We are doing our best to present the more or less full reference to the Checkvist user interface and functionality. Any comments or suggestions are always welcome at kirsa@checkvist.com

On this page:
Keyboard shortcuts and Smart syntax	Share, Publish, Print	Copy or move tasks
Create, delete or archive a checklist	Notifications	Small goodies
Import and export	Due dates	Checkvist Pro: what's extra?
Working with tasks	Tags

Keyboard shortcuts

Working with tasks

Enter (Alt+Enter)	Add a task below (above) the selected one
Shift + Enter	Add a subtask (Adds a newline in edit mode).
Space	Complete (or reopen) the selected task
Shift + Space	Invalidate the selected task
F2 or ee or double click	Edit the selected task
Del	Delete the selected task
Ctrl+Z	Undo deletion. (You can also type "undo" or "uu")
aa	Invoke a menu with various task actions
nn	View notes attached to a task. Press 'nn' again to add a new note. (Hide notes by pressing ESC)
xx	Extract selected branch as a separate checklist (details).
mm	Move a list item (or a node) to another list (details).
hold down Shift	To drag and drop tasks
Ctrl + Up or Down arrow	Move task up or down
Ctrl + Home or End	Make a selected list item first or last in the list
Ctrl + Left or Right arrow	Change nesting level
Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+D	Copy, paste or duplicate selected task or a whole branch (paste works in the same or another checklist)
1, 2, 3 or 0	Mark task with red, blue or green color. To mark with background color, you can use shortcuts 4, 5, 6. Checkvist uses colors as priority markers, and you can sort/search by color.
gg	go to the first hyperlink in the text of the selected task

Due dates shortcuts

dd	Invoke the Due Date dialog to set (or clear) the due information (details)
td	Due today
tm	Due tomorrow
as	Due ASAP with no definite date (details)
cd	Clear due date

...and syntax

Type a word at the end of your list item to use smart syntax. Put a . (dot) after a word to switch it off.

^asap	ASAP - as soon as possible, with no definite date
^today	Today (tod also works)
^tomorrow	Tomorrow (tom also works)
^friday	Next Friday to occur (fri also works)
^next friday	The second Friday to occur (next fri also works)
^25 Apr	April 25 this year (unless April 25 has passed, in which case it assumes next year)
^Apr 25	April 25 this year (unless April 25 has passed, in which case it assumes next year)
^04/25/2010	April 25, 2010
^01/04/2010	April 1, 2010
^2010-04-25	April 25, 2010

Tag shortcuts and syntax

Please note that tags can't consist only of numbers. Use letters or letters and numbers combination.

tt	Invoke Tags dialog window
ct	Clear tag/s on the selected task

#word	Add #word at the end of a list item to turn it into a tag
#one, #tag or #one #tag	Add several tags (comma separated or not)
#one-tag or #one_tag	When you need a two or more word tags, use a hyphen or an underscore

Find and filter (search)

ff	Find and filter
Enter	To search in all lists
cf	Clear filter (view whole list again)

Working with checklist (general)

Double click checklist name	Edit checklist name
Up or Down arrow keys, also 'j' and 'k'	Navigate up or down the checklist
Home or End	Set selection to the first or last list item
Left or Right arrow keys	Collapse or expand a node
Ctrl + Shift + Right arrow	Expand all tasks
Ctrl + Shift + Left arrow	Collapse all tasks
Ctrl + Alt + .	Expand all nested items in a selected branch
Ctrl + Alt + ,	Collapse all nested items in a selected branch
sd	Show/hide task details (Who and when changed or added a task). On non-Windows platforms, you can hold down Ctrl key to show details temporarily, while the key is down.
hc	Hide/show completed and invalidated tasks
oo	Show the View Options dialog (To change visibility settings for details, completed tasks and hints)

Navigating through user interface

ll	Open pop-up with the list of your lists from the main navigation bar. Start typing to dynamically filter the list.
hh	Go to the homepage with the list of all your checklists

Smart syntax

Smart syntax is similar to keyboard shortcuts - it lets you save time and effort by providing simple code shortcuts for text markup.

Hyperlinks

[link: text|URL]	a link to any other web-page
[list: text|listID]	A link to another list; for the list ID look up into the browser address bar, it's on the end of that checklist URL
[jira: issue-ID|URL] [youtrack: issue-ID|URL]	Issue tracker integration - use these link if you want to list an issue from the two supported issue tracking systems - Jira and YouTrack .
<a href="URL">text</a>	You can also use HTML mark-up for hyperlinks and more
URL	Writing text like http://google.com will automatically transform it into a hyperlink, too.

Text formatting with HTML

We try to support all basic HTML tags correctly. If you encounter any problems with them, please let us know

<b>text</b>	bold text
<i>text</i>	italic
<img src=""/>	inserts an image stored online at your location
<a href="URL">text</a>	HTML mark-up for hyperlinks
----	List separator. If a task consists only of 4 or more hyphen marks (without any text), it will automatically be transformed into a list separator.

Create, delete or archive a checklist

New checklist: you can create an unlimited number of lists. On the homepage click the Create new checklist link, enter the checklist name, press Enter - and here you go.
Create new checklist from any page: open the Checklist pop-up window in the top navigation bar and click the Create new checklist link. For those loving speed and keyboard convenience: open the Checklists pop-up by pressing ll and use arrow keys to navigate up and down the list.

Note: you can also extract a group of hierarchical tasks into a separate checklist.

Search as you type is a fast way to open any checklist you need from any Checkvist page:

1. Press ll to open a list of all your checklists (works on any page, including Profile and Help)
2. Start typing the name of a list you want to go to
3. See the list narrowing down as you type, use arrow keys to select the one you want, press Enter or Spacebar to go to list.

Delete or archive: on the homepage you can delete or archive one or several checklists. Select corresponding checkboxes and press Delete (or Archive) button below. You can also delete or archive a checklist right on its own page. To do this, mouse over the checklist name. You'll see a large X on the right. Click it to delete or archive this very checklist. One step undo works for both archiving and deleting.

For shared checklists that you do not "own", you'll see Unshare instead of Delete. It means that other people will continue working with this checklist. You, so to say, delete it for yourself.

Edit a checklist name: to edit a checklist name, simply double click it on that checklist page. After the title has been changed, press Save or hit the Enter key. To exit editing mode, click outside the textfield or press ESC.

Import and export

Import Many of us keep all kinds of to-do lists and outlines in simple text files. Some use wiki for collaboration. To import outlines you must simple copy the text from the original file, paste it into the Import dialog box, and press the Import tasks button.

Checkvist will do its best to analyze the text and present it in an online outline format. Imported outline will be added to the bottom of your current list (if you have any) and highlighted. If you are not satisfied with the results, you can undo the operation.

Export Our tool does not lock your stuff: you can export it to one of the four popular outline formats. You have several options as to what to include and what to omit in the exported file:

Note: the default state of the "Include last change details" option depends on the "Details on" mode. In the "Details on" mode last update details will be automatically included into the exported data. If you were in the "No details" mode, you must explicitly check the "Include last change details" in the Export dialog.

Once you've clicked the desired format link, a new browser window will open with the data exported to that very format.

Share

It's always good to share. In our case all you give others is an opportunity to help you manage and fulfill your tasks. And who would not outsource a part of his to-do list?

The process is rather simple:

1. Click the "share" link on the right side of the checklist toolbar.

2. In the dialog that appears, write the email of a person you want to share your checklist with. If you want to invite several people, simply put several emails and separate them with commas. You can also customize the message that will go with the invitation.
3. We'll send you email notification upon inviting and when the person accepts your invitation.

Once the invitation is accepted, you'll see how many people are working on this checklist both on the checklist page and on your dashboard.

Click on the shared (# people) link. In the top part of the dialog there's a list of your co-workers.

One person is the "owner" of this checklist, its author. She can remove anyone from the list of co-workers. The others are "writers". They can only remove themselves ("unshare") from this checklist. And of course, anyone can invite more people (there's such a link at the bottom of the dialog: click it and repeat the invitation process).

Now you can start working together as a team. The checklist will be automatically updated so you'll know about each other's changes to the checklist as soon as they are done (they will be temporarily highlighted). Checklists are not refreshed when you're editing them, so your work will not be affected.

Publish online

You can publish your outline and make it available for anyone on the web:

1. In the Share dialog window open the "Make it public" panel.
2. Press "Publish" button.
3. Copy the list's address (URL) and share it with your readers.
4. (If you want to make that list private again, open the same dialog window and press "Un-Publish".)

You can also embed a public checklist to any other web page. Just copy the code snippet from the Share dialog after making a checklist public into your HTML page. Tweak the width and height as you like. We published the "Checkvist Test Plan" in our blog as an example.

Please note that only authors publish (and un-publish) their lists. Readers can only view, export or copy public lists, but not change them. If you want other people to work actively with your outline, share it with them.

All changes you make to your public lists are immediately available to readers. There's no need to re-publish.

Printing a checklist

There are two ways to print a checklist:

• You can simply print the page through the Menu -> Print dialog, and get the printed version with no unneccessary UI elements, like toolbar, top navigation bar, sidebar help links, etc. Remember, though, that checklists go to print the same way they look on the page. That means, if a node is collapsed on the screen, you won't see its contents in print, either. What you see is what you print.
• Click on the printer icon on the toolbar, and look at the print "preview" page before you send it to printer. Here you can show and hide notes, collapse or expand all nested tasks.

We tried to make the printed version as usable as possible, but checklists be better processed on the screen. It'd save the trees, after all.

Notifications

To send a notification about the changes you've made, click the "Notify about changes" link in the toolbar. The link appears in the toolbar only if the checklist is shared and only when you've made some changes to it. In the dialog that appears, select the names of the notification recepients (you can opt to send yourself a copy) and write the notification text:

Clicking a link in the notification email brings you to the checklist page where all changed tasks are highlighted:

If you want to track all changes in a given checklist, it's better to rely on automatic change tracking - daily digest.

Working with tasks

Our tool is all about creating a list of tasks (ideas, items, messages, quotations, <insert your term>): quickly, easily, concentrating on your thoughts and ideas, not on the UI controls. So we tried to make the interaction as simple and intuitive (whoops, we meant "familiar") as possible.

Basic task operations

• Navigating through the list: use arrow keys to navigate your online checklist as if you worked in a desktop application. If the list is hierarchical, use left and right arrow keys to collapse and expand its nodes. You may also collapse and expand all nodes of your list by clicking on the corresponding links in the toolbar or using keyboard shortcuts.
• Adding and reordering tasks: press Enter to add a new task below the selected one, then type the text and press Enter once again to end editing. A new task has been created. If you need to add a sibling task, press Shift+Enter instead. You can also change the nesting level of a task later: just select it and use Ctrl + left or right arrow keys.
  Reordering can be done either by drag-n-drop (hold down the Shift key and then drag and drop the selected task to a new position.) You can do the same by using Ctrl + up or down arrow keys.
• Task statuses: a task can be open, completed or invalidated.
  • Open: the main area of your interest. Only open tasks are counted in the checklist list "progress bar".
  • Completed ( press Spacebar): these tasks are marked with a strike-through line. We assume that you no longer need to pay much attention to them, so the text color is also changed. The number of completed tasks is displayed in the "progress bar" pop-up on the dashboard.

  You can hide completed tasks by selecting a checkbox in the View options popup. Keyboard addicts: type hc, that's the shortcut.

  • Invalidated (press Shift + Spacebar): tasks you will not complete because they are inapplicable in some way, but you do not want to delete them. We mark them with gray color and italic font. They are ignored in the checklist "progress bar".
• Deleting a task: delete a parent node to remove all its components from the list. One step undo will save you from the accidental deletion.

Task details

When a checklist is shared between three people or more, there should be understanding who did what and when. But we do not want the main focus (tasks) to be polluted with auxiliary information (date and type of the change made).

Here's the solution: select the "Show task details" option in the Options dialog (oo shortcut) or use the sd keyboard shortcut to show/hide task details.

Non-Windows users can hold down CTRL key to view details temporarily. Release the CTRL to return to the default mode.

Mark tasks with color/priority

Select a task and type 1, 2, 3 to mark it with red, blue or green color. Type 0 (zero) to remove any coloring. Use 4, 5, 6 to change background color.

Color is a shared property of a task, so anyone working with this checklist will see it.

View options

This popup window presents options for toggling visibility of completed tasks, task details, list item numbering, and the sidebar hints:

As always, we support those who prefer keyboard to mouse. Type oo to open the Options window, arrow keys to navigate up and down, and Spacebar or Enter to select or unselect a checkbox.

Adding notes

A note is some additional information you want to attach to a task. If there are several people collaborating on a checklist, notes may serve as comments and provide some means for discussion. The author of the note can edit or delete it later. Notifications about new notes are sent to all people collaborating on a checklist.

Extract a task with subtasks as a separate checklist

When a checklist becomes too long and complicated you can extract its branch into a separate list:

1. Select the parent task of a branch you want to extract.
2. Press xx (for xtract) shortcut
3. Click the link that will bring you to the new checklist

The parent task has become the new checklist name, all subtasks are now on the top level. Sharing information is copied too, so the new list is available to the same people who worked on the original checklist.

Move a list item (or a whole node) to another checklist

You can use the ubiquitous Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, and Ctrl+V to move or copy tasks from one list to another. But there's a faster solution:

1. Select a task (or a node) you want to move
2. Press mm to move it
3. In the dialog window select the list where you want to move your task/s to (don't forget to use the Search as you type feature if you have many lists)
4. Press Enter and the task is moved to its new location

You can undo this operation, and you will get notified about it in a daily digest if some of your co-workers did it.

Due dates

Use keyboard shortcuts

Select a task and then press dd to invoke the Due date dialog window. Now you can set a due date using text or calendar. You can also clear the due date if it was already set.

Save time and use td and tm shortcuts on a selected task to set due date for today and tomorrow, respectively.

We all love to procrastinate. If you hate to set exact date, set due ASAP (shortcut as) and create a list of items you need to work first on. You'll see all these tasks as a separate group under the Due tab and in the email notifications.

Clear due date by pressing cd - or completing the task :)

Go PRO and start receiving due date email notifications. more »

Edit task text and append due date

Open a task for edit and add due date information at the end of the task text. So if you change task text from Send confirmation e-mail to John to Send confirmation e-mail to John tomorrow the due for the task will be set for tomorrow.

You can also use ^-prefix to specify task due date at the end of the task (and due completion will work in this case): Send confirmation e-mail to John ^tomorrow

If you DON'T want Checkvist to recognize last word as due information, disable corresponding option on the Profile->Customize page.

Supported due date format syntax

^asap	ASAP - as soon as possible, with no definite date
^today	Today (tod also works)
^tomorrow	Tomorrow (tom also works)
^friday	Next Friday to occur (fri also works)
^next friday	The second Friday to occur (next fri also works)
^25 Apr	April 25 this year (unless April 25 has passed, in which case it assumes next year)
^Apr 25	April 25 this year (unless April 25 has passed, in which case it assumes next year)
^04/25/2010	April 25, 2010
^01/04/2010	April 1, 2010
^2010-04-25	April 25, 2010

Tags

Add a tag to a task
To tag a list item (a task), you put #tagName at the end of that item text. Or, you type tt on a selected list item and invoke the Tag window. When you need to edit or remove a tag from a list item, do it either while editing the item text or manipulate tags in the tt dialog window.
Auto completion window suggests tags that are already used in your lists.
Checkvist understands one word tags only, but if you want to use multi-word_tags, please put a hyphen or an underscore between the words.
Find and filter by tag
You can filter current list by tag, using the Filter by tag option in the Tags dialog. Add more tags to narrow your search (#a, #b will find tasks tagged with #a and #b). Filter one list or all lists available to you (press in the Find and Filter bar). You can invoke the Find and Filter bar anytime with the ff shortcut and remove it with the cf (Clear Filter) shortcut.
Tag map: All your tags - in other words, all public tags from the available to you lists and all your private tags - are collected on the Tags screen. Which you can reach from the index page or from the ll pop-up (with keyboard only). Click the number beside a tag to see all its usages in one place. Click a tag to invoke Manage tag window with additional tag-related features (below).
PRO users: color, rename, merge, make private and delete tags
Tags can change color and this will be visible only to you, too -- because other people might not like their checklist UI to resemble a Christmas tree. Tags can be renamed (and merged): give a tag another name or merge with existing tag (you'll need to give an additional confirmation for the latter). Tags can be private (visible only to you and no one else): You can delete a tag in all your lists. You'll be asked for an additional confirmation (if there's more than one usage of this tag). The operation can't be undone. Upgrade to PRO

Copy or move tasks

The simplest way to copy tasks to another checklist (or to other node in the same checklist) is to use usual copy-paste (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) keyboard shortcuts.

If you invoke the Copy dialog from the toolbar, you can also copy group of tasks or the whole checklist:

• Copy all open (not completed) tasks
• Move them to another checklist
• Create a new clone of this checklist
• Customize details: include or exclude status and notes of the tasks you are going to copy.

Small goodies

Checkvist Pro: what's extra?

secure https communications

Checkvist allows all users to use secure SSL channels to create accounts, sign in, and change profile settings. For Checkvist Pro accounts, you can also use HTTPS for all other operations with Checkvist, i.e. view checklists, work with tasks, import, export and so on. To use secure SSL communications, you need to access Checkvist site via https://beta.checkvist.com/checklists.

backup

Automatic 10 day backup in the cloud and manual backup of all your lists in OPML format (.zipped). You can find all options on the Backup tab of your profile page. More explanation in the blog.

read-only sharing

When you share a checklist in the read-only mode, the person can only view it, but not change anything. She'll be a reader of this list. If you are the list owner (author), you can not only invite a new person as a reader, but change any writer working on your list into a reader and vice versa. (details)

due task email notifications

Configure due date alerts and receive daily due dates email notifications. The notification will include only tasks which are overdue, due today, tomorrow or "asap" tasks. View screenshot or send yourself a sample notification from your profile page.

daily digest of changes

Watch any checklist and track all changes made to it by other people. Click the "email" icon in the toolbar of that checklist or select several checklists on your profile page. After that every midnight you'll receive an email listing all changes made in the "watched" checklists, so you always know what's happening. It doesn't matter whether you are the author, a writer or a reader of that checklist - you can use this feature even on public checklists. (screenshots)

assign tasks New

Assign tasks to other people who are working on the list. Use the ae shortcut or @ smart syntax inside the task text, e.g. Prepare a webinar @john.donn

The assignee will get email notifications right after a task has been assigned to her and each time the task is changed.

tag management

Change tag color, make tags private (visible only to you), rename or merge current tags, bulk delete a tag (all its usages in all your lists).

All these actions are available in the Manage tags dialog window.

ui customization

Though Checkvist's UI is rather minimalistic, you still might want to change the logo, text or navigation colors. Now you can do it on your profile page:

Those who are sure of their web design skills, can use the Advanced option, and re-write any part of the application's CSS.

Plus, you get all features that we implement and add to the tool during those six months. The Subscribe button is on your profile page, come on get a nice feeling of supporting a good tool and helping it grow better and faster!