Common Features

There are a num­ber of capa­bil­i­ties in Life­Topix that apply to mul­ti­ple areas of the prod­uct. In order to ensure that the online doc­u­men­ta­tion is as stream­lined as pos­si­ble, these com­mon fea­tures are described here rather than repeat­ing them mul­ti­ple times elsewhere.

Access to your device Contacts

Life­Topix is fully and seam­lessly inte­grated with your device’s Con­tacts. This means that, for exam­ple, when you define an object and wish to spec­ify address, tele­phone, email or other con­tact infor­ma­tion for the object, you have access to that infor­ma­tion directly from your device’s Con­tacts. This is true for all types of con­tact infor­ma­tion, includ­ing vis­i­tors, refer­rers of infor­ma­tion, atten­dees and hosts for events, etc.

Default reminders in your device Calendar

If you spec­ify a date for a date-oriented item in Life­Topix, Life­Topix adds a reminder to your device’s Cal­en­dar for that item. Via Quick Menu > Set­tings > My Set­tings, you can con­trol how many days in advance of the item’s date the reminder will be gen­er­ated. Date-oriented items are: tasks, projects, events, occa­sions, shop­ping lists, trips, vis­its, and bills.

Repeat func­tion­al­ity for date-oriented items

In this release of Life­Topix, you can con­fig­ure appoint­ments, bill pay­ments, and tasks to repeat. To con­fig­ure an item to repeat, go to that item’s details view and tap Not set to repeat to dis­play the Sched­ule details view. Tap First Occur­ance to spec­ify the date on which the first item in the repeat series should occur, then tap Repeat Every to spec­ify the repeat inter­val for the series. If you spec­ify a repeat inter­val that is week-based, then you can tap Days of Week to spec­ify on which days of the week the repeat instances should occur. Tap End Type to spec­ify whether the repeat instances should con­tinue for a cer­tain num­ber of occur­rences or until a spec­i­fied date. Based on the End Type you choose, tap Occur­rences or End Date and spec­ify when the repeat series should end. If you select Num­ber of Occur­rences as the End Type, then the num­ber you spec­ify for Occur­rences will deter­mine the total num­ber of instances to be cre­ated, includ­ing the first one. In other words, if you spec­ify 1 for Occur­rences, then only one instance will be cre­ated and there will be no repeat series.

Use Quick Menu > Set­tings > My Set­tings to con­trol the max­i­mum num­ber of repeat instances that Life­Topix will cre­ate. Note that this set­ting will apply regard­less of whether you spec­ify an End Type of Until End Date or Num­ber of Occurrences.

Once you have defined a repeat sched­ule, if you delete an item that is part of a repeat series, you will be given the choice to delete that item or that item and all future items. If you mod­ify the attrib­utes of an item in the repeat series, those changes will apply only to that item, not to all items in the series.

Note that chang­ing the def­i­n­i­tion of the repeat sched­ule for an item will cause the repeat sched­ule to be changed for all future items in that repeat series that are not ini­ti­ated. (Tasks that are not ini­ti­ated have a sta­tus of Not Started. Bills that are not ini­ti­ated have a sta­tus other than Paid.) This means that if you have mod­i­fied the date of one of the instances in a repeat series, that mod­i­fi­ca­tion will get over­rid­den when you mod­ify the repeat sched­ule of the series.

Hot List

The Hot List view in the Life­Topix dash­board dis­plays all items for which a Hot List short­cut has been cre­ated. A Hot List short­cut can be cre­ated for most object types in Life­Topix. To cre­ate a Hot List short­cut for an item, tap-and-hold that item until the popup menu appears, then tap Add to Hot List.

Note that due to the lim­ited screen size on some devices, the popup menu might con­tain more options than can be dis­played. In this case, the popup menu will be scrol­lable to reveal all avail­able options.

Con­text Tags

You can define con­text tags and asso­ciate them with items in Life­Topix to orga­nize infor­ma­tion accord­ing to your taste. Refer to My Con­text online help for more information.

Asso­ci­a­tions

You can asso­ciate cer­tain Life­Topix items with Life­Topix objects. Once an item has been asso­ci­ated with an object, that item will be acces­si­ble from the object’s details view, enabling easy access.

To asso­ciate an item with an object, tap-and-hold the item, then select Asso­ciate from the result­ing popup menu and choose the object to asso­ciate it with. Alter­na­tively, go to the details view of the item and tap Add under the Asso­ci­a­tion head­ing in the right panel. To remove an item’s Asso­ci­a­tion, go to the item’s details view and tap Clear next to the asso­ci­a­tion in the right panel.

Each item can be asso­ci­ated with at most one object. The fol­low­ing items can be asso­ci­ated with objects:

• Appoint­ments
• Audio
• Book­marks
• Check­lists
• Expenses
• Files
• Notes
• Photo
• Reminders
• Tasks
• Video

Note that due to the lim­ited screen size on some devices, the popup menu may con­tain more options than can be dis­played. In this case, the popup menu will be scrol­lable to reveal all avail­able options.

Auto-create and auto-save for objects

If you spec­ify a Descrip­tion while defin­ing a new object, the new object will be cre­ated and saved auto­mat­i­cally as soon as you save the Descrip­tion. In addi­tion, all attrib­utes you have spec­i­fied for that object before you save the Descrip­tion will be saved auto­mat­i­cally. If you have not spec­i­fied a required field for an object that is auto-created, Life­Topix will assign a tem­po­rary value for the required field.

Addi­tional data for objects

Objects in Life­Topix con­tain infor­ma­tion that is spe­cific for that object type. The invi­tee list for an event you are host­ing, and the start date for a project are just a few exam­ples. But there are addi­tional data items that are avail­able to all Life­Topix objects and can be accessed at the bot­tom of the details view for each object. Those data items are:

Adding items to objects via , , or 

Items such as tasks, notes, and ser­vices can be added to objects such as projects, events, trips, etc. When you want to add one of these items to an object, or want to add a prod­uct to a shop­ping list, you can tap  to add a new item quickly by just spec­i­fy­ing the item’s name, tap  to add a new item with details, or tap  to bring up a search win­dow which will let you find exist­ing items quickly.

Swipe ges­ture

Life­Topix sup­ports the swipe ges­ture avail­able to iOS appli­ca­tions. In most lists, you can swipe left or right to delete an item from the list.

Note that you can only delete a cat­e­gory if it does not serve as a touch­point to another topic.

Shar­ing with oth­ers via email

The fol­low­ing objects can be shared with other Life­Topix users via email: tasks, projects, events, trips, vis­its, ser­vice providers, shop­ping lists, and check­lists. Once shared, these objects can be imported by the recip­i­ent into their copy of LifeTopix.

From the details view for the object you wish to share via email, tap the  in the right panel (under Dis­cuss) to bring up an email com­po­si­tion win­dow. The email will be pre-populated with a sum­mary of the item’s con­tents and instruc­tions to inform the recip­i­ent how to import the item into Life­Topix. In some cases, the To: field of the email will be pre-populated with rel­e­vant email addresses such as the par­tic­i­pants of a project or the co-hosts of an event. When you are ready to share the item, tap Send.

The type of object deter­mines the attrib­utes that are shared:

If some­one has shared a Life­Topix object with you via email, you can import that into Life­Topix on your device by tapping-and-holding the attach­ment in the email. When you are import­ing a shared item, if the item already exists on your device, you will be asked whether you want to cre­ate a new item or update the exist­ing item. If you choose to update the exist­ing item, you will be shown the list of changes and asked to select which changes to apply. To view the details of an entry in the change list, tap its .

Note: Life­Topix uses an inter­nal iden­ti­fier to dis­tin­guish items from one another, not the item’s title or name. This means that if, for exam­ple, two Life­Topix users inde­pen­dently cre­ate a task on their device titled Pick Up Dry Clean­ing and then one of them shares that task with the other, Life­Topix will view them as dif­fer­ent tasks even though they have the same task Title. Sim­i­larly, if Bob shares a task named Pick Up Dry Clean­ing with Lisa, Lisa changes that task Title to Pick Up Laun­dry, and then shares it back with Bob, Life­Topix will view that as the same task but with a changed Title.

Shar­ing with oth­ers via text message

Infor­ma­tion from the fol­low­ing objects can be shared with other peo­ple via SMS text mes­sage: tasks, projects, events, trips, vis­its, ser­vice providers, shop­ping lists, and check­lists. Cur­rently, there is no mech­a­nism for import­ing infor­ma­tion shared via text mes­sage auto­mat­i­cally into LifeTopix.

From the details view for the object you wish to share via text mes­sage, tap  in the right panel (under Dis­cuss) to bring up a text mes­sage com­po­si­tion win­dow. Tap the peo­ple picker to choose a con­tact. The text mes­sage will be pre-populated with a brief mes­sage about the item. When you are ready to share the item, tap Send.

Shar­ing with oth­ers via social media

The fol­low­ing objects can be shared via Face­book or Twit­ter: tasks, projects, events, trips, vis­its, ser­vice providers, shop­ping lists, and check­lists. Replies to this infor­ma­tion can be imported by the poster into LifeTopix.

From the details view for the object you wish to share via social media, tap  or  in the right panel (under Dis­cuss) to bring up a com­po­si­tion win­dow, and then tap Share (Face­book) or Tweet (Twit­ter). To view the replies from a pre­vi­ous post of an object you made on Face­book or Twit­ter, tap View Replies, instead. If you have never pro­vided your login cre­den­tials, or if your login authen­ti­ca­tion has expired, you will be prompted to enter your login credentials.

Once prop­erly authen­ti­cated, you will receive a popup win­dow with some infor­ma­tion about the object pre-populated, which you can mod­ify before tap­ping Sub­mit. Note: A noti­fi­ca­tion that the post suc­ceeded means that the post was suc­cess­fully trans­mit­ted to the Face­book or Twit­ter servers. How­ever, depend­ing on the load on Face­book or Twit­ter servers, there may be a delay before the post actu­ally becomes vis­i­ble to users. Due to the lim­i­ta­tions of Twit­ter, the total length of a mes­sage posted on Twit­ter will be capped at 140 characters.

The first time you share on Face­book, you will be asked by Face­book to grant Life­Topix per­mis­sion to access your basic infor­ma­tion and to post to your wall. If you tap Don’t Allow, you will not be able to share Life­Topix infor­ma­tion on Facebook.

The first time you share on Twit­ter, you will receive a popup wherein you must pro­vide your Twit­ter user­name and pass­word. Once you have done this, you will never have to enter your Twit­ter user­name and pass­word into Life­Topix again unless you revoke access for Life­Topix via Twitter.

Export­ing objects to a comma-separated value file

The fol­low­ing infor­ma­tion can be exported to a comma-separated value (CSV) file and sent via email: tasks in a project, event, trip, vis­i­tor, ser­vice provider, or note; health and activ­ity met­ric logs; check­lists; and shop­ping lists. Once emailed, this infor­ma­tion can be imported by the recip­i­ent into their copy of LifeTopix.

From the details view for the object you wish to export to csv, tap the  in the right panel (under Export) to bring up a com­po­si­tion win­dow, and then use the Peo­ple Picker to select a recip­i­ent. The email will be pre-populated with a sum­mary of the item’s con­tents. When you are ready to email the CSV file, tap Send.

When you export data to a CSV file, Life­Topix uti­lizes a spe­cific nam­ing con­ven­tion for that file based on the type of data being exported. This file­name must not be changed if the recip­i­ent plans to import the CSV file into Life­Topix. The file­names and the cor­re­spond­ing infor­ma­tion they con­tain are:

Import­ing objects from a comma-separated value file

Infor­ma­tion for the fol­low­ing objects can be imported from a CSV file: tasks in a project, event, trip, vis­i­tor, ser­vice provider, or note; health and activ­ity met­ric logs; check­lists; and shop­ping lists. Once received via email, this infor­ma­tion can be imported by the recip­i­ent into LifeTopix.

View the email that con­tains the attached CSV file you wish to import. Tap-and-hold the attach­ment until you see the Open In… popup win­dow and tap Open in “Life­Topix”, then tap Yes on the con­fir­ma­tion popup to begin the import. If the import fails, a popup will appear explain­ing the rea­son for the fail­ure. If the import suc­ceeds, a popup will appear detail­ing the num­ber of rows processed and the num­ber of items imported.

When infor­ma­tion is being imported into a check­list and the spec­i­fied check­list does not exist, a new check­list with the spec­i­fied name is cre­ated and imported items are added to that new check­list. When infor­ma­tion is being imported into a shop­ping list and the spec­i­fied shop­ping list does not exist, a new shop­ping list with the spec­i­fied name is cre­ated and imported items are added to that new shop­ping list.

Note: Life­Topix relies on the name of the CSV file to deter­mine what type of infor­ma­tion is con­tained within the file. If you are import­ing a CSV file, make sure that you do not change the orig­i­nal file­name. Also, The first line of the CSV file iden­ti­fies the for­mat of all the other lines in the file — the first line must be present. Finally, if the file you are import­ing con­tains an item that already exists in Life­Topix, a sec­ond instance of that item will be cre­ated leav­ing you with two of them.

Sync­ing Tasks via Google Tasks or Toodledo

You can sync tasks via Google Tasks for Too­dledo. From the details view for the object you wish to export to csv, tap  or in the right panel (under Sync). Next, log into Google or Too­dledo to com­plete the sync.

Print­ing via Air­Print or to PDF

You can save infor­ma­tion for some objects to a PDF or print some objects if you have a sup­ported Air­Print printer. When you print an object, the infor­ma­tion printed includes the fol­low­ing, as applic­a­ble: title, descrip­tion, starts date, ends date, due date, loca­tion, list of tasks, and list of notes. To print or save to PDF, tap at the bot­tom of the view. Once the infor­ma­tion is dis­played, tap  in the tool­bar and select Save or Print.

To save the PDF, tap Save. It is saved to your local files under Notes + Files. If that object sup­ports the print fea­ture, then Print will appear in the result­ing menu. Tap Print to bring up the Printer Options, select the desired printer and print options, then tap Print.