Carrying your GTD system with you
 

Something the paper versions of GTD do really well, when compared with others, is portability.

How will this be addressed in OmniFocus?

To me, portability means a number of things:
[LIST][*]I don't have a computer, but maybe a Blackberry[*]I am at a location where there is one of my computers (my office mac vs my home mac)[*]I have a computer, but it's not mine[/LIST]
How will this be addressed in OmniFocus? I know this is pointing out a problem, more than a solution. But that's why you guys get the big bucks :-)

The app needs to be compact enough to run on a memory stick. That way you can carry the app and your working files with you and run it wherever you are. If that was combined with a Windows based viewer you could review your GTD system anywhere.

Tacitus

Syncing with Palm and iSync would be good enough for me.

BZ

Palm sync would be great. Also .Mac or other equivalent sync. Both could be done possibly via iCal.

And then a a neato print option or two...

Palm for me too!
 

I second the motion for Palm syncing. In fact, without it I wouldn't be able to use the software. I've always been disapointed that OmniOutliner never aquired a conduit...with so many Treo users it seems the market would be ripe for getting back into Palm conduits and software.:D

I'd also like to see these features:

-recurring todos
-daily notes feature to keep track of daily events in an unstructured manner
-very flexible alarms such as Daylite has
-good printing...especially for envelopes.

More later ;)

Index Card Chunker
 

I want OmniFu to shoot printed index cards of contexual actions at me if it looks like i might try and escape out the door. No need to have O.F. fold the cards into throwing stars in 1.0... that can wait untill 1.5 or 2.0. Conduits are cool in a BORG way... I'm holding out for the vaporous iPhone... don't know how much longer I can wait.

Aren't ya'll working with the Steve on iFoneFu?

PocketMod!
 

PDAs are just too huge and I hate to carry them around. I'd much rather see support for something like PocketMod, where my daily GTD tasks, calendar, etc. could be printed out and folded up like a little book (with room to right down new tasks).

[URL="http://www.pocketmod.com/"]http://www.pocketmod.com/[/URL]

If you haven't looked at PocketMod do so...

PocketMod - what a good idea
 

Pocket mod is THE thing that that I have been looking for. To the point that if OmniFu (for that be its name) doesn't have an automatic function that prints to PocketMod, I would probably not buy it.

Actually, Omni and I both know that is a lie, but... please, please, please make it print to PocketMod format. It is truly wonderful.

Just as long as the print outs look good and are configurable I am cool. I mean, I would like the option of having some things print out in a portable formatn (pocket mod, hipster, etc.) but the first step is just that it is readable.

Definitely!
 

Another vote for a PocketMod printing system. There is one that already does it, that I know of, and that is ThinkingRock. I'd probably be *using* ThinkingRock if it wasn't for its dramatic lack of support for recurring actions.

Unfortunately a Palm (or equiv) application is must
 

The truly difficult part of this project is the portability aspect. A true solution must have a mobile component to work for most users. Any desk-bound solution is by definition limited.

The most common mobile device for Mac users is palm based. The other mobile carriers concentrated on Windows base users. Unfortunately this means a palm programmer (or other PDA platform equivalent).

The PDA aspect doesn't have to be a verbatim copy of OmniPlan, but it does have to offer limited functionality. The user should be able to check off and modify dates. It should be easily synchable (bidirectionally) with the program, and be able to be reorganized by meta-data on the fly.

Palm, yes!
 

Love my Treo and being able to sync Omnif* with it would be grand. Definitely gets my vote. (Not sure Omni is a democracy and / or republic, though...) ;)

Rss
 

I prefer RSS upload to a site. That way I can access my items from my blackberry or via a friend's web browser if I don't have my BB with me.

I'd like to see some syncing capability with the Blackberry Pearl - perhaps through PocketMac's SyncManager.

A GTD system that keeps all of its information on your Mac isn't too helpful when you are out and about. At the moment I use Entourage, mainly because it offers good syncing with the Blackberry.

There are definitely times I don't want to have anything electronic with me but would love to have a short list of items I could carry.

If OmniFu would offer a few good print options, it would be very, very helpful.

One option would be to quickly print out varioius preordained formats, such as index cards/hipster PDA sheets, PocketMods, etc. Another would be to quickly click on various contexts/sections of the OF document to print those out.

I typically would need to be able to print out my Errands context, my Calls context, and some others. If I could save a commonly used set of my contexts and print to PocketMod easily, I would be very happy.

Add me to the list of people who want the ability to print something that will fit in my pocket.

I'm currently using 3x5 cards, but any similar size format would be useful.

Like Tom, I want the ability to print just specific sections of my file -- so I could just print out errands for those places north and west of my house, etc. [OmniFu doesn't need to know this; I'd be happy to sort my errands and specify the subset to print.]

Add in the ability to use different font settings for display and printing, and I'll be a happy camper.

Multiple formats please
 

I would really like a paper view to tack-up or put in my pocket when I am tired of devices. I normally carry my Treo 650 (soon to be flushed down the toilet for some unknown more stable and reliable device) and would like to do to sync with it (input, output, and modifications). I also push things to e-mail when I am traveling (CYA when I don't have mobile access or in the case mobile is lost - I pull e-mail on my mobile and rely on a script to drive my flight, car, and hotel info so it is at the top of the e-mail stack on travel day). I also push some things to RSS/Atom so I can have a view in a widget.

Summary: small paper output, e-mail, standard format (heh) for mobile syncing, and RSS/Atom.

A simple way that would work for me is an extension of the feature request to have Omnifocus display/print list of actions by context. The said extension would give me the ability of posting the produced text note to an iPod or Phone, or PDA

How about OmniFocus on the iPhone?
 

Someone on another forum reminded me about OmniFocus after the iPhone announcement today. Sounds like a perfect match.

iPhone
 

[QUOTE=edoneal]Someone on another forum reminded me about OmniFocus after the iPhone announcement today. Sounds like a perfect match.[/QUOTE]
The only bad news about the iPhone is that with AT&T involved, you can be sure they'll happily make your GTD plans, private information and call transcripts available to the Feds or whoever wants to pay for that information...

[QUOTE=edoneal]Someone on another forum reminded me about OmniFocus after the iPhone announcement today. Sounds like a perfect match.[/QUOTE]

It does, actually. I'm normally a "my phone should be just a phone" sort of guy, but the iPhone really intrigues me. And an iPhone with an Omni KGTD app (I currently use KGTD in OOPro), one that syncs with my desktop -- either in a cradle or, better!, over the WAN, using ssh or something -- would make me switch to Cingular and plunk down the cash for an iPhone instantly. It's exactly the kind of integration that I've wanted.

[QUOTE=Kikokun]The only bad news about the iPhone is that with AT&T involved, you can be sure they'll happily make your GTD plans, private information and call transcripts available to the Feds or whoever wants to pay for that information...[/QUOTE]

Bygones.

[QUOTE=RozzieBear]Bygones.[/QUOTE]
whatever.

Don't wanna look like I intend to start an inflammatory thread here, but if you don't care about your privacy being violated, well that's your problem.
For the rest, here's the facts:

AT&T Sued Over NSA Eavesdropping
[url]http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70126-0.html[/url]

"AT&T appears to be trying to give itself license to do whatever it sees fit with customers' data."
[url]http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/25968prs20060622.html[/url]

Now, I've been using Macs since forever, and I'm as Mac biggot as it gets.
But I'm not having AT&T, which could be turning our private data to whoever requests it, having access to my phone calls, browsing history, contacts, to-do lists, etc
I for one will be taking a pass on the iPhone, at least till it's open to other carriers.

[QUOTE=Kane]The truly difficult part of this project is the portability aspect. ...........
The most common mobile device for Mac users is palm based. The other mobile carriers concentrated on Windows base users. Unfortunately this means a palm programmer (or other PDA platform equivalent).

SNIP [/QUOTE]

I'm a bit late to this thread but I fully concur that a portable element is a must and ideally this should be to a Palm.

Why don't Omni cooperate with a recognised Palm software company? The Palm co could market a GTD app as a standalone Palm app, but with particular sync capabilities to Omni Focus. AFAICT there are no decent GTD apps for the Palm so this would be win-win for everyone.

I guess the ability to sync to a Palm is the deal breaker for me with OmniFocus. Like it or not, my work uses XP so the Mac is the home device that syncs the Treo 650 and the Tungsten|T.

I then sync the calendar to Outlook at work, but it's only the calendar that's key to me to get on the PC, not the GTD bit. At the moment anyway...

The original post in this thread brings up a key set of challenges for any GTD system that is to be truly trusted. Most of the resulting discussion seems to be about printing and syncing to PDAs, but I think there’s a broader issue to discuss here. In particular, samaparicio’s last two bullet points — access from multiple computers, whether your own or not — are not fully satisfied just with printing.

I was, for a while, thinking about building my own GTD implementation. Right away, I got stuck on this issue of access. One thought I had is that this sort of problem has been solved already — there are all sorts of applications that support an array of access mechanisms. I use Oracle Calendar at work, so I’ll use it as an example.

Oracle Calendar has a desktop client that runs on Mac OS, Windows, Solaris, and some Linux flavors. It is the most effective and efficient way to use the calendar; not that it’s a great interface, just the best choice for desktop use. Anyway, all the data is stored on a server and cached locally. It is possible to use the client offline, in which case local changes are cached and synced with the server the next time the client connects. One can use the client application from different machines, and even multiple users can share a single client on a single machine.

When you are not able to use the client application, the server has a web interface to allow access. Not all features are available through the web interface, and being a web application, it is generally less efficient to use the web interface. But, the key point is that there’s always a way to get access to my calendar, even if I’m halfway around the world without my laptop.

Also, there is a Palm conduit for Oracle Calendar, available for the Mac and Windows at least.

Obviously, there are lots of systems that have similar access mechanisms in place. I think, though, that iCal shared over .Mac is a somewhat more restricted case — AFAIK, you must use iCal to access your calendar, because there’s no truly platform neutral, portable mechanism for doing so.

So for me, I think any GTD system that’s going to be around for a long time ought to gravitate toward a similar model. Now I’m not suggesting that OmniGroup needs to do this for v1.0 or maybe even v2.0, but I think they ought to head in this direction eventually. Also, I’m not suggesting that OmniGroup get in the business of hosting everyone’s central GTD repository — it’s just not their core competency.

The interesting question to me is this: How could OmniGroup provide a server system that individuals, workgroups, or hosting organizations could set up with minimal effort. What sort of platform-neutral remote access would it provide? A web interface (maybe a bit like Tracks)? What OmniFocus features could be supported remotely? In any case, I think OmniFocus itself should always support a purely local mode of operation, unless explicitly configured to talk to a server. That way, it’s not restricted to requiring a server at least some of the time (unlike, say, Oracle Calendar).

Any thoughts?

Just wanted to add my voice to those asking for omnifocus to get some kind of a "print as hipster pda".
I hate doing a sync between my palm and my mac, and while trying to work a way to create some way to make a hard copy of my calendar and to-dos (from ical and omnioutliner - kGTD) and I found no way to do it :-(

Ziv

Resistance is futile . . . .
 

When it comes to syncing, let's face it, given the interapplication functionality of Apple's OS 10.X.X, iCal is exactly where all the action is going to be at in terms of syncronization. I think the OmniPeople have got that straight.

Have you looked at the To Do list features in Mail 3 under Leopard? It looks pretty GTD collection friendly to me (send myself an e-mail from anywhere) and it can be manually flagged to dump into iCal and therefore into our OF of the future.

I'm a Microsoft Office guy at the moment, but only e-mails from my Russian friends using non Unicode operating systems is holding me back from dumping that whole Microsoft thing and going with the built in Apple apps and iWorks.

I think my Palm T/X is going to handle that syncing fine (including contexts) just using the software I've got (iCal, Missing Sync, Tasks or Agendus) if the contexts are preserved in the iCal sync to Palm as categories/calendars. A special app with a conduit might be nice, but I'd like it best if everything sync'ed perfectly to the existing Palm databases and then any sensical Palm PIM app would do the right thing and play nice.

Paper printouts that create a product formatted like PocketMod would simply be fantastic and shouldn't be that hard to make an option to future versions.

As for privacy. . . bite the bullet --- encrypt everything. I was a peripheral NSA spook for a few years in the military. Resistance is futile without adaptation.

Lo-tech = usable
 

Having checked out PocketMod on the advice of an earlier posting, I'm sold.

OF should definitely implement this kind of functionality. Preferably not involving the use of scissors.

Perhaps a customizable template with drag-n-drop fields for your various lists, projects, contexts?

[QUOTE=Tacitus]I'm a bit late to this thread but I fully concur that a portable element is a must and ideally this should be to a Palm.
Why don't Omni cooperate with a recognised Palm software company?[/QUOTE]

This isn't really necessary. As long as OmniFocus supports Tiger's Sync Services, then any to-dos and calendar entries can be exported to the Palm. You can then make changes on the Palm, such as adding a new to-do for a particular context, and have those changes synced back to OmniFocus.

The only catch is that you need Palm sync software that understands Tiger's Sync Services, and AFAIK The Missing Sync is the only one that does that.

I have the solution, or rather Actionstatic has
 

I think Actionstatic handles this very well... I mean, I don't want to carry around my complete projects with me when I am on the road, I just need to have a list with what I am supposed to be doing.

Create one calendar for each project. That calendar carries todos. Next action gets highest priority and so forth.

The todo's get synced with iCal and neatly organized into categories in the todo application.

And I don't even think it's palm-only, as long as the device has a todo part with categories this will work.

Bi-Computer Synch-ing
 

Thinking Rock's answer to synch is to export an xml

But then I tend to forget to do the export. So I wind up with two out-of-synch systems. Plus my Treo.

Now if OF could save to a web directory, that would be a cool way to synch home computer with the Evil Day Job from Hell. It does nothing for my Treo but I suppose that will have to wait.

The new [url]www.isync.com[/url] software, seems to do what everyone is asking for Web based data, pocketmod etc. maybe the developers should link up with them and then the two programs would give us a working solution.

[QUOTE=sickbar]Just wanted to add my voice to those asking for omnifocus to get some kind of a "print as hipster pda".
I hate doing a sync between my palm and my mac, and while trying to work a way to create some way to make a hard copy of my calendar and to-dos (from ical and omnioutliner - kGTD) and I found no way to do it :-(

Ziv[/QUOTE]


Yea me too, Loving that PocketMod, So a Hipster print out would be cool. the number of printed contexts would be limited by the folding mechanism to 8 (sounds like enough to me, if you are selective)

Im not too bothered how, but want it mobile in a quick and easy fashion, weather thats through Ical + Phone or Ipod syncing or paper based doesnt really bother me!

Another vote here for some sort of PocketMod or hPDA printing from OmniFocus.

Print the contexts that are relevant based on the users selection, then give some on-the-road-inbox space to write things down. I don't mind typing in a few things to the app once I get back to my computer.

Currently I'm using OO with a hipster for when I'm away from my computer. Manually writing out the cards and adding things back that I think of while away from the computer is a chore....100% manual syncing. Cutting that down to just typing in things I think of while away would be great.

I wonder with the 2.0 version of OF and the new Notes system in Mail for Leopard if you'll be able to sync OF up with Mail in Leopard so .Mac email users can see their contexts in .Mac's webmail wherever they are at. Its hard to think of a universal solution currently, short of Omni building an ajaxy web based version of OF as well for users to sync with

PagePacker
 

For all of you wanting PocketMod, it might be more reasonable to suggest that OmniFocus support [URL="http://weblog.bignerdranch.com/?p=23"]PagePacker[/URL].

fideli

PS: This is my first post to the forums after downloading the OmniFocus build, and I have to point out that I find it a bit ironic that the message box toolbar is a carbon copy of WinWord.

I use a Palm with DateBk6, and find that environment overall very nice. I do most of my entry in the Palm, not Palm Desktop. Up until a few days ago, I'd been using the Palm conduits, and that has worked well for many years. Since I'm beginning to use OmniFocus, I bought Missing Sync for Palm 6.0 so that I could sync OF <--> iCal <--> DateBk6 and (the Palm) To Do List, as well as Mark/Space Notebook <--> Palm Memos. Unfortunately it has been a total disaster (nothing related to OF), and many others on the Mark/Space forum have reported the same kinds of problems all over the board. Since MS 6.0 is new, the bugs may get worked out, but the pain of about 6 hours of trying to get this stuff to work is almost enough to make me cough up for an iPhone, although the service is costly, and I'm still not clear on how easy input into iCal etc. will be on the iPhone.

DateBk6 works very well for me, but I can't live with endless sync nightmares (that Missing Sync is causing), and want to use OF. Am I missing any other options? thanks

Bob

[QUOTE=BookCat]Love my Treo and being able to sync Omnif* with it would be grand. Definitely gets my vote. (Not sure Omni is a democracy and / or republic, though...) ;)[/QUOTE]

We're a little more like an absolute oligarchy that tries to take into consideration the requests of the people (as demonstrated on this messageboard and in your emails). So keep the requests and complaints coming.

Don't always leave it in electrons, atoms please
 

I love to go geek whenever i can, but i really like the idea of a pagepacker/pocketmod hard copy for 'disconnected' activity. This does not need to exclude some other sync method through the air/wire to other devices, but it is really simple.

Perhaps implement it via a gui button that is preconfigured with printer setup options (paper size A4/US/etc) so when you want a print dump you just ding that icon. Limit the output to 1 page printed out as projects or as contexts.

The sexy sync stuff would be nice, but how many options are there....

[QUOTE=Lozz;13341]Im not too bothered how, but want it mobile in a quick and easy fashion, weather thats through Ical + Phone or Ipod syncing or paper based doesnt really bother me![/QUOTE]

I just wrote a script to [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=4397"]sync to iPod[/URL]. You could give it a try.

Rod

[QUOTE=fideli;13486]For all of you wanting PocketMod, it might be more reasonable to suggest that OmniFocus support [URL="http://weblog.bignerdranch.com/?p=23"]PagePacker[/URL].[/QUOTE]

OK, that app looks extremely cool. I haven't touched PocketMod in since it seems like development has stallled, so it's great to see that someone picked up the slack, at least on the Mac side!

(Am I glad I saved my PocketMod custom templates as Illustrator files...)

[QUOTE=fideli;13486]PS: This is my first post to the forums after downloading the OmniFocus build, and I have to point out that I find it a bit ironic that the message box toolbar is a carbon copy of WinWord.[/QUOTE]

Why would that be ironic?

[QUOTE=fideli;13486]For all of you wanting PocketMod, it might be more reasonable to suggest that OmniFocus support [URL="http://weblog.bignerdranch.com/?p=23"]PagePacker[/URL].
[/QUOTE]
From the PagePacker page:
"Or by dragging out any image file or PDF onto the document. The files are scaled and rotated as necessary to make them fit"

Sounds like almost any print support in OF will work in PagePacker. That's a cool looking little app btw, I've got to start using that. Thanks for the heads up.

definitely, GTD on the go!!
i would like OF to sync with my old palm

Another vote for the Palm here. An absolute essential in my line of work to look up information on.

[QUOTE=jacklin;18819]i would like OF to sync with my old palm[/QUOTE]

I just realized that this might not be clear to everyone! OmniFocus synchronizes with many mobile devices already, by way of sync'ing with Mac OS X's To Do list in iCal. Before the iPhone came out, I was using this technique to sync with my Treo, and Ethan was using it to sync with his Blackberry.

We should be able to sync with iPods as well, once we change the naming scheme for our iCal calendars. (We've learned that the iPod doesn't support colons in its calendar names.)

We originally thought we would be using this path to sync with the iPhone as well, before we learned that the iPhone didn't have a built-in To Do list (at least not yet).

Thanks for the clarification, Ken.

I've got my fingers crossed for To Do list support on the iPhone around the time that Leopard is released...

[QUOTE=Ken Case;18824]We should be able to sync with iPods as well, once we change the naming scheme for our iCal calendars. (We've learned that the iPod doesn't support colons in its calendar names.)[/QUOTE]

Doesn't it already works with the iPod? The only drawback is that the iPod todo list is flat, meaning contexts are lost. This is not a limitation of OmniFocus though...

Rod
[URL="http://curlyfrog.com/blog/?page_id=8"]OmniFocus iPod exporter[/URL]

another vote here for syncing to palm

[QUOTE=MEP;18707]From the PagePacker page:
"Or by dragging out any image file or PDF onto the document. The files are scaled and rotated as necessary to make them fit"

Sounds like almost any print support in OF will work in PagePacker. That's a cool looking little app btw, I've got to start using that. Thanks for the heads up.[/QUOTE]
Does any one have some sort of sript to print into PocketMod or PagePacker. I really want to stop using Thinking Rock in favor or Omni, but I need the portability.

I have no iPhone (or even a mobile phone!!) or PDA, just have my dear old iPod, so a facility to sync with that would be very useful. I use the sync feature in NoteBook at the moment which I'm using for GTD and it's not ideal but functional. PocketMod looks as though that could be good to, but I wonder if I'd ever remember to take the paper with me :-) I never forget my iPod.

Omnifocus -> PagePacker Script
 

Hi jbursztyn,

[QUOTE=jbursztyn;23123]Does any one have some sort of sript to print into PocketMod or PagePacker. I really want to stop using Thinking Rock in favor or Omni, but I need the portability.[/QUOTE]

You're in luck -- I've just knocked something together that should do what you want. Check out my post in the "OmniFocus Extras" forum for details.

- Erik.

[QUOTE=jbursztyn;23123]Does any one have some sort of sript to print into PocketMod or PagePacker. I really want to stop using Thinking Rock in favor or Omni, but I need the portability.[/QUOTE]

Why don't you just get the view(s) you want and print as PDF?

Hi dhm2006,

[QUOTE=dhm2006;23569]Why don't you just get the view(s) you want and print as PDF?[/QUOTE]

It's quite a fiddly process to generate a separate PDF for each context, and then place the individual PDF files into PagePacker one at a time. The script makes this automatic.

If you're happy to do this by hand every time, then by all means go for it. I'm just trying to make it a no-brainer.

- Erik.

[QUOTE=erik_westra;23570]It's quite a fiddly process to generate a separate PDF for each context, and then place the individual PDF files into PagePacker one at a time. The script makes this automatic.[/QUOTE]

I see what you mean. Thanks.

Any update to whether or not they plan on making a pocketmod-like feature for omnifocus?

Right now it's one of the biggest flaws, imho. I work best when I have a physical list I can check things off with, so until they allow me to customize the printout so it doesn't waste so much paper, I'm going to be wasting alot =(

[QUOTE=pocketmodplz;43482]Any update to whether or not they plan on making a pocketmod-like feature for omnifocus?

Right now it's one of the biggest flaws, imho. I work best when I have a physical list I can check things off with, so until they allow me to customize the printout so it doesn't waste so much paper, I'm going to be wasting alot =([/QUOTE]

Might be worth taking a looking a look at this thread:

[URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=6501&highlight=pagepacker"]Pagepacker Applescript[/URL]