This update draws on knowledge gained from case studies and feedback from our growing communicate of subscribers.
The update includes a number of new features as well as improvement in some key areas. The improvements include additional control over automated tree roll-up as well as rationalisation of the interface, including updates to the Journal Tab, Topic Tab and Document Tab. The new features include greater control over combining research alongside task topics, richer Task Summary outputs, as well as categories and time support in the integration with Microsoft Outlook making TPAssist a great companion for tools like GDT Outlook Add-in.
New Features:
- TPAssist 2007 Outlook Integration now has support for existing Outlook Item categories (making TPAssist 2007 an excellent companion for Outlook methods and tools that make use of item Categories, like the GTD Outlook Add-In). Outlook Categories integration is now configurable via the Advanced Options of the TPAssist "Properties" (Documents Tab) menu selection. Not only can you specify integration with existing categories, you can also use the "macro" to define the creation of customised categories by TPAssist.
- Outlook Integration now has support for mapping Topic Duration to Outlook Task "Total Work" / "Actual Work". Configured on a map-by-map basis, via the Document Tab, you can define the behaviour or mapping of Topic Duration to either Outlook Task "Total Work" or "Actual Work".
- The topic title used to build the Task Summary tree can now be customised. When running the Task Summary across multiple sub maps, you can now draw out additional context information and have it included in the topic title. The topic title contents is defined in the Tree Update tab and by default includes the "topic Reference" as well as the source topic title.
- Topics can be configured to be ignored by the Publishing capability (i.e. you can choose to have specific topic trees ignore when publishing to Excel)
- Topics can be configured as a "Research / Notes Topic" whereby TPAssist will ignore all sub-topics. This makes it much easier to combine research and task topic tree in the same branches. (Note: This capability replaces to previously support notion of the NOTES main sub topic. All previously used maps will be automatically converted the first time TPAssist 2007 1.3 is used on each map).
Improvements to existing Features:
- The Journal Tab of TPAssist Console re-organised such that it is more intuitive and that the most used features are more accessible. The popup window has been re-designed to provide maximum accessibility to the capabilities that are used most often. You can obtain the lesser used capabilities by clicking the ">>>" button. Likewise, hiding the advanced options is achieved by clicking the "<<" button.
- The Topic Tab of TPAssist Console has been re-organised such that it is more intuitive and that the most used features are more accessible. As per above, the most frequently used options are shown, with all options been displayed using the ">>>" button.
- The Document Tab of TPAssist Console has been re-organised such that it is more intuitive and that the most used features are more accessible. As per above, the most frequently used options are shown, with all options been displayed using the ">>>" button.
- Automatic Tree Update, executed after task details are changed with the Journal Tab, can now be configured as "Adaptive (Fast)" (default) or "Comprehensive (Slow)". With previous releases the mode of operation was "Adaptive (Fast)". This Tree Update option defines the behaviour of Tree Update after making task detail changes using the Journal Tab. When task details are changed, you will likely wish for the task details to be rolled- up to the central topic. The choices as part of this setting define the degree to which the map is updated each time you press OK in the Journal Tab after changing task details. If "None (Disabled)" is selected, automatic update is turn- off. Roll-up information will be populated only by doing a manual Tree Update from the central topic. If "Comprehensive (Slow)" is selected, the entire map is automatically updated every-time the Journal Tab is used to change task details. This option may be slow when making changes in large maps. If "Adaptive Simple (Fast) "is selected, only the parent topics of the focus topic will be updated when task detail changes are made to the Journal Tab. Whilst much faster than "Comprehensive", this form of automation will fail to update dates of related topics (as possible when Levelling is enabled).
Fixes:
- Levelling implementation of "references" now correctly supports Start-Start (SS) configuration.
- Levelling "continue date" now correctly resets at sub topic levels.
- MM7 Add-in no-longer creates duplicate (redundant) Publish and Topic Update buttons in the Ribbon if MM restarted.
- TPAssist Console "tab" buttons are no longer disabled when tab has focus.
- Journal Tab now correctly handles a "blank" duration.
- Journal note created when Auto 100% used incorrectly used "Dimmed Callout" instead of "Dimmed Topic".
- Journal Tab - Outlook Integration "private" button wasn't changing Outlook item.
