Frequently Asked Questions
These are our most commonly asked questions. If you have a question that is not answered here, contact us and let us know!
How do I?
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- On Now,
- Locate the task,
- Slide the task cell to the left to reveal the editing buttons,
- Press Edit,
Modify the task's details as desired.
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- On Now,
- Locate the task,
- Long-press on it, until it lifts up,
- Drag it to where you want.
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To move a task somewhere else in the task hierarchy, edit its Parent task.
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This is easy to do:
- On Now,
- Find the task you want to create a subtask for,
- Slide the task cell to the left to reveal the editing buttons,
- Press Edit,
- Press Create Subtask,
- Enter a name,
- Press Done, and Done again.
The task now has a new subtask.
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You can:
- On Then,
- Press '+',
- Choose the task and the start and end times,
- Press Done.
Or, maybe quicker:
- On Then,
- Long-press directly at the time you want the event to start at.
- Enter the event details - the start time is already entered, and can be adjusted if required.
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There are a number of ways to edit events:
- Edit the current running event by tapping it on Now,
- Edit any event by tapping it on Then,
- Add a new event by pressing + on Then,
- Add a new event, by long-pressing at a particular time on Then.
These all use Edit Event to modify an event's settings.
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To delete a task, and all events associated with it in one go:
- On Now,
- Locate the task,
- Slide the task cell to the left to reveal the editing buttons,
- Press the Delete button,
- Choose 'Delete subtasks too' to delete any subtasks as well,
- Choose 'Delete event history' to delete any associated events.
To delete an event:
- On Then,
- Locate the event,
- Viewing for day, tap on the event to bring up Edit Event,
- Press Delete Event,
- Confirm by pressing the second Delete Event button.
To delete data in bulk, use Settings tab > General > Data deletion to:
- Delete everything
- Delete all events (preserving the task list)
- Delete events between (two times)
- Delete events for deleted task (if you kept your events when you deleted the task)
- Recover deleted task (if you kept your events when you deleted it)
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- On Now,
- Locate the highest level task you wish to copy,
- Slide the task cell to the left to reveal the editing buttons,
- Press Edit,
- Press Duplicate Task and Subtasks,
You’ll be returned to Now, with the duplicated task at the bottom of the list.
The new task name has ‘ copy’ appended. All subtasks of the source task will also have been duplicated.
This is an ideal way to duplicate a template task list. You can edit, move and relocate the copied task as normal.
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- Download Now Then Pro from the App Store
- In Now Then, go to Settings tab > General > Backup all tasks and events
- Choose Copy to Now Then
- Your data will be migrated.
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Backups created using Settings tab > General > Backup all tasks and events can be restored onto any device that has Now Then installed:
- Locate the backup file and tap on it.
- Now Then will be one of the 'Open in' options - tap on it.
- The backup will be restored.
Note: Restoring a backup will replace any data that existed on that device (merging not supported).
Note: iCloud sync has to be off - use Settings tab > General > iCloud.
To also replace the data in iCloud with the backup, use Settings app > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage > Now Then > Edit > Delete All to wipe your iCloud store before turning it back on in Now Then Pro.
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The easiest way to do this is to set up a task list (without recording any events) on a fresh install of Now Then:
- Take a backup using Settings > General > Backup all tasks and events.
- Supply this file to each team member (eg email, or on some shared cloud storage service).
- Install Now Then, and before opening it,
- Find the backup file wherever you put it,
- And choose to open that file in Now Then.
Note: Backups replace whatever data already exists, so this is really only viable as an initial setup step.
Note: iCloud sync is best left off until after installing the backup file.
Note: If you are generating the initial list from a working device, you can generate the backup as above, then after installing on another device, use Settings > General > Data deletion > Delete all events to get rid of any recorded events, before generating the master backup you distribute from that device.
For the more technically minded user, we don't support this as such, but each backup file is really just a zip archive. If you rename the backup file extension to zip, you'll find the data is held in a couple of CSV files. These are 'somewhat' human readable - using unique IDs as keys to refer to tasks and events (use any unique string you want). If you keep the file format consistent you can modify these as you see fit, drop the events.csv file, zip up the archive, and re-apply the .nowthenarchive extension to get a custom restorable archive.
This lets you create a complex task list on a computer, maybe using data extracted from a database or spreadsheet. You can even choose custom task colours (in RGBA format, using values of 0.0 to 1.0 for each component). The Order field defines the display order within a branch of the hierarchy.
General Questions
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Day
Week
Month
Year
Filter (off)
Filter (on)
Bar chart
Pie chart
Totals (off)
Shows the duration for each task.
Totals (on)
Shows the duration for entire top-level branches.
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Events are not allowed to overlap other events.
Check that there isn't another event blocking you, even a really short one. You might need to zoom in on Then to check this.
If you set a time filter for the start and end of the hour in question, you will be able to zoom in even further than normal.
You should then be able to select the problematic event and edit or delete it.
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There are no current plans for a desktop version.
You can export data in a CSV format that can be read by all major spreadsheets, and used for further processing. (only applicable to Now Then Pro)
Use Share on either Then or Chart to do this.
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You can adjust the shared file encoding, linefeed character, and column delimiter within Now Then.
You will find these options under Settings tab > Sharing > Data - File Format.
- If you are seeing strange characters in your imported CSV file, try switching the encoding.
- If your imported CSV file looks like one long line, try switching the linefeed character.
- If your imported columns aren't quite lined up correctly, try switching the column delimiter character.
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When we were designing Now Then, we put some effort into designing an interface that was really simple and rapid to use.
One of the main decisions made was that events would be recorded one at a time.
Attempting to support multiple simultaneous events would have required a more complex user interface - requiring extra start/stop buttons, and the user being required to stop one task before starting another (rather than the current rapid method of just tapping on the next task to switch to it).
We decided this would make for a poor user experience.
iCloud Questions
Tips & Tricks
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On Now you can use the task buttons on the left to start or stop recording any task - be they parent tasks or subtasks.
This lets you record generally against a category, rather than choosing a specific subtask.
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If you work consistent hours, and aren't interested in anything outside of these times, set a time filter to restrict what is shown.
Press the filter button on Then or Chart and set a suitable range of times.
This filter will remain active until you switch it off.
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If all your work tasks are under a top level task Work, you can export the work information and nothing else.
Press the filter button on Then or Chart and set Filter by task to Work.
Anything shared will only include events recorded against tasks within Work.
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On iPhone, if you are on Now, pressing the Now tab will take you to the top level of your task hierarchy.
On iPad, or a split view, long-press the Now tab.
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If you long-press on Then, you will create a new event with the start date set to that time.
If there is a completed event underneath where you long-press, the new event will be placed so that it starts immediately following.
You can long-press regardless of whether the current period viewed is day, week or month.
Issues
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- None.