Skip to main content

Quick Open

When you know exactly which task or list you want and just need to get there, Quick Open is the shortest path. Open it, type a few letters, press Return, and you are standing on it, whatever list it lives in.

Opening Quick Open​

  • Tap the list name at the top of the task list.
  • With a hardware keyboard, press ⇧⌘O.

A card drops in over the task list with its field already focused. It is a transient overlay: pick something and it dismisses, leaving you at your destination. Tap outside the card, tap its close control, or press Esc to leave without going anywhere.

note

Inside a project or checklist, the title at the top of the task list acts as Back instead, so tapping it leaves Project View. Use ⇧⌘O to reach Quick Open from there.

Starting Empty​

Open Quick Open without typing and it shows you where you have just been:

  • Recently modified: up to five tasks you last changed.
  • Recently accessed: up to three lists you last opened. The list you are already looking at is left out, since you are there.

That alone makes it a quick way back to the handful of things you are actively working on.

Typing​

Start typing and Quick Open matches word starts in task titles and list names, so rep finds Quarterly report but not prepare. Results appear under two headings, tasks first and then lists, each naming how many it matched. Task results are capped at twelve.

  • The top result is highlighted automatically. Press Return to open it.
  • With a keyboard, the up and down arrow keys move the highlight. On screen, tap any row.
  • Each task row shows the list it lives in. A sub-task also shows its parent, as List › Parent, so two similarly named children are easy to tell apart.
  • Each list row shows its color.

Quick Open only offers what you can actually reach: completed tasks, tasks in hidden lists, and anything inside a locked list stay out of the results.

What Happens When You Pick Something​

Choosing a list switches straight to it.

Choosing a task takes you to it in the shortest way available. If the task already has a row in the list on screen, 2Do selects and reveals it in place. If it sits inside a project or checklist that the current list is showing, 2Do opens that parent on the task. Otherwise it switches to the list that owns the task and reveals it there. Either way the row pulses briefly so you can see where you landed.

On iPad, picking a task also opens it in the editor pane, so you arrive on the task with its details already in front of you. On iPhone the task is revealed in the list without opening its editor.

2Do has two "type something" surfaces and they do genuinely different jobs:

  • Quick Open jumps you to one existing task or list, anywhere in the app, then gets out of the way. It never creates or filters anything.
  • Search (⌘F) filters the current view in place, collapsing the task list to just the matches and staying open while you work on that subset. A search can be saved as a Smart List; Quick Open cannot, because there is nothing to save.

To create rather than find, use Quick Add.

Tips​

tip

Hop between lists without touching the lists panel: open Quick Open, type two or three letters of the list name, and press Return.

tip

Give tasks you expect to jump to distinctive titles. Quick Open matches word starts, so one uncommon word in a title is usually enough to reach it in three keystrokes.

Last updated on