My nomination re: the killer app for GTD: ECCO (Palm-sync'd)

[Anonymous]

OK, MM you have to go set in the corner with the dunce hat <G>

-Steve

[jena]

I installed PDASync to synch with my iPaq and everything works fine except categories for todos. I looked at the mappings section of PDASync and it doesn't have the category field for Ecco. Seems like Ecco doesn't have that field so I tried to create one, but it doesn't appear in the mappings section anyway.

Without categories all my next actions are in one huge lists, not very helpful. Any ideas?

[dbcoyer]

Jena,

I had the same problem. Here's what I did:

If you open the folders view in Ecco, you will see a folder called New Columns. Under this folder is another one called Notes. Add the notes column to your To Do Notepad. Now, unfortunately, this is not a popup column; it's just a text column, but I just type it "home" and "office" etc as my GTD context for the category...
Now, go to the PDA SYNC settings menu. Choose the mapping tab and then select tasks. Then click the mapping button. You should see, as the fifth field from the bottom on the Ecco side, the field Notes. Make sure you're not looking at Outline Notes, just Notes. Now map Notes to the Task's Categories field.
That's it. It's not the most elegant design, since you have to type in your categories in Ecco, instead of selecting from a list, but it works.

--David

[jena]

..I didn't know how to make it appear in my todo notepad.

Antoher question. How do you filter the notepad so I can see only those tasks that are on the @Phone list for example?

And is it possible to have undated to-dos? Ecco added the current date to all my to-dos.

[jena]

I used the Filter View function and it seems to be working. Even managed to add buttons to the toolbar to switch between the different next action lists.

[dbcoyer]

Now you're getting there!

As far as undated to do's...

I think you may be getting confused about the TO DO folder. The date on the To Do column is the date the To Do was created. So, by nature, all To Do's will have a date. However, there are also columns for Start Date and Due Date. These are probably the real dates you are concerned with, and yes, they can be undated.

--David

[jena]

Ok. The problem is that PDASync interprets the todo column as the start date. Thus it complains that I have a start date and no end date.

Yet another question. Is it possible to have default values for column values? I would like to have the Note field populated automatically. I.e if I'm viewing my @Phone list and the enters a new item, it should also have the value "@Phone".

[dbcoyer]

Hmmm.. Check your mapping in PDASync. There is an explicit Start Date in both Ecco and PPC. These 2 fields should be mapped together. The majority of my tasks are undated.

I am not aware of a way to get a conditional default value into a column?

Anyone else???

[Anonymous]

re: getting a conditional date into a column, that's a good question for the eccopro thread on yahoo!groups... plenty of serious expertise over there, re: the fine points.

Ecco can be programmed via a DDE interface, and there is even an add-on Visual Basic / Object interface now, so all kinds of things (like that one, for example) can be done externally too (similar to Excel/Word/Outlook) in Visual Basic, Com routines, etc. You can do it yourself or pay a programmer (typically) $25-$100 for mini-projects like that.

FYI,
-Steve

[Anonymous]

I should add that I am not a sales type, and most of my "stuff" is in the form of to dos or appointments with some low complexity projects.

Thanks.

Scott[/quote]

Scott:

I have used Ecco and looked at it again recently. Ecco is very good and the Ecco "Pilotsynch" is pretty seamless. You will still get your ToDo's, Appointments and "Pilot" Memos onto your Palm. But changing from Palm to Ecco as prime might mean a change in working style.

If your working style is always to be in touch with your projects so that when you complete a next action you can mark it off and look for the next next action, then you can structure your small Ecco projects to synch into your Palm as attached notes to your ToDo's or as "Pilot" Memos.

It may be more problematic to make large outlined projects portable in the Palm. If you choose to use Ecco, you probably have to make your Desktop prime for inputting and reporting.

One piece of advice...because Ecco is so particular (eccentric), it can be a lot of work to change back if you decide it's not for you.

To each his own.

Andrew