How do I realistically use Contexts in my life?

[wealthychef]

Omnifocus includes the GTD concept of contextual lists, which are wonderful. However, they are on my computer, which is not portable, so how do I get my contextual lists from OF to my real world? Can Omnifocus print out lists by context, or must I make a morning ritual of printing out my contextual lists? Gee it sure would be nice if there were a Web Interface so I could see them anywhere on my smart phone. :-) (I know there is supposed to be one, but it's not working any more and OF doesn't seem to think it's as important as other features, so I had to get my dig in here...).

[Helo]

I have been using Curt Clifton's applescripts to export the Context view into OmniOutliner and then print them out. This is a bare-bones solution, and there are more refined alternatives. Run a search on printing. Hopefully, we will have a more integrated solution by 1.0

Good luck.

[SpiralOcean]

For iPhone users... Third party support will appear in Feb. I'm hoping OmniFocus at some point will be on the iPhone.

[wealthychef]

What do you mean "third party support?" Are you talking about the Web Interface project, or Apple's SDK, or ...? Thanks

[wealthychef]

It seems to me that for an application that claims to model itself after GTD, this is a very high-priority issue. I mean, what is GTD without contextual lists? The decision to drop the web interface just stunned me.

[Ethan Schoonover]

The web interface is/was pretty sweet, but maintaining it for 1.0 meant delaying other features (finite time, etc.). We're pretty much all in the same boat, though, in regards to needing our context lists with us. I can reaffirm that internally, this is a very high priority for us.

[Ken Case]

It seems to me that for an application that claims to model itself after GTD, this is a very high-priority issue. I mean, what is GTD without contextual lists? The decision to drop the web interface just stunned me.

The web interface was dropped because it didn't actually work for the majority of OmniFocus users: it wouldn't work if your computer was asleep (most workstations and laptops are set to go to sleep), or behind a firewall (most DSL and cable modems have a built-in firewall), or if you were trying to access it from an airplane (no web server anywhere will work for that case). For some people it was sufficient, but we needed to find a solution that would work for everyone.

Instead, we've replaced it with two other things which everyone everywhere should be able to take advantage of: ubiquitous capture through email (if you can access the web, you can send email—and you can also send email when you're offline), and ubiquitous action lists through really good printing support. (Paper works everywhere, even on an airplane.)

I hope this helps to explain why we made the decisions we did for 1.0. We'd still love a richer phone-based client in the future, and we're looking forward to the iPhone SDK which is coming in February—but sometimes the simplest low-tech solutions are actually the most effective.

[wealthychef]

That makes sense, but where do I find out more about the email feature? And what is the state of iCal support. I'm not a big fan of Apple's sync feature, it has really hosed me on many occasions, especially when using the Missing Sync and my Palm treo 700p. Is it reliable right now? Can you enter new tasks while you're out an about and have them show up in Omnifocus? Is there a document somewhere that describes how? Thanks.

[SpiralOcean]

Instead, we've replaced it with two other things which everyone everywhere should be able to take advantage of: ubiquitous capture through email (if you can access the web, you can send email—and you can also send email when you're offline), and ubiquitous action lists through really good printing support. (Paper works everywhere, even on an airplane.)


A large definitive YES from me.
I think this was the correct path to follow!

In response to a previous post... I am hoping for a true blue application on iPhone, with the data on iPhone, that is synced to my computer.

The email to inbox is spectacular.

[SpiralOcean]

That makes sense, but where do I find out more about the email feature? And what is the state of iCal support. I'm not a big fan of Apple's sync feature, it has really hosed me on many occasions, especially when using the Missing Sync and my Palm treo 700p. Is it reliable right now? Can you enter new tasks while you're out an about and have them show up in Omnifocus? Is there a document somewhere that describes how? Thanks.

I have used missing sync as well... and all my sync problems have gone away since only doing mac sync and not having a palm.

Well... most of my problems. But it's nothing like it used to be when I had my palm.

[SpiralOcean]

That makes sense, but where do I find out more about the email feature? And what is the state of iCal support. I'm not a big fan of Apple's sync feature, it has really hosed me on many occasions, especially when using the Missing Sync and my Palm treo 700p. Is it reliable right now? Can you enter new tasks while you're out an about and have them show up in Omnifocus? Is there a document somewhere that describes how? Thanks.

In response to the email.
Go to OmniFocus preferences
select mail
click the Add Mail Rule checkbox

Then go into mail -> preferences and stare in wonderment at the new mail rules.

For me, I changed the mail rule to always inbox messages from an email account I have that is only installed on my iPhone. This may not work for others.

[wealthychef]

Thanks for finally unravelling the mystery. I tried this a week or two ago and it did nothing -- since then I've been confused about it. It works now. thanks

[bodsham]

The email thing is a very clever idea but in all honest I can't really believe I'd ever go to all this trouble to put in a simple action. An iPhone app is needed, please.

[wealthychef]

Well, yes, of course, and OF have already said they are going to do that. To each their own -- I agree this does not really help me much. I have several "inboxes" and one or more is always available to me everywhere. One of them is a voice recorder. However, I used to send emails to myself that had to-do's in them as a reminder. If you are already in this habit, it's a convenience to just put "--" in the subject and "--" before the to-do and it automatically appears in OF.

[pjb]

Not working for me. Seems to fail after recognizing the email but nothing appears in OF. Would someone try to send me a syntactically correct example? I'll provide email in a private msg.

[Tim Wood]

Just as a note; there were some fixes to our Mail integration recently to avoid brokenness in Mail's AppleScript support. Make sure you are running the latest version (v45.x.y or higher should be fine) before testing this. Once updating, it would be safest to use our Mail preferences pane to disable the rule and then re-add it (so that the new badness-avoiding form of rule gets added in Mail).

[SpiralOcean]

The email thing is a very clever idea but in all honest I can't really believe I'd ever go to all this trouble to put in a simple action. An iPhone app is needed, please.

To each their own... for me, before I was emailing todo's as the occured to me using iPhone email to my email inbox. Now it's like I am mailing them into my OmniFocus inbox.

[steve]

I'm with you spiral— I find it very easy to jot quick emails using this method.

[wambli]

Great! Two questions. When sending it does not send attachments. Is this possible? 2. I am using Microsoft Entourage. Can it sync to do in there? I have been trying to leave Gates for sometime now I hope OF can take the place of "Projects" in Entourage.

Thanks