Now that you have your first TPAssist document, let's explore it further.
1) Right-Click on the "Create Task Tree" topic and choose "Journal".
You will notice that the TPAssist Console appears and opens the JOURNAL page.
Let's start by update the status text, providing commentary on progress made on this task.
2) Enter your task's status.
a. Expand the advanced properties
b. Enter the task status "Exploring topic tasks":
Now let's changing the topic status to Active.
3) In the "Status" option, choose "Active" from the list.
Notice how the Start date is automatically enabled and set to today's date. By default the
"Journal Date Alignment" option is switched on. This option monitors the changes you
make in the Journal page and changes the dates appropriately. We will see more of this
functionality in others areas of the tutorial.
Lets save our changes and continue.
4) Click Apply
Before we continue, this is a good time to explore topic notes. If the MindManager Topic
Notes pane isn't already visible, open it on the toolbar (
) or by pressing Ctrl-T.
In the Topic Notes, you will now see TPAssist has recorded your activities into the Topic
Notes. TPAssist will make localised journal entries for all activities performed in the
Journal page.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Further to Topic Notes, you'll notice TPAssist has modified the Start Date and the Priority
Icon Marker of the focus topic. In addition the parent topic, "Explore TPAssist", and the
central topic, "My First TPAssist Project", have been updated also. This automatic
update of parent topics is a key and crucial capability of TPAssist. By automatically
rolling up topic status, flags, dates and percent complete, TPAssist provides you with the
means to quickly and effectively see the status of tasks using the built-in Details Viewing
capabilities of MindManager.
Lets finish this tutorial by "Completing" the example Task. So re-open the TPAssist
Console at JOURNAL page again.
5) Right-Click on the "Create Task Tree" topic and close "Journal".
6) Click the 100% button
Notice how TPAssist automatically deletes the "Status Text", remove the "Status" and
changes the "Complete%" to 100%. NB: If you wish to keep the "Status Text", click the
100% button once more to reverse the action, and then one final time to remove the
"Status" and change the "Complete%" to 100%.
Notice also how because "Journal Date Alignment" is turned on, TPAssist automatically
sets the Due date to today's date.
Save your changes.
7) Click Apply
You'll observe that when task Topics are completed, TPAssist removes the Priority Icon and
makes the background transparent. This steps are to make it much easier to differentiate
quickly between active/pending tasks and completed ones.
TIP: The automatic clearing of the topic background colour to make it transparent can be turned
off via the Tree Update tab of the TPAssist console.