Quick Entry on the iPhone

[jhogan]

IMO, one of OF-for-the-desktop's greatest features is Quick Entry. Having a keyboard shortcut to drop something in the inbox from anywhere in the OS means the effort involved is so low that I end up doing much, much more often.

I'd love to see "quick entry" for the iPhone implemented as a separate root-menu applicaton icon I could click that would take me directly into the Quick Entry flow. And quickly -- maybe it could be a separate, smaller app with a little memory footprint. Yeah, it only saves one click -- but that's a click with a pretty big impact on usability.

Thanks for considering.

[gtdToday]

I like the idea but in my humble opinion I don't think it is possible because of how the iPhone itself works.

Apple does currently not allow 'background applications' to operate on the iPhone...thus there would be no program to monitor for such a key event.

[Ken Case]

(I just mentioned this in another thread, but it's as easy to repost it here as it is to point you there!)

We thought of doing a Quick Entry companion app, but each iPhone app is placed in a sandbox so that it can only access its own files—which is a good general policy, but unfortunately means that if we create two apps they won't be able to see each other's data.

[dhassell]

Maybe there can be a preference in the app that you can set to launch into some quick entry mode without loading the full database for people who want that functionality -- and if you don't want quick entry, it's just one button to go to the full mode.

I would probably use the quick entry at 3x as often as going to actually view tasks.

[bloodroot]

+1 on a preference to have the home screen act as a quick entry form.

I planned on using the iphone app primarily as a ubiquitous capture device, but am finding the capture a little too cumbersome. Audio recording is a great feature, but it needs to be quicker to use. If a user needs to capture via audio then I think it's safe to assume they are either in a car, or in a hurry. It currently takes 4 taps to start recording, not including waking the iphone up.

- start omnifocus
- add new task
- click done on keyboard, as it's not being used
- record audio

It would be nice to get it down to 2 taps.

joshua

[Toadling]

What if the second "Quick Entry" app just synced with the remote data store to share data with the main OmniFocus iPhone app? Maybe that's a bit cumbersome, I don't know. Of course, it also wouldn't be a great solution for any iPhone-only customer who aren't already syncing with a remote server.

-Dennis

[BwanaZulia]

+1 on a Quick Entry screen and preference. I want to just start up OF and have an easy easy easy way to jot down some thoughts, tasks, etc.

A even better idea would be able to just give me a blank page (like a note) and let me type stuff out. At the end, just turn every line into a inbox item (action). You could even follow the old rules of: stuff > project @ context

Example:

buy mike > single @ errands
bring school to work > bike project @ work
toadline about dinner > dinner plans @ calls

When I hit Save it would try to match up the projects and contexts to real things. If it couldn't find it, would just dump it to the inbox. Very much like how Kinkless handled it.

BZ

[gcrump]

I thought I saw in a previous post where Ken had mentioned that they were looking at being able to add directly to inbox while the "loading" message was going?

[bloodroot]

Couldn't a quick entry app get the inbox item into omnifocus using a custom URI? Something like this http://inik.net/omnifocus-uri-handler.

Last.fm has custom links on their site when you browse it with an iphone that will open up the last.fm iphone app (http://blog.last.fm/2008/07/13/lastfm-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch), so it should be possible.

I don't think this could work for audio, or pictures because of the app sandboxing, but I don't see any reason you couldn't get tasks in.

joshua

[jhogan]

Maybe there can be a preference in the app that you can set to launch into some quick entry mode without loading the full database for people who want that functionality -- and if you don't want quick entry, it's just one button to go to the full mode.

I would probably use the quick entry at 3x as often as going to actually view tasks.

+1 for this idea.

Someone else suggested a separate, standalone app that just submits additions to the central data store on MobileMe/WebDAV, bypassing the need to access the iPhone's local OF database. That seems like an acceptable workaround too.

[JeffB.]

This is a great example of where Apple is going to need to make exceptions and work more closely with key developers. I expect a tighter integration with what should easily be the premier personal productivity app for the iPhone/ Mac. If Apple is not working more closely with Ken and team, they should be.

This is like the missing cut and paste feature of the iPhone or the long period of an only one-button mouse. Glaring.

[Craigc0299]

I agree we need a quick entry of some sort. It doesn't have to be sophisticated. I hate the workflow of having to hit Home button, then Inbox, then Plus just to jott down some tasks.

Maybe instead of a home button, a quick entry dialog that just adds the entry to the Inbox. It would also be nice if there was the record audio button at the top so if I was really in a hurry, I could hit quick entry button in the app then just quickly record a memo and sort it out later.

[Toadling]

I agree we need a quick entry of some sort. It doesn't have to be sophisticated. I hate the workflow of having to hit Home button, then Inbox, then Plus just to jott down some tasks.

Maybe instead of a home button, a quick entry dialog that just adds the entry to the Inbox.

How about the Quick Entry button (second from the right)?

-Dennis

[JRArseneau]

+1 for any kind of quick entry feature on the iPhone.

I'd like to add that it would be absolutely fantastic to have a "record" button allowing you to record a quick voice memo that would automatically get thrown into the Inbox. Like someone mentioned in a previous post on this thread, sometimes we're in the car or on the go and don't have time to physically write something. Having a record button and having it thrown in the inbox (let's say with the default title of the date and time the memo was recorded) would allow people to sort through it later when they got a chance. The main point being, the information would be in OF ready to be processed at a later time.

[Eleventeen]

It's not fast in terms of synching but sometimes I just fire off a quick email with the OF trigger. If I don't have my laptop with me, it's at home and running OF and Mail and will add it. Next time I sync it's at least in the Inbox.

[uof]

Something I've found useful, which may "fill the gap" in the meantime:

There's a nice iPhone app called Note2Self ($NZ4.20, so probably $US3?) which you launch, it motion detects you raising your phone to your ear and vibrates to confirm it's recording. When you're done the proximity sensor on the phone detects you've lowered the phone and it sends the sound file to your preferred email address (has manual start/stop buttons too).

This email can be sent without any further button presses at all (as a preference) and you can choose your own subject - so you may even be able to use OF syntax to do something useful with it (I haven't used OF email inbox syntax so don't know if it works as it adds time and date stamp to your personalised subject)

All with the the one button press just to launch it - pretty nice.

[MacBerry]

Unfortunately no, you can't use the unaltered OF email magic, because that won't put the sound file into the Inbox - it'll just put the subject in.

It's a shame because it's a great idea!!

Mark

[snarkyFish]

I also would love to have a one click way to make a new inbox item, and start recording a voice note. The point of the inbox is to jott down things as you think of them to get them out of your brain.


Now it's:
Button
Slide to unlock
Launch OF
<load screen>
Inbox item button
Record audio attachment
Save


You could reduce it to 3. 4 if it became a 1 click button in the main interface.

(or, you could make a multitouch gesture!)

[dbyler]

Great discussion. I find myself using Jott-to-OmniFocus more frequently than OmniFocus for iPhone for this reason. Using Jott, it's

- double-tap home button (slide to unlock if necessary)
- tap Jott [speed dial]
- wait for "who do you want to Jott?" (faster than OF load time)
- say "myself", then speak the task

Jott then emails me the transcribed task, and Mail.app automatically whisks the task into OmniFocus via AppleScript. I can then, of course, access the task on my iPhone.

[ptone]

Unfortunately no, you can't use the unaltered OF email magic, because that won't put the sound file into the Inbox - it'll just put the subject in.

It's a shame because it's a great idea!!

Mark

Ahh, but this could be done with some tweaking of the email processing Applescript...

-P

[HiramvdG]

I thought I saw in a previous post where Ken had mentioned that they were looking at being able to add directly to inbox while the "loading" message was going?
That seems like a wonderful solution.

[dansays]

I thought I saw in a previous post where Ken had mentioned that they were looking at being able to add directly to inbox while the "loading" message was going?

Please!

[markbrown00]

I've stopped using OF on iPhone for entering tasks, mostly because the load screen takes too long. Instead, I just email myself a note to my +omnifocus address.

It would be great if you could get to quick entry faster.

I also really like BwanaZulia's idea earlier in this thread of having a page of notes that can be parsed into inbox items.

[sourfunk]

What if the second "Quick Entry" app just synced with the remote data store to share data with the main OmniFocus iPhone app? Maybe that's a bit cumbersome, I don't know. Of course, it also wouldn't be a great solution for any iPhone-only customer who aren't already syncing with a remote server.

-Dennis

This is a fantastic idea.

It would be great to offer a quick entry app that went directly into a voice recording (see Note2Self), and then automatically synced the recording with the omnifocus data on mobileme.

If others wanted a shortcut for text entry, that could be a different quick entry app. If others wanted a shortcut for pictures, that could be a different quick entry app. By keeping them separate, a lot of the taps could be eliminated.

I personally would have the quick entry recorder in my dock, as I would access that more often than anything else on my phone. For me to find omnifocus on the phone useful, there has to be some way to get the idea capture process to about 5 seconds, and make it hands-free enough that I can do it while driving.

[dryver8]

don't know if apple would ever open this up to developers or not, but you can customize the home button to click 2 times to open itunes or favorite contact lists, what if we could click the home button twice for a quick entry? Still don't think that gets around the "sandbox" problem though?

[Lizard]

No, I don't think the double-tap magic would help the sandbox problem at all. Either we need to trim the loading process down to the bone, or we need to build a separate Quick Entry app.

[Andrew Scott]

It might be worth looking at OpenClip for ideas on how to get two apps communicating.
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/08/20/openclip-org-offers-copy-and-paste-for-iphone-across-apps/

"OpenClip accomplishes this feat while still following the rules of Apple's SDK. iPhone applications are allowed to read from other application's files but only write to their own. By creating a standard location for each application's "clipboard", applications can "copy" by simply saving data locally and "paste" by pulling the most recently saved data across all applications."

Might this approach work for OmniFocus for iPhone and a quick entry OmniFocus app? …Not that I know what I'm talking about or anything. :D

[Andrew]

That would open a possibility. We're kind of looking in a different direction at the moment, but we'll see.

[alw1]

Coming to iPhone from the Palm and a long time user of Datebook, I would love to be able to create a new action, link or look up a phone number or email address and put it in the note section, then when the action was due just click on the phone # and the phone would dial it, or click on the email address and the mail program would open to create new mail directed to that email address.

[shedali]

Perhaps a quick-entry app could be developed under Cydia as this would bypass current restrictions. I tried 'qtweeter' which allows you to tweet by swiping downwards in any app and found this very convenient. I would love to see this ease of entry into OmniFocus for iphone one day.

One great workaround I am trying now is to have omnifocus running in the background (requires cydia) and with the custom homebutton hack, setting a double tap to open omnifocus at doubletap://com.omnigroup.OmniFocus

Now I have the quick entry panel at the touch of a button. Hope it helps.

Franz