FeatureEvery plan

Multi-select and bulk actions

Select any set of tasks and complete, move, re-date, re-prioritize, delete, or copy them out as Markdown in one go.

By Updated

Checkboxes appear on task rows as soon as a selection starts. From there:

  • Shift click a checkbox or a row to range-select everything between it and your last pick.
  • Swipe right on a task to select it, on touch devices.
  • Select all sits next to the phase tabs and toggles the whole visible surface.
  • Escape clears the selection.

Tip

Selection is shared across every list on the page, so you can pick from the active list and the Log at the same time and act on both together.

The thing bulk actions are actually for: a list that has drifted, fixed in one pass instead of forty clicks.

  1. Filter to Overdue.

    Narrow the list before you select, so the selection is exactly the set you mean. See filters.

    Open All Tasks
  2. Click the first checkbox, then Shift click the last.

    That takes everything between the two. Select all next to the phase tabs takes the whole visible surface instead.

  3. Use Set due on the action bar.

    One date across the whole selection. The bar carries the count so you can check it before committing.

  4. If you picked a parent, read the confirmation.

    Completing a selection sweeps in everything nested under it, so the confirmation names how many subtasks are coming along. That is the one action here that reaches further than what you can see.

An orange bar slides up from the bottom carrying the count and the actions.

  • Complete the whole selection, with undo
  • Move them to another project
  • Set due date across all of them
  • Set priority across all of them, P0 included
  • Copy as Markdown for pasting elsewhere
  • Delete, behind a confirmation

Tip

Re-dating a pile of overdue work by hand is the job Overdue Honesty exists for. It proposes a reschedule, delegate, delete or keep for every overdue task at once, for two To-Dids no matter how many there are. Bulk actions are the manual route to the same place.

More than the rows you picked, which is the one thing here worth reading twice.

Watch out

Completing a selection also completes everything nested under it. Select a parent and its subtasks go too, which is the fast way to close out a finished group and an easy way to tick off more than you meant to. Reopening it brings them all back.

The selection clears and the bar dismisses, so you are never left wondering whether the thing you just did is still armed.

Completing a selection pushes an undo. Deleting one does not, which is exactly why it asks first.

Similar readings

Everything below is in the Happiness Center.

Was this article helpful?