Mandata 2.10.0

Your data encrypted on disk, tasks from your calendar, and an Ask Mandata that finds more.

• Encrypted database: your data is now kept on disk only in encrypted form. The key is held by the system (Windows for your account, the macOS keychain, or the Secret Service on Linux), so only you, on this computer, can open it. Settings > Data shows where the key is kept.
• First start of this version: the existing database is encrypted, read back to check it, then wiped and deleted; your existing backups get the same treatment. Changes are saved within about a second.
• Password-protected backups: Export to a file now asks for a password (at least 8 characters, typed twice). The file can be restored on any computer with that password. Since the data opens only on this computer, export a backup now and then to get it back after reinstalling Windows or changing accounts. Plain backups from older versions can still be imported.
• Calendar: Mandata reads your calendar every 15 minutes (meetings from the last 7 days and the next 30; Settings > Mail > Calendar). Attending a meeting is not a task, but work its description asks for is, such as "please share your updates before the meeting". Tasks and Threads have a new Found in filter (Email or Calendar). With Microsoft 365, sign in once more to allow calendar access.
• Better search in Ask Mandata: questions now find the relevant tasks, threads, emails and people by full-text search, matching different forms of a word in English, French and Spanish ("reports" finds "report") and parts of words or names. It runs locally.
• Learning from examples: when the AI reads a thread it sees up to three of your past corrections on similar emails. Follow-up and forward drafts see a couple of your own past emails to the same people, so the tone matches how you write to them.
• Lessons page: Lessons has its own page, with counts of corrections and lessons waiting. A new Automatic / Manual switch decides whether corrections are learnt from as soon as the AI is free, or only when you press Learn now.
• Tasks by me: a new switch on the Tasks page adds the tasks you asked others to do.
• Smarter task reading: when you answer and the person who asked replies with something like "thanks for the input", every task your answer covered is marked done.

Mandata 2.9.0

Flags that follow Outlook, a third kind of task, and a quieter activity log.

• Flags, both ways: flagging a task now flags the email it came from in Outlook, and an email you flag in Outlook flags its task in Mandata. "Pin to the top" is now "Flag", and the Flagged filter lists them, on the computer and on the phone.

• Promotion: besides Mandate and Compliance, tasks that are only offered or advertised to you (an optional webinar, a course, a fundraiser, an awards vote, a wellness event, a newsletter's call to register) are sorted as Promotion. Like Compliance, they wait in Tasks: no pop-ups, no bell, left out of the daily email and the digest. Your earlier tasks are sorted again once; the ones you marked yourself stay as you set them.

• Arrival date: a task's date is when the email that asked for it arrived, and later replies never move it. Lists are grouped the same way everywhere: Today, Yesterday, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Older.

• Activity: stuck threads no longer fill the log; they wait at the end of the queue and are tried again on their own.

• Insights: the flow diagram's bands no longer cross inside a bar.

• Start with Windows: on by default, kept through updates and reinstalls, and switching it off in Windows' own Startup list is respected.

• Install: Windows now installs from one file, Mandata-Windows.exe: double-click it, nothing to unzip or unblock. The macOS and Linux packages are on this release too.

Mandata 2.8.0

A cleaner Settings screen, and a full review of the app: steadier reading, a safer database, a sturdier server.

• Settings: every tab is now laid out the same way. Settings are grouped in cards, and each one is a row: what it does on the left, its control on the right, all aligned. Long explanations sit under the label instead of in it.
• Task reading: a short name the AI writes ("Ann") no longer matches a longer one ("Joanna"). "ASAP" or "urgent" never becomes a deadline unless a day is named. "By Friday" counts from the email that says it, and "Friday next week" is read as next week. A task is never dropped because a thread holds many.
• Duplicates: two different pieces of work in one thread are no longer folded into one task when the AI is unsure.
• Review when idle: new mail arriving during a review stops it from applying stale verdicts. A task is closed only for a stated reason, and never by the email that asked for it. A split task's parts no longer copy a deadline their own sentence does not set.
• Database: faster thread lists and name lookups. Backups are written whole or not at all. A damaged backup is refused before anything is replaced.
• Server and mail: an email is never sent twice after a network time-out. Microsoft 365 waits as asked when it is busy. The app recovers when Outlook's helper fails to start. Turning phone access off now disconnects the phone at once.
• Screens: dialogs work fully from the keyboard, and a dialog that opens by itself never takes the keys you are typing. A failed question in Ask Mandata goes back in the box. The weekly report prints without tinted fills.
• The AI on the processor: on computers without a separate graphics card, Mandata now sees that the model runs on the processor and uses the lighter limits, so readings stop timing out.

Mandata 2.7.0

Your job and the organisation's chores are now kept apart, and new mail that matters gets your attention.

• Mandate or Compliance: every task is now one or the other. Mandate is your job (reports, analysis, reviews, meetings). Compliance is what the organisation asks of every staff member (passport or visa renewal, mandatory trainings, leave and HR forms, IT and facilities steps, town halls, staff surveys). Tasks found before are sorted when the app starts. Change one in its pane and the AI learns from it. Compliance tasks never pop up as notifications and are left out of the daily overdue reminder: they wait in Tasks.
• My open tasks now means open Mandate tasks assigned to you, alone or among others. A new Mandate or Compliance filter sits on the Tasks page, and every filter choice explains itself when you hover over it.
• The bell: a bell in the status bar counts the new tasks asked of you from mail that has just arrived. It never counts old mail read again. Open a task, or press Mark all as read, to clear it.
• The most important tasks: a task from new mail asked of you that scores high on the radar shows in the middle of the screen, with a sound, until you press OK. Set the score, or turn it off, in Settings > Tasks.
• New means new mail: a task is New only when its email arrived in the last 3 days, not when Mandata read an older email.
• Sorting by arrival: the Update sort and the Arrived filter go by the latest email about the task, received or sent, not by when Mandata processed it. A new Process sort orders tasks by when Mandata found them.
• Better task reading: the AI's instructions now say exactly what a task is (a request or a promise, with a requester, an owner and something to deliver). They name what is not a task, such as newsletters, calls to "subscribe" or "register", and courtesy phrases. Direct questions and requests for approval are now caught as tasks.
• Ask Mandata: "what came in today?" goes by the date of the email, not the day Mandata read it. Questions are answered from open tasks unless you ask about closed work. "What needs my action?" means work asked of you.
• Phone: swipe left now pins a task to the top, or unpins it; swipe right still closes it, and archives a task asked of you among others. The list switches between Open, Pinned and Closed, and parked tasks are under Closed, each with when it opens again. The sorts match the computer: Update (the default), Due, Priority and Process. A change sent twice, from the offline queue or a second tap, is applied and logged once.

Mandata 2.6.0

Parked tasks come back by themselves, and you can answer the AI's doubts from your phone.

• Parked tasks come back: Settings > Tasks has a new park period, set in hours, days, weeks or months (1 week by default). When it runs out, the parked task opens again. Each parked task shows how long it has left ("Parked: back in 5 days"), on the computer and on the phone.
• Swipe on the phone: swipe right to close a task the usual way (Done, or Archive for a task between other people). Swipe left to park it.
• Not sure, answered on the phone: a task the AI is not sure about now has "Yes, a task" and "Not a task" buttons on the phone, as it does on the computer. Each answer becomes a lesson the AI uses next time.
• Parked list on the phone: the task list switches between Open, Parked and Closed. Parked tasks are listed by when they come back.
• Group requests are no longer yours alone: a request the AI was unsure about, sent to a mailing list, a group ("Dear colleagues") or several people, used to show as Assigned to me. It is now Among others, and tasks already made this way are fixed when the app starts.

Mandata 2.5.3

Mandata on the phone keeps working when the computer is off.

• Opens without the computer: when the phone cannot reach Mandata on your computer, the app opens what it already has in about 3 seconds, instead of a blank screen. Pages open at once from the phone's copy, and changes made on the phone are sent once the computer is back.
• Back by itself: the phone looks for the computer every 15 seconds and switches back as soon as it answers.
• Tasks the writer does themselves: an email where the writer says they will do something ("The list goes to Jay on 8 October") stays the writer's task, marked Not sure, and is never made yours.

Mandata 2.5.2

Mandata on the phone is quicker to work through.

• Swipe a task: right for done, left for archived, with Undo for a few seconds. A task between other people can only be archived, as on the computer.
• The phone keeps up by itself: when Mandata on the computer is updated, the phone app loads the new version the next time it connects or you come back to it.
• Activities by day: the activity log keeps much more history and can be read one day at a time.

Mandata 2.5.1

Mandata reads better who must act.

• The person to contact is not the one asked. "If you are interested, please contact Hanna by Friday", written to a team, asks the team, not Hanna. "Dear SD Colleagues, please contact Maria's manager", written to the service desk with you in To, asks the service desk, not you.
• Tidier task cards on the phone: the kind of task, who asked and the due date on one line; search and the order on one row beside each other; no "No deadline" chip and no news line that only repeats the deadline.

Mandata 2.5.0

Mandata catches every task, and closes them when a reply says they are done.

• Every task caught. When the AI is unsure whether an email asks for something, the task is kept and marked Not sure, with the reason, instead of being dropped. Answer Yes, it is a task or Not a task: Mandata learns from what you say and reads the next emails like it better. Filter your list by Not sure under the marks.
• More requests recognised: notes you email to yourself ("Ask Sam to finish the pending tasks by Friday"), requests to everyone written to ("Dear colleagues, please provide..."), requests that depend on you ("if you know this person, please..."), plain instructions ("Send me the report"), invitations that ask for a reply or a registration, forwards with no note, and requests at the end of long emails. A system sender or a newsletter footer no longer hides a real request.
• Weekday deadlines ("by Friday") are counted from the day the email was written.
• Closed by the reply. A task already listed closes on its own when a later reply delivers it or answers it ("Done, the figures are attached", "Thanks, received"). A task you reopened yourself stays open.
• Threads with no task from the last 14 days are read again once under these rules.
• Phone: tasks are listed by arrival date, newest first, and you can order them by deadline, priority or latest news. New tasks glow blue, as on the computer. More > Updates checks for a new version and installs it on your computer in one tap.
• Update now on the computer installs the update as soon as it is downloaded and checked: Mandata restarts on the new version.
• One way to get the phone app: the QR code in Settings > Phone.

Mandata 2.4.0

Mandata on your phone, now also away from your computer.

• Offline: off the computer's Wi-Fi, the phone keeps working with what it has: open tasks with their emails and history, people, and everything you opened. Close, reopen, pin, set deadlines and edit drafts as usual: the changes wait on the phone and go to your computer as soon as it answers again ("Offline · 2 to send" shows what waits). New mail and tasks, Ask Mandata, follow-up drafts, sending and notifications come back with the connection.
• Notifications (Android app): the new tasks and the day's deadlines Mandata shows on your desktop, on the phone too, checked about every 15 minutes.
• The Android app updates itself when a new version is published. Install it once more from the phone page to get these; after that it keeps itself up to date.