TodoPlus Portable for Windows

TodoPlus Portable lets you organize and track the progress of tasks, projects, and, of course, to-do lists. If you've been using paper as your primary organizational tool, there will be a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, ToDo Plus Portable proves to be a fairly effective tool to see what you need to do and which of the tasks are complete. The biggest issues are the lack of options to add due dates and share your files.

You won't need to install TodoPlus Portable; just unzip its folder and open the executable to get started. The compact interface has a packed toolbar that may be a bit daunting at first, but tool tips and a good online Help file explain the functions of each icon, and the latter provides a Quick Start guide that covers the basics. The first step is to create a new file, which is saved in the program's proprietary PLAN format. You also can add a password to protect your files. From there, it's generally one click to add tasks and sub-tasks and then type in the specifics. You can copy and paste text, which saves a bit of time, though. It's easy to move tasks up or down within a plan, and you can check off each one as they're completed. We were impressed by the options to view your plans as HTML, but the resulting files weren't very visually appealing. You can also opt to save your plan as an HTML file, but if you try and open these files in the program, you'll need to change the file type "TodoPlus files" to "All files" in the dialog box to see them, and the HTML file won't automatically update as you make changes to the PLAN file. While everything works, it all seems to be a bit manual, and although you can import CSV files, there aren't any other export options besides HTML, so files can't be shared easily with others. And, in the HTML format, you can't edit the tasks or do anything besides view them. The biggest drawback, however, is the inability to add due dates, except in the task descriptions.

If you don't currently have any way to organize and view your projects and tasks, TodoPlus Portable is a free tool that may be able to help. But if your goal is to share these lists with others or you need to easily view tasks by a due date, you'll want to check out a tool that has more options.