Hanging indent

i am curious, does TaskPaper provide for any sort of hanging indent adjustment in it’s LESS file language? I just did a quick search in the TaskPaper reference section and did not get any hits there. - Thanks.

PS - It would be nice if it did.

No, don’t think so. Having indent is built in for task items, but other then that it doesn’t support any extra hanging indents.

Perhaps this could be something to consider in that possible future styled and plain text version then? For me it is not trying to make TaskPaper into a word processor. It is about visually organizing large amounts of text. A hanging indent can be useful in that way sometimes.

How would a hanging indent help the display of tasks, projects or notes?

Most tasks should be stated in a short, actionable sentence, which would not benefit from a hanging indent.

Project names are the same.

Notes can contain a larger amount of text, but I am failing to visualize how a hanging indent would be beneficial. A simple indent can visually serve the same organizational purpose. Or a .LESS StyleSheet can make notes stand out in numerous ways (font; size; color; background color; paragraph spacing; etc.).

Just trying to see the benefit. Can you mock up an example screenshot?

Sure. You have to think outside the box, a bit. TaskPaper is not just for Tasks and Project titles and some notes. TaskPaper is also good for writing drafts as I have now learned. When I find I am writing out points in an outline, it looks a little neater (visually speaking) when I can use a hanging indent to clean up a section in my notes. Usually it will be a section that begins with a bullet or a number. I have a quick mock up to illustrate my point. Top is standard TaskPaper, bottom is from an app that can do hanging indents. I pasted them both in a screenshot of Taskpaper to best represent the idea.

Please note that I am using this only as an outlining tool and for draft writing. I am not in any way suggesting this become a full-fledged text processor, like Word. TaskPaper’s tags, searches, and it’s capacity to fold and focus on parts of an outline make this an ideal tool for such a purpose.

And yes, I also use TaskPaper for Projects, Tasks and the like. It is a wonderful, powerful, and simple application that is a joy to use. I think hanging indents as I have shown here, could be useful. Nowhere else have I found an app that is so helpful when i have to organize a large amount of data, and still do it in a text format. Again, this is about using TaskPaper to organize information in a single document, in text format, that will eventually get put into a word processor.

I get why hanging intents are useful in a writing environment.

You have yet to convince me why they are beneficial in a task manager.

If you can show a benefit to task management, you’ll likely get more people to want hanging indents added to TaskPaper. More wants = greater likelihood of implementation.

Support for ordered lists is already on my long term list… and if I get to working on that I will automatically hang indent the number part. So at least that part of your example is already on my list.

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TaskPaper is a task management application. I think we can agree on this. Now, consider what sort of task manager it is. It is a text based text management utility app. It does not keep rows and sections like other apps that organize tasks do. It does not compartmentalize things like other apps that organize tasks do. TaskPaper acts like a writing environment, except that it is built around the idea of how to manage tasks. This includes it’s ability to work with dates as well as its use of tags, searches, and LESS files for customization.

I think this is a key idea here, that TaskPaper is essentially a writing environment, using text, to make all those nifty tasks, set dates, do searches, and in so many ways get things done. Think, layout. Not a grid, not a database, but a writing environment layout. In that, notes in tasks sometimes still need to be bulleted or numbered. I am merely suggesting a more ordered visual way of doing this. From Jesse’s comment, it looks like this will come to pass.

People who have to organize huge writing tasks - have a task also. Several tasks in fact, what part is complete, what is deferred, what needs research, what parts are the priorities, when does this have to be completed, and so much more. I don’t see this as any different than any other use of TaskPaper for task management.

Taskpaper is a unique, text based, writing environment based organizing app. It does something I have not found anywhere else. Not only does it do all the nice and amazing things that it does with tasks, projects, searches and the like, it also folds sections of text out of the way - and still treats everything like a large amount of text. It also uses outline terminology to collapse and expand and focus all the parts of it - while still behaving like a writing environment.

I don’t see a conflict between using TaskPaper to organize and outline a writing project any more than any other use of TaskPaper. It is still using tags, searches, tasks and projects the same as any other use of TaskPaper.

That would be all that I ask, thanks.

This is where we disagree. TaskPaper isn’t a writing environment. It is a text editor (and a very capable one, which blurs boundaries a tiny bit). Editors lack the necessary features that a writing environment has. This is why you keep finding features that it doesn’t have, but would like it to have.

A text editor can be used a writing environment, just aa a wrench can be used as a hammer. I’m sure there is someone, somewhere, that has mastered hammering nails with a wrench, and is happy using the wrench that way. That doesn’t make it a hammer, it is just being used for a purpose that it wasn’t designed for.

On the other hand, I could see WriteRoom evolving into a top-notch writing environment. One where writing features are at home, and an integral part of the design. I, for one, am anticipating the next version of WriteRoom with great hopes. It might replace both Scrivener and Ulysses on my Mac.

We’ll have to see how things progress.

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I don’t think that you are following me. And, it could be that we just disagree. TaskPaper is a writing environment, that is, it is an environment where you go to participate in the act of writing. Different meaning perhaps than the literal one I hear you using to define a text editor vs a word processor. But, all of that misses the point that I was making.

TaskPaper is an organizing environment. We may argue about plain text, styled text, or embellishments such as hanging indents you may not feel belong with your particular use of the system. But what it is, is an organizing environment. No more, and no less.

In this regard it has more in kin with Things, OmniFocus, and other popular ways of organization of your tasks and your projects. Should projects not include the writing of a legal document with a huge amount of organization needed, or a term paper, or a book? Would you argue that this was never what Taskpaper was made for as those are all writing environments?

The argument I have been making here, is that TaskPaper is for organizing. It is an organizing environment, plain and simple. That it attracts comments or suggestions from those of us who really like working with text, should not be a surprise. Arguing about whether it should or should not do a thing because only word processors should do this or text editors never do that is like going to the waters edge and getting into an argument about calling that thing over there a boat - or a ship. At the end of the day, why does it matter? And who does it matter too? That thing over there that you can get into with your friends, untie from the dock and go over the water in, call it what you like. The more important question is, do we spend all our time arguing about it’s name, or do we get in it and work to adapt it best to our own individual needs?

My central thesis here, again, is that TaskPaper is about organizing things and is therefore an organizational environment. It is also of course a writing environment as that is what you have to do - write, to use TaskPaper. Or, you could spend a lot of time on the docks arguing about ships and boats, wrenches and hammers, and never go anywhere. As for me, I have to get back to my writing in my taskpaper organizational environment.

I have asked here about the differences with Jesse’s other apps. So far I have gotten little response. So, I use what I have and am most familiar with, my TaskPaper organizing app. If a full fledged text writing system ever made use of these features it would indeed be a wonderful thing. As it is now, I have already taken my first drafts and moved them over to Nisus and now am at a phase where I have to move them back into Taskpaper for more organization, then back to Nisus, until done.

I have had Scrivener for some time now. It is also very nice but it is a bit complex in it’s organization. It cannot do anything close to what TaskPaper can do. TaskPapers simple yet robust organization tools, tags, searches, folding, and focusing, are just what I need.

I don’t know anything about WriteRoom other than it seems to be all about a full screen distraction free writing environment. I just know I have a lot to get organized with my written tasks, thoughts, and projects. So far TaskPaper is the ship that sails best for me. It could be better in some ways. When I come across something that could improve it for me or others here, I post about it. As far as I am concerned, thinking different is the original and the best idea that Apple ever had.

I think we will have to agree to disagree. Reframing TaskPaper as an organizational environment is just another way of saying this wrench is a hammer. It is a a plain text to-do lists app for Mac. You can use the app however you like—call it whatever you like. None of this really matters outside of affecting communication here in this discussion forum. If you find disagreement here, well, such is life.