Tasks

Tasks

Ctrl+4. Your task lists down the left, the list in the middle, the task you picked beside it or under it.

A task is a VTODO, so a CalDAV task list works here and the same list works elsewhere. Flagged mail and flagged contacts appear on the To-Do List beside real tasks — the same tick box, the same bands, the same red for what is late — because a thing you have to do is a thing you have to do whichever store it came from.

Views

To-Do List	Everything outstanding, flagged mail and contacts included. Finished tasks are hidden.
Simple List	Every task on the chosen list, finished ones included.
Detailed	The same tasks under every column a task has — a table, sorted rather than grouped.

The reading pane shows the task you selected, beside the list or under it as View › Layout says for the whole window. It leaves out the fields the task has nothing in.

Arrangement

The View tab's Arrangement gallery groups the list, and the one in force is boxed:

Categories	By the first category on each task. Uncategorized tasks land under None rather than disappearing.
Start Date	When work starts, rather than when it is owed.
Due Date	Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week, Next Month, Later, No Date. The default.
Folder	Which task list. Flagged mail and contacts get bands of their own.
Type	Task, Mail, Contact.
Importance	High, Normal, Low — high first.
Modified Date	When it was last touched.

Reverse Sort turns whichever of them is in force upside down. Arrange By on the same tab is the gallery as a menu, for a narrow window.

The five things people look for

Adding one quickly. The row at the top of the list — Type a new task — makes a task by being typed in and pressing Enter. It goes on the list you are looking at.

Ticking it off. The tick box on the row. A recurring task that is ticked regenerates its next occurrence rather than vanishing, which is what a chore is.

When it is due. Late and not done is drawn in red and banded under Today, because that is what wants doing now. A task with no date at all lands under No Date rather than being pushed to the end.

Flagging mail as a to-do. Flag a message in Mail and it appears here, with its subject as the row and its follow-up date as the due date. Ticking it here marks the flag complete there. Remove from List takes a borrowed row off without deleting the message it stands for.

Google Tasks. A Google account's task lists sync both ways, alongside the CalDAV ones.

Where things are

• Reminders: on the task itself; Options › Tasks sets the default.
• Categories and importance: the Home tab's Tags group, which acts on the selected task — and refuses on a borrowed row, because a message has nowhere to keep a VTODO's PRIORITY.
• Which lists show: the tick boxes in the navigation pane.