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Howdy!

We've been working on a plethora of things in the background over the past few weeks — tweaks, bug fixes, optimizations, and new features — and today's update begins to surface some of this work and marks the beginning of our return to more frequent updates.

In this update:

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NEW: Let Sandy know (even more) precisely when to remind you

By far your #1 most requested feature has been the ability to tell Sandy precisely when you'd like her to send you a reminder. And we're pleased as punch to announce that Sandy's come up with a simple and flexible way to do just that...

Introducing a brand new special tag:

@reminder

And here's how it works...

Just ask Sandy to remember or remind you about something as usual:

> Remember [thing to remember]

or

> Remind me about [thing to remind you about] [date and/or time that thing is happening]

Left to her own devices, Sandy will remind you 15 minutes prior (or whatever your default reminder offset).

But add a @reminder tag, followed by exactly when you'd like to be reminded, like so:

> Remind me about [thing to remind you about] [date and time that thing is happening] @reminder [when to remind you]

and Sandy will schedule that event in your calendar at the date and time you specified (as usual). But she'll set a reminder for precisely when you asked her to.

Here are a few examples to get you into the swing of it:

* Have a meeting at 4pm tomorrow for which you could use a couple of hours of prep?

> Remember my marketing meeting at 4pm tomorrow @reminder at 2pm tomorrow.

* Want to be sure to stop by the store on the way home?

> Remind me to stop by the store at 6pm @reminder 30 minutes before.

* Need to pick out a birthday card for a friend before you see them on Monday?

> Remind me to pick up a card for Susan's birthday on Monday @reminder tomorrow afternoon @birthday.

(Proviso: We wanted to get this functionality to you as soon as possible and so there are likely some corner cases we've not yet discovered ourselves. Please do report any oddities you stumble across by following up to this topic thread.)

Find out more about special tags: http://iwantsandy.com/help/guide#spec...

Change your default reminder offset: http://iwantsandy.com/settings/datetime

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TWEAKED: "Remember" and "Remind" not required in "New message" form

A few of you pointed out that you didn't see why it was strictly necessary to say "remember" or "remind" in the "New message" form on the web site. So we thought we'd give it a whirl — and like it quite a bit!

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IMPROVED: #tags aka hashtags

For the twitterers among you, you'll be please to know that Sandy now looks out for hash-tags (ex. #birthday) in addition to @-styled tags (ex. @birthday) in your emails, direct messages, and everywhere else. This should help with any cognitive dissonance you may have been experiencing using @ for tags (rather than replies) on Twitter in particular.

For more on Twitter-style hash-tags, visit: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Hashtags

Not already twittering to Sandy from your mobile phone by SMS or via your favorite Twitter application? Find out more about Sandy's twittering ways and get set up to tweet at: http://iwantsandy.com/settings/twitter

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IMPROVED: No # or @ tag symbols needed in iwantsandy.com forms

You no longer need to fiddle about with @ (or even # — see "IMPROVED: #tags aka hashtags" above) symbols in the "Tags" field of the web-based edit form. Whether you list your tags as "@one @two", "#three #four", or "five six", or "@one #three five", Sandy will know just what you mean.

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ADDED: "Created at" date and time for each item

Some of you requested some way of knowing when Sandy first jotted down something you sent in. If you click on any item's name in any list on Sandy's web site, you'll find a new "Created: ..." amongst the details in the pop-up window.

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IMPROVED: Timeliness

Sandy's been starting in on reminders and Daily Digests a little earlier which, combined with some optimizations we've introduced to how those messages go out to your inbox, Twitter account, mobile phone, etc, means you should be seeing on-time (if not a minute or two early) reminders across the board.

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FIXED: Minor nits

* "Snooze until..." Fixed a bug where Sandy was renaming an appointment to "until" when snoozed with "snooze until ..." Good catch, Joachim, Nepper, and Kevin1 [http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...]!

* Oops! Fixed an "Oops" error on Sandy's web site for our UK clients clicking on some dates in the calendar selector. (A shout-out to Kevin1 for spotting the issue!)

* Sandy now understands "November the 7th" (note the "the") in addition to the usual permutations.

* The @birthday and @anniversary tags now show as expected.

* Many of you found the SnapShots (those web site preview pop-ups) irritating, so we took them out.

* Fixed "lookup @next" so that it doesn't become "lookup @" (and doesn't return anything tagged with any tag).

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IMPROVED: Twitter and Jott confirmations

Sandy's Twitter and Jott responses now correctly read "I got #1..." (instead of "#1 I got...").

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DOCUMENTED: Frequently asked questions

We've started in (finally!) on a Frequently asked questions page at http://wantsandy.com/help/faq

It's short but will be growing. If you have any suggestions for or pointers to questions that really should be in the list, please post a follow-up to the Get Satisfaction thread on the topic at: http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...

Enjoy!

Rael

P.s. We thrive on your feedback! Be sure to let us know what you think, what you liked (or didn't), and if we missed anything (or made anything worse).

Howdy,

Today's update brings some further user-interface improvements in preparation for the fun(ctional) overhaul we have in the works.

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TWEAKED: Inline action links

The action links we introduced last week brought those actions you perform several times a day — editing, deleting (forgetting), and archiving — inline (rather than having to click once just to get to them, and again to take action). Some of you — and, admittedly, me too — pointed out that these links took up too much room, enlarging the footprint of individual items a wee bit too much. So we've tweaked them still further, moving them over to the right and iconizing them so that they're within easy reach yet as unobtrusive as possible.

Thanks Jaclyn, Trevor, Waffles, and the rest of you [http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...] for making your feelings known!

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TWEAKED: Show/hide past events and done to-dos

You'll notice new "Show/hide past" and "Show/hide done [to-dos]" links at the top of any page you're likely to need them.

For example:

* Select "Your stuff > Appointments" from Sandy's menu-bar for all upcoming appointments; now click the "Show past" link and the list will also include past appointments.

* Select "Your stuff > To-dos" for your current to-do list; then click "Show done" to include done to-dos, "Show past" to include all not-yet-done and done to-dos past, present, and upcoming.

A shout out to Kate, Kevin1, and others [http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...] for pointing out the inconsistencies!

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IMPROVED: Empty results suggestions

We added suggestions for where you might find what you're looking for when your search resulted in, well..., no results.

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FIXED: Archives

You should find all you expect to when clicking the "archive" tag in the right-hand sidebar while looking at any view of your your stuff, appointments, to-dos, etc.

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DOCUMENTED: Mobile reminder instructions for T-Mobile UK customers

Having trouble setting up mobile reminders for your T-Mobile UK mobile? Check out the updated instructions and help documentation at: http://iwantsandy.com/help/mobile

Enjoy!

Rael

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P.s. We thrive on your feedback! Be sure to let us know what you think, what you liked (or didn't), and if we missed anything (or made anything worse).

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

Howdy, folks!

I must apologize for our being a little on the quiet side over the past couple of weeks. We've been heads-down, hard at work on finishing, testing, documenting, and otherwise readying some features you've been asking for and bug fixes you've been asking for no longer. (And, I must admit, we took a much needed day or two off to spend with our families over Spring Break.)

Here, then, are the latest feature additions, bug subtractions, usefulness multiplications -- and absolutely nothing in the way of long-division ;-).

Enjoy!

Rael

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NEW: Toggle individual occurrences of repeating to-dos

One of most popular feature requests was the ability to toggle individual occurrences of a repeating (weekly, daily, monthly, ...) to-do. And now you can do just that — both on the Web and by email, SMS/text, and Twitter.

* On the web: Simply click the checkbox to the left of any repeating to-do and it'll be marked as done, leaving the upcoming occurrences as-yet-undone.

* By email, SMS/text, or Twitter: Reply to Sandy with an update as usual:
> update [#number of the item to update] @done

Find out more about updating things: http://iwantsandy.com/help/guide#update

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NEW: Update individual or future occurrences of repeating appointments, reminders, or to-dos

To update only the current occurrence of any repeating item, just ask Sandy to update it as usual:

> update [#number of the item to update] [text, date, time, and/or tag to update]

For example, let's say your weekly staff meeting has moved to Tuesday at 2pm this week:

> update #1 Tuesday at 2pm

To update all future occurrences including the current one, just include the recurrence tag with which the item is already tagged in your update:

> update [#number of the item to update] [text, date, time, and/or tag to update] [recurrence tag]

For example, perhaps the weekly staff meeting has moved to Tuesday permanently:

> update #1 Tuesday at 2pm @weekly

(The @weekly tag tells Sandy to update all future occurrences rather than just the current one.)

Find out more about update and recurrence: http://iwantsandy.com/help/guide#upda...

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NEW: Let Sandy do the time-zone calculations for you

Have a conference call at 4pm Europe/London (aka GMT) time? Flying from San Francisco at 7am PDT (or is it PST?), connecting through New York at 2pm EDT, then on Sydney for a noon lunch (Australia/Sydney aka GMT+10) on Thursday (or is it Friday?)? Sunday morning call with your grandmother in Arizona -- they don't do daylight savings, do they? Eek!

Your head has better things to do than time-zone calculations!

Tack a time-zone on to anything you're asking Sandy to remind you about and she'll figure out just when that is in your local time-zone and remind you when the time comes.

For example:

> Remind me about the sales conference call at 4pm Europe/London
> Remember San Francisco to New York 5/1 7am PDT - 2pm EDT
> Remind me about lunch in Sydney on Thursday at noon Australia/Sydney

A shout out to Ilya and TRONash for pointing out that Sandy should indeed be able to do this! [http://gsfn.us/t/fv5]

More date and time examples: http://iwantsandy.com/help/guide#date...

Set your time zone: https://iwantsandy.com/settings/datetime

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TWEAKED: Dial "R" for "Remember"

A few of you noticed that the shortcut "r" was sometimes mistaken by Sandy to mean "remind" — even when you didn't specify a date or time - surprising you with a reminder the next morning.

Sandy will now assume that by "r" you mean "remember" and not set a reminder unless you specify a date or time.

Have Sandy remember so you don't have to: http://iwantsandy.com/help/guide#reme...

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FIXED: Re-using your email address (and Twitter username)

Some of you ran into trouble signing up again using an email address that had previously been associated with another account. Others had similar trouble associating a Twitter username with a new account that had formerly been associated with another account.

This'll trouble you no longer! We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate the time you took to troubleshoot the issue with us.

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IMPROVED: Recognizing contacts

(Or, rather, not recognizing non-contacts.) Sandy is continually learning to discern the difference between people's names, their company's name, job titles, and so forth. Not to mention all those tracking numbers, phone numbers, and lottery winning numbers ;-). While you probably don't give it more than a moment's thought (if that), it's all actually rather complicated stuff.

We've spent some more time with Sandy over the past couple of weeks in our continuing effort to help her discern David Wells Bank from Wells Fargo Bank, tracking number from telephone number. If you've managed (mistakenly of course) to stump Sandy with any of these in the past, you'll no doubt find her much improved.

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DOCUMENTED: Notes

We've added a Help page on having Sandy remember assorted notes for you.

Visit: http://iwantsandy.com/help/notes

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TWEAKED: Twitter confirmations

A simple matter of mistiming meant that some of you weren't receiving Sandy's confirmation tweet on setting up Twitter interaction. Sandy would attempt to twitter you but the whole "I follow you; you follow me" thing hadn't yet been negotiated and so she'd find that you weren't (yet) a friend.

Sandy now assumes that mistiming is to blame and gives it another few tries at regular intervals before giving up (and letting us know).

We've also added a message to Sandy's site that pops up with instructions if for some reason you've not yet followed Sandy.

Twitter to and receive reminder tweets from Sandy: http://iwantsandy.com/settings/twitter

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And more on the way...

Happy Wednesday, folks!

We've been heads-down here at Sandy Central: optimizing, tweaking, twiddling, fixing, and testing to help Sandy do an even better job of keeping you on time and on track.

TWEAKED: Even better understanding of Outlook email

Not to pick on Outlook, but of all the email programs Sandy receives email from, it's definitely been the most troublesome. The sheer combinatorics of versions and builds, Exchange-backed and stand-alone, and email formatting — all with their own idiosyncrasies — is mind-boggling.

As a result, Sandy's new HTML email template and some versions of Outlook (2003 or older) didn't play well together. (For specifics and symptoms, take a gander at: http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...)

Last night's build put a stop to that (at least in all instances we could track down, test, and handle). If Outlook is your primary email program, you should feel free to turn on Sandy's richer, prettier, more fun(ctional) "Rich Text (HTML)" email under "Formatting and attachments: Email Format" at http://iwantsandy.com/settings/email .

If you do find any residual quirkiness (http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...), please do let us know and we'll extend the fix to what is most likely yet another version of Outlook email. And of course if you find any of the above-mentioned quirkiness happening to you and you're _not_ using Outlook, please let us know that too.

OPTIMIZED: On-time reminders

Sandy's being noticed. And as such, she's taking on more clients and so more workload. And she's doing an admirable job of keeping up: reading more incoming email, tweets, jotts, and texts than you can imagine; remembering all you're asking her to; and getting your reminders delivered to you on time (within a reasonable window of a couple-three minutes).

But there have been certain times of the day when Sandy's hardly had time for a sip of her coffee, she's so many reminders to send. The result is that some of you have noticed reminders coming in a few minutes later than she — and we — would like. (Of course there are the odd exceptions where reminders arrive far later than that, and these we have been delving into on a case by case basis to figure out what's kept them: Sandy on the sending end, you on the receiving end, or somewhere in transit.)

So we rolled up our sleeves and tucked in to optimizing how reminders were being gathered, queued up for delivery, and routed. And we're pleased to report that Sandy's back to within her couple-three-minute acceptable Window. And we'll be working with her to bring that down still further.

Please do let us know if you notice out of the ordinary (or, indeed, anything wonderfully extraordinary — we love surprises too!).

—Rael