So there is now a Module Manager for viewing, installing and uninstalling modules, and an Update Center wizard that allows you to automatically download and install new or updated modules. With version 2.0, Thinking Rock is now a modular application, and new modules and plugins will eventually be available. For each criteria, you can define the available values, and you can also choose to show them or filter by them in the actions screen. I am not sure if the availability of the Time field will stop me from doing that, but it’s a very nice addition. I particularly like the Time, since I have for some time named my actions by prepending to them the time I estimate it will take to complete. There are now three additional fields for each action: Time it will take to complete, Energy needed to tackle it, and Priority. While this is Ok by strict GTD methodology, I think it would be nice to be able to skip that step sometimes. You still cannot create items directly from these screens, only by going through the “process thoughts” screen. The “Future” and “Information” items screens have also been redone, now you can independently set topics for them. The “Done” tab in the actions screen currently shows up empty. Allows you to see which actions have been lingering there for too long. One nice addition is the ability to display and sort by creation time. Now you can filter by many additional criteria, and also choose which columns and filter options are displayed (very nice!). I normally spend most of my time in TR in the “Review actions” screen, in which you can filter by context, topic, status, etc. However, I could not find a way to specify a template when creating a project or action, other than copying and pasting it. In it, you can create projects and actions, arguably to use them as templates when creating new ones. I was not able to drag a project into that tab, but I was able to cut-and-paste it into it.Īlso intriguing is the “Templates” screen.
Speaking of keyboard shortcuts, I hope they are customizable, although I didn’t find an obvious way of changing them.Ī nice addition in the projects screen is the “Future projects” tab. I think if you have an action selected, “Add action” should add a new action in the enclosing project (actually this was the case in version 1.2.3). For example, if you have an action selected in the projects list, you cannot create a new action, you have to select a project first. Keyboard shortcuts are still a bit odd and not consistently available. Also, in general the interface seems better organized and more pleasant to look at.
Speaking of clicking, TR2 feels considerably faster than version 1.2.3 in switching between views. If you double click on a project or action, you get to see and edit its details. In version 2.0, the projects list shows only the projects by default. In my example, I made a project out of it, so it ended up in the projects list. Once you process the thought, it ends up in your actions list. When you set an action to be “Scheduled”, you can also set its recurrence characteristics. Now you can attach files or URLs to actions, and you have some additional fields for the action, such as time it will take to complete (more on this later). Here is the first place where I noticed some changes.
Let’s walk through the typical GTD process. I opened my existing TR data file from version 1.2.3, and it imported it perfectly. The well known overview screen welcomed me (click on the images to view them in their original size). I downloaded TR2, installed it according to the instructions (which copy a couple of jar files into /System/Library/Frameworks/amework/Versions/CurrentJDK/Home/lib/endorsed, I wonder if this could be fixed so that the jars are accessed at their location inside the application, to avoid installing things outside the app bundle), and started it. My veredict: it seems to have been worth the wait. This is just from very early testing, mainly for the purpose of sharing some screenshots, so many of my impressions may be wrong, and this is not a final release yet, so some things may change or get fixed. Here is my initial set of impressions, including some screenshots. So as soon as I got home, I downloaded and started playing with it. Today, after a long wait, version 2.0gamma has finally been released, at least for the Mac. I have been using Thinking Rock for a while to manage my GTD process, and I really like it.
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