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Strip Keywords
If I send an IM in the form:
note: a pithy thought
I really only need to see the
"a pithy thought"
on the note page - not prefixed by the code word I used to get it there!
The same is true with "Buy" when used as the first word - by it being posted to the shopping list I already know it is "buy".
For items posted to the default to-do list (or with keyword meeting) or anything to do with the shared reminders it makes sense to leave in the first word, but for the shopping list and note I think discarding the keyword before posting would be a nice touch
note: a pithy thought
I really only need to see the
"a pithy thought"
on the note page - not prefixed by the code word I used to get it there!
The same is true with "Buy" when used as the first word - by it being posted to the shopping list I already know it is "buy".
For items posted to the default to-do list (or with keyword meeting) or anything to do with the shared reminders it makes sense to leave in the first word, but for the shopping list and note I think discarding the keyword before posting would be a nice touch
I’m nit-picking
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The best points from everyone
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Bricoleur's idea is a great one but the problem doesn't hinder functionality of the program. So this feature, though easy to program, would only be near the top of my to-do list because of its ease of programing.
You bring up another point that is quite important and that is 'deliverables'. When a company delivers new features often it gives the customer the since that the company cares and is constantly attempting to meet customer needs. So, delivering small new software features often is much better than one big release once a year or longer. Deliver a new feature at the same time a bug is fixed for example (but don't hold the bug fix). From a user perspective learning one new feature is almost seemless and costs very little time.
I think reQall is on the right track just give us small incremental improvements often so we know you are out there. Saying you listen but doing nothing presents a duel meaning.
Piotr's idea of publishing a list of improvements in summary form and publishing the votes for each along with reQall's decision of what feature will be added and when would be an outstanding and simple thing to do.
Example:
Feature Request Votes reQall Priority to Develop
Known bug #1 n/a #1
Strip Keywords 62 #2
Feature X 59 #3
3 people think
this is one of the best points
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I suggest this previously and am still looking forward to it. I understand that there would need to be some set of rules to make it work properly. Another example: I entered "Meeting with Harry 2:00pm tomorrow". I have Google calendar linking (works great!) but the entry should appear in the calendar at 2:00pm tomorrow and say "Meeting with Harry" instead of the entire text. When I read "Meeting with Harry 2:00pm tomorrow" on the day of the meeting it is misleading. Thanks for a great software system!
6 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?Thanks for the feedback. We discussed this when we were initially creating the keyword capability. There are some issues with trying to strip all keywords. For example, if you strip "buy" out of "I need to go to the store to buy eggs" then the sentence doesn't make sense any longer. However, as you point out, stripping the words at the beginning of the sentence can be an improvement. I've added your vote to this item on our feature request list. Thanks again.
1 person thinks
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This is one of the best points
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Deb, you're right... IF people actually made their notes that verbose! I think most people, when making a note to themselves, would simply state it as, "buy eggs" or even "eggs". It is understood by the note maker that "eggs" implies "go buy some". -
Inappropriate?This is a great idea and I was just entering it as a new one until I saw someone already entered it. Stripping off the keyword if it's the first word is great!
I’m hoping it gets implemented
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Inappropriate?This got me thinking.
For my purposes, the whole buzzword separation of 'shopping lists,' 'to-dos,' etc., seem very strict and limit my ability to self-categorize, perhaps because I don't find them reliable. I find myself tweaking certain parameters post-recording more than I suspect was envisioned by the developer.. Maybe the concept of trying to 'guess' the intention of a set of words is inherently impractical, since context is everything.
So I would propose not only dropping the first word, but rather always adding the first word as a 'category,' just like Shopping Lists and Notes... So that:
"Work. Met with client. He wanted cookies baked for the occasion."
-- would file this note under a newly-created Work category, and:
"Party. Make sure to write the wrong address and phone number on the invitation for the Smiths"
-- would file this under Party, instead of under the nebulous category, Notes.
This could also integrate easily with the existing structure, as in:
"To-Do. Give your loved one the silent treatment on Friday."
Would still be filed under Soon or Later subcategories in To-Do, depending on the date. But,
"Remember to sue the dry cleaner for malpractice."
-- would create a new category called Remember, for tasks with no date maybe.
I could see some manual customization being involved in some cases -- if say I wanted that Remember category to be always filed under To-Dos, I could drag the category and drop it there on the web or BB app, or if I wanted To-Dos all nested under Remember category, I could do the converse.
Perhaps this is too much of a revision to seriously consider. But I believe the beauty & longevity of apps such as this are the ability to customize it to one's own needs, as simply and as painlessly as possible.
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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This is a great suggestion... I should be able to tag my entries. A tag could easily come at the beginning or end of entry. (@todo, @work @party).
I like that reqall can "guess" the context with certain keywords -but i'd rather tag it myself. -
Perhaps preface the statement with "Category:" to create or file to that category.
"Category: ToDO: Pick up socks tomorrow"
"Category: Project X: Fire that guy that looked at me funny"
And then strip the first part off. I would say you would want to create the Categories manually or you would end up with a big mess. -
Inappropriate?Point noted. I've added your comments to this feature request. Thanks for sharing.
I’m happy to hear what you have to say.
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Inappropriate?I suggest this previously and am still looking forward to it. I understand that there would need to be some set of rules to make it work properly. Another example: I entered "Meeting with Harry 2:00pm tomorrow". I have Google calendar linking (works great!) but the entry should appear in the calendar at 2:00pm tomorrow and say "Meeting with Harry" instead of the entire text. When I read "Meeting with Harry 2:00pm tomorrow" on the day of the meeting it is misleading. Thanks for a great software system!
6 people think
this is one of the best points
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This is one of the best points
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True I do not like the scheduled event saying it is for tomorrow.
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To further expand on what Brian is saying, Google Calendar offers the opportunity to add the location of the meeting in the WHERE field and notes about the meeting in the DESCRIPTION field. With these fields filled in they sync great with Blackberry Calendar filling in the corresponding fields on the Blackberry. "Meeting with Harry tomarrow at 2:00 PM" would become "Meeting with Harry at 2:00 PM at location 1234 somewhere street, Anywhere, Anystate. Note to arrive 30 minutes early". Keywords being LOCATION and NOTE. Now we've created an appointment in ReQall, which synced to Google Calendar and correctedly synced to the Blackberry Calendar. Me I like to use the balckberry calendars to Map where I'm going and with this feature could now do that, since it requires the WHERE/LOCATION field to be filled in.
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Thank you for the continued feedback!
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Inappropriate?Hi, the ReQall feature I use the most is to create date/time-specific To-Dos like "Remind me to [[arbitrary text here]] on date/time".
While ReQall is a fantastic application (the best general productivity app I've ever used!), it can be a little annoying to have to edit EVERY single item I create.
Just to emphasize the same point that most people are making:
It doesn't make sense to have to edit every single To-Do item (and therefore every Google Calendar item created by ReQall) to remove the unnecessary "Remind me to..." prefix and the date/time at the end. Date/time is stored distinctly from the text anyway - after the item is created.
Keep up the good work though, I am very impressed with ReQall!
I’m looking forward to next release
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I agree, "remind me" or "remember" could be stripped automatically
I’m confident that it will be implemented
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Inappropriate?My vote is for stripping out the timing keywords because I actually find it quite confusing to see/read a to-do that *says* it's to be done "tomorrow" but is actually due today (because I entered it yesterday.)
I know I can convince myself when I _actually_ wanted it to be done, but that amount off thought/effort detracts from the seamlessness/helpfulness of the service.
Just my 2 cents.
I’m perhaps being confusing myself, but hoping you know what I mean.
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?This is an awesome idea. In my opinion it could be as easy as to add such a functionality: remind me buy [sawdust] tomorrow. That would create and item in calendar for the next day -- Buy sawdust -- and on the shopping list just -- sawdust --.
If it needs to be simpler, you could always make it to strip code words in the beginning of the sentence and not in the middle.
I’m excited
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?Thanks I have added this input and updated the votes!
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Inappropriate?12 months later; and no action in sight; but What the heck, I do get a friendly email update every so often thanking everyone for their input (and a promise that the votes are being tallied.... At least this way I can ReQall an otherwise long forgot suggestion.
I’m bemused .... Say it's a lousy idea and toss; or commit to change; but one year seems quite long enough to toss it to and fro....
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I think it would be a good idea for reQall to make public list of votes (not necessarily a roadmap). This way people can see why / why not their ideas are implemented. That would allow people to avoid getting frustrated like Bricoleur did (and rightfully so may I add)
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?I'm with Bricoleur & Piotr. It's quite disappointing to see hear that a suggestion is on a "list" somewhere but never actually makes it to the app. And IMHO this one is a biggie (see my comments on it above). By keeping the supposedly/partially helpful keywords in, it actually makes this service HARDER to use intuitively. Which, with all the competitors out there, means it doesn't get used.
I’m perplexed that reQall isn't taking the free advice and improving its product the way potentially paying customers want it improved.
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Inappropriate?Bricoleur's idea is a great one but the problem doesn't hinder functionality of the program. So this feature, though easy to program, would only be near the top of my to-do list because of its ease of programing.
You bring up another point that is quite important and that is 'deliverables'. When a company delivers new features often it gives the customer the since that the company cares and is constantly attempting to meet customer needs. So, delivering small new software features often is much better than one big release once a year or longer. Deliver a new feature at the same time a bug is fixed for example (but don't hold the bug fix). From a user perspective learning one new feature is almost seemless and costs very little time.
I think reQall is on the right track just give us small incremental improvements often so we know you are out there. Saying you listen but doing nothing presents a duel meaning.
Piotr's idea of publishing a list of improvements in summary form and publishing the votes for each along with reQall's decision of what feature will be added and when would be an outstanding and simple thing to do.
Example:
Feature Request Votes reQall Priority to Develop
Known bug #1 n/a #1
Strip Keywords 62 #2
Feature X 59 #3
3 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?Yes to all, and "Added:" appended to email notifications is redundant.
Would be great to have some control over the first word (keyword?) of items in order to do some filtering when they come into email. -
Inappropriate?Key word stripping a very good idea, especially as there is only one - "meeting" - to get an appointment inserted into the calendar.
I’m looking forward to the improvement
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Inappropriate?Make this an optional feature for those that don't like it.
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Inappropriate?Jon, just to clarify--do you mean that stripping should be optional?
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Inappropriate?At the moment 81 people like this idea and it has been one year since it was posted. Is it the highest time it was implemented? I am no programmer but it does not sound like a hassle to me...
I’m anxious
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Inappropriate?Thanks for all of the feedback on this link. We are currently tracking link and updating our list.
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Inappropriate?I understand all of your frustration. I think we've been stymied by trying to provide a "perfect" solution. I'd like to try a different approach and figure out what would be "good enough." Some stripping would be easy to do. Some would be much more difficult. I'd really appreciate some specific feedback from all of you. Here's what I'd like to know:
- What if all we stripped was "note", "buy", "meeting" at the beginning of an item? Does that provide sufficient value?
- Is it necessary to have "remind x to" removed? Would it be confusing when you later look at the item and don't remember who you originally shared this with?
- Stripping dates/times creates a bunch of problems since they can be anywhere in the sentence. Stripping those can create a nonsensical sentence. Also, you lose what you originally entered. I know that ideally we'd all like the dates/times stripped, have a perfect resulting sentence and have the original kept somewhere. However, if we couldn't do all of this, would you still want the dates/times stripped?
- Which of these 3 (stripping initial keywords, stripping sharing info, stripping dates/times) is the most important to you?
- Some people have said, "make this optional". If any of you are following this, I'd like to know more about what you think. Do you want everything left just as you said it? Or, do you want some of the stripping but not all of it?
I think a partial solution could move this forward, but I want to hear what you think.5 Comments Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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I am a new user, so may not yet use as many functions as some others - but even just stripping out the initial keywords you mentioned would be a great improvement from my perspective.
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Since there is wide range of ideas here and there is no solution that will satisfy everyone or even 80% of the people, I think a master on/off of stripping of any kind should be available. How granular you make the options could come with time as the best approach becomes clearer.
\JonG -
I was (and remain) interested in Bricoleur's original idea of stripping out leading keywords that are used to place an item on the note list or shopping list. Whether I would want date/time stripping would depend on its implementation. Rather than lump these disparate requests together, why not treat them as separate suggestions? Some seem decidedly more complex to implement than others.
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I'd be happy if dates and times at the end of a sentence could be stripped. Most of my todos are in the form "Do X at home at 7pm tomorrow." "Do X at home" would be a great improvement. "Do X" would be even better. Maybe if you strip all keywords at the end of sentences that have no non key-word words (except possibly "at" or "on") after or between them? You could also do the same at the beginning.
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- What if all we stripped was "note", "buy", "meeting" at the beginning of an item? Does that provide sufficient value?
That gets my vote! -
Inappropriate?I'd be happy with "note" "buy" and "meeting"
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Inappropriate?As a first step the "note" "buy" "meeting" would be good. Could you also see about maybe at least stripping dates/times at the end of sentences? Those two alone would satisfy me enough that other steps could wait.
I’m confident
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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I agree at the minimum the initial keywords should be stripped. This is the most common case that is complained about.
That said, as an engineer myself, I don't understand why this type of string replacement seems to be such a problem. Every language out there has some form of sprintf or equivalent. This alone could handle almost any form of non-sequential string formatting. And with a little modification could also handle internationalization.
If the concern is client resource management... it shouldn't be since these conversions are already being done on the server anyway. -
Inappropriate?Thank you all for the feedback. Please keep it coming. It helps a lot.
Eric, the string replacement part is easy, as you say. The harder part is figuring out what to replace that will keep everyone happy. For example, there was another product that used to do something similar. When I entered, "Remember that I have to pick up Erin at 3:00 to take her to the store", what it returned to me was "I have to pick up Erin at to take her to the store". (Note the "at to".) If I entered "Remind george in 5 minutes to call home", it returned "George to call home." Similarly, if I don't extend this a bit beyond just the keywords, you could enter "Meeting with Sam at 9:00" and you could get "with Sam at 9:00". For some people, I'm sure those are ok. For others, the lack of a grammatical sentence can be very jarring. Those are the complexities that I'm balancing--and trying to understand what will work the best for the most people.2 Comments Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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Deb,
Excellent points. "Note when in the course of human events". At first look it throws me. Over time I could get use to it but I am looking for a note that starts with "When" and it is a bit confusing to see something else. However, you have excellent points to consider. What if you didn't strip the keyword but made it another point size - If you are using 10 point type use 4 or 6 point for the keyword. Then my mind will learn to discard or overlook the keyword more easily.
Deb, you have obviously thought this through and I appreciate you not just jumping into a change without such thought and attending to the feedback.
Stan -
Deb, good you pointed out these problems. First of all, I would make it optional to make everyone happy. However, to keep it simple I would suggest at least at first all or nothing set up.
For me personally, I would love that it strips "Remind me" and "Remind me to" in the beginning (while not striping it for other people - "Remind Anna"). In your example, people who enable stripping would know to write Remind >Pick up Erin<.
I do not mind date and time that much, but it would be nice if it stripped it from the end of the sentence while leaving it in the middle. Not a big deal though for me.
At the same time I would like to get rid of "Buy" in the beginning of the sentence (and not in case it is Remind me Buy...). It is a shopping list, I need it to contaitn milk, toothpaste etc. and not buy milk, buy toothpaste. Seems intuitive enough, does it not? Same goes for Note. Note >There was a dog named Moris<. It does not seem to be problematic. Whereas Remind me to >Note a memo for Roger< would return - Note a memo for Roger.
One last thing, I really dislike the dot in the end of the item that I save by voice or using Google Talk. Please, please remove that. It is really annoying even though it seems like a minor issue.
If I had to choose, I would definitely go with strip words in the beginning.
Bests, -
Inappropriate?Anybody have a problem with adding a keyword call "Appointment?" I just made a dental appointment and had to enter it into reQall as "Meeting with Dentist" which sounds a little weird.
Just a thought.1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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All you need to say is, "Dentist appointment at 2 pm on Monday." The item should then be tagged with a due date. You don't need to explicitly say "meeting."
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Inappropriate?Yes, it's tagged with a due date in reQall but it's not sync'd into my Outlook calendar as an appointment. According to the reQall manual (and the FAQ's on the website), the only way to get an item listed as an appointment on the calendar (either Outlook or Google calendar), is to use the keyword "meeting" or "meet with."1 Comment Add a comment
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Hiramp, Using "meet" will force the item to be a calendar event, but I don't think that's the only way to get something on the calendar. I just tested this by saying "Dentist appointment October 18th at 10:00 am." The item showed up on my google calendar for the specified time and date. Perhaps this is a recent enhancement?
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Inappropriate?I eventually switched back to Remember the Milk from ReQall after being frustrated by the slowness of syncing, the lack of keyword stripping, etc. Remember the Milk is fast and has recently introduced keyworld stripping. It's not complicated.. but it works! Give it a try!
I’m happy I switched to Remember the Milk
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