Properties: what a list keeps about each item

A property is one labelled slot a list gives every item on it: Author on a reading list, Amount on an expenses list, Status and Due date on your Tasks list. Properties belong to the list. You add, rename, retype, reorder and delete them in Edit list, and an item only fills them in.

The kinds

The pickers list them in one order on every client:

• Text. Words, kept as you typed them.

• Number. A number, with a comma or a point as the decimal. It sorts as a number, and the operator can sum it.

• Select. One option from a set you keep, each with a color.

• Multi-select. Several options from such a set.

• Status. The task status, To do, In progress or Completed, with the icon you tap, the completed rule and the open count. One per list. See task status and completing tasks.

• Date. A day, with no time and no reminder, for a date that is not a deadline.

• Due date. The deadline: a day, or a day with a time, with the reminder, the overdue reading and the due bands on a board. One per list. See due dates, times and reminders.

• Person. One or more people who have access to the item, each shown as a capsule with their photo and short name. On a shared list it is who each task is for. Roma adds two person properties itself when a list is first shared, Created by and, on a list of tasks, Assigned to. Working together on a shared list covers both.

• URL. A link, with Open link in its editor.

• Date added and Last edited. The item's own stamps, shown as the day, which nothing writes. Add them to see them or sort by them, and delete them anywhere.

The title is not a property. Every list has a title column, and Edit list lets you head it with the list's own word, Book or Name, while the item's name stays its title.

Where a value shows, and where you set it

• In the table, each property is a column and each value a cell. Click a cell to edit it in place.

• On a row and on a board card, each property with a value is a pill: the kind's glyph and the value, and for a select, one capsule per chosen option in the option's color.

• In the item's detail, the row at the top holds one pill for every property of the list, filled or not. An empty pill reads the property's name in muted ink, and tapping it opens the editor.

• In the item's menu, a Set row per property. From seven rows on they fold into one Properties row.

The operator fills properties when you ask: "add Dune to my reading list, 5 stars" sets the rating. So does a quiet pass on anything you type into a list with properties: the title names the thing, the properties are read out of the words, a word that plainly names a new stage of a select is added as an option, and a word that fits no property stays in the title rather than being dropped.

Options and their colors

A select or multi-select keeps its options behind one panel: a field that searches them or creates a new one, with New option as the last row. Type a name that matches nothing and the row offers to create it. Each option has a color. A new option takes the color its meaning suggests: green for done, yes or paid, yellow for in progress or waiting, gray for not started, no or someday, red for lost, rejected or overdue. Any other option takes the next of blue, purple, pink, orange and brown. Ten colors are on offer when you pick by hand: blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, red, brown, default and gray. Options are renamed, recolored, reordered and deleted in Edit list, beside the property's type, and a new one can be typed straight into a table cell's panel.

Add, rename, retype, delete

Add a property in Edit list under Add property: a name and a kind, and any pick creates it at once. A select starts with no options. On the Mac and in the browser the table's plus column opens the same panel. On your iPhone, Add property is on the Edit list sheet.

Rename a property in place. Drag the rows to reorder them, and that order is the order everywhere: the table's columns, the pills, the detail. On the Mac and in the browser, hide a property for one list under View settings → Properties, and it leaves every layout while the detail still shows it.

Update type turns one kind into another. A change that loses nothing applies at once: Text to Select mints an option from every distinct value, and Select and Multi-select trade places with their options kept. A change that would lose values asks first and names how many, with a few examples: a text that does not parse as a number clears, and Multi-select to Select keeps each item's first choice alone. Status and Due date can be given to any property on a list of your own, and the change fills the status from the words in the cells (done or finished read as Completed) or the due date from a day. On the Tasks list the two keep their kind.

Delete asks first and names how many items hold a value, and the values go with the property. Status and Due date cannot be deleted on the Tasks list, where they carry completion and the due date for every task. Date added and Last edited delete anywhere, since nothing is stored under them.

Sort, filter and group by a property

Any property sorts the list, with empty values last whichever way the sort runs. Any property filters it, as conditions shown as chips above the rows. An item with nothing in a cell matches "is not" and "does not contain", so an item you move onto a filtered list is never hidden by what it lacks. A board groups by a Select, a Multi-select, Status, a Date or the Due date. All of it is in list, board and table layouts.

Questions people ask

Can I add a property from an item?

No. Properties belong to the list, so Edit list is where one is added, and on the Mac and in the browser the table's plus column does the same. An item's detail and its menu fill properties in and never add one.

What happens to the values when I delete a property?

They go with it. Roma asks first and says how many items hold a value, so a slip is caught before anything is lost.

Can two lists share a property?

No. Each list keeps its own properties. When you move an item to another list, a value follows where the destination has a property of the same name and kind, and Roma asks before dropping the rest.

Why can I not delete Status on my Tasks list?

Because every task's completion lives in it, and the Tasks list is the one list every account keeps. On any list you created, Status and Due date delete like any other property.