Re: [Evolution] Ideas for Evolution



On Sat, 27 May 2000, Tom Musgrove wrote:

Here is a breif listing of my ideas for extensions to
Evolution

1)  Templater

For the sales and techinical support fields, much of the time is spent
responding to requests that are largely the same.

A templater would have a number of generic paragraphs (probably custom
paragraphs from previous responses to customers), that could be stringed
together to flexibly respond to
questions and inquiries.

One would click on the boxes in the order desired. The name of the person
being responded to, as well as the product name could be autofilled.

This is done somewhat now by cutting and pasting from old messages.  My
method however provides a faster and more convenient way to accomplish the
same ends.

When I was doing lots of email support, TypeIt4Me (a Mac extension) was
a major timesaver.  You basically typed the name of the macro, TI4M deleted
that text and in it's place typed your spiel.

However, click boxes or right click bringing up a menu sounds like a better 
way to to this.

2)  Prioritizer

This would be for rapidly scheduling and allocating time to tasks, based on
their due date, estimated time frame for completion, who will be performing
the task.

There are five key steps in the scheduling of any task

Delegation - can the task be delegated, and if so to whom
Due Date - when must the task be completed by
Estimated time frame - in raw hours how long do you expect the task to take
Allocation - Alloting blocks of time for the task
Recall -  If the task has been delegated, follow up on it, or if it's a task
completed before a deadline, a reminder of when the task needs to be
submitted, etc.
Concentration Required/Difficulty - is it a task which requires greater than
average concentration, which should be allocated your 'optimum thinking'
time
Criticality/Priority - What is it's impact on the company's future and
bottom line


[...]

Any thoughts, comments?  Is there something like the above already planned,
or already in existance?

Tom M.

Some of this maps easily onto VTODO in the iCalendar spec.  I've copied
and pasted chunks of RFC2445 here. Most of what Tom needs is there.
I suspect the major problem is user interface.

Who is currently responsible for Evolution's feature list?


BEGIN:VTODO
UID:19970901T130000Z-123404 host com
DTSTAMP:19970901T1300Z
DTSTART:19970415T133000Z
DUE:19970416T045959Z
SUMMARY:1996 Income Tax Preparation
CLASS:CONFIDENTIAL
CATEGORIES:FAMILY,FINANCE
PRIORITY:1
STATUS:NEEDS-ACTION
END:VTODO

partstatparam      /= "PARTSTAT" "="
                         ("NEEDS-ACTION"        ; To-do needs action
                        / "ACCEPTED"            ; To-do accepted
                        / "DECLINED"            ; To-do declined
                        / "TENTATIVE"           ; To-do tentatively
                                                ; accepted
                        / "DELEGATED"           ; To-do delegated
                        / "COMPLETED"           ; To-do completed.
                                                ; COMPLETED property has
                                                ;date/time completed.
                        / "IN-PROCESS"          ; To-do in process of
                                                ; being completed
                        / x-name                ; Experimental status
                        / iana-token)           ; Other IANA registered
                                                ; status
     ; These are the participation statuses for a "VTODO". Default is
     ; NEEDS-ACTION


Yours
Mark
-- 
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you 
 didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away 
 from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. 
 Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain       Mark Tearle - mark tearle com





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