How do I add a task from the floating icon?

Hover the floating icon so its strip of buttons opens, then click Add task. A small box opens above the icon. Type the task or say it, check the chips under the field, and press Enter.

The Add task button shows while Tasks is on. In Settings → Floating icon you can switch it off or move it along the strip.

#Add a task

1. Hover the floating icon so the strip of buttons opens.
2. Click Add task. The box opens above the icon with the title Add a task and a field that is ready for typing.
3. Type the task, for example “call the bank tomorrow at 3pm and remind me 15 minutes before”. Or dictate it, as the next section describes.
4. Press Enter. The box shows a tick and one line, such as “Added: Call the bank, tomorrow 3:00 PM”, and closes by itself a moment later.

#Dictate into the box

While the box is open it takes dictation like any text field. Press your dictation key, or click Dictate on the strip, which stays clickable while the box is up. The icon turns into the listening pill while you speak, and the words land in the field when you stop. Press Enter yourself to add the task. See hold to talk, or press once to start for the two ways to use the key.

#What the chips show

The chips under the field update as you type or speak. Each one is something the app read from the words, and the task is made with exactly those.

• The day and time, such as “Tomorrow, 3:00 to 3:30 PM”, and a length such as “30 min”.
• A repeat, a reminder such as “15 minutes before”, and a deadline chip when you wrote “by Friday”.
• A category chip for #name, and a goal for @name.
• “Just a reminder”, when the words start with “remind me to”. That makes a reminder, not a task. See what Just a reminder is.

When a word is ambiguous the box asks, in a line under the field, and holds Enter until you answer. A grey “At the start” chip means the task will get a reminder at its start time, which is what the setting Remind me when a task’s time comes does.

#Where the task goes

It appears in the Tasks page at once, in the section for its day. Under the field, the box lists your next three open tasks, and a quiet row opens the rest. Click a task there to open it in Tasks. Adding a task does not change the number on the floating icon, because that number counts reminders waiting for an answer.

Drag the box by its title row to put it somewhere else. It opens in that place until you quit the app. Esc, the small x, a click anywhere else and a second click on Add task all close it.

#Other ways in

• The Dictate Safe icon in the menu bar, or in the notification area on Windows, has Add a task... and Today’s tasks. The second opens the same box with the whole list showing. A third line, which cannot be clicked, reads “Next:” and the task coming up, or “Nothing left today”.
• The link I already did this in the box logs something you have finished. It asks “What did you do?” and counts in the week report.

#When it does not work

Which time did you mean? Pick one of the two.

A reminder needs a day and a time. Try: remind me to take a tablet tomorrow at 8am.