I want Sandy

I just figured out that Sandy has different behavior for "Remind me..." and "Remember...."

For "Remind me" she will *always* assign the item to a time, taking a guess if one isn't obvious. For example, "Remind me to testing @home @todo", results in:

<quote>
#1 Sat, 5/10 5:00am Testing

* email reminder at 5:00am
* tagged with home and todo

I didn't see a date or time for this reminder, so I scheduled it for 11pm.
</quote>

But, "Remember testing @todo", just results in the todo item without a time, unless you explicitly put a time in the message, e.g. "Remember test today at 7pm @todo"

This wasn't at all obvious to me from the documentation (though I admit I'm lousy at reading documentation), so I thought I'd share.

BTW, I find the "Remember..." semantics to be much more intuitive and will start using remember exclusively.

BTW^2, "R" is apparently short for "Remember" and not "Remind".

Howdy,

We've had such incredible feedback on last week's big update [http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...], it's been all we could do just to take it all in, listen to what you liked and didn't, and find the odd bits and bobs we managed to overlook. Thanks to all of you who not only took the time to explore some of the nooks and crannies of the update, but took the trouble to write up your results, make suggestions, and share your experiences with us and your neighbors.

Today's update addresses much of what you pointed out — with more tweaks and twiddles to come — and continues to build on the web interface work we've been doing over the past couple of weeks.

There are bug fixes and improvements aplenty, but perhaps most notable is something many of you have been asking for for some time...

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NEW: Inline action links

You asked for them, and you've got them! You'll now find inline links for those actions you perform several times a day — editing, deleting (forgetting), and archiving (along with the more obvious to-do toggling we introduced last week). You can still click any item's name to see more detail and find links to less common actions, but you no longer have to do so just to edit, delete, or archive. You know what they say: a click in time saves nine! :-)

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NEW: Archived and repetition indicators

We've been finding some of the niceties in the new web interface we've been working on too useful not to share and so will be introducing a couple-three of them with each update along the way.

In this update you'll notice that repeating appointments, reminders, and to-dos now have a spiral repetition indicator to call attention to themselves: it's a subtle but surprisingly helpful way to spot those daily, weekly, monthly, and other repeating events.

We've also made it more obvious which items you've had Sandy archive for you; look for the suitcase indicator alongside the repetition indicator.

And while we were at it, we moved the reminder indicator alongside its two new friends, giving you an at-a-glance view of what's upcoming, what's coming around again, and what's safely tucked away in Sandy's archive.

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ADDED: Your stuff > Archives

Speaking of archived items... Thanks to all of you who pointed out that it wasn't obvious how to browse to archived items there's now an "Archives" link (you'll find it under the "Your stuff" menu on Sandy's web site) that brings your archived stuff to within easy reach. (Tip! Bring archived items back to the forefront by clicking their inline "unarchive" link.) Visit your archived stuff at http://iwantsandy.com/archives .

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TWEAKED: Scheduled to-dos rejoin appointments

You'll be pleased to see scheduled to-dos (those set for a particular date or time) once again appearing alongside your appointments when you browse Your stuff > Appointments [http://iwantsandy.com/appointments].

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TWEAKED: "Show past" comes back from, well, the past

An obvious omission (so obvious it slipped by us unnoticed) from last week's update was the "Show past" link you'll need to go back in time to old appointments, reminders, and scheduled to-dos. You'll find the "Show past" link back where it belongs at the top-right of your Appointments list at http://iwantsandy.com/appointments .

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FIXED: British Summer Time

UK folks will find that Sandy has loped back into British Summer Time. Thanks, Zu [http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...] for pointing out that she had sprung a little too far forward for your needs.

Onward and upward!

Rael

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P.s. Keep those comments coming! We want to know what you think, what you liked (or didn't), and if we missed anything (or made anything worse).

Howdy,

As the week draws to a close, so too does a large swathe of work we've been doing tightening up, tweaking, twiddling, fixing, and testing Sandy's web site interface.

As usual, our focus has been on striking a balance between simple and powerful, friendly and unobtrusive, fun and functional. We've incorporated some of the incredibly helpful feedback you've all provided here on Get Satisfaction in the form of interface enhancements, bug fixes, and site- and email-wide improvements. And behind the scenes we've set some even more interesting developments in motion that you'll see surfacing in the days and weeks to come.

So you can regard today's update as a warm-up before the next phase of the performance we call product development.

We hope you like what you see!

Rael

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TIDYING: Here, there, and everywhere

You'll no doubt notice the spring cleaning we did on Sandy's web site, but here are some of the highlights in case you missed them:

* Sandy's site feels that much more pleasant to visit with that legal-pad-yellow vanquished.

* Gone are the filter and sort controls from the sidebar. (They were all but unused. Updates to the default filtering and sorting depending on whether you're looking at your to-dos, calendar, bookmarks, Daily Digest, ... should take care of just about all you formerly had to fiddle with to get to.)

* Subscription links for your iCalendar and RSS feeds are at the bottom of the page when you need them, out of your way when you don't. (They rather cluttered the sidebar and made entirely too much of themselves.)

* The calendar appears in the sidebar on all of "Your stuff" and "Daily Digest" pages (rather than just on Digest pages).

TIDYING: And email too!

We also worked with Sandy to tidy up her email messages — every single one, from replies to reminders to your Daily Digest:

* The same color-scheme you see on the Web is also reflected in Sandy's HTML email (turn on HTML email at http://iwantsandy.com/settings/email for a splash of color in your inbox).

* We moved the Home, Help, and Community links to the footer of Sandy's email template. (Those of you skimming a preview of Sandy's messages in your inbox — Gmail, Outlook, and iPhone mail in particular — will find more of the content in those previews rather than those repetitive links.)

* Repeating reminders, appointments, and to-dos now include mention — beyond their @daily or @weekly or other recurrence tags — of their repeating: "- Repeats weekly"

We're sure you'll enjoy the results of our reshuffling, polishing, and tidying!

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FIXED: The non-disappearing edit window

We had thought we had this licked in our 4/12 release, but there were still some corner cases causing some trouble. It was nailing this down that led to quite a bit of the refactoring behind today's release.

Again, thanks to all of you who posted and ultimately helped us narrow down just what was causing this inconsistency: Paul and Nobiq [http://gsfn.us/t/ghx], Nedflanders [http://gsfn.us/t/hwh], Thorsten [http://gsfn.us/t/hwr], Onorio [http://gsfn.us/t/hx1], and others.

We're sorry that this caused some of you some difficulty and will endeavor to avoid introducing bugs like that in the future.

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FIXED: Nits in toggling and rescheduling repeating appointments and to-dos

Those of you who ran into some of the nits in toggling and rescheduling repeating appointments and to-dos should find that all cleared and acting just as you'd expect it to now. Thanks to all of you who sent us the details we needed (and your assumptions about how things were working) that allowed us to make this all work that much better.

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IMPROVED: Toggling to-dos done

We've dropped the three-way to-do / done / not-to-do toggle in favor of a simple to-do/done checkbox appearing to the left of any to-do in your To-do list [http://iwantsandy.com/todos] or Daily Digest [http://iwantsandy.com/digest].

We think you'll find this much more intuitive than the good-in-theory three-way toggle. (You can still turn anything into a to-do by clicking its name, the "Edit" link, and adding a @todo or @done tag.)

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IMPROVED: Your Stuff

The lion's share of this update vastly improves, cleans up, and removes bugs in the way Sandy lists, sifts, and sorts your stuff.

* Sorting and filtering is taken care of for you (no more need of any manual tuning on your part) whether you're looking at the entire list [http://iwantsandy.com/list], your appointments, to-do list, contacts, bookmarks, lists, or notes. And each now has its very own URL: appointments live at http://iwantsandy.com/appointments, to-dos at http://iwantsandy.com/todos, and so forth.

* Want to reflect on to-dos already done? Head to your to-do list (Your stuff > To-dos or [http://iwantsandy.com/todos]) and click the "Show done to-dos" link.

* Repeating appointments, to-dos, and reminders are called out by the appropriate tag (e.g. [weekly] or [monthly]) right next to the event's date or time. Editing, forgetting, archiving, or toggling items behaves as you'd expect it to depending on whether you're changing the entire repeating series or an individual occurrence (and Sandy will confirm with you when there's any possibility of confusion).

* Repeating events show up whenever appropriate as individual occurrences on each and every day they're supposed to when you're looking across multiple days, weeks, months, or years.

* Your stuff is no longer cluttered with special tags like @todo or @weekly or the like when not needed: if it's a to-do, then the to-do checkbox appears; if done, it'll appear checked. Any other tags you've used show up as usual.

* Hover over the "Your stuff" menu on Sandy's site and you'll find — along with "Today", "Last week", "Next month", etc — new choices: "The next 7 days" and "The next 30 days." Kudos to those who thought to ask — these are now my two default views on Sandy's site!

* Sandy now abbreviates dates and times as appropriate anywhere they appear on her site and in her email messages: an event at 9am today won't list the date; an event at 9am tomorrow will; neither will show the year if it's this year; etc.

Take a new look at your stuff at http://iwantsandy.com/list

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IMPROVED: Daily Digest

You've told us quite precisely what you'd like to see in your Daily Digest and we're bringing most of it to you in the coming week or two, starting with today's many improvements:

* You'll no longer see duplicates in your Daily Digest — when, for instance, a to-do scheduled for today appeared in both the "Calendar" and "To-dos" sections. If it is scheduled for today, you'll find it in the "Calendar" section.

* Your Daily Digest — whether today's or next Tuesday's — now includes overdue to-dos, those due today (or next Tuesday if you're looking at next Tuesday's digest), and unscheduled to-dos. (If it's not yet due, it no longer shows up until its time has come.) Many of you requested this feature and we're glad to have finally had the chance to bring it to you.

* To-dos are sorted by status and due-date: past-due, due today, then unscheduled.

* Overdue to-dos not yet checked off as done are slightly highlighted so that you can spot them and get them done.

(Please note that we wanted to get this update out and into your virtual hands so the emailed version of your Daily Digest will sport the same improvements as the version on Sandy's website in short order.)

Visit your Daily Digest for today at http://iwantsandy.com/digest

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IMPROVED: The "New..." form

Something that was chapping my hide — and I know it was bothering some of you too — was the way that telling Sandy about something using the "New..." form (from Sandy's toolbar on every page of her site) popped up a small notification but didn't take you to the stuff you just had Sandy remember for you. You'll now be redirected to the new content a moment or three after you click the "Send" button.

"Email" Sandy right from the iwantsandy.com web site at http://iwantsandy.com/new

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TIDIED: Print

We tidied the Print version of your Daily Digest and any views of Your stuff.

Print a pocket-able, portable, paper copy of your Daily Digest: visit http://iwantsandy.com/digest and click the "Print" link.

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P.s. As always, we'd love to know what you think, what you liked (or didn't), and if we missed anything (or made anything worse).

I'd like to be able to (re)order my list of todos to that the most timely/urgent are at the top.

Howdy,

I hope everyone is having a good weekend! Just had some wonderful crepes myself on the first warm day of the year here in Portland.

Today's update includes some small tweaks and twiddles that I thought you would appreciate having sooner rather than waiting for a larger update next week.

Enjoy!

—Rael

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FIXED: The non-disappearing edit window

Thanks to a good catch by Paul and Nobiq [http://gsfn.us/t/ghx], we fixed a bug which caused the "Edit" window from going away under certain circumstances. Don't worry: your changes were saved just fine, it was just that infernal Edit window that was making too much of itself.

Edit anything Sandy's remembering for you on her web site: click the item's name, then the "Edit" link.

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TWEAKED: Editing a repeating appointment, reminder, or to-do

Some of you reported being a little confused to find that editing a repeating (ex. daily, weekly, monthly) appointment, reminder, or to-do on Sandy's web site left you with two copies: a repeating and a non-repeating one, only the non-repeating one reflecting your editing changes.

What was happening was that the default when editing a repeating item was to edit just the current occurrence rather than the entire series.

So we switched things such that you are editing "All future occurrences" by default. To edit just the current occurrence, in the "Edit" window, simply choose "Only this occurrence."

Thanks so much to those of you who wrote in with your expectations and observations.

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FIXED: Forgetting repeating appointments, reminders, or to-dos by email

We fixed a bug which was causing Sandy some confusion when you asked her to forget a repeating appointment, reminder, or to-do by email (or Twitter).

To forget the current occurrence of a repeating event:
> forget
> forget #1
> f #1

To forget all future occurrences of a repeating event:
> forget @weekly
> forget #1 @monthly
> f #1 @daily

Grab a fresh copy of Sandy's cheatsheet: http://iwantsandy.com/help/cheatsheet

I am reading Dreaming in Code right now. It looks like you guys are solving a lot of the thornier problems that the developers of Chandler (subject of the book) were running into.

I know that some of the textiness of Stikkit and I Want Sandy is related to Rael's earlier blosxom project. Where else are you getting your inspiration from?