Hey GTD Wannabe,

I really appreciate all of your input thus far.

I've had a few similar requests about the archive function before. The problem I keep running into with saving to a separate file is that after archiving you are left with two files to manage and keep around (your .TodoPaper and the archive). This could ultimately start cluttering the folder your .TodoPaper file is saved in. I'm just not sure what is the right way to attack this problem yet.

What do you think of just being able to hide the archive project?

Archiving does imply that the data is removed to another location. perhaps clicking a task as done can move the task to the bottom, under a "task done" heading, while "archiving" could clear out all done tasks into a separate file.

This would allow the working file to be cleaned up once in a while, and keep all the done tasks in a readily accessible file.

Hello Jordan,

please take the compatibility with TaskPaper into you considerations when changing some fundamental functionality.

TaskPaper does not know how to work with some "archive" files. I think it is the benefit of the TodoPaper / TaskPaper file format, that it is simple and exchangeble. Please do not change that. At least, make such a change optional.

Besides the compatibility issue, i do not want to have an extra file for the archived tasks. I like it the way it is. One file rules them all. Please do not make things more complicated. Keep It Simple. I know that it is tempting after the first version to introduce more and more features. Please think twice about every possible 'cool' feature. When doing GTD, simplicity is the key.

Greetings, Steffen

You can rest assured that compatibility with TaskPaper is my utmost priority. Jesse and I have been collaborating for sometime on the new features of the software, and this is one of them. We haven't decided which solution is the best and I am grateful for your feedback.

In my opinion, the archiving to a separate file wouldn't be an automatic process. It would be a function to extract a specific project to another TodoPaper file (a file which is completely compatible with TaskPaper) . Currently this is the workflow:

1. Select the project and its contents
2. Cut
3. Save the file.
4. Open / Create a New file
5. Paste
6. Save.

That's a lot of steps for such a simple activity. What I want to do is reduce that down to two steps:

1. Select the project
2. Select a file to move the project to

This would work perfectly for moving archived tasks to a separate file, essentially "cleaning up" the TodoPaper document. I know in my document, I have completed tasks that run on for pages and it would be nice to move them to another file simply.

@GTD: You ARE correct. It isn't difficult to move the project around, but it COULD be easier.

@Steffen: I wouldn't be changing of the core functionality of the application, and everything would still remain compatible with TaskPaper. Jesse and I collaborate on these types of changes during development to be sure that we remain fully compatible.

I hope this clears things up. Please let me know if you have any more questions!