The Hit List for Mac
User Manual

Copyright © 2018 Karelia Software LLC. All rights reserved.

www.karelia.com

The Hit List Basics

What is The Hit List?

The Hit List is a simple, yet sophisticated application to manage the daily chaos of your modern life. Based on the simple concept of making lists, The Hit List lets you plan, forget, then act when the time is right.

Collect Tasks

Repeating tasks

Examples of repeating tasks

Type Examples
Daily
  • Every day
  • Every single day
  • Daily
Every n days
  • Every 2 days
  • Every two days
  • 2d
On days of the week
  • Every week on Mondays
  • Every mon
  • Every week on Monday and Tuesday
  • Every mon & tue
  • Mondays or Tuesdays
  • Every Monday through Thursday
  • Every Monday to Thursday
  • mon to thu
Every n days of the week
  • Every other Monday
  • On Mondays every other week
  • Every third Saturday
  • Every three weeks on Saturdays
  • Every 3rd sat
  • Every 2w on wed, thu, and fri
Every n months
  • Every other month
  • 2m
On specific days of the month
  • Every month on the 1st
  • On each first of the month
  • Monthly on the first
  • Every month on the 1st of the month
  • 1
  • Every month on the 5th and the 20th day
  • On the 5th and 20th of the month
  • 5, 20
  • Every month on the 1st through the 6th
  • Monthly on the first through the sixth
  • On the 1st through the 6th of every month
On nth day of the week of the month
  • On every second Monday of the month
  • Monthly on every 2nd Monday
  • Every month on second Mondays
  • 2nd mon of the month
Yearly
  • Every year on January first
  • On January 1st of every year
  • jan 1
  • Every last sun of October through April
  • Every oct through apr on the last Sunday
Last day of the month
  • Every last day of the month
  • last day

Optimize The Hit List for Your Work Style

Preferences

General preferences

Preference Explanation
Play sounds Play sound effects when completing a task or hiding tasks
Predict tags when editing task title The Hit List learns how you tag tasks and can suggest a tag when you create new tasks.
Complete parent task when all-subtasks are completed When you complete the last subtask, mark the parent task as completed.
Timer window stays on top of other windows Make the timer window always stay on top of other windows.
Enable card animations When you're in the card view mode, certain actions trigger an animation. You can enable or disable those animations with this preference.
Enable Spotlight indexing On Mac OS X 10.6 or higher, you can enable Spotlight indexing.
Dock action count Show number of incomplete tasks in the Inbox, the Today list, or both, in the Dock icon badge.
Reset... Reset all preferences back to the initial defaults.

Sync Service preferences

The following buttons are available when you sign into your sync account.

Preference Explanation
Manage Account... Open The Hit List Sync Service account in your web browser.
Perform Full Sync... Send all tasks and download all existing tasks from sync service.
Sign Out After signing out of your sync account, you will have to sign back in to sync again.
Purchase or Extend Subscription... Purchase a subscription if you have not purchased yet, or extend your subscription if you already have an active subscription.

Reminders sync preferences

Preference Explanation
Sync with system reminders Enable or disable syncing with system reminders.
Reminders lists Select a Reminders list to choose which tags or lists should be synced there. You can temporarily disable syncing on the Reminders list by ticking off the checkbox in front of it. A task cannot be synced to more than one Reminders list. Thus, if more than one Reminders list matches a task, it will be synced to the one higher in the list. You can rearrange the order of the Reminders lists through drag and drop.
Sync with Choose which tags or lists should be synced with the selected Reminders list.

Shortcut preferences

Preference Explanation
Quick Entry window Click to choose a keyboard shortcut for the Quick Entry window.
Quick Entry with context When the Quick Entry window is opened via the shortcut set here, the information from the foreground application is used to create the task.
Configure System Service… Opens the Keyboard System Preferences window where you can enable or disable the system service and change its global keyboard shortcut. Once the window is open, you might have to click on "Keyboard Shortcuts" then "Services" to be able to configure the system service.
Close tab Choose the keyboard shortcut that closes the current tab.

Update preferences

Preference Explanation
Check for updates at startup Enable or disable checking for updates at startup.
Check Now Check immediately if there are any updates available.
Send anonymous system profile information The system profile information includes details such your CPU type, operating system version, type of Mac, amount of RAM installed, and more. This information is sent at most once per week.

Registration preferences

Preference Explanation
Name Name the person to whom the license is registered
License Key If you don't know what your license key is, you can find it in the order receipt that was emailed to you at the time of purchase.
Purchase License... Click to purchase a license using the in-app store.
Find My License Key... If you have lost your license key, click to visit our web store where you can tell us your email address to have your order receipt emailed to you again.

Keyboard shortcuts

You can use keyboard shortcuts to quickly accomplish many tasks in The Hit List. To find the shortcuts for common commands, look in the The Hit List menus, or use the table below as a reference. Many items in The Hit List (for example, tasks and column headings) also have contextual menus. To see a contextual menu, press the Control key and click the item. To perform an action, press the shortcut keys indicated below.

Action Shortcut
The Hit List menu shortcuts
Preferences…Command-Comma⌘,
Hide The Hit ListCommand-H⌘H
Hide OthersCommand-Option-H⌥⌘H
Quit The Hit ListCommand-Q⌘Q
File menu shortcuts
New TaskCommand-N⌘N
New Task BelowReturn
New Sub-TaskShift-Return⇧↩
New ListCommand-Shift-N⇧⌘N
New FolderCommand-Control-N⌃⌘N
New Smart Folder…Command-Option-N⌥⌘N
New TabCommand-T⌘T
Close WindowCommand-W⌘W
Close AllCommand-Option-W⌥⌘W
Archive ListCommand-K⌘K
SyncCommand-Option-S⌥⌘S
Page Setup…Command-Shift-P⇧⌘P
Print…Command-P⌘P
Edit menu shortcuts
UndoCommand-Z⌘Z
RedoCommand-Shift-Z⇧⌘Z
CutCommand-X⌘X
CopyCommand-C⌘C
Copy with NotesCommand-Option-C⌥⌘C
Copy as LinkCommand-Shift-Option-C⌥⇧⌘C
PasteCommand-V⌘V
Paste and Match StyleCommand-Shift-Option-V⌥⇧⌘V
Select AllCommand-A⌘A
Select NoneCommand-Shift-A⇧⌘A
Select menu shortcuts
UpKK
DownJJ
LeftHH
RightLL
Font menu shortcuts
Show FontsCommand-Shift-T⇧⌘T
BoldCommand-B⌘B
ItalicCommand-I⌘I
UnderlineCommand-U⌘U
BiggerCommand-Plus⌘+
SmallerCommand-Minus⌘-
Show ColorsCommand-Shift-C⇧⌘C
Copy StyleCommand-Option-C⌥⌘C
Paste StyleCommand-Option-V⌥⌘V
Find menu shortcuts
SearchCommand-F⌘F
Find…Command-Option-F⌥⌘F
Find NextCommand-G⌘G
Find PreviousCommand-Shift-G⇧⌘G
Use Selection for FindCommand-E⌘E
Jump to SelectionCommand-J⌘J
Spelling and Grammar menu shortcuts
Show Spelling…Command-Colon⌘:
Check SpellingCommand-Semicolon⌘;
Special Characters…Command-Option-T⌥⌘T
View menu shortcuts
Go BackCommand-Left Bracket⌘[
Go ForwardCommand-Right Bracket⌘]
Go To menu shortcuts
InboxCommand-Option-1⌥⌘1
TodayCommand-Option-2⌥⌘2
UpcomingCommand-Option-3⌥⌘3
Group AboveCommand-Option-Left Bracket⌥⌘[
Group BelowCommand-Option-Right Bracket⌥⌘]
OutlineCommand-1⌘1
CardCommand-2⌘2
ListsCommand-3⌘3
TagsCommand-4⌘4
Outline menu shortcuts
CollapseCommand-Control-Left Arrow⌃⌘←
ExpandCommand-Control-Right Arrow⌃⌘→
Expand AllCommand-Control-Down Arrow⌃⌘↓
Collapse AllCommand-Control-Up Arrow⌃⌘↑
Columns menu shortcuts
Start DateCommand-8⌘8
Due DateCommand-9⌘9
Estimated TimeCommand-0⌘0
Show Go To BarGG
Show Hints Bar??
Show Filter BarRR
Hide SidebarCommand-Shift-L⇧⌘L
Show Task InformationCommand-Shift-I⇧⌘I
Expand NotesCommand-Shift-Quote⇧⌘'
Show All Completed TasksCommand-Shift-H⇧⌘H
Show Number of ActionsCommand-Shift-U⇧⌘U
Enter Full ScreenCommand-Control-F⌃⌘F
Task menu shortcuts
Mark as CancelledXX
Start TodayTT
Due TodayShift-T⇧T
File to ListFF
Begin TimingBB
Stop TimingCommand-Period⌘.
Move menu shortcuts
UpWW
Up 5 RowsShift-W⇧W
To TopOption-W⌥W
DownSS
Down 5 RowsShift-S⇧S
To BottomOption-S⌥S
LeftAA
RightDD
TagSlash/
Tag Context@@
Edit NoteCommand-Quote⌘'
Priority menu shortcuts
111
222
333
444
555
666
777
888
999
None00
Raise Priority''
Lower Priority;;
Estimated Time menu shortcuts
Add 1 HourPeriod.
Add 30 MinutesShift-Period⇧.
Subtract 1 HourComma,
Subtract 30 MinutesShift-Comma⇧,
Due Date menu shortcuts
Add a DayRight Bracket]
Add a WeekShift-Right Bracket⇧]
Subtract a DayLeft Bracket[
Subtract a WeekShift-Left Bracket⇧[
Start Date menu shortcuts
Add a DayEquals=
Add a WeekShift-Equals⇧=
Subtract a DayMinus-
Subtract a WeekShift-Minus⇧-
Repeat…Command-R⌘R
Open LinkVV
Open Link in BackgroundShift-V⇧V
Show in ListCommand-L⌘L
Hide Completed TasksBacktick`
Window menu shortcuts
MinimizeCommand-M⌘M
Minimize AllCommand-Option-M⌥⌘M
Select Next TabCommand-Shift-Right Bracket⇧⌘]
Select Previous TabCommand-Shift-Left Bracket⇧⌘[
Help menu shortcuts
The Hit List HelpCommand-?⌘?

Custom URL scheme

The Hit List supports a custom URL scheme for controlling some aspects of the application.

Look up by UID
thehitlist:///UID

Every group and task in The Hit List is internally given a unique ID. Clients that know such an ID can request the group or task be opened. On the Mac, you can get this kind of URL for a task by choosing “Copy as Link” in the Edit menu.

Availability: Mac

Look up lists or folders by name
thehitlist:///path/to/group

The route to a list is specified as a path in the URL, using the name of each group. Some examples:

URL Explanation
thehitlist:///Inbox Opens the Inbox
thehitlist:///Bucket%20List Opens a list or folder named “Bucket List”
thehitlist:///Projects/Shed Opens a list or folder named “Shed”, inside of the folder “Projects”

Names are handled case-insensitively, so you can specify either inbox or Inbox, for example. Non-URL path characters — such as spaces — need to be percent encoded. See “Bucket List” above, for example.

Availability: Mac

Create tasks
thehitlist:///folder/list/tasks?method=POST&title=Reach+88mph

As above, the URL path specifies which list the task should be created in. The URL query begins at the ? character. The query is composed of a series of parameter names and values separated by ‘&’ symbols. A ‘=’ character is used to separate parameter name and value.

Spaces are accepted as either a ‘+’ symbol for convenience, or as the full %20 sequence. Consequently, if you require an actual ‘+’ character, it must be encoded as %2B.

Parameter names are case-insensitive. Parameters may appear in any order. Unrecognized parameter names or values are ignored. The result of duplicate parameter names is undefined. If the specified list does not exist, the request goes ignored.

Parameter Explanation Availability
title Title of the new task. As when typing in a task, / or @ may be used to specify a tag. Mac and iOS
notes Notes to include in the task Mac and iOS
url The URL to include in the task notes Mac and iOS
urlTitle The name of the link for the URL Mac
startDate, dueDate Dates can be specified using the shorthand values that The Hit List application understands. For example, “6/4”, “June 4, 2010”, “4” (4th of the next month), “wed”, “4d” (in four days), “today”, “t” (today), and so on and so on. If you add a task to the Today group, the start date gets automatically set to today. Mac and iOS, although iOS only supports a limited range of date formats
estimatedTime Example values are 30m, 0.5h 1d, and so on Mac and iOS. Time estimates aren’t visible in the iOS app, but they will show up when synced back to a Mac.
priority Priority can range from 0 to 9 where 0 is no priority. In the iOS app, priorities 1 & 2 are red, 3 & 4 yellow, 5 grey, 6 & 7 blue, and 8 & 9 green. Mac and iOS
index An index value of n will insert to that index in the list. Index of -1 is a special case where it will add to the end of the list. The default is 0. Mac
Examples

thehitlist:///inbox/tasks?method=POST

Creates an empty task in the Inbox.

thehitlist:///Bucket%20List?method=POST&title=Swim+with+dolphins&notes=Perhaps+in+Mexico?

Creates a task named “Swim with dolphins” in “Bucket List”. Notes are filled in with “Perhaps in Mexico?”

thehitlist:///inbox/tasks?method=POST&title=+@work

Creates a task tagged with @work. On iOS, the leading space places the text insertion point at the start of the title, ready to type. You can specify a trailing space instead to automatically start typing after the tag.

thehitlist:///inbox/tasks?method=POST&title=Buy+Mike+a+present&dueDate=2015-06-24

Creates a task with the due date 24 June 2015.