User Guide

Alice is a chatbot desktop app that manages your tasks for you so that you can focus on the things that really matters. It is optimized for use via a Command Line Interface (CLI), so that you can get things done faster than any other traditional task management apps.

• User Guide
  • Quick Start
  • Features
    • 1. Task management
    • 2. Task viewing
    • 3. Date time support
      • 3.1 Formatted datetime
      • 3.2 Natural language
    • 4. Auto save
  • Usage
    • Viewing help - help
    • Add a todo - todo
    • Add an event - event
    • Add a deadline - deadline
    • Mark task as done - done
    • Delete a task - [delete, del, rm]
    • List all tasks - [list, ls]
    • Find tasks by description - [find, search]
    • Clear tasks - [clear, clr]
    • Exit the program - [bye, exit]
  • Command summary

 

 

---

Quick Start

1. Ensure that you have Java 11 or above installed in your Computer
2. Download the latest alice.jar from here
3. Copy the file to the folder of your choice. This will be the home folder of Alice.
4. Double-click the file to start the app. The GUI that appears should be similar to the image below.
5. Type the command in the text input field and press Enter to execute. Entering help will bring out the list of usable commands.
   Here are some example commands that you can try:
   • todo setup : Adds a new task named setup to the task list.
   • event Tutorial /at now : Adds a new Tutorial event that is happening at this current date and time.
   • list : Lists all tasks.
   • done 1 : Marks the first task as done
   • delete 2 : Delete the second task
   • clear all : Delete all tasks
   • bye : Exit the app.
6. Refer to the Usage below to see more details of each command.

 

---

Features

1. Task management

Execute simple task management with easy to use commands:

• Create tasks such as:
  • Simple todos, todo
  • Tasks with deadlines, deadline
  • Events to attend, event
• Mark tasks as complete, done
• Delete tasks, delete
• Clear completed tasks, clear done

2. Task viewing

Get an overview of all tasks at hand with a simple list command.
Alternatively, search for specific tasks by their description using search or find

3. Date time support

Alice supports a wide range of date and time language so that you do not have to waste valuable time spelling everything out. Any unspecified date time details will be smartly predicted by Alice.

• Date and time should be separated by a single space
• Date is a compulsory field, hence if the date is unspecified, it will default to the nearest upcoming time (given by the user).
• If the year is unspecified, it will default to the current year
• Time will simply be ignored if not provided by the user.

3.1 Formatted datetime

Some sample date time format that you can use: (Note: years are optional)

Date formats	Time formats
02/12/2020	2300
02-12-2020	11:00pm
12-02-2020	11pm
12/02/2020
2020/12/02
2020-12-02
02-Dec-2020
02-December-2020

3.2 Natural language

Use natural datetime language instead of spelling out actual date & time.

Natural Date	Natural Time	Hybrid Date Time
Today	Morning (8AM)	Now
Tomorrow	Noon (12PM)	Tonight (Tomorrow Night)
Yesterday	Evening (7PM)
Day of the week	Night (10PM)
	Midnight (11.59PM)

4. Auto save

There is no need to save manually. All data will be automatically saved after any command that alters the data.

A green circle at the bottom right of the chat bubble indicates a successful save, and a red circle indicates an unsuccessful one.

 

---

Usage

Notes about the command format:

• Words in UPPER_CASE are the parameters to be supplied by the user.
  e.g. in todo DESC, DESC is a parameter which can be used as todo do homework.

• Items in brackets are optional.
  e.g find KEYWORD (MORE_KEYWORDS)… can be used as find apple book or as find apple.

• Items with … after them can be used multiple times including zero times.
  e.g. (MORE_KEYWORDS)… can be used as ` ` (i.e. 0 times), lecture, book etc.

• Words in square brackets means choose either one.
  e.g. clear [all, done] can be used as clear all or clear done
  e.g. [list, ls] as the command phrase means that you can use list or ls to execute the command.

 

 

Viewing help - help

Shows the list of commands and use format.

Format: help

 

Add a todo - todo

Create a task to be done and add it to the task list.

Format: todo DESC

• DESC cannot be empty

Examples:

• todo finish project creates a new todo task named finish project
• todo eat creates a new todo task named eat

 

Add an event - event

Create a task happening at the specified time and add it to the task list.

Format: event DESC /at DATETIME

• DESC cannot be empty
• Either a DATE or TIME must be included under DATETIME
• Date and time should be separated by a whitespace eg. DATE TIME
• If DATE is not specified, the DATE will default to today or tomorrow depending on the current time of the day
• If TIME is not specified, it will not be included in the task creation
• Natural datetime language is supported

Examples:

• event lecture /at today creates a new party event happening Today
• event lunch /at tomorrow noon creates a new lunch event happening tomorrow at 12PM
• event party /at 24-8-2020 night creates a new party event happening on Monday, Aug 24 2020, 10PM

 

Add a deadline - deadline

Create a task to be done by the specified time and add it to the task list.

Format: deadline DESC /by DATETIME

• DESC cannot be empty
• Either a DATE or TIME must be included under DATETIME
• Date and time should be separated by a whitespace eg. DATE TIME
• If DATE is not specified, the DATE will default to today or tomorrow depending on the current time of the day
• If TIME is not specified, it will not be included in the task creation
• Natural datetime language is supported

Examples:

• deadline finish homework /by today creates a new finish homework deadline to be done by today
• deadline submission /by 2200 creates a new submission deadline to be done by today 10PM or tomorrow 10PM depending on the time of creation
• deadline homework /by 3/4 2pm creates a new homework deadline to be done by Apr 03, 2PM of the current year

 

Mark task as done - done

Marks the specified task as completed.

Format: done TASK_NUMBER

• Mark the task at the specified TASK_NUMBER as done.
• The TASK_NUMBER refers to the index number shown when list or find command is called.
• The TASK_NUMBER is relative to the task position in the list
• The TASK_NUMBER must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …

Example:

• done 3 marks the 3rd task in the list as done

 

Delete a task - [delete, del, rm]

Deletes the specified person from the address book.

Format: delete TASK_NUMBER

• Deletes the task at the specified TASK_NUMBER.
• The TASK_NUMBER refers to the index number shown when list or find command is called.
• The TASK_NUMBER is relative to the task position in the list
• The TASK_NUMBER must be a positive integer 1, 2, 3, …

Examples:

• delete 4 deletes the 4th task in the list

 

List all tasks - [list, ls]

Shows a list of all tasks in the address book.

Format: list

 

Find tasks by description - [find, search]

Find all the tasks whose description contains any of the given keywords.

Format: find KEYWORD (MORE_KEYWORDS)…

• The search is case-insensitive, e.g lecture will match Lecture
• Order of keywords does not matter, e.g book practice will match practice book
• Only the description of the task will be searched
• Only full words will be matched, e.g book will not match books
• Tasks that matches any keyword will be returned
• Tasks will be returned with their corresponding task number (relative to their position in the list)

Examples:

• find homework returns Do Homework and submit homework
• find meeting book returns return book and project meeting

 

Clear tasks - [clear, clr]

Clear tasks from the task manager.

Format: clear [all, done]

• The keywords all and done are case-insensitive

Examples:

• clear all clears all tasks in the list
• clear done clears only the completed tasks from the list.

 

Exit the program - [bye, exit]

Exits the program.

Format: bye

 

---

Command summary

Action	Command word	Format, Examples
Todo	todo	todo DESC e.g., todo Homework
Event	event	event DESC /at DATETIME e.g., event Movie /at tomorrow 8pm
Deadline	deadline	deadline DESC /by DATETIME e.g., deadline Finalise product /by 04-Aug 2359
Done	done	done TASK_NUMBER e.g., done 2
Delete	delete, del, rm	delete TASK_NUMBER e.g., delete 3
List	list, ls	list
Find	find, search	find KEYWORD (MORE_KEYWORDS)… e.g., find work lecture
Clear	clear, clr	clear [all, done] e.g., clear done
Help	help	help
Exit	bye, exit	bye