Usage of GroupTasks

GroupTasks is started each time you start Windows. In the System-Tray the symbol of a task sheet is shown:

As soon as all the daily tasks are done, the symbol is displayed with a green checker mark:

If there is a due task, also a red exclamation mark is displayed:

eg.

If you click on the symbol with the right mouse button, the following menu pops up:

Menucommands:

Tasks...

Here you can define tasks, that you want GroupTasks to remind all users. The following window pops up:

In the upper File menu of the window you can create a new task, import & export tasks from a file and convert the view to HTML or Excel. In the View menu you can select the scope of the tasks display and you can update the task view. You can set the scope to current tasks (not older than 7 days) recent tasks (from the current and last year), all tasks or deleted tasks.
Next you can filter out recurring (blue) tasks.
Then you can choose how to display private tasks, either all, yours only or none.
With Refresh you can refresh the view. Normally you don't need to refresh the task view by hand, this is done automatically.
Below the tasks are displayed. Task printed in green are tasks that are done. Tasks in red are due tasks. Tasks in blue are recurring tasks. Private tasks are printed in brown or orange if they are due. Normal one time tasks are printed in black.
When you click on the glass

icon, you can edit a task. When you click on the

icon you can delete the task. If you are viewing the deleted tasks, you can restore a task by clicking on the

icon. Next there is a checkbox, which you can click on, if you have completed the task. Next there is the due time of the task, that you can edit by doubleclicking on it. Next there is the description of the task, that you can also edit with a doubleclick. At the end of the grid there is the user that has done the task, if the task is done. If a task has not been done upon it's due time, all users will be informed. Additionally the GroupTasks symbol in the system tray will show a red exclamation mark if there are due tasks.
When you cannot delete a task because it's a recurring task and always generates a new task, you can hold down the Shift key while deleting the task, so the task will not generate a followup task. The same holds for marking a task as done.
When you create a new task or edit an existing task, the following window will show up:

Here you can edit the task's due time and description.
On the tab Notes you can enter notes for the task:

On the tab Special Options

you can set the periodicity of the task. You can also choose to force the task to show an exclamation mark on the GroupTasks symbol

when it is due. Or alternatively you can choose to show a green check on the GroupTask symbol

, when all tasks that have that option set are done. This is useful for daily tasks that need to be done every day. Further you can select if there should be an alarm sound when the task is due. Finally you can set the task to be private. Private tasks normally are only visible to you and not to the other users of GroupTasks
For the periodicity you have the following alternatives:

None: This describes a normal task that occurs only once.
Multi Event Task: This describes a task that has some follow up tasks, for example mounting a device for a meeting, and on the next day unmounting it. As soon as the first event of this task is done, the next event is automatically inserted into the task list.
Daily: This describes a task that occurs every day at the same daytime. As soon as the task is marked done, a new task is inserted into the list on the next day at the same daytime.
Daily at a specific time: Here you can specify due times for each weekday, for example 15:00 for monday to wednesday and 13:00 on saturday.
Weekly: With this options you can create a task that occurs once a week, similar to the Daily task.
Monthly: Here you can desclare a montly task.

Multi Event Tasks

When you edit a Multi Event Task in the Edit Tasks window, and you select the Special Options tab, you can choose the More Options button. In the following window you can enter the events for the Multi Event Task as an oridnary text, that will be processed to read the events.

The format of the text is as follows. The text is substituted into lines. The first line marks the date and time of the events due time. The following line up until the next blank line mark the description of the event. An example text with two events would be

	19.5.07 10:30
	Mount the Beamer and Laptop for a meeting at
	Wilson's office at 12 p.m.
	
	20.5.07 8:30
	Unmount the Beamer and Laptop at Wilson's
	Office and check if nothing is lacking.

Daily at a Specific Time Tasks

Similarly when you klick the More Options button on a Daily at a Specific Time Task you can also enter the weekdays and daytimes, when this task is due:

The format of this text is like this. The text is substituted into lines. At the start of a line there is a weekday descriptor, e.g. Monday or Mon or more days separated by commas like Mon, Tue, Sun, or a range of days like Sun - Fri or a combination thereof. Next on the line optionally separated by a colon (:) there are one or more daytimes separated by commas when this task will be due like 10:30 or 10:45, 16:50.
Here is an example:

 
	Sun, Mon - Wed: 15:30
	Fri: 8:00, 13:40

Help...

With this menucommand you open this help text.

About GroupTasks...

This command opens a dialogbox that displays the version of GroupTasks and where you can register GroupTasks over the internet.

Options...

With this menucommand you can configure the options for GroupTasks. The following dialogbox pops up:

At the top you can choose a common network folder that lies on a network server. This folder must be on a network server and all GroupTasks users must enter the same folder in their options. Additionally the folder must lie on a NTFS partition in order for GroupTasks to work correctly. This is only important if you still work with Windows Me. (FAT32 partitions don't work with GroupTasks.)
In this folder, all tasks will be stored. The tasks are stored in a file for each year, for example Tasks from 2007.gttasks. You can view those files in GroupTasks by double clicking on it. Additionally there is a backup of the last day in the folder Backup , in case one of the task files gets corrupted.
Here you can also set a password, but the password is not used in the current version of GroupTasks.

Quit

With this menucommand you quit GroupTasks. Normally you should not quit GroupTasks, so it can run in the background and informs you, when a task is due.