Hi
really happy user, but just two frustrations...
First, I'd like "Project/Thought" to be available as a selection filter in action tabs.
What I actually want is to create one Actions tab that is limited to Single Actions and another for each of my projects. I know there are prebuilt "Single Actions" and "Projects" tabs but these don't let me control the columns or sort by priority, which makes them less useful. As an aside, why is the list of columns different to the list of selection filters at all?
Second, I can't create some reports I want. I like the table layout of the thing I get from the PDF toolbar icon in the actions tab, but I want to sandwich the notes field in there (ideally indented in a smaller font below the row for each action that has notes). I also want to be able to limit the report scope to either single actions or to projects (see the first request).
That's what I want, but of course I recognise that you can't tailor reports for every user. The frustration is that I can see most of what I want in different places (the scopes I want are available in the "Reports" pulldown but only with the multiline format that I find cluttered, I can create an action tab but can't get the scope right or show the notes...). It feels like all the elements are there but the fragmented nature of reporting in the app means I can't put them together. Here's how I'd make the reporting system a bit more flexible and uniform.
I don't understand why the "Reports/Actions..." menu items lead to something quite different from the PDF toolbar icon in the actions tabs (or why the options for selecting and sorting are different between, for example, "Reports/Actions: Do ASAP" and "Reports/Single Actions"). In all these cases the task is to select a subset of the actions and display them in some order with some subset of their data.
What I suggest is that all actions report definition starts with selecting actions using the same filter system as the action tabs, then chooses a subset of the data fields using the same column list as the action tabs (you'd have to add notes and possibly some others as "columns", but this wouldn't hurt) and finally allowed the picking of column(s) for sorting. Then I could create Actions "screens" as at present, but just mark some of them to be used for reporting and not display. The built-in actions reports would be more samples of these.
The other thing I'd like is more finegrained control over the formatting of the reports: so I'd like there to be a choice to select either "table" or "multiline" layout somewhere along the way, and then, finally my indented notes sitting below the table rows.
While I'm whinging about the reporting options, they are too spread out. I'm aware of these:
1. The "Report" pulldown menu
2. The "Report" subitem beneath the "File" pulldown menu
3. The PDF toolbar icon in the Actions tabs
4, The "Print outline" and "Print Detail" options on the right button menu in the Projects tab.
How about moving the items under 2 to be under 1, and then repeating 3 and 4 under 2 when they're in context. That way I could see all my reporting options in one place.
Finally, I guess that the mixture of PDF and Jasper Reports is a historic thing that might go away one day?
- Dave
