To-Do

Parent page: Workspace Manager Panels

Function

The To-Do panel lists all To-Do items that are currently defined for the active project. A To-Do item is used as a reminder for a task that needs to be carried out in relation to a document at a later stage.

Content and use

The panel can list two varieties of To-Do item for the active project:

• a project-level To-Do item
• a document-level To-Do item - added to a text-based document within the project.

For each To-Do item, the following information is displayed:

• Icon - used to distinguish between project-level and document-level To-Do items. The icons used are the same as those used to represent the different projects and text-based documents in the Projects panel
• Done - this check box enables you to 'tick off' 'he item when its defined task has been completed
• Action Item - the actual task that needs to be performed
• Priority - the importance of the task to be performed (Lowest, Low, Normal (default), High, Highest)
• Document - a reference to the source document to which a document-level To-Do item has been added
• Owner - this could be the name of the person entering the task or who is to actually perform the task
• Category - this could be the particular area within the project that the task to be performed falls under (e.g. schematics, design rules, routing, constraints, etc)

Adding project-level To-Do items

Project-level To-Do items are added from within the panel itself. Before adding any items, ensure that the active document in the design editor window is one of the design documents for the project that you want to define To-Do items for.

To add a new To-Do item, right-click within the panel and choose the Add Project To-Do Item entry from the subsequent context menu that appears. The Edit To-Do Item dialog will open.

Use this dialog to enter suitable text pertaining to the task that needs to be carried out for the project. Use the available fields in the dialog to define a Priority for the task, the Owner of the task and also a Category for the task, as required. After defining the item as required, clicking OK will add the new item to the panel.

Adding document-level To-Do items

Document-level To-Do items are added to a text-based source document (e.g. VHDL file, Constraint file, Embedded Source code document, etc). Again, before adding any items, ensure that the required document is active in the design editor window and that this document belongs to the project whose overall To-Do items you are currently defining.

To add a new To-Do item, place the text cursor at the required position within the document at which you wish to place a To-Do item, right-click and choose the Add To-Do Item entry from the subsequent pop-up menu that appears. The Edit To-Do Item dialog as above appears.

Use this dialog to enter suitable text pertaining to the task that needs to be carried out at that point in the document. Use the available fields in the dialog to define a Priority for the task, the Owner of the task and also a Category for the task (e.g. Formatting pass, Code Review pass, etc).

After defining the To-Do item as required, clicking OK will close the dialog and return focus back to the current document. An entry for the To-Do item will appear in the To-Do panel and also at the point marked by the current text cursor position. The entry will appear as a comment (between the comment delimiter(s) defined for that document type), including the actual text for the item and a unique identifier, as illustrated in the example image below.

Right-click menu

The right-click context menu for the To-Do panel provides the following commands:

• Goto Source - this command becomes available when the selected item in the panel is a document-level To-Do item. Use this command to open (if not already) the associated source document referenced in the Document field of the item and make it the active document in the design editor window. The text cursor will be placed at the beginning of the To-Do item text.
• Add Project To-Do Item - add a project-level To-Do item to the panel for the active project.
• Edit - edit the selected To-Do item. The Edit To-Do Item dialog will appear, from where you can make changes as required.
• Delete - delete the selected To-Do item from the panel.
• Show Completed Items - with this option enabled, all To-Do items that have been marked as complete (i.e. Done option enabled) will remain displayed in the panel.
• Report - generate a report containing all To-Do items currently displayed in the panel. After launching the command, the Report Preview dialog will appear from where you can peruse, print and export the report in various file formats.

Notes

• If a document-level To-Do item has been defined in the panel and the corresponding source document is the active document in the design editor window, the text for the entire To-Do entry in the panel will become bold.
• Double-clicking on a To-Do item entry in the panel will also open the Edit To-Do Item dialog, enabling you to make any modifications to the task's definition as required.
• The entries in the panel may be sorted by any column by clicking on the header for that column. Clicking once will sort in ascending order. Click again to sort by descending order.
• Direct filtering is available, allowing you to quickly jump to a To-Do item entry by directly typing within the panel. You can filter based on any data column in the panel. Use the Right Arrow and Left Arrow keys to switch between columns for filtering, or click directly on a field within a column.
• To use this filter feature, click within a data column and type the first letter of the entry you wish to jump to. The first entry in that column starting with the letter you type will become selected and the letter will be highlighted to show that filtering of the column content is based upon it, as illustrated in the example below:
  
  
  If the data column contains multiple entries starting with the same letter, narrow your search by typing additional letters as required.
  To clear the current filtering, allowing you to enter a different starting letter, press ESC. Use the BACKSPACE key to clear the previously entered filter characters, in sequence
  As you switch between data columns for filtering purposes, the current filter for the column you are leaving is cleared.

See Also