Lion mail To Do?

Hi IvanH,

MS Outlook is already back, but don't delude yourself into thinking Apple killed off a feature to hand functionality over to MS. I don't have an explanation as to why they took ToDo out of Mail, one would hope that iOS 5 & iCloud will bring a great unannounced 'Reminders' feature on Lion - but I have been a Mac user for over 20 yrs and know better, usually what you see is what you get.

The best we can hope for is that enough people complain via the feedback service and Apple resurrect ToDo in Mail or provide a workable replacement.

Scottsimeon - there are plenty of very good ToDo apps on iPhone that sync with iCal - I use Appigo ToDo which is brilliant, but this discussion is not about that functionality. That said, as a long time user of their iOS app, I am considering Appigo's ToDo for Mac as a replacement for desktop ToDo's as it also syncs with iCal therefore remaining a part of the integrated system.

OK I just bought 2Do on my iPhone because it had a more complex organization between projects, to dos and calendar entries. It claims to sync with MobileMe (Which it does) so I figured for a few bucks, how wrong can I go to find a product that must INHERHENTLY address one of the fundamentals of this discussion.

The truth is that To Dos are inherently linked in an organizational way to Cal - a todo is an appointment which is unscheduled or may require more than one appointment. Anyway, the support in iCal is good enough to be sophisticated enough not to need a mail-based todo. All they need to do now is work on the integration between mail, ical and notes.

Problem solved for me.

No, it doesn't help. It's not just about a Standalone Reminders app. What I need, is the capability to drag an email to the Reminders and give it a due date to follow.

Hi Tony Young2,

About Outlook, I meant the on Windows. Outlook 2011 on Mac is not impressive at all, until now. I'll re-consider Outlook 2011 because I can drag email to Task (which is ToDo) and I can set reminders. For those still on Windows 7, including me as a hybrid, will keep ourselves on Outlook. I have re-installed Outlook 2007 on Fusion 3. It's still a fantastic product.

Absolutely agree with you about Apple: "What you see is what you get". No fantasy at all. But as in an advisor to the Board, I cannot recommend a quantum from Windows 7 to Mac OS X Lion. A simple survey can tell nearly 100% of staff drag mails to Task (ToD) and set reminders.

Over a year ago, I read an article about an interview to S.J. He believed email will die. Now, Twitter is officially part of iOS5. I believe, getting off Reminders from Mail, is actually a strategic move. Maybe, I think, Reminders will integrate with Twitters, rather than Mail, in the coming OS X and iOS versions.

I don't like the computer industry because it keeps on destroying to give room for reinvention which appears as innovation. It's not green!

Holy cow! Nobody is forcing you to install Lion.... Just go back to Snow Leopard if it means that much to you. Or find a third party email app to use. There are plenty out there that would integrate the features you want.

Trust me, I feel Apple is taking a nose dive from a developers viewpoint (the first indication of this was iPhoto '11... Serious downgrade! Then the "upgrades" to the OS in Lion. Next will be their conversion from MobileMe to iCloud — MobileMe was fine... Now they're getting rid of "Gallery"?! Why would Apple lose a feature that is so well-integrated into their own photo and movie applications?!..... Apple's "dumbing down" to try to appeal to the masses is merely a board of directors move to watch their bottom line grow!)

Actually, the feature that's been removed was more than just dragging whole emails into a reminder/calendar app: highlight some text in Mail (especially in a "note"), simply click a checkmark button, and just the highlighted text becomes a To-Do item in iCal, with a link back to the original text in Mail. Perfect for tracking specific issues!

This just reeks of a fresh-out-of-college marketing decision to neglect and remove "old" features in favor of social networking and entertainment features. Cute. But if I wanted an iPad I'd go get one. iPads are really amazing, but this is a Mac, not an iPad, and I bought it instead of an iPad for lots of good reasons.

It's not like tracking some text is rocket science, not even if the oh-so-amazing Dot-Mac MobileMe iCloud arrives providing mind-blowing reminder features. It's just some text in an email, for crying out loud; how hard can it be?

Hi 4injas, I am with your view.

OregonKenBrown, the feature you mentioned seems remained there but ******** from previous version. I tested a few of my old emails. They used to be able to drag part of the message to the reminder and now disabled. For dates in the text, it's wierd that some dates could be used to set a reminder in iCal, while some could never be done. The "intelligence" of Mail 5.0 definitely idiotic.

Hi Ivan,

No, actually the ability to drag text onto iCal to make a Reminder isn't really the same thing. It's not integrated into Mail at all. What you've noticed (and it is pretty nice) is that you can drag text, not just from Mail but from anywhere (try it from this web page, for example), to make a reminder in iCal. That's nice, but the support in Mail is gone: there is no link from the reminder back to the Mail message, no highlight of the reminder text in the Mail message, no checkbox by the original text in the Mail message to mark the reminder as done, and no checkmark button on the toolbar or anything anywhere in the menus to make some selected text into a new reminder.

But possibly worst of all is that all my existing to-do's, now reminders, have lost their links to the email messages they came from, so they now lack context. Thus, the upgrade to Lion destroyed some of the data (links) that I was using at the time to keep track of important tasks, and it did it without any warning ahead of time that the data would be lost, nor even any notice that the links had been lost during the upgrade.

This is the first Apple upgrade that I can remember that has actually deleted some of my active information. The lack of warning or notice makes it all the more disturbing.

I agree with OregonKenBrow. Only I am tempted to use a less diplomatic word than "disturbing" in describing Apple's clumsiness here. I've moved to Busycal for now (which initially seemed expensive for the small amount of fucntionality it adds (gives me back), but the removal of the everyday hassle of a dumbed-down Mail/iCal integration is actually well worth it. A bonus is that I don't have to put up with the irritating page turning ainimation and the hammy fake leather look of the "upgraded" iCal.

Hi OregonKenBrown,

How terrible it is! I found the same problem after reading your post. But I'm a little luckier as I am still playing safe, using MS Outlook in Windows 7 on Fusion 3.1.3 in parallel. So whatever email messages I received on OS X Mail, I also get them on Outlook in Windows 7. So, a few days ago I turned on Fusion 3 and went back to Outlook and worked over there for all my Tasks and email reminders. (very busy in cleaning the backlog, thanks to Mail 5.0 wiped out ToDo!).

Definitely not my cup of tea anymore, if Mail 5.01 don't give me back the ToDo!

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!! I am not a very sophisticated user as many here however I have Mail with To Do to much effect. Since March because I am connected to a largelly Outlook office I have been using Outlook and I am simply unhappy with it. In the meantime i enthusiastically upgraded to lion and have only just realised - in an attempt to migrate back to mail from Outlook that To Do's are no longer here.

WHAT ARE APPLE THINKING!!!! This is pretty much a deal breaker for me and I will now have to stay back on the udnerperfroming Outlook.

How is the removal for To Do's even consider progression?

I am so frustrated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So let me get this straight -- I just paid $29 to "upgrade" to a system that REMOVED a key feature I used regularly, without warning me of the change at any point before or during installation, and leaves me with only the other "half" of the feature in iCal, which I didn't like and never used?

I had hoped Apple would do the opposite -- ADD functionality to the Mail to-dos so the system would be more robust and integrated and bug-free, much like (yes I'll say it) Entourage's to-do list was. I'd hope at least they'd follow the doctor's "first, do no harm" creed of leaving it untouched if they couldn't improve it. Instead, they remove even the mediocre system I had shoehorned myself into. Upgrading to-dos so more people would use it more often seemed like a smart, logical move.

Instead, this. Why?????

It makes me seriously question Apple's judgment, and, just a year after I moved from Entourage to Apple Mail so my iPhone/iPad synching would finally work, has me seriously contemplating moving back to Outlook for Mac.