"Daily Logs" and Group Items by Sort Column

Submitted by KeithB on 2009/04/30 22:36

I saw a daily logs grid Jan mentioned in I need a suggestion for workflow , and experimented with that a bit per his description, and Pierre's comments. Attached is what I came up with (I didn't get all the color stuff setup).

I wanted to mention that the Grid>Group Items by Sort Column, a feature I didn't really understand. It's one of those many IQ things that seems so simple once you know it exists. I don't think I've seen much about it in past forum posts, except perhaps a brief text description.

It's really easy to use--all you do is click a column to sort on, such as the date, in the example shown, then either click the icon, or use the menu Grid>Group Items by Sort Column. Look how nice that works for a daily log or daily journal. Just what I was looking for, since I have a "daily" grid, which will get some modifications.

Observations: make sure the default value is "=int(now())" in the Default value of the properties. That way you don't get the time also, which messes up the sorting by date.

Make sure the "is 'Done' field" is checked for the properties of the DateDone, so you can easily check the item as done (ctrl-m or context menu).

Feel free to make changes and post revised files. I think this would be a good way to develop templates, collectively.

Not grouped by sort column. (and sorted by date)

KeithB's Blog
Log in or register to post comments

Comments

Great! 2 comments:

The DateFilter can also be used to view items over a defined period and to hide done items.
If the some of the dates have times, you can always create a calculated field (aka a smart field) to extract just the date part and sort / group on this new field. See Smart Fields (aka smart folders)

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

If the some of the dates have times, you can always create a calculated field (aka a smart field) to extract just the date part and sort / group on this new field. See Smart Fields (aka smart folders)

[/quote]

Please explain how; I couldn't figure it out from Smart Fields (aka smart folders), at least with a limited amount of time right now.

You can create a new field, say YourDate, which would be based on the YourDateTime one:

Name: YourDate
Type: Date
Options: <source>SELECT ItemID, int(YourDateTime) as YourDate
FROM ¯qYourDateTime;
</source>

Now... this smart field, takes no database space at all and is automatically updated with YourDateTime.

n.b. make sure you substitute all instances of YourDateTime and YourDate with your own field names!

I've updated the page Smart Fields (aka smart folders) with this specific example.

Keith, is your date the item created date? If not, it might simplify date entry

since my items are text dates, i.e,

05-2009

05/01/09

log item 1

log item 2

log item 3

If needed I can add the creation date & could then group / sort any way I want.

I don't understand why each item has to be free floating as I can manipulate via creation date. Meantime I can compress my outline by levels quite easily to provide a less confusing page. I use the date filter for a week, day or month depending on what I'm up to. This limits the # of item visible on the page. I can image a daily log w 5 yrs of data in one grid.

The advantage to item colors for me is that no matter what grid those items end up in, they stand out. same for marking them done when color is removed & text turns to gray. I don't have to depend on columns to see what's going on.

In addition to the daily log I have 2 other grids that I find useful: Appts Source = [appts] & GTD Source = [foloup] [priority] [pending]

Appts are actually things I have a mtg or where I want something done on a particular date &/or time

GTD = marked priority or foloup or pending.

Let's say I want to call Keith

I look in my contacts grid for kieth - alphabetic filter for "k"

in properties I see tel # & I call

create sub-item under Keith: 'date time left msg for Keith re: grid'

I click pending in GTD form or in contact grid so item turns yellow

It also appears in the GTD grid w Keith as context parent

same if I noted 'gotta call Keith' & mark it foloup (it turns pink)

when keith calls back I can take notes on phone call in GTD or in contact grid or in daily log (copied to contact or GTD

from here I can see all my dealings w Keith, etc

Thanks for taking an interest in my workflow

I hope it sparks better ideas for how to utilize IQ's many talents

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

[quote=jan_rifkinson]

Keith, is your date the item created date?

Yes and no--I have this hi-tech system of writing notes on paper and loading them in IQ later, maybe a few days later. So when I enter them in IQ, I may want a date of 05/01/09, but since I'm entering it on 05/04/09, the system field of ItemCreated won't work. I've been using the date column to double click to get the current date, and then modifying it with the date and time popup.

I hope it sparks better ideas for how to utilize IQ's many talents

Your further explanation is very helpful--however, I'm apparently very visual, and need both words and pictures to quickly understand. That's why I was trying to recreate your system, for understanding, and that's when I got excited about that group items function I didn't know about. I decided to go ahead and post about that before trying out the subitems by contact, etc, you're explaining. I will try to get a handle on the other stuff you mentioned, and see if there are things I can utilize there.

Have you considered helping on the documentation, since you're getting quite good at the program?

[/quote]

[quote=KeithB] Have you considered helping on the documentation, since you're getting quite good at the program?[/quote]

No because I'm not confident enough. IQ's terminology makes me crazy & I don't use the right terms to describe what I'm doing in questions let alone in documentation. However, I am saving a bunch of simple IQTips which may become helpful to someone else.

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1

Keith, when u get a moment could you add a view of your grid w/o 'group by sort column? tx

Jan Rifkinson

Ridgefield CT USA

HP Blackbird Vista Ultimate SP-1