8/13/08 Release: Terminology change, edit from dashboard, more...

Terminology change, new plan tab, edit from dashboard and more…

This might be our most robust release to date.

Most significantly, we made a big change to how projects and categories are named so that users could more easily understand how to use each grouping. They’re now called prioritized tasklists and project folders, respectively. Read more about the change in our forum post.

In the same area of the application, you’re likely to notice another big change right off the bat – a new tab!

The plan tab is a sort of combination of the schedule and estimate tabs. We added a dropdown menu so you could choose which you want to view – the schedule or the details sheet (notice that schedule is selected in the screenshot, above).

We think the details sheet is going to be a lot less important now, however. Because also in this release, we’ve added the ability to customize columns on the schedule tab. That means you can see any of the various item details right on the schedule page.

The dashboard also got a little makeover with the addition of an editing pane, linked from remaining work estimates on the upcoming tasks view.

Additionally, you’ll notice you can now edit your personal settings to show dates in DD/MM/YY format as opposed to the American style of MM/DD/YY. To change how your dates are displayed, go to “my profile” on the dashboard and click “edit.” Make your change from the “date format” dropdown and click “update.”

Follow any item, no matter who owns it, by selecting the item you want to watch and then clicking the “watch” star on the collaborate tab. Updates to that item will come with your recent changes notifications.

And several more features – perhaps less noticable, but no less important:

• New Getting Started Guide
• Schedule engine improvements: better flow around processing
• Streamlined account management process
• Improvements in comment and note editing
• Ability to put individual tasks on hold (not just Tasklists)
• “Duplicate selected item” now supports dependencies inside the branch
• “Empty trash” option on the Trash tab (no longer under space settings)
• Auto-track improvements – clear | accept actions, advanced clear for items or whole branches
• Filtering & context parents
• Improved print scaling

Whew – that’s a lot! We hope you are as excited about using these features as we are to release them.

Let us know what you think! Send mailto: support@liquidplanner.com

Ah, yes, “project folders” makes ever so much more sense than “categories” once did.

I’ve still yet to find all of the improvements in this update, but so far I’m loving it! Much more streamlined, and makes more sense, you know?

Thank you!

My people will definitely love the fact that you can update task details straight from the dashboard page! I hope you can one day add the delay until and promise dates as well.

Love the other new improvements too.

Our team is no longer able to [add comment] in the discussion section of the collaborate tab. The text window opens up and you can type in it, but you can not save nor cancel the window (besides “X” to close).

@foreversublime: Could you send a screenshot to support@liquidplanner.com? Also let us know what browser you’re using and I’ll look into it asap.

We’ve isolated it and are currently working on a fix.

@bill.wetherell – glad you like it; we’ve continue evolving it. It’s a good example of the forum community influencing our development priorities :)

@Aaron – thank much; we know we had to set the bar high to meet your design standards ;^)

@foreversublime – Edit note feature is fixed. Fit F5 to refresh before trying again.

The new changes look good, I just happened to pop back today after a while away and lo and behold, the new improvements were in!

One question on the printable PDF output. If I have several projects which have identically named tasks within them (e.g. “Initial client contact”, “requirements gathering”, “go-live” etc), generating the PDF from the project view is fine as I can see what project the tasks fit into in the PDF. However, if I generate the PDF from the tasklist view where I have arranged the tasks into groups as suggested in the Forum Post , there is no indication of which project the tasks fit into so as a printable to-do list it is almost worthless. When viewing online it is fine as I can either have the folder/tasklist breadcrumb column showing or remove it and the project is shown in brackets next to the task name. Are there plans to change the PDF output to improve the tasklist view?

Thanks.

Thanks Sparky – uhmmm, I think we just forgot to add the breadcrumb to he printout. I’ll follow up with Adam our rockstar PDF developer :)

I’ll take a look at that. There’s a fundamental problem with paper though, it lacks scrollbars ;)
I’ll see if there is a way to insert the breadcrumb from the opposing view though.

Aha! Adam, don’t forget the ancient Egyptions had ‘scrolls’, all you need to do is sort out the freeze panes equivalent for paper ;-)

(Oh, and get the printer manufacturers to change the whole ‘sheet’ paradigm as well)