Hi, Katie. I assume that you are using MLO on Windows? If you are on a
different platform please write back and say which one you are using.
MLO is extremely good at the kind of thing you are looking for. But you
can't do it with a search. You do it with a view containing a custom
filter. Searches are good for finding tasks that contain a particular
text string but can't handle stuff like "effort is less".
I'm going to give you sixteen steps to get this done. It's really not
that complicated, once you are used to it you will be able to create a
filter like this in a few seconds. I just gave a lot of steps to try to
anticipate anything that could go wrong and be very clear about every
detail.
Start with a view like Active Actions. If there is some other view that
you are comfortable using, start with that view, and follow these steps:
1. Do you have a sidebar to the left of your screen that shows views? If
not, hit alt/f1 on your keyboard to bring up the sidebar.
2. The sidebar shows either a list of views or the specs of a selected
view. We want the latter, so if the header at the top of the sidebar
says "views", click it once to bring up the specs for your selected view
3. the view spec has about nine sections. One of them is called
"advanced". Find it. If it's collapsed, click on the word "advanced" to
expand it
4. Tick the checkbox called "add advanced." this reveals a button called
"setup", click it.
5. You should now have a popup window called "setup advanced filtering"
which should be pretty much empty. If there is already some stuff in the
window, you are starting with a complex view. I could show you how to
add a filter to a complex view but I think that belongs in a second
lesson. So, start over with a simpler view like Active Actions, and
later write back for lesson two.
6. Ready to start writing your view. Effort = less is defined as effort
between the values of 21 and 40, so we are going to write a filter that
says "effort less than or equal to 40 and effort greater than or equal
to 21" or ((Effort <= 40) AND (Effort >= 21))
7. Click the big blue plus at the top of the window that says Add Rule.
You should now see a row of five boxes followed by three icons. The
first box has a tickmark, leave it alone.
8. Clicking the second box drops down a list of fields on which you can
filter. Click on Effort.
9. The third box now shows the default operator "=". Click it for a
dropdown of available operators and select <=.
10. The fourth box has the number 50 and is followed by a slider. Either
type "40" (without the quotes) into the box or drag the slider a little
to the left so that the box shows 40.
11. Maybe what you really want is any task with effort of 40 or less. In
that case you are pretty much done, and you can go to step 15. If you
really want only "less" and you want to exclude "little" continue with
step 12.
12. The fifth box says "and" and that's what we want so leave it alone.
13. The first icon is another blue plus. Click it to create a second row.
14. complete the second row like you did the first only select >= in the
third box and "21" in the fourth.
15. All done. Click the OK box in the bottom right to see your list of
tasks.
16. When you are done using this filter, click "reset view" at the
bottom of the sidebar to put this view back the way you found it. If
this is a really usefull filter and you want to have it available for
future use, don't hit "reset view". Instead, hit "save view" and give it
a name, like Less Effort. You will now have a Less Effort view in you
list of available views.
-Dwight
On 6/11/2016 10:03 AM, Katie Ramos wrote:
I'm pretty confused about how to create custom searches/views, and I am specifically wondering if
there is a type of filter or search aimed at the various fields of a task. Can you search by
effort, goal, estimated time, etc.? I'd like to be able to think, "I am up for a task that
takes less effort right now" and then filter by that to find tasks that are labeled
"less" under the Effort field.
Thanks!
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