Automatic Tracking of Emails in Projects

[SpiralOcean]

One thing that could be automated is the emails inside of my projects. I spend so much time moving emails to the project folder, and then going to my GTD system and tracking the status of the project... waiting for email, sending emails...

Seems like there could be a way to tap into mac Mail.

1. Create a project folder for emails
2. Send emails out from OmniFocus, or at least put in a meta-data tag or a project ID number in the email, so that when it is responded to, the email goes into my mail project folder and the email is recorded in OmniFocus. Even if OmniFocus is just pointing to the emails, and you click on a button to open up the referenced email.

[tacartwright]

One thing that could be automated is the emails inside of my projects.

Yeah, I’d second this request. If it doesn’t make it into OmniFocus 1.0, that’s fine by me, but it would be nice to see someday.

In the meantime, maybe we could hack together something basic using OmniFocus 1.0 and AppleScript.

— Tim

[Forrest]

This is why I really think part of OF needs to be web-based.

[yucca]

Using Mail (and by extension certain web-based mail services that support IMAP or POP) to automate status reporting is an interesting idea. I know this sort of workflow is possible with MS Project and Outlook/Exchange, but getting it to work when you don't control all the pieces seems like a daunting task to me.

That said, it would be very handy for handing off tasks to a foreign planning system. Say I use OF at home, and want to hand some tasks off to my Windows-based planning system at work. Now that I think about it, getting stuff out might not be that difficult; but automating returning e-mail seems much more difficult.

[dopeelf]

Why not use an applescript in Mail.app. Something like...

If the subject contains:
OF:Projectname:Taskname:Done

Then that task will get ticked off as done.

OF:Inbox:Stuff

Will add a new task to the inbox of OF

OF:Projectname:Newtask

Will add a new task to the project

Anything in the message body could be added as a comment to the task.

[BwanaZulia]

Here is a write up of some possible integration of 10.5/iPhone/Mail/OmniFocus

http://www.ipodtips.com/ipoders/jake/apple-s-leopard-mail-notes-iphone-for-gtd/

BZ

[Cortig]

I would LOVE some kind of integration in Mail. Maybe through an add-on for Mail for instance (MailTags (http://indev.ca/MT2Beta.html) immediately comes to my mind…).

[soundsgoodtome]

The upcoming version of Mail.app incorporates a To Do feature. Screen shot below. Of course, this is now several months away for most users, but developers (Omni?) already have access to beta builds of Leopard.

I wonder how robust its implementation will be. Deceptively simple, with more power than initially meets the eye, or literally too simple for interaction with OmniFocus?

[soundsgoodtome]

Hmm. I had attached a screen shot to my previous message, but it's not displaying with the message. I'll try again here. If it fails again, never mind. :-)

[It appears attachments aren't working.]

[phc]

Now THAT is interesting. I had no idea they were doing this in Mail.app. Can we assume that the ToDo in Mail will be the synced to iCal? And that OF will sync in there too? How about it OmniFolks?

[Ken Case]

On Apple's web site (http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/mail.html), they say:

To-Dos you create in Mail automagically appear in iCal, complete with any edits or additions you make.

OmniFocus also syncs with iCal, so yes, the ToDo list in Mail will be sync'd with your OmniFocus tasks.