I have a recurring task set to repeat every two weeks, on Sundays and Mondays. The issue is that the task appears every week in the task list. Seems to be something that was missed in testing. Client version is latest 6.0.20617.0. This syncs with Google tasks.
Here are screen shots of the general and recurrence tabs and the list view:
There shouldn’t be a task for 8/11. The next one following 8/3 should not appear until 8/18/2014.
I did check to be sure they are both the same task in the list and they are.
Hi Chris, not really sure what you have in mind.
If you setup a reccurent task for every Monday and Sunday for every two weeks. By creating this event on Sunday (8/3), the first two days, first sunday and first monday from creating the event will be created, after dismissing these two events an event for after 2 weeks from this starter event will be created.
Unfortunately I can’t see any unintended behavior while setting this kind of recurrent task.
Thank you,
Paul.
Would it work better for you if you set them as 2 tasks, not 1.
Well, that isn’t what the screen shots are showing. There is a task scheduled for the 11th in the task list, which is only ONE week from the third, not two. It shouldn’t be there. And it is the same task because when the one in the list dated for the 11th is opened it shows the identical settings to the one above it, including the start date of the 3rd.
That is unintended behavior.
Do you mean set one for Sunday and one for Monday? It might, but that isn’t the ideal solution. The ideal solution if for the program to behave as expected. Work arounds are okay, but they don’t solve the existent problem, which is the intent of my post.
Also, I understand what you’re saying about dismissing the second week of the event, but what you are describing with that is the expected behavior for a weekly event, not an event occurring every two weeks. I’ve used a LOT of calendar and task list software and the way EM is behaving for this event is not what it should be.
IF my preferences were set for Monday to be the first day of the week in the calendar preferences, what you’re describing WOULD be expected, but that isn’t the case. I have Sunday set as the first day, which would make Monday the second day, not the first.
I get your point though. However seeing that I have it set for Sunday as the first day, the tasks should not be using the second Monday from the start date. It should be firing off the day AFTER the start date, then resetting two weeks later.
So essentially what is happening is that Tasks are not honoring the day a week begins that I have chosen, and that should be fixed.
In the meantime I will use the workaround suggested by the user below, but I really shouldn’t have to do that.
I’ve used a few apps too, and one problem I remember having is when the user setting for the ‘week start day’ caused conflict. So if it was -Sunday…>…Saturday you could have one behaviour and a Monday…>…Sunday another.
Agreed. It does happen with some software, and if this were an open source and totally free product I would simply mention it but I wouldn’t complain, but if the software purports to be well designed and wants me to spend money on a pro version (which I am seriously considering with EM Client), it should not display this kind of behavior. It should be programmed to do the expected.
I can certainly live with and adjust to it, but it really ought to be part of the programming for both the calendar and tasks features to work cooperatively together. I’m simply asking EM Client to fix this as it shouldn’t be considered a feature request when it is a reasonable thing to expect from the program to begin with.
It’s not really a “bug,” nor does it really qualify as a feature request IMHO. It’s more of what I would consider to be an oversight in the programming.
Again IMHO, programs should be designed with as many end user usage scenarios in mind, and accounted for. One can either design in such a way as to “force” the end user down the particular path you need them to follow in order to prevent conflicts, errors and what the end user will inevitably view as unexpected behavior, by virtue of its design, or…
One can design for all sorts of anticipated end user behaviors and expectations.
When a software does something unexpected by design, and the end user is told, in effect, that they need to change the way they are doing things to prevent the unexpected behavior (rather than being told, “Hey! We really ought to change/fix that. Thanks for pointing that out!”), that causes this particular end user to think to himself, “Well hmmm. Then maybe I’d rather not spend my hard earned dollars on a product whose developers don’t seem to want to listen to their customers.”
I’m not saying that’s what’s happening here though. Too soon to tell right now, but I do hope they will choose to take a look at this and make what to me is an obvious improvement that just makes sense to make.
If the improvement is made, I will more seriously consider buying the pro product. If it’s not, I won’t consider it at all. Take it from there. Either way is no skin off my nose. 
You’ve created the event on Sunday 8/3 another Sunday event is scheduled for 8/17 (Two weeks apart from each other). The same thing goes for the Monday event as far as I can see first Monday event is set for 8/11 and the second is for 8/25, again two weeks apart from each other. I understand you’d like to see an option that would allow you to set the preferred starting point, but that’s not possible unfortunately.
Tasks do not use the first day of the week settings, they use the day you’ll setting up the event for as a start point.
I’m sorry if this is an issue for you, but we believe this is the intended behavior for Tasks.
Hope you can manage to use the current settings.
Thank you for understanding,
Paul.
“Tasks do not use the first day of the week settings, they use the day you’ll setting up the event for as a start point.”
I believe you are a little confused. The task is set to begin on a Sunday, so if what you just said is correct, the task should begin recurring on a Sunday, but that’s not what it’s doing. So in truth, tasks are NOT using either the start day of the week I set in preferences (which is what they SHOULD do), NOR are they using the first day the task occurs. They are simply using MONDAY as the first day of the week, just as the week is set up in the recurrence tab.
I’m saying it should not work that way. You’re telling me that’s how it works and “sorry it’s an issue for you,” which frankly is the same as saying, “we’re not even considering doing anything about it, sorry.”
That is a sadly unprofessional response coming from a software that would supposedly like me to become a paying customer.
Congratulations! You’ve just lost me as a potential customer.
“Thank you for understanding.”
Really? I’m supposed to understand the fact that you are brushing off a totally reasonable issue a potential paying customer has with your software. The fact is I do not understand at all. Rather, I’m totally baffled that you think your response is even remotely reasonable.
If the way it currently works is “intended behavior,” then the intended behavior is producing what any reasonable end user would consider unexpected results. Software that produces unexpected results is badly designed.
Your response should be more along the lines of “Gee, that’s a good idea! I’ll bring that up with the team!” or, “I’ve brought this up to the development team, and although they consider this a feature that should be included, it will take quite a bit of time that is currently being spent on other projects. Perhaps in the future yada yada yada. In the meantime, here’s what you can do as a work around…”
Can you see the difference?
A response like that, even though it doesn’t give me what I really want right away, at least keeps me in a “considering buying the pro version” frame of mind.
And, by the way, if you’ve read this far, you haven’t really lost me totally as a potential customer…
yet.
Thank you for your input on this, I’ll send your notes to the developers for consideration.
Regards,
Paul.
Well it would be a good idea. Frankly, tasks and events should be integrated features, but the only way to do that is for both the tasks and the calendar to share the same options. Settings applied to one should apply to the other.
Thank you for listening.