When the application is running, its dock icon provides two features to help you manage your to-do list: an icon badge and a dock menu. A status menu is provided in the menu bar as well, which you may find helpful if you prefer to keep the dock hidden.
Icon Badge
A small red badge superimposed over the application’s dock icon displays the total number of priority-one items that you have in your to-do list. If there are none, the badge itself will be absent.
You can turn off this feature through the Preferences if you find it distracting, or you can change it to count items of whichever priorities you want.
The application’s dock menu contains an entry for each priority-one item in your to-do list. Selecting an entry from the menu will open the corresponding to-do item for editing; selecting an entry while holding down the command key (⌘) will check-off the item; and selecting an entry while holding down the option key will launch any URLs contained in the item’s name or notes.
Through the Preferences you can change the menu to include items of whichever priorities you want.
At the top of the dock menu you will see Menu Style and Menu Order hierarchical sub-menus that allow you to choose how your to-do items will be listed. The available menu styles are as follows:
The Menu Order hierarchical sub-menu allows you to choose the order in which to-do items will be listed within each group or sub-menu. The available choices are as follows:
The application provides a status menu (among the icons on the right hand side of the menu bar at the top of the screen) that operates like the dock menu. Through the Preferences you can turn off the status menu or change it to include items of whichever priorities you want.
The icon for the status menu reflects the priority (and associated color) of the highest-priority item that it contains, or a checkmark if the menu is empty. If you find the colored icon distracting you can force it to black & white through the Preferences.