (Score:3, Informative)
TWiki [twiki.org]. Makes for a great Web accessible todo list.
The interface may not be as fast as dedicated todo list software, but it has the benefits of being good for taking notes, colaborative document editing, file upload, definable users lists for reading and editing documents.
HNB - hierarchical notebook (Score:2, Informative)
I'm currently using HNB as my calendar and TODO-List. HNB is a text-mode app:
HNB Screenshots [sourceforge.net]
Palm-OS Syncable Solution (Score:3, Informative)
I know you wanted a PC solution but let's face it - they all mostly suck. I need something super-portable and syncable if it's going to be my to do list for the entire day. That's why I prefer the PalmOS software.
It costs a bit of money but you know, who pays for these things anyway? Well it should be you.
Alternatives (Score:2, Informative)
What I've resorted to now is using Microsoft's OneNote and creating sections for the products I'm working on, with pages for TODO lists, Wish Lists, R&D, code snippets, etc. Easy to use and probably one of the best applications Microsoft has released in years.
Re:It's really not a technical problem. (Score:4, Informative)
I think the future will see more XML and RSS based tools that allow you to integrate all of your systems (calendars, todo lists, issue tracking lists, blogs, etc etc) into one interface without regard for proprietary formats. Those companies that do put their eggs on the proprietary format basket will either be run around by smart filters, or wither on the vine as people see the lack of interoperability and go elsewhere.
That is the space where information management will reach a new plateau, imho.
Re:Low-tech (Score:2, Informative)
I eventually wanted something that I could add files to, set up categories with and be very dynamic and upgradable and modifiable. So I installed a wiki. Personally, I chose TWiki (twiki.org) because it's done with perl and has a lot of pre-written plugins. I love it.
ToDoList - additional positives (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Apple's iCal software (Score:4, Informative)
Did I mention it was sloooww?
For free iCal hosting, try icalx.com instead. There exists another free iCal hosting service but I forget the name.
devtodo (Score:3, Informative)
it proved to be so good that even my wife abadoned small sheets of paper and started using it.
ToDoList from Abstract Spoon (Score:2, Informative)
Lightweight and simple, it does what I want and not much more. Has a nice feature that lets you automatically export to an HTML file, so you can easily publish it for others to read.
What sort of to-do list? (Score:3, Informative)
If there is a great number of tasks with no critical path, for example a call center, then you will want something a little more complicated. You'll need to be able to log a task quickly, give it an urgency, tie it back to a particular caller, be able to assign it, maybe even have a searchable knowledge base. For this area things like OTRS [otrs.org] are great.
Then you could be a developer, where critical paths vary daily and tasks need to be assigned to specific modules and versions. The obvious choice here is bugzilla [bugzilla.org]
Desktop or web-based is also a consideration. You may require access from multiple locations; maybe you are an off-site engineer; so that needs to be taken into consideration too.
If your using OS X take a look at Hog Bay Notebook (Score:1, Informative)
Jesse
Re:Apple's iCal software (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Palm Desktop worth a look (Score:1, Informative)
Ecco URL (Score:5, Informative)
Netmanage essentially abandoned this product although you can still download for free from their ftp site:
ftp://ftp.netmanage.com/support/pub/utilities/EC4
Users manual should be included as well.
This is way more than just a simple outline program. Think unlimited relational outlines connected by user definable columns. All fully integrated with the calendar and address book.
As I contemplate switching to various other platforms this is still the one application I cannot live without. No other outliner/pim comes close to ECCO.
best *stand alone* todo list? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Palm Desktop worth a look (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What's wrong with Old School? (Score:3, Informative)
For lists over the course of a few days, I personally prefer a much more high-tech approach. I keep tasks in a comma-separated text file, which I can import into any app I need to, report off of with perl, and generally depend on.
Re:what's awful about notepad? (Score:5, Informative)
Consider Full-Fledged PIMs like Zoot (Score:3, Informative)
One such piece of software is a cult-hit, Zoot [zootsoftware.com]. See reviews here [theatlantic.com] and here [llrx.com]. Find out more at the Yahoo Group for it [yahoo.com], which also happens to have excellent lists [yahoo.com] of other excellent but often underappreciated PIM software.
Also consider web-based task managers like Yahoo Calendar [yahoo.com]. The advantage is that they are easily accessible from anywhere and there's no need for backups. Yahoo task management also syncs with a lot of other stuff, I think.
Re:the cutting edge of TODO list technology (Score:3, Informative)
alias todo='vim + ~/todo'
So there =P You also might want to look at the "+/{pat}" command line option for vim. Then you could search for the '[ ]' which would autoskip to the first task you don't have done.
In process of building my own (Score:3, Informative)
So my first step was an online note tool called NoteToSelf [sf.net] that I use to keep all those interesting articles, recommendations for movies, homework assignments, job descriptions, consumer ratings, etc. I wrote it in PHP and love it. It's pretty primative as I haven't put any extra work into it since I got it functional. But it's great for me and I use it throughout the day.
My next step is the to-do list. As an interim, I just use a note in NoteToSelf to keep the tasks, but really want something with priorities and reminders. So I've looked at various ones, and I think I'm going to integrate Horde's [horde.org] Kronolith [horde.org] for calendaring and Nag [horde.org] for task lists. They're all PHP and MySQL so I can integrate or tweak as much as I feel like.. With those 3 things I think I have most of my "PIM" needs met and accessible from any internet-connected device around. I've been mulling over a PDA, but only to act as an offline copy of those 3 apps, and not for their own native PDA apps.
Re:Palm Desktop worth a look (Score:3, Informative)
Agreed. I was actually thinking of mentioning it, when I saw your post. The GUI is simple, ToDo list can be assigned priorities, due dates, alerts, put in appropriate categories, etc, and sorted according to the need.
And if you have an actual palm, you have the added benefit of being able to carry the ToDo list when not in front of a computer. And backup of course: should your palm crash, you have everything backed up on your computer, and vice versa.
Re:data managers (Score:4, Informative)
At the risk of starting yet another editor war:
emacs plus:
If not, you can get todo-mode.el from any emacs source location.
A proposal has been made to add some simple fontification to the todo-mode.el. You can find the mail message here [gnu.org] among other places.
I use it because it works with the calendar-mode, diary mode, and since it's emacs it runs everywhere emacs does.
I know, boring, boring, boring. However, when you have the kitchen sink of editors, you might as well turn on the water.
OmniOutliner, hnb, vi (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Mozilla Sunbird (Score:2, Informative)
Mozilla Sunbird [mozilla.org]
Re:the cutting edge of TODO list technology (Score:2, Informative)
If you dd the line, how do you keep track of everything you've accomplished?
Anal as it may be, I use text-based to-do lists too, but I also keep a contemporaneous work log in a {not-to-be-named} spreadsheet program.
To-Do lists are great for things you plan to do, but they don't handle all of the things customers/coworkers/supervisors ask you to get done, often immediately, and often with no notice. And you don't want to lose track of all of that material - sometimes your review can depend on what's in a contemporaneous work log like this.
It's a simple spreadsheet, with 5 columns. Time start, time end, customer, project, notes. Time start and time end run from about 0700 to 2400 hours, in 15 minute increments. Customer is usually a department, and notes is freeform, often abbreviated, but includes pertinent information like who I spoke with, did something get delivered/emailed/deployed, etc.
Anal, obsessive-compulsive, whatever. It's saved my bacon a couple of times. A to-do list that you erase, saving no record of your work (except the work, in most cases)? No thanks.
Re:the cutting edge of TODO list technology (Score:2, Informative)
As more stuff needs to be done, the file grows downards. As I finish stuff, i delete the lines, till i'm back to my original task at hand.
works great for me
Re:the best to-do list manager is analog (Score:3, Informative)
What works best largely depends on what your job function is like.
Franklin planners and Day-Timers excel where you have things to be done on a specific date, or need to keep track of your time / appointments. The pain of carrying over tasks from day-to-day is supposed to make you want to either classify them as "never do" or "do it so I don't have to copy it to another day again". The system does well if your job is largely 1-2 hour tasks that can be done on a particular day (e.g. expense account on the 1st, putting together end-of-month report Y). College students and corporate employees are good candidates for date-oriented task-lists. I definitely wish I had known how to use a day-planner back in college.
A yellow legal pad, OTOH, is great if your job is primarily task-oriented (e.g. fix computer Y, go see user Z, write module X) and you don't have any date-driven tasks. Every few days, you copy the undone tasks to the next clean page and toss the old pages in a file.
An electronic PDA is a hybrid between a day-planner and a legal pad of paper. Gives you the advantages of both methods, with very few drawbacks. The key to a PDA is that either you integrate it into as many aspects of your life as possible, or it's a waste of cash. (That means tracking expenses on it, getting software that will upload the results into your financial software, tracking your car expenses, exercise log, diet log, passwords, etc. and anything else that you need to keep track of.)
Rainlendar - it's a calender and a to-do list, wow (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.ipi.fi/~rainy [www.ipi.fi]
It has highly customizable skinning with tons available already. Integration with different Outlook versions. Simple interface, shortcut commands. Week-numbering, which is important in some countries. Easy to erase to-do items, and calender event alerting. Did I mention a fully customizable look for the floating windows. Version 0.19.3 is out now, go get it.
- A happy user, BBLean and Rainlendar, keeps my desktop clean and me on time.
Re:Apple's iCal software (Score:2, Informative)