(Menu Bar > Tools > Preferences > File Actions)

• After Loading a Tasklist
• Archiving
• When Switching Tasklists
• Due Task Notifications
• Backup
• Saving

These are common tasks that you might want to carry out whenever a task list is opened.

Notify me if the tasklist is read-only
This will pop up a message box so that you are fully aware that the file is not editable. (Note: the readonly status will also be displayed in the title bar.)

Notify me of all tasks due (and overdue)
This will display a formatted list of all tasks and sub-tasks that are due on or before a variety of date options. It's useful for project management to ensure tasks get attention if they are due:

• On that day
• On the following day
• By the end of that week
• By the end of the following week
• By the end of that month
• By the end of the following month

You have the same options to see due tasks when switching tasklists.

Archive completed tasks
This will archive completed tasks to a separate task list based on the settings immediately below. Note: you can also manually archive tasks from menu > Tools.

Refresh my active 'Find Tasks' search
If you keep the Find Tasks dialog open all the time then ToDoList can update the search results whenever you open a new tasklist.

Expand all tasks
This will expand all tasks so that every task is visible. If this option is not checked, a tasklist will open with the expand/collapse status as when it was last closed.

Archiving is handy for maintaining a lean task list which only contains incomplete tasks. Archive tasks using the menu>Tools archive options. However, there may also be times when you will not want your archived items to be removed from the tasklist. See page dedicated to Archives.

Remove archived tasks from the tasklist
This will remove the completed tasks from the tasklist after they have been archived. Note that this is not automatic.

Unless they are flagged
This will not remove tasks if they have the flag attribute set.

Only when all the task's subtasks and siblings are also complete
This option will prevent ToDoList from removing completed tasks until all the task's siblings and subtasks have been completed. This is useful when you are calculating a task's completion state based on the completion state of its children.

Display a warning if I attempt to add or delete tasks from an archive
Because the archive represents a record of exactly what tasks were completed you may want to ensure that it is not modified. Unfortunately you can't set the read-only flag, else the archiving won't work either. This option will ensure that any accidental edits produce a warning before the change is made.

See also: 'Menu Bar > Tools > Archive Deleted/Selected Tasks'

This is a handy time for executing less often performed tasks.

Notify me of all tasks due (and overdue)
This will notify you of any due and overdue tasks in the tasklist becoming active. The options are exactly the same as seen above, under After Loading a Tasklist.

See also: 'Menu Bar > Tools > Show Tasks Due',

These are simple popup notifications which list all the currently due and overdue tasks.

Display notifications in HTML
Displays the notification in a browser window as an alternative to a text view. This allows more extensive text formatting options.

• Show comments a simple text
  Check to avoid styling on the comments which might not translate well in HTML.

• Using the following stylesheet
  By default the HTML is produced by ToDoList's internal HTML engine, but you can optionally specify a stylesheet to be used to transform the XML. This is the equivalent of a Transform operation filtered by Due tasks.

Show task titles only
This option cuts out all task attributes except the task title for a much leaner view.

Only display tasks allocated to 'x'
This allows you to specify a person's name so that, for instance, you only get notified about your due and overdue tasks.

Backup is a crucial part of any software's operation. ToDoList's backup occurs whenever a tasklist is saved. More specifically, the .tdl file already on disk is copied before the recently edited .tdl file is saved. The name of backups takes the following format:

<tasklist name>.<version>.<date_time>.<extension>

eg. Testing.6_9_6_0.2015-08-18_22-35-35.tdl

Keep backup copies of tasklists before saving
Select this option to keep backups, when unchecked the section is disabled.

Backup to Folder
By default backups are stored in a folder named 'backups' in the same location as the tasklist. This option allows you to change this. It's useful if you want to have backups stored in a central location whilst your tasklists are in various other locations.

Under the folder control you have options to provide more information about the folder:

• Folder is relative to tasklist
  
• Folder is relative to the application
  
• Folder is full path
  

Keep 'x' most recent backups
This allows you to control how many backups you want to keep of each tasklist. When this limit is reached ToDoList deletes the oldest backup to make space.

Note: Task time logs are also backed up at the same time.

Tasklists can be saved on a schedule and/or when events occur according the following options:

Auto-save tasklists every 'x' minutes
When checked, a save occurs at the specified interval.

Auto-save when switching tasklists
Clicking the tab to move to a different .tdl file triggers a save of the one being left.

Auto-save tasklists when application loses focus
Helpful when making changes and then minimizing, or when moving to another application. Eliminates the need to manually Save just in case you move to a different app and the system malfunctions.

Auto-save tasklists before running external tools
A save is performed before a User-Defined Tool is executed, because external tools typically operate on the tasklist file.

Automatically export after saving
Select this option if you want to auto-generate a web page or other type of report whenever you save changes to your tasklist.

• HTML format
  An HTML rendering of the tasklist is saved to the tasklist folder as <tasklist name>.html. (See Export to folder below.)
  • Use the following stylesheet
    This allows an XSLT translation to be applied to the data to customize the report format.

• Other format
  This lists the same formats as the Export Tasks dialog.
  • Web page (.html)
  • Plain Text (.txt)
  • Spreadsheet (.csv)
  • ToDoList (.tdl)
  • FreeMind (.mm)
  • GanttProject (.gan)
  • iCalendar (.ics)
  • My Life Organized (.ml)
  • Outline (.txt)

• Export filtered tasks only
  This checkbox limits the output to the tasks visible with the filter which is active at 'save time'.

• Export to folder
  Rather than sending the report to the same folder as the tasklist, a different folder can be specified here.

See also: Preferences Dialog, Tools Menu, Application Toolbar, Menu Bar > Tools > Transform Tasklist, Transform Tasklist dialog