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Questions for LeaderTask users
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Posted by PIMfan
Jun 27, 2015 at 06:25 PM
Ken -
I own and use LeaderTask on a daily basis. IMHO LeaderTask is one of the the true “sleeper” Task/Note apps out there, and I think alot more people would like it if they checked out a demo version for a week or two. The UI was completely redone from v8 to v9, and while I didn’t care for the “Outlook-ish” v8 UI, I really like the current one. LT is incredibly flexible and powerful with a feature set that is deeper than appears at first take. For context on the type of PIM user I am, I also own Zoot & RightNote and am also a fan of InfoQube and Ecco. Suffice to say I like apps that are powerful even if there is some time investment required to take advantage. LeaderTask’s power and flexibility make it a comfortable fit with the above mentioned group of apps…but I digress….
To answer your questions:
1) ” I am also a bit confused about their pricing policy”: Purchasing a license includes one year of updates to the app, along with one year of synch services (hosted on MS Azure). I purchased a one year license via a sale for $29.98USD. For less than $3/month, it was a no-brainer for me. This price includes both cloud synch services to integrate with the mobile app (I use iPhone) along with updates to the application itself.
2) ” I am only interested in the stand-alone portable version of the software”: If you purchase LeaderTask, it will operate as a portable app - I have mine installed to dropbox, and I launch it from my desktop dropbox folder from both my laptop and desktop PC’s. As to using it in standalone mode, I did that with the original free copy I eval’ed from BDJ. But once I purchased a license, I then enabled their Azure-cloud synch, which gives me seamless access to my data using the iPhone LeaderTask app. Synch works well, and I’ve had no issues or crashes. But if you’re not interested in it, under Settings—> Synchronization, you can remove the checkbox next to “Enable Synchronization”. You also asked about the app “phoning home” - I am not sure of the answer….
3) ” I like how it handles both notes and tasks as well as offering projects, tags and categories”: You’ve hit on the sweet spot of LT that is executed more elegantly than any of the other apps I’ve tried. I’m in a master’s program, and I’ll describe how I use these features of LT for tracking all of my work:
- For each class I take, I create an entry for it under Projects. I name the project with the class name (e.g. “IST 587 - Mgmt Concepts for e-Business”)
- I then create a contact record for the project via right-click on the project—> Add Contact. The professor’s contact record appears. I then add the professor’s contact info and even picture from the syllabus (I’m a “completeness” kind of guy) to the contact record.
- Going back to the class syllabus, I then create top-level tasks - one for each week. I select the class (you can also use the In basket), and I use a sort of “quick-mode” entry style by pressing the Insert key, and create an entry for each week and include the class name. For example, “IST 587 - Week 1”, “IST 587 - Week 2”, etc. These represent my top-level task folders for organizing the assignments for each week.
- I then double click on a task to open the detail pane below the task hierarchy. For each top-level item, I then click the “Term” icon in the detail pane where I then specify the start and end dates for the week (using Ctrl-click).
- For each weekly top-level task, I then create the individual assignments by pressing the Insert key, entering the task name, and then pressing enter. If a task has a subtask, I press Alt-Insert to create a subtask. This quick-mode entry gets my entire set of class assignments entered in a hurry. Of course, you can then rearrange the hierarchy as needed using Ctrl and the arrow keys (see http://www.help.leadertask.com/hot-keys for a list of all hotkeys).
- Upon entering all of the tasks, I also create Notes items for the class (Ctrl-N). I create one for Class Readings, and one for Class Notes.
- In the Class Readings note item, I drag the class PowerPoint presentations and other assigned readings to the folder. This serves two purposes: 1) It helps me keep the readings for the class in one place; 2) Because I use synchronization, the reading materials are then available in the iPhone LT client (Android is also supported). Whether it’s PDF or PowerPoint, I can read the class materials anywhere I am! This allows me to truly be mobile with not only the assignments I have, but also the readings I must do. Note that you can also attach audio files to your LT items using the iPhone app! So when I need to quickly capture a thought regarding an assignment, I use the audio note feature.
- When I am in class, I select the Class Notes folder and use the “Add Note” feature to create an outline of the lecture material. Since the notes are RTF, it’s easy to later open them in Word and annotate or markup the original notes.
- LT’s ability to have each item contain notes in the item body in addition to being able to attach multiple RTF notes is something I really like and use ALOT.
- One quick tip regarding notes: If you capture notes in the body of the item, you can’t use the RFT formatting of the “Add Note” types. HOWEVER, it provides the ability embed links, so you can link to other content, websites, LT items, etc. And it also provides one “killer feature”: If you select multiple notes/tasks and then select Print, it will consolidate all of the item body content into a single document for printing. This feature lets me take class notes with content for each week in a separate note item, and then use the multi-print capability to print a consolidated outline of notes to study for exams. Very very cool feature and something I really like!
I haven’t even scratched the surface of the powerful features included in LT. I also use the categories, labels and markers to highlight important items and use many other features. I didn’t even touch on the custom views I’ve setup. There are group task discussion features and other capabilities I haven’t even tried. This tool really is a cornucopia of functionality. LeaderTask is incredibly powerful and there is something about how it all just comes together smoothly that is hard to describe. It is extremely stable and the UI just “makes sense” for my eyes and workflow.
It’s not perfect (documentation is sorely lacking - most of the above I learned through experience). I honestly believe the lack of documentation is what keeps LT from having a much broader user base. But if you’re not afraid of rolling up your sleeves and checking out the features via experimentation, LT is well worth the price. The mobile synch is so well done that it’s one of the few mobile synch tools I actually use on an regular basis.
Hopefully, describing my workflow above has given some insight into what LeaderTask can do. I have no association with LeaderTask except being a highly satisfied user. Let me know if you have other questions and I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned.
I’ve posted a screenshot at the below URL in case you want a peek at how my class tracking system in LeaderTask….
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