Natural language
picoBeat has an text-input interface that lets you quickly add events and tasks by just typing a sentence. This is a great way to quickly input information without having to fill forms or click around.
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Quick rules
Entering an event is typically in the form of : (event subject) at (time) on (date) during (duration) at (location)
But there's a lot of flexibility in the order and the way you can write your sentence, as the system tries its best to understand what you mean or imply (see examples below).
Entering a task is done by starting your sentence with "todo:". Similarly, creating a new (short) note is as easy as typing "note:(blablabla)".
On the web interface, a quick preview is displayed as you type to give you some feedback on how your sentence is understood. Press ENTER to validate your sentence.
Advices
When giving a time, it is best to be precise if it is morning or evening (either by indicating am/pm, or by using 24h time).
If you need to include some information in the subject of your item that might be interpreted as a date or duration, you can put your subject in double quotes (ie: "Meeting for next friday show" at 17:00 tomorrow)
Examples
Below are some sample sentences that would be properly interpreted.
Sample events
- "lunch at noon tomorrow with Steeve"
- "meet joe at 5" (the time will be either 5am or 5pm today, if it's still not passed, or 5am tomorrow)
- "meeting in 2 days at 9pm during 2 hours"
- "visit Grandma at 14 on March 1st at 21 Baker's Street, London" (will set the event location to "21 Baker's Street, London")
- "file TPS report on 03/02" (dates are interpreted according to your user preferences)
Sample tasks
- "todo: do laundry"
- "todo:fix pipe before tomorrow" (due date will be set to today)
- "todo:write TPS report due next friday, urgent" (will set the due date as well as mark the task as "high priority")