Okay, such is the size of this update not even I’m sure I can remember everything that is in it!
Let’s start with the more mundane. Thanks to several of you (notably Bliss and Nick), GTDInbox is now better at self diagnosis, and will give a variety of error messages to tell you if it’s misbehaving. It’s also no longer case sensitive on default status labels (e.g. it would not formerly recognise S/action is the same as S/Action - now it does).
It now has a Welcome message for new users, information help on the Settings/Labels page, and is better at informing you about what is happening on the blog.
Ok, let’s step this up! You can now create labels from the dropdown labels menu in the Labelling Box - i.e. create labels by type within a conversation.
Multiple Inboxes? We now have better support. It’s not perfect (because Multiple Inboxes themselves are a hack, so we are limited), but you can Preview messages in Multiple Inboxes, and use the popup to change labels.
Remember those magnifying glasses and trash icons with all the keyboard combinations? We felt them a little inelegant, so they were pruned. The trash icon is gone, as are the messy keyboard actions. Instead, there is just the magnifying glass, with an automatic popup menu that lets you do other stuff (like Action/Delete/Spam) more quickly.
Pete spent ages sweating the details on the interface design, making big usability strides in the Labelling Box and sidebar and well as less noticeable bits and pieces.
What else what else… ah yes, I nearly forgot my favourite! LOTS of you have been saying the Labelling Box is too fat for its own good. It needed a diet. Well, we decided to go experimental instead and gave it some clothes that disguised its figure 
Now, only the Status line is shown; and there is a big + button in the top left. If you mouse over, the rest of the label links are shown (and disappear when you move your mouse away); and if you click the + button, it shows the labels permanently. There may well be a better approach - it’s not finished yet - but we hope this is a good first step.
Get it from http://www.gtdinbox.com/3/
PS I’d love to draw your attention to our previous post on how you use GTDInbox (and what you want) -> http://productivefirefox.com/2009/07/13/introducing-gtdinbox-on-uservoice/
dr Says:
July 17th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Why isn’t there a way to remove (or hide) the extra stuff you’ve added to the sidebar? You said you’ve cleaned up the sidebar, but it looks like you’ve added more fluff instead
My request is to give us the ability to:
A) Hide the big ugly “GTDInbox” image in the sidebar
B) Hide the “fluff” - the blog, support, workflow and Options links
Other than that, great work. I’ve only recently started using GTD - infact you’ve made me leave Safari for Firefox specifically for GTDInbox. And I hate Firefox with a passion.
Mark Lewis Says:
July 17th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I would like to see the ability to click on the “Projects” and be able to step through the projects one after the next. It would be nice to have previous and next buttons. When you are in each project it would be nice to see the dashboard type box with all tagged with that project that aren’t finished. This would be awesome for weekly review!! A project should show even if it has no items, that way you would be prompted to ask if there is a next action for that project.
James Says:
July 17th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Looking good :). Needless to say you have done a great job, i like the use of the plus button to show the labels. I have managed to change the css for it so it fits perfectly with gmail redesigned so now i can use my two fav gmail tweaks together. I will release my styles script soon so others can make use of it if they want.
I have a request Would it be possible to add an option in the setting to inverse what happens when you click the labels or triangle thing in the side box. So when you click the label it loads what is tagged with it in gmail and when you click the triangle it load up you task in the dashboard.
Aaron Says:
July 18th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Love the new look and the trimming of the labeling box was a must! Only problem: my dashboard disappeared when I installed.
Andy Says:
July 18th, 2009 at 5:51 am
Thanks guys - can you throw feature suggestions into http://gtdinbox.uservoice.com ?
Marc Says:
July 18th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I must be the one who spoils the cake a bit it seems…I think v3 is still ergonimically inferior to v2, for 2 reasons:
1) To label an email with a project/context/reference, it now takes 3 clicks plus a mouse move instead of 2 clicks - almost 100% more time - that’s a steep negative productivity dev. These labels bottons still eat about 400% of the screen property of the v2 text combos, on my 13.3 incher I now need to scroll even to read short emails: another productivity loss.
2) The window which opens after the sidebar uses only 25% of the screen property and is next to unusable on small screens.
A lot of interesting improvements under the hood, but these UI deficits make it unworkable to me. It is now faster to work with an open Google label sidebar showing all 100 labels than with the gtdinbox sidebar/miniwindow combo!
Bill Says:
July 18th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Appreciate the continued improvements, but the option I miss most from v2 is the ability to assign multiple statuses to each message - surely I can’t be the one person who needs to Follow Up on something I am Waiting On that may or may not also require Action.
jon Says:
July 19th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Good stuff !!
Take a break and pat yourselves on the back.
Andy Says:
July 20th, 2009 at 4:17 am
Thanks Jon!
Bill - I’ve added that to the todo list.
Marc - I hear you on the small screen. There are plans afoot to make these more manageable (keyboard, suggestions, etc.), but it may take another month or so.
mark Says:
July 20th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I have a bit of a strange bug - If I log into google mail settings (don’t need to change anything) and come out again to the inbox then GTD inbox is gone. It stays gone even if i refresh the page
However i can get it back by disabling and re-enabling Offline mail (a google labs feature that uses google gears)
otherwise GTD appears to play nicely with google gears and offline mail
haven’t a clue why this should happen am using alpha 12 on firefox 3.5.1
Randy Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Here’s a problem. I use ”Space” as my Gmail Theme, and it turns out like this: http://www.badongo.com/pic/6662366 . Can you fix or change the color? Thanks.
Nathan Sudds Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:31 am
I made some comments on the UserVoice site but I had to make some here too because some people might not make it to Uservoice too.
This new version is AMAZING — I know Andy and the team at GTDinbox will find some cool way to create improvements even beyond this current version and I am encouraged even by the requests of others because I know that Andy is listening and really trying to implement for our needs. Right in line with that…. I just want to say to Andy and the team, thanks for what you’ve done with GTDinbox v3 and especially this Alpha 11 version as you’ve added the number 1 new feature in my opinion the Create Label button inside the Projects drop down… my organization has improved with this one change, as I found myself not dedicated enough to go the other way to create a new project and then back to GTDinbox menus to label it… so I just skipped project labels completely a lot of the time.
Keep up the great work
Richee Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 3:05 pm
It’s getting better and I love where you guys are going with this. Great work! The one thing that I desperately miss is making the labels inline because then I don’t have to click for drop down and then click for the label. After having the one click option in the prior version, it is a huge bummer to not have it as an option in this version. Maybe I’m the only one, but it is something that was sweet!