One list, aimed any way you like

Inbox, Library and Types

A view is a list of Tana nodes with a filter on it. Orbital has three, and they differ only in the filter they start with:

• Inbox lists the tasks still in the Inbox state, anybody's.
• Library lists every task, in all four states, grouped by Responsibility and sorted by Updated until you choose otherwise. Completed tasks show for three days.
• Types lists your workspace's types, each with the space it lives in (or Library when it has none). Chapter 10 is about what a type does.

Open a view

Press ⌘K and type its name: the rows Inbox, Library and Types sit in the Views group. Each view remembers its own filter, so changing the Library never touches the Inbox.

Click once to select, again to go in

A row in a view, a saved search, a type's page or the Timeline is a whole node, so a first click selects it: the row is outlined, and ⌘K acts on it. Click the selected row again to go in. On a row you can edit, the caret lands where you clicked, ready to rename it. On a row you may only read, the second click opens its page. The bullet skips the step and opens the page at once. Until it is selected you can also drag the row from anywhere on it, onto a meeting, into another group or into another pane.

Filter with the pills

The pills under the title say what the list asks Tana for. Blue pills filter which rows come back; grey ones only arrange the rows that did.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1. Type Picks kinds (Meetings, Tasks, Docs, Chats, Canvases, Agents, Skills, Searches, Spaces, People, Types) or your workspace's own types. The two lists never mix: ticking one clears the other.
2. Status Picks task states: Inbox, In Progress, Completed, Later. It only counts while tasks are in the list: Tasks, or workspace types that have a workflow.
3. Completed How old a completed task may be and still show: 3 days, 7 days, 30 days or All. Shown while Status lets Completed in.
4. Assigned to Anyone, you, Unassigned, or one member.
5. Visible to Any visibility, or only what Everyone in the organisation can see.
6. Limit How many rows to ask for (50 to 1,000). Tana keeps the most recently changed ones, and a cut list says so under its rows.
7. Sort, Group, Display Arrange the rows you have (next section).
8. Save as search Keeps this query as a saved search.

With only meetings in the list, a When pill appears: Any time, Recent, Today, Upcoming or Past. When the list holds typed documents, their fields get pills too, and past four the ones you are not using fold behind Add filter (Chapter 10 shows them).

Change a pill

Click a pill, or ⇥ to it and press ↩. Its menu ticks what is chosen. Status and Type let you tick several and stay open; other choices close the menu. Type letters to narrow a long menu, ↑ ↓ to move, esc to close. The list changes at once.

Every pill is a ⌘K row

⌘K lists the pills under View options by what they do (Filter by type, Filter by status, Filter by assignee, Filter by visibility, Filter by meeting time, Sort by, Group by…) with the current value on the right. Their choices fold in too: type filter by status later and press ↩.

The pills can fold away behind the settings button beside Back and Forward (Show view options / Hide view options). Views open with them shown; saved searches and type pages open with them folded. ⌘K lists them either way.

Narrow the rows by text ⌘F

⌘F (Cmd+K Filter rows by text) opens a field over the list. Type, and only rows whose title contains the words stay; a grey line under them counts the rest ("14 items filtered out"). The field stays while it has text. esc clears it and puts it away.

This filters what is already on screen. To ask Tana for something else, use the pills or ⌘S search.

Group, Sort and Display

The grey pills rearrange rows without asking Tana again. Each view, saved search and type page keeps its own choice, and it follows you to your other Macs.

Group

Puts the rows under headings: None, Status, Assignee, Responsibility, Updated or Type, plus any options, link or member field of the types on the page (under Type fields). Updated sorts rows into Last hour, Last day, Last week, Last month and Older.

Responsibility is about your own work: Pinned, Unassigned, Agent, My inbox, Mine, Waiting, Tracking, My later, My completed, Assigned by others. Waiting holds the tasks you set to Waiting. Tracking (work you handed to someone) and Pinned open short, on what moved in the last days, with a "Show 19 more tasks" line for the rest.

Fold a section

Click a heading, or press ↩ or Space on it, to fold that section. Its rows leave the keyboard's path too, so ↓ skips them. Folded sections stay folded next time.

Sort and Display

Sort orders rows by Default, Status, Updated, Created, Title, or Meeting time when the list holds only meetings, and by any field of the page's types. A field sorts by its first value; rows without one go last.

Display chooses the facts each row shows on its grey line: Type, Lives in, Status, Assigned, Visible to, Updated, Created, Created by, and the page's fields. Tick as many as you like; the pill names the first two.

A saved search or a type page draws its rows twenty at a time; the next twenty come as "Show 20 more" at the end scrolls into view.

Outliner or table

Any page with pills can be drawn as a table: the switch at the top right of the header, or ⌘K Switch to table and Switch to outliner. The rows stay the same rows; each fact Display shows becomes a column. Each page remembers its choice.

In a table, a click, ↩ or Space on a title opens the node, and a task's box ticks without opening it. A long field value ends in an ellipsis and shows whole on hover. On a type's page, an options column can be changed in place: click the cell, or ⌘K Set Level … (the field's name) on the row.

Column widths

Drag the grip on a column header's right edge to resize it, Title's included; double-click the grip to reset. From the keyboard, ⌘K Column widths … lists Title and the columns: ← → make the highlighted one 20 pixels narrower or wider, ↩ resets it. A Title you have not resized takes whatever width is left; once you resize it, it keeps that width and the columns stretch to share the rest of the row.

Saved searches

A saved search is a Tana document that stores a query. It is a place: it shows up in ⌘K under Searches, can be pinned to the sidebar, and runs the same in Tana's own app.

Save a query

Aim a view with its pills, then press the green Save as search pill (or ⌘K Save as new search). Orbital writes the filter, the grouping, the sort and the facts to show into a new search, names it after the filter, and opens it. Rename it like any page.

Change it, then Save

A view keeps each change as you make it. A saved search is a document other people may use, so its changes wait: the pills stay open and a Save pill appears until you press it. Leave without saving and the search is as it was.

A saved search's pane menu has Refresh, which asks the query again. Give a search its own glyph with ⌘K Set icon on its page.

Rows that come and go

Views stay live. When someone adds, finishes or reassigns work, the list changes by itself, and it does so without moving what you are working on.

• A row that arrives glows green once. A row that leaves flashes red as it goes. A big change (more than 25 rows) simply redraws.
• A row you just changed, say a task you completed, stays where it is, even if it no longer fits the filter. The Clean up button appears in the header; press it (or ⌘K Clean up) to put every row where it belongs now.
• A row that stops fitting while your caret is in it only dims, and goes once you leave it.

Nothing here yet

A list with no rows says Nothing here yet. When the filter is why, a Clear filters link sits beside it: it resets type, status, assignee, text and fields, and keeps a meetings list's time window. In an empty view, ↩ starts a new document.

Saved views of a whole window

A saved search keeps one query. ⌘K Save view… keeps a whole window: its panes and what each one shows. Type a new name and press ↩, or pick an existing view to update it to this window. Remove saved view lists them to delete one. Saved views open from ⌘K like any place; Chapter 13 covers windows and panes.

Keys in this chapter