I remember asking about this when I was last using TaskPaper. I wanted to use separate TaskPaper documents, one for each project. But I also needed to check on things I had tagged as “@waiting” so that I can look over a series of projects to make sure I am not forgetting something. Because of my particular organization challenges, I need to track all projects where an action is needed.
Because this was not possible in earlier version of TaskPaper, I ended up pulling everything into one TaskPaper document. And that can be confusing.
Since there have been new versions since I last asked about this, has there been any progress on being able to do this?
What I am asking is, if I have a half dozen (or more) TaskPaper documents, can I set up a separate TaskPaper document that I could use to to see any tags of a specific type, in this case, tags that are “@waiting”.
Not yet. @jessegrosjean kind of implemented something that may make that possible in the future, but since he is reworking the actual engine that does the editing, it might be a while. He mentioned that he is working in Writeroom and then he will use a lot of that code to rework TaskPaper 3.
You could use a script that scans a directory(its) and writes a new file for you of all the elements that have the “@waiting” tags in all of the taskpaper files in those directories; but the use of Scripts to accomplish this would mean that you can’t "sync"any changes done to the file that the script would create. In other words. You can create a script that tells you if there is something that needs to be done anywhere, but if you want to modify the original element (task, project, note) that has the tag you are searching; you would need to open that particular file, find that task (easy) and then modify it there. The actual programming to do what you are mentioning would have to be very complex to do that, and scripts wouldn’t accomplish that.
Yes, good point. I suppose when you think of it in that way it would never work as I do need to keep track of my processes, meaning, when I see it then I want to act on it right away, not run a script, go to another file, etc.
This work-flow combined with Freeter (and some professional organization help to put my directories in more logical order) is really helping tremendously. As I had posted elsewhere, I am still learning about the .less file and the hierarchy of what changes text and what does not. I have made a good deal of progress and from that, I am having gaining new confidence in having many projects tracking on a single TaskPaper document, 13 at present count.
When I start work on my book, I will give that it’s own TaskPaper document but for the most part I am learning to think of this as a central organization schema. That is to say, I don’t have to use it and probably should not be using it as a Folding Text or a compete writing tool such as WriteRoom. What I can do is track my notes, thoughts, tasks and all the rest.
Instead of seeing TaskPaper as a Swiss Army knife of sorts, I am starting to see it - or at least use it, as a tool to locate and track my ideas, my progress, and my processes.