Taskline FAQ

Common questions and answers about Taskline

Ordering

No problem. Just visit our Resend Product Key page to have your registration information automatically resent.

If you have Taskline 4.1 or earlier, visit our Download page and download another copy.

If you have Taskline 5, visit our Resend Product Key page to have your download link automatically resent.

With a single Taskline license you may install Taskline on up to three computers, provided that Taskline is used exclusively by you. So, in this circumstance, you need only buy one license.

About Taskline

Sometimes Windows blocks compiled HTML help files, which is the type of help that Taskline uses. To unblock it, use Windows Explorer to open Taskline’s install folder, which by default is: C:\Program Files (x86)\ResultsWare\Taskline

Then right click the file Taskline.chm and click Properties. Select the Unblock checkbox or button, which is on the General tab. Then OK the Properties dialog.

Full online help is included with Taskline. However, if you prefer the user guide in a PDF format, you can download it here:

Letter sized paper

A4 sized paper

It depends on how your team works. Taskline is designed to help one person plan and manage their own work. It is not suited to one person planning the work of several others. In a team environment, each person would plan their own work using Taskline, perhaps keeping tasks in a central or shared location, such as on Microsoft Exchange Server.

Requirements and Compatibility

System requirements are detailed at the end of the Product Details page.

No, sorry. Taskline requires Microsoft Windows.

Taskline Setup

Some computers have had the ability to install Office Add-Ins disabled. We have a small application that fixes this, for all Office Add-Ins, not just Taskline’s. Click the appropriate link below:
64-bit Windows “Trusted Sites” application.
32-bit Windows “Trusted Sites” application.

Further information can be found here: How to configure the ClickOnce Trust Prompt Behavior

If you see the above error while installing the Taskline Outlook Add-In, try the following:

  • 01. Close all open applications
  • 02. Open Windows File Explorer (or “This PC”)
  • 03. Make sure that File Explorer is displaying hidden items. To do this, click the View tab, then select the Hidden items check box
  • 04. Navigate to the folder “C:\Users\<Your Username>\AppData\Local\Apps”
  • 05. Send the folder “2.0” to the Recycle Bin

Then try Taskline Setup again. If, after trying the above, you still see the error:

  • 01. Navigate to “C:\Users\<Your Username>\AppData\Local”
  • 02. Rename the folder “assembly” to something else

Then try Taskline Setup again.

This error means 1 of 4 things:

  • 01. You are running Taskline Setup as a Windows Admin. That doesn’t work, Taskline Setup needs to be run as a normal user
  • 02. You do not have Microsoft Outlook installed on your Windows computer. Taskline requires Outlook client software to be installed, as it is an Add-In for Outlook
  • 03. Something is interfering with Taskline Setup. See below
  • 04. There is a problem with some aspect of your Outlook installation. See below

Something is Interfering With Taskline Setup

This is usually, but not always, Anti-Virus software. Try temporarily disabling your Anti-Virus software while Taskline Setup runs.

We have also had reports of Avast Cleanup causing this error in Taskline Setup. When Avast Cleanup was temporarily disabled, Taskline Setup ran smoothly.

None of the Above

If you have tried all the above suggestions and the error is still happening, then it’s probably down to an issue with your Office installation. Or, more specifically, with the COM programming interface to Office or Outlook. Try reinstalling Office. And if that doesn’t help, look for the following:

  • Go to Control Panel -> Programs and look through the list. Do you see any different versions of Office or an Office application in there? To give you an idea of what to look for, these are examples of configurations we’ve seen that caused problems:
  • You have Office 365 installed, but a copy of Excel 2013
  • You have Office 365 installed and the standalone version of Skype installed (rather than the Skype that comes with Office 365)
  • You have 64-bit Office installed, but also a 32-bit Office program or component. For example, Access Database Engine 32-bit
  • You have 32-bit Office installed, but also a 64-bit Office program or component

Try, if possible, uninstalling the conflicting component or application.

If none of the above helps and you are seeing the specific error “Interface not Registered – 0x80040155” in the error message text, then generally an Uninstall and Reinstall of Office will fix this. A Reinstall or a Repair doesn’t seem to work. Or, if you have good technical knowledge of Windows, then information on fixing this error manually can be found here (be sure to use Windows System Restore to create a restore point before you try this procedure): OutlookGoogleCalendarSync – FAQ COM Errors – 0x80040155 – Interface not Registered

Finally, if none of the above helps, we recommend downloading and running the Microsoft Office Support and Recovery Assistant.

Taskline’s Outlook Add-In uses a component called Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime The Add-In’s Setup program should automatically download and install this, but sometimes it fails. You may see errors such as:

  • The following Microsoft Office solution cannot be installed due to a general installer error
  • The referenced assembly is not installed on your system
  • Downloading file:/// C:/Program Files (x86)/ResultsWare/Taskline/<Your Username>/Add-In 2007/Taskline AddIn 2007.vsto did not succeed
  • Setup has detected that the file: C:\Users\<Your Username>\AppData\Local\Temp\<Random name>.tmp\VSTOR40\vstor_redist.exe has changed since it was initially published

If this happens to you, try downloading and installing Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime separately from the Microsoft Download Centre.

Visual Studio Tools for Office Installer (which is started up by Taskline Setup to install the Outlook Add-In) gives the error “The value of property ‘type’ cannot be parsed. Could not load file or assembly Microsoft.Office.BusinessApplication.Fba … etc”

Search your C: drive for the file “VSTOInstaller.exe.Config”. Any you find, rename them. Then run Taskline Setup again.

A conflict with another Outlook Add-In or some data corruption within Outlook is possible.

First, try temporarily disabling other Outlook add-ins:

  • 01. Click File → Options.
  • 02. Select the Add-Ins tab.
  • 03. In the Manage drop down list, select COM Add-Ins and click Go.
  • 04. Write down which items are checked and which are unchecked, then uncheck all non-Microsoft Add-ins and click OK. This will temporarily disable them.
  • 05. Now shut down Outlook and retry Taskline Setup.
  • 06. Finally, go back into the Add-Ins tab and COM Add-Ins dialog and put things back how you found them.

If disabling Add-Ins does not help, repair any possible data corruption (below).

Are you using a local PST (Personal Folders) file, or are your tasks on Exchange Server? If your Outlook data is on a server, Outlook will create a local OST file, which can sometimes get corrupted. We can get Outlook to recreate this file. First, locate the OST file:

  • 01. In Outlook, right click on the root of the folder list, usually called your Mailbox name or your email address.
  • 02. Click on Properties or Date File Properties in the popup menu.
  • 03. Click the Advanced button. The filename will be shown on the dialog.

Then, rename this file. This will make Outlook create a new one:

  • 01. Close Outlook.
  • 02. Rename your OST file to anything you like.
  • 03. Restart Outlook.

If instead you’re using a PST file, try running a Microsoft program called ScanPST. This checks PST files for problems and can usually fix any it finds. To run this:

  • 01. Close Outlook.
  • 02. Use Windows Search to look for scanpst.exe. Typical locations for this program are:
  • 64-bit Outlook 2016 and 2019: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
  • 64-bit Outlook 2013: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\Office15
  • 32-bit Outlook 2010 on 64-bit versions of Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14
  • 03. When you’ve found scanpst.exe, double click the file to run it.
  • 04. Select your PST file by clicking the Browse button and then click the Start button to start the check. If you don’t know the filename of your PST file:
  • 05. In Outlook, right click on the root of the folder list, usually called “Personal Folders” or simply “Outlook”.
  • 06. Click on Properties or Date File Properties in the popup menu.
  • 07. Click the Advanced button. The filename will be shown on the dialog.

Taskline Techniques

We recommend this: Create a new appointment in your Outlook calendar that represents the unplanned (and now completed) work. Then right click on the appointment and select Create ask from the popup menu. A task form will open. Set Status to Completed then Save & Close the task.

To define task order, you should not use constraints, such as a Finish on or before constraint. Rather, on the Tasks tab of Taskline’s dialog, there is the section entitled Schedule tasks in the following order . That is how to define task order. Whatever method you choose, you then set the corresponding information on the task appropriately. Most people use Priority (A1) or Natural Order. It is then just a matter of setting the appropriate Priority (A1) value on a task, or dragging tasks up and down the task list to set their Natural Order. Things like Finish on or before constraints only come into play if you have a deadline to meet. And, even if you have a deadline, you only need to select other tasks if the deadline applies to several tasks, not just one.

For further information on task ordering, please read the appropriate page in the online help. To display the help, click the Help button at the bottom right corner of Taskline’s dialog. Then, on the Contents tab of the help, navigate to:

Introduction to Outlook Tasks and Taskline
    → Defining the Order in Which Tasks are Scheduled

You can place a constraint on a task to have it scheduled to a specific date and time. On the Taskline Tab of the task form in Outlook, set the External constraint to Start on or Finish on. Then enter a date to the right. If you want to lock down the task to the exact minute, enter a time too. You can also use constraints for deadlines – a Finish on or before is generally ideal for this.

Task Scheduling

Check that you are scheduling the folder that contains your tasks. Be especially careful if you have several folders with the same name. The tasks folder that Taskline will schedule is shown on the Schedule tasks in… setting, which is on the Tasks tab of Taskline’s main dialog.

If you are using more than one Outlook Data Store (e.g. PST file), check that you haven’t selected task and/or calendar folders in the wrong data store.

Taskline offers a lot of flexibility for including or excluding tasks from the scheduling process. Below are all the reasons why some tasks might not be being scheduled:

  • Check the Schedule tasks in… setting on the Tasks tab of the Taskline Settings dialog. Is this definitely the same folder that contains your Taskline tasks? Be especially careful if you have several folders with the same name
  • Are some of your tasks in Outlook subfolders? If so, do you have the Taskline Include subfolders check box selected? This is on the Tasks tab of the Taskline Settings dialog.
  • On the Taskline tab of the task form in Outlook, check that the Schedule this task check box is selected
  • Is the task Complete? Specifically, does the task have its Status set to Completed?
  • Even if the task is not marked as Completed, it could be that there’s no work left on the task. On the Taskline tab of the task form in Outlook, is Work Remaining shown as zero?
  • Is task Status set to Deferred or Waiting on Someone else?
  • Does the task have a Project assigned that is not being scheduled? Specifically, check the Project field on the Taskline tab of the task form in Outlook to see which Project is assigned to a task. Then check the Projects tab on the Taskline Settings dialog. Is the check box next to the Project name ticked?
  • Does the task have Working Hours assigned that are not being scheduled? Specifically, check the Working Hours field on the Taskline tab of the task form in Outlook. Then check the Working Hours tab on the Taskline Settings dialog. Is the Schedule tasks that have been assigned these hours check box selected?
  • Has the task been delegated to someone else? Taskline doesn’t schedule delegated tasks (because you’re not doing them, someone else is)
  • Are all the Calendar Task Entries in Outlook’s calendar for this task Pinned? Pinning allows you to manually override some or all of a task’s scheduling. It can be that there is no unpinned work left for Taskline to schedule. You can check a task’s Calendar Task Entries by right clicking on the task and clicking the Open Calendar Task option.
  • Taskline will only schedule standard Outlook tasks. Specifically, those tasks with their Message Class set to IMP.Task. Some Outlook Add-Ins change the Message Class of Outlook items. To check this, add a Message Class column to the task table view in Outlook. Message Class can be found in the All task fields section of the Outlook Field Chooser.

The following characteristic can make Taskline run slowly:

  • Having your Taskline tasks – and especially the tasks that Taskline creates in your Outlook calendar – on a remote Outlook store, such as Exchange Server or Outlook.com. If you can, use a local PST file for the Outlook folders that contain your Taskline tasks and Calendar Task Entries, it will run much faster.
  • Creating lots of Taskline task entries in Outlook’s calendar. This can slow Taskline down considerably but can be resolved by limiting for how many days in the future Calendar Task Entries are created. Doing this also helps you to focus on the next few days work, rather than being distracted by work several weeks away. You set this feature by using the Limit tasks in Calendar to first [ ] days setting, which is on the Calendar tab of the Taskline Settings dialog. When you use this setting, all your tasks are still scheduled. For example, they will have their Scheduled Start and Scheduled End dates recalculated.
  • Having a lot of recurring appointments.
  • Having a lot of recurring appointment exceptions (these can slow Taskline down significantly).
  • Having a lot of recurring tasks.
  • Using the Show list of attachments Advanced Option.
  • Ordering tasks by a custom field.
  • Using the <TaskCompanies> Calendar Task Entry Subject token.
  • Do you have any All day events in your calendar? Taskline will not schedule work on days that have All day events on them, unless they have Show time as set to Free.
  • Do you have a filtered calendar view? Are you sure that you can see all of your appointments? Taskline won’t schedule tasks where there are appointments already occupying that time.
  • Taskline allows you to specify up to 2 Outlook folders that contain your appointments. This is the And also in setting on the Calendar tab of the Taskline Settings dialog. Check whether there are appointments in your 2nd Outlook folder that are responsible for the gaps.
  • Check your Task can be split and Minimum split settings. Perhaps the gaps in your schedule are too small to be utilized? For example, a 3 hour task that cannot be split will not be able to use any part of a free 2 hours time slot. The Default minimum task split setting, on the Options tab of Taskline’s dialog, also plays a role here. You can check whether the task split settings are resulting in unexpected gaps by telling Taskline to temporarily ignore these settings. To do this, click the Advanced Options button on the Options tab of Taskline’s dialog. Then select the Ignore task split settings and allow tasks to be split without restriction check box.
  • Gaps can also be caused by travel time on appointments. Check the Default time allowances before and after an appointment settings, which are on the Calendar tab of Taskline’s dialog. Also check, for Taskline Professional Edition, whether any individual appointments have overridden these settings using the “{30m/1h}” style on the appointment subject.
  • Taskline allows you to specify up to 2 Outlook folders that contain your appointments. This is the And also in setting on the Calendar tab of the Taskline Settings dialog. Check whether there are appointments in your 2nd Outlook folder that are responsible for the gaps.
  • Check that you have Order by set to Natural Order Descending.
  • Check that you can drag tasks up and down Outlook’s task list using the mouse. If you can’t, then your tasks are not in Natural Order.
  • Are you looking at the Outlook Tasks folder selected in Taskline, or are you looking at Outlook’s To-Do list? The To-Do list uses a different Natural Order to the Tasks folder. Taskline’s Natural Order does not work with the To-Do list. You have to use Natural Order in your Outlook Tasks folder. The To-Do list contains tasks and emails from all your Outlook folders, whereas Taskline only schedules tasks in whatever folder you have selected on the Tasks tab of Taskline’s main dialog.
  • It’s possible that your Outlook view is corrupt. Try creating a new one. How to do this is documented in Taskline’s online help. See the chapter called Getting the Most out of Outlook Views.
  • Check task constraints. Start onStart on or afterFinish on and Work between Constraints can stop tasks being scheduled earlier than would otherwise be possible and hence can force gaps into schedules. You can check whether task constraints are resulting in unexpected gaps by telling Taskline to temporarily ignore them. To do this, click the Advanced Options button on the Options tab of Taskline’s dialog. Then select the Ignore task constraints check box.

Tasks do sometimes get scheduled out of order. There are several reasons for this:

  • Firstly, check that you are looking at the Outlook Tasks folder selected in Taskline. Taskline does not support Outlook’s To-Do Bar, which uses a different ordering system to the Tasks folder.
  • Task constraints, such as a Finish on constraint, override task order, but only if this is necessary to make sure that the constraint is met.
  • A task with a missed Constraint, or a recurring task that has missed its recurrence date, is regarded by Taskline as overdue. Overdue tasks take priority over all others.
  • Different tasks assigned different Working Hours can get scheduled out of order.
  • If you have turned off Task can be split or if you have set Minimum split on a task, then it’s possible that a higher priority task isn’t able to use the first available free time slot, because it’s too small. Thus the task will get scheduled in a later time slot, leaving the earlier one free for another (perhaps lower priority) task.

Taskline doesn’t actually take a task’s Due date into account when scheduling, mainly because many people prefer Taskline to actually set the Due date when it runs. However, you can certainly specify a date that the task must finish on or by, for example to meet a deadline. You do this by setting up an external constraint, which is simply a matter of selecting the Finish on or Before constraint type from the External constraint drop down list on the Taskline task form in Outlook.

If the task reschedule is producing results that you don’t understand, try selecting one or more of the Understanding Taskline options, which are on the Advanced Options dialog.

Yes, you can set up the Windows® task scheduler to do this for you. See “Background Task Scheduling” in the online help index for more information.

Calendar Issues

  • On the Calendar tab of Taskline’s main dialog, Task entries in the calendar section, check that you have selected the Create for tasks that are Not Started or In Progress option.
  • Check that the folder chosen to contain calendar task entries is the one you think it is. This is the Write task entries to option on the Calendar tab of Taskline’s main dialog. Be especially careful if you have several calendar folders with the same name.
  • Calendar task entries are not created for tasks with a Total Work of zero unless you have the Create all day events for milestones option enabled on the Calendar tab of the Taskline dialog. Total Work is your best guess at how long you think each task will take. If it is set to 0, the task is called a milestone, and it will start and end at the same time. Milestones represent significant events, or goals, in your task list.
  • It is possible that the task has been created in the calendar, but at a date you did not expect. To check, open the task in Outlook. Go to the Taskline tab of the task form in Outlook and note the Scheduled start date. Now check the calendar at this date to see if the Taskline created calendar task entry exists.

Appointments in Outlook have a Show time as setting which is one of FreeWorking elsewhereTentativeBusy or Out of office.

On the Tasks tab of the Taskline Settings dialog, you set Working Hours to tell Taskline what hours you normally work during the week. Working Hours also allow you to either ignore or take into account Outlook appointments based on their Show time as settings. So it’s possible, for example, you have an Outlook appointment with Show time as set to Tentative and also Taskline’s Working Hours have been configured to ignore Tentative appointments.   

Using Outlook with Taskline

To display tasks in their Natural Order in Outlook:

  • Click View ribbon → View Settings button to display the Advanced View Settings dialog. Then use the Sort and Group By buttons on this dialog to set the Sort Items by and Group items by fields to none.

Having your tasks displayed in Natural Order and scheduled in Natural Order, Descending is often the most convenient way of working, because the order you see your tasks in is the order that Taskline will schedule them in. It’s also easy to change this order by dragging the tasks up and down the task list.

  • Outlook allows you to export your tasks to a comma separated values file. In Outlook, click File menu → Options → Advanced tab → Export button. To export the Taskline custom fields, see the FAQ entry below.
  • Taskline also generates a Task Schedule Report, which has an option to show details on every task. You can then click the report’s Copy Table to Clipboard button and paste the results directly into, for example, a spreadsheet.

Outlook does not support the export of custom fields. However, you can get round this to a large extent by creating a task table view showing the fields you wish to export, selecting the tasks you wish to export, and then right clicking and selecting Copy. The task table view is then copied to the clipboard as tab separated text which can, for example, be pasted straight into Excel.

See Getting the Most out of Outlook Views in Taskline’s Online Help contents for instructions on customizing the Outlook task table view.

It’s possible that Taskline’s Outlook Add-In has been disabled. If so, re-enable it:

  • Click File → Options
  • Select the Add-Ins tab
  • In the Manage drop down list, select Disabled Items and click Go
  • If Taskline’s Add-In is listed, re-enable it. Then Close the Disabled Items dialog
  • In the Manage drop down list, select COM Add-Ins and click Go
  • Select the check box for Taskline Outlook Add-In
  • Click OK to close the COM Add-Ins dialog

If this doesn’t help, please lookup “Taskline Outlook Add-In is Not Responding” in the Contents tab of Taskline’s online help for further advice. It’s in the “Miscellaneous Topics” chapter.