A project and task manager for macOS, iPhone, and iPad, with a tile-based, three-pane layout. This guide covers all features including Areas, Search, Archiving, and Linked Tasks.
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This section walks you through creating your first project, adding a task to it, and using the notes pane. The whole thing takes about two minutes. Pointers to further reading are included along the way.
Click the + button on the left side of the ribbon at the top of the window (or press ⌘⇧N). A new project tile appears in the left pane with its name field open, ready to type. Type a name and press Return.
With your new project selected, click the + button in the centre section of the ribbon (or press ⌘T). A new task tile appears in the centre pane. Type its name and press Return.
Repeat to add more tasks. Each task lives in a horizontal row beside its project and can be scrolled left and right. You can drag tasks to reorder them, or drag them into a different project row to move them — see §7 Reordering and Moving.
Click the task tile you just created. The right pane — the notes pane — shows the notes for that task. Click inside it and start typing. All standard formatting shortcuts work: ⌘B bold, ⌘I italic, ⌘U underline.
You can also type or paste any web address and Operant will turn it into a clickable link automatically. To link to a file or email, drag it straight from Finder or Mail into the notes pane — see §13 The Notes Pane.
When a task is done, click the checkbox in the bottom-right corner of its tile. The tile is marked with a tick. To archive the task — removing it from view without deleting it — click the archive icon (▤) in the bottom bar of the tile. You can always restore archived items later. See §9 Archiving.
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Operant is a project and task manager available on macOS, iPad, and iPhone. On Mac it has a three-pane layout: the left pane lists your projects, the centre pane shows the tasks within each project arranged horizontally, and the right pane displays a rich-text notes area for whichever project or task you have selected. The iPhone and iPad apps show the same data in a layout suited to a touch screen.
On Mac your data is stored as a folder of JSON files — one subdirectory per Area, each containing a small file per project and task, plus a master areas.json index — which you can place in a cloud-synced folder (Dropbox, iCloud Drive, etc.) to keep everything in sync across multiple Macs. Changes sync automatically to iPhone and iPad via iCloud (CloudKit).
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An Area is a self-contained workspace — its own set of projects, tasks, and notes, stored in its own subdirectory inside your data folder. You might use separate areas for Work and Home, or for different clients. Each Area opens in its own window or tab.
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Each coloured tile represents a project within the current area. Projects are listed vertically and can be scrolled if there are more than fit on screen.
Each row in the centre pane corresponds to the project alongside it in the left pane. Tasks within a project are arranged horizontally and can be scrolled left and right independently per project.
Displays the rich-text notes for whichever tile is currently selected. If a task is selected its notes are shown; if only a project is selected, the project's notes are shown.
A single bar runs across all three panes. Each section has a label on the left and a + button at its right edge: the left section adds a project, the centre section adds a task, and the right section inserts a sub-task into the current tile's notes. The right section also shows the selected tile's name.
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Click a project tile or task tile to select it. The right pane immediately shows that tile's notes.
Click on empty space — below the tiles, or on the ribbon bar at the top — to deselect everything. The right pane returns to its placeholder state.
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Click the + button on the left side of the ribbon, or use Insert → New Project ⌘⇧N. A new project tile appears at the top of the left pane, ready to be named.
Select a project (or any of its tasks), then click the + button in the centre section of the ribbon, or use Insert → New Task ⌘T. A new task tile appears at the right end of that project's row.
Select a task, then use Edit → Duplicate Task ⌘D. An independent copy is placed immediately after the original.
Select a project, then use Edit → Duplicate Project. A full copy of the project — including all its tasks and their notes — is placed immediately after the original. Duplicated tasks are independent copies and are not linked.
Select the tile you want to remove, then press ⌘⌫, or use Edit → Delete. Deleting a project also removes all its tasks and their notes. If a deleted task was linked to a task in another project, the link is broken but the other task is left intact.
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Double-click any project or task tile to edit its name in place. Press Return or click elsewhere to confirm.
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Drag and drop tiles to reorder or move them:
With a project selected, use View → Order by Date ⌘⌃D to automatically sort that project's tasks by due date, earliest first. Tasks with no due date are placed at the end.
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Tasks and projects can be cut, copied, and pasted using the standard Edit menu commands or keyboard shortcuts. The clipboard distinguishes between task data and project data, so you cannot accidentally paste a task where a project is expected.
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Archiving hides a tile from the main view without deleting it or its data. All archived tiles can be retrieved at any time.
You can also click the archive icon (▤) in the bottom bar of any tile directly.
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Linked tasks are two tasks — one in each of two different projects — that stay in sync. When you change one, the same change is automatically applied to the other. This is useful when the same piece of work appears in multiple contexts.
Select a task, then use Edit → Duplicate and Link Task ⌘⇧D. A sheet appears listing other projects; click one to create a linked copy of the task there.
Changes propagate in both directions: edit either task and the other updates automatically on the next save.
A small link icon (⛓) appears in the bottom bar of any task that has a link. Hovering over it shows a tooltip confirming the task is linked.
Links are preserved when a task is moved to a different project — the two tasks remain linked regardless of where they live.
Deleting one task in a linked pair does not delete the other. The surviving task simply loses its link and becomes a normal, independent task.
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The Search function lets you find any text across all project names, task names, and the notes of all projects and tasks in the current area. Results are grouped by where the match was found and are clickable — clicking one navigates directly to that project or task.
Use Edit → Find… ⌘F, or press ⌘F at any time. The Find window opens with the cursor already in the search field.
Type your search string and press Return or click Find. The search is case-insensitive and matches any part of a name or the plain text of any notes field. The window expands below the search bar to show the results, divided into four sections:
A section is omitted entirely if there are no results for it. Archived projects and tasks are not included in the search.
Click any result row to navigate directly to that project or task. The corresponding tile is selected in the main window — exactly as if you had clicked it yourself — and the notes pane updates accordingly. The Find window moves to the background automatically.
The results area expands to show up to ten result rows without scrolling. If there are more than ten results, a scroll bar appears in the results area so you can reach them all.
Press ⌘F again at any time to bring the Find window back to the front, showing your previous search and its results.
Click the Clear button (which replaces the Find button once a search has been run) to erase the search string and dismiss the results, returning to an empty search bar. Closing the Find window with the red close button also clears the results, so the next ⌘F opens a fresh, empty search bar.
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Each project can be assigned a colour. The colour appears as a thick border around the project tile, a thinner border around its task tiles, and a pale tinted background behind the entire project row.
To assign a colour, select any tile belonging to the project, then open Format → Project Colour and choose:
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Click anywhere in the right pane to begin typing. All standard macOS text editing shortcuts work (⌘Z to undo, ⌘A to select all, etc.).
Use the Format menu or standard keyboard shortcuts: Bold ⌘B · Italic ⌘I · Underline ⌘U.
Use Format → Notes Font Size to choose a global text size (11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, or 20 pt). The current size is marked with a ✓. Changing the size rescales all existing text in every tile's notes across the whole app. Sub-task checkboxes are always displayed at 1.5× the body text size.
Type or paste any web address and Operant automatically turns it into a clickable link that opens in your default browser.
You can drag any file from Finder, or any email from Apple Mail, directly into the notes pane. Operant inserts a clickable link using the file's name (or the email's subject line) as the link text.
Email links use a URL scheme that only Apple Mail on Mac understands. On iPhone and iPad, tapping an email link shows a prompt explaining this, with a Copy Task Name and Open Mail button. Tapping it copies the task name to the clipboard and opens Mail, where you can paste the name into Mail's search bar to locate the message. Note that the task name may not be identical to the original email subject if it was edited after the task was created.
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A sub-task is a checkbox line you can add to any notes pane to track a small piece of work.
Click the + button on the right side of the ribbon (immediately after the tile's name), or use Insert → New Sub-task ⌘K.
Click directly on the checkbox character to toggle it between unchecked (☐) and checked (☑).
Sub-task lines are plain text. You can edit the description by clicking next to it and typing, select the whole line and delete it, or copy it — just like any other text.
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When a project is selected, the ‹ and › arrow buttons in the centre ribbon scroll that project's task row to the first unchecked task or the last task respectively. This is useful when a project has many tasks extending beyond the visible area.
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Operant stores data in a folder of your choosing. Inside that folder:
areas.json — a small index listing your areas.data/ for the default area), containing:
index.json — the ordered list of project IDs in that area.project-<UUID>.json — one file per project (name, colour, due date, completion status).task-<UUID>.json — one file per task (name, notes, due date, completion status, linked-task ID).Only the files for projects and tasks that actually changed are written on each save, so synced folders see smaller, more targeted diffs.
The first time Operant launches it asks where to store your data. Use File → Change Data Folder… at any time to move your data to a different folder. Your current data is copied to the new location automatically.
Use File → Export Backup… to save a single JSON file containing all areas, projects, tasks, and notes. Use File → Import Backup… to restore from such a file. Importing replaces all current data.
To sync between Macs, point Operant to the same cloud-synced folder (Dropbox, iCloud Drive, etc.) on each machine.
Operant for iPhone and iPad receives changes automatically via iCloud (CloudKit). No configuration is needed beyond being signed into the same Apple ID on all devices. The following data syncs in real time:
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These shortcuts apply on Mac. On iPad with a hardware keyboard, most shortcuts work too.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Insert | |
| New Project | ⌘⇧N |
| New Task | ⌘T |
| New Sub-task | ⌘K |
| Edit | |
| Find… | ⌘F |
| Cut | ⌘X |
| Copy | ⌘C |
| Paste | ⌘V |
| Delete selected tile | ⌘⌫ |
| Duplicate Task | ⌘D |
| Duplicate and Link Task | ⌘⇧D |
| View | |
| Order by Date | ⌘⌃D |
| Format | |
| Bold | ⌘B |
| Italic | ⌘I |
| Underline | ⌘U |
| ⌘P | |
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Operant includes a Finder extension that adds an Add to Operant Notes item to the right-click contextual menu for any file. Selecting it inserts a link to that file into the notes pane of whichever task or project is currently selected in Operant. If you have connected a Dropbox account, a Dropbox sharing link is inserted alongside the local file link.
Once enabled, right-clicking any file in Finder will show the Add to Operant Notes option near the bottom of the contextual menu.
When a Dropbox account is connected, Operant fetches a Dropbox sharing link for the selected file and inserts it into the note alongside the local file link.
When you right-click a file and choose Add to Operant Notes, Operant inserts a line like this into the selected task's or project's notes:
Report draft.docx; (Dropbox)
Both words are clickable links: the file name opens the file locally; Dropbox opens the file via the Dropbox sharing link.
On iPhone and iPad, tapping a Dropbox link in Operant opens the Dropbox app directly at the relevant file — provided the Dropbox app is installed. This gives you one-tap access to any file on any device without needing to navigate through Dropbox folders.
Open the Operant menu and choose Disconnect Dropbox. The stored credentials are removed from your Keychain immediately. You can reconnect at any time using Connect Dropbox Account…
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You can set up a keyboard shortcut in Apple Mail that instantly creates a new task in Operant, pre-filled with the email's subject and a link back to the message. Clicking that link in Operant opens Mail and selects the original message.
This requires a one-time setup outside Operant, using macOS's built-in Automator application.
on run {input, parameters}
if input is {} then return input
set theMessage to first item of input
tell application "Mail"
set theSubject to subject of theMessage
set theID to message id of theMessage
end tell
set encodedSubject to do shell script ¬
"python3 -c 'import sys, urllib.parse; " & ¬
"print(urllib.parse.quote(sys.argv[1]))' " & ¬
quoted form of theSubject
set encodedLink to do shell script ¬
"python3 -c 'import sys, urllib.parse; " & ¬
"print(urllib.parse.quote(sys.argv[1]))' " & ¬
quoted form of ("<" & theID & ">")
open location "operant://new-task?name=" & encodedSubject & ¬
"&link=message://" & encodedLink & ¬
"&project=Tasks%20from%20Mail"
return input
end run
Select one or more messages in Mail, then press your chosen shortcut. Operant comes to the front with a new task already named after the message subject. The task's notes contain a link labelled with the subject; clicking it re-opens that message in Mail.
The script always targets a project called Tasks from Mail. If that project does not yet exist in Operant, it is created automatically the first time you use the shortcut. Subsequent uses add tasks to the same project. You can rename or move the project afterwards without affecting the shortcut — the next use will simply create a fresh Tasks from Mail project.
Once a task has been created, you can drag its tile to any other project in the normal way.