Features

For ease of explanation, we'll refer to tasks or appointments as "items" or "item" in this document.

You can add new items.

To do this, choose File->New Task menu, or right-click your mouse on the program and choose New Task.
When you create a new item, you can specify the recurrence (i.e. how often this item needs to occur...weekly, monthly, yearly, or just once).
You can specify Advance Notice (i.e. how many days ahead of due date you want to start getting notified).
You can add a title (required) and add additional text to accompany the item (optional).
You can specify the due date (required). All new tasks start from current year or forward (cannot add a task with starting date of past year).
There's virtually no limit to how many tasks you can add, however, a maximum of 32,000 tasks can be visible at a time in the list.
You can temporarily delete an item.
To do this, click on the item and choose Edit->Mark For Deletion menu. Alternatively, you can right-click our mouse on the program and choose Mark For Deletion. The purpose of this deletion is to disable the item but allowing you to recover it if you chose to at a later time.
To recover such item, choose Edit->Keep As New.
You can permanently delete an item.
To do this, click on the item and choose Edit->Delete Selection menu. Alternatively, you can hit Del key when the item is selected.
You can also permanently delete multiple items that are past due, or multiple items that you've marked to temporarily delete. Deleting permanently saves disk space and the items are not recoverable.
You can sort the items.
All Sort commands are under the Sort menu from where you can sort by:
  • Date (Descending): This sorts the items so the task with the oldest due date appears on top of the list and the task with the latest due date appears at bottom. You can also sort this way by simply clicking on the column title "Task" on top of the list.
  • Date (Ascending): This sorts the items so the task with the latest due date appears on top of the list and the task with the oldest due date appears at bottom. You can also sort this way by simply clicking on the column title "Task" on top of the list.
  • By Status: This sorts by status of the item. It can be one of the following (and are set by the program automatically):
    a) Future
    b) Complete
    c) Missed
    d) To Delete
    e) Due Today

    You can also sort this way by simply clicking on the column title "Status" on top of the list.
  • By Recurrence: This sorts by recurrence nature of the item. It can be one of the following: a) None
    b) Monthly
    c) Yearly
    d) Weekly

    You can also sort this way by simply clicking on the column title "Recurrence" on top of the list.
  • You can tell it how to start.
    It can appear as: 1) A normal window whenever you start Windows, or
    2) It can start minimized (keeping itself out of your way but still working), or
    3) It can hide itself in the taskbar (keeping itself completely out of your way but still working).
    To choose any of the above options, choose File->Settings menu.
    You can edit an item.
    You can edit a pre-existing item by double-clicking on the list, or by choosing it and then choosing Edit->View/Edit Task menu. A dialog called Edit Task will open where you can modify each property of the item. The dialog will also have "Edit Mode" written on it.
    You cannot edit an item that is marked to be deleted. To edit it, you will need to first remove the Deletion mark by choose Edit->Keep As New.
    Whenever you cannot edit an item, the dialog will show "Read Mode".
    You can copy and paste tasks.
    You can make duplicate copies of tasks by choosing the item to copy and then choosing Edit->Insert Duplicate. The copied task will be inserted into the task list and will have an "*" character appended to its title. This is useful when you have 2 or more items with very similar properties and you don't re-enter duplicate information for each task.
    Compact the task database.
    All items are stored in a file or a database. Over time, the database can be fragmented, which means that there might be too much extra gaps between items in the database. This is a common issue with many database programs and your hard disk faces the same issues. Although this does not harm the functionality of the program, it may take longer for the program to search through the database after editing many (hundreds) items.
    With Elephant Task, however, you can choose to compact the database anytime which ensures that the database file is always at optimal size. To do this, choose Tools->Compact Database.
    You can set update frequency:
    By default, Elephant Task checks for new reminders every 90 seconds (or every one and a half minute). You can set it to be another value if you prefer. Choose File->Settings. Valid range is: 90 to 7200 seconds.