I’ve been using Clear to create lists for years. One feature that I’d really like to see is a way to alphabetize items (or thoughts) within each master list (or thought).
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Thinking about how we want to handle this and some other more power user / niche functions. (Overlaps some with the restoring iOS shortcuts request too.) We do have some ideas but need some time to sort through them!
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Hi phillryu, I made a post back in August with a similar request. My only request, to be able to/have the option alphabetize the “my lists” section. It never got a reply. It would make this app so much easier to use for me.
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Hey I must’ve missed it originally. That is a pretty specific request but… it’s not impossible a little further out. I could see it being enabled by Shortcuts support, or perhaps our version of this (personalizable gesture shortcuts/actions in the future). Sorting in general seems like it would fit in with those ideas.
I don’t really understand what’s “specific” about it? People have requested alphabetizing just within a list and the response wasn’t that it was “specific”. Regardless, I just want to be able to more easily alphabetize my lists so I can find the one I’m looking for, rather than having to do it manually. Also a ton of my lists were archived during the launch and now that I un-archived them, I yet again have to manually alphabetize them. An option to alphabetize with a gesture or a setting change just seems logical to me. Thanks for reading and I really hope it comes to fruition. It is my biggest frustration with the app and I’ve considered switching to a different one with all the recent changes, and the fact that it didn’t include an alphabetization option.
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Sorting comes up a good amount, but this is the first time I heard a request for the ‘my lists’ level! It honestly wasn’t on my radar that this was a use case out there until you brought it up.
When we reimplement sorting, I agree it should also work on My Lists. That is consistent with Clear’s sandbox spirit and design. But I will need a bit of time to think about where to access it. (We have some other list options we want to accommodate too so I think this needs a new home than the old ‘shake kitchen sink list’.)
P.S. another example of this kind of more specific usecase that wasn’t on our radar – I was surprised by the suggestion from a poster on another thread this morning that you should also be able to swipe right in the ‘My Lists’ level to set reminders for a list. Again, makes sense in that consistent sandbox way but it was a blindspot here.
Out of curiosity how do you generally use Clear? Like do you load it up with tons of lists that are not so much checklists, and more for reference or almost like notes?
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Sorry somehow I missed your response so I’m replying three months later… I use it for both types of lists honestly.
For the notes based lists it’s basically anything I want to remember that I don’t necessarily have a specific date in mind (so putting it in my calendar doesn’t make sense). And then for checklists, I use it mainly for lists that are recurring, like packing for a trip, that want to be able to check off each item so I don’t lose track of my progress, but want to keep the list because I will travel again. Or for ideas that I want to save for later. So I do find it annoying that with the newer settings it’s a little too easy to completely erase items in a list.
It’s a long list of lists lol! And somehow they all doubled up when the beta version merged into the official version (for lack of a better description of what happenned). It’s a huge mess right now. So if I could choose to alphabetize them and have the option for both ascending and descending it would help so much. It would help we eliminate the duplicates, and after that it will make it easier to find a specific list quickly. I’m guessing it’s a harder task to create a search option for Clear, so being able to sort My Lists was the workaround in my mind. Or maybe a search function is also an option? Idk, dreaming big here ¯_(ツ)_/¯
And if there could be workarounds (so that the sorting is… alpha numeric?) so I could add a symbol or a number before the list name, if I want it to show up at the top of my list instead of where it’s first letter placeholder would be, that would be helpful.
Also that other suggestion you mentioned about setting a reminder for a list sounds fantastic.
Any approximate time-line for when sorting will be re-implemented?
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@phillryu again, any timeline for sorting to be re-implemented?
Sorry I don’t have a timeline! We are mainly focused on the syncing infrastructure right now.
I do think after that is completed we will be interested in this, because I see this fitting in with some other things like intents/shortcuts that will also be a part of upcoming Apple Intelligence, and also tie in with ‘personalizable gestures’ that we have plans for.