Project notes in context view...
 

I notice that if I add a note to a project in planning view, I seem to have no way of viewing that note in context view, even if I group actions by project.

I'm honestly not sure what a good solution to the problem is, but it does seem to need examining.

Unless people have a different idea about what that note field is for. For me, it's for storing information that applies to all the actions in a project, which means I might want to refer to it while doing any action. I'm not sure what other uses there would be....

Thoughts?

I use it to state explicitly what the envisioned outcome of the project is. E.g. for the project called "basketball signup" my note might read "I recruited a basketball team and registered for the winter leagues at the rec center."

As you might guess, this is pretty much for planning and review so it doesn't matter so much that I can't get to it from Context Mode. I can see how other uses of the field (e.g. for reference material attached to multiple actions of a project) would be frustrated by the fact that it can't be reached from that mode.

It's a little surprising that when you group by Project in Context Mode there's no little notes icons on the grouping bars.

There's always the Show in Planning Mode command - that's probably your best workaround.

I would file that as a bug from OmniFocus; I think it would be useful to see the notes in context.

[QUOTE=zedboy;21990]Unless people have a different idea about what that note field is for. For me, it's for storing information that applies to all the actions in a project, which means I might want to refer to it while doing any action. I'm not sure what other uses there would be....

Thoughts?[/QUOTE]

Like Craig, I think it's for notes that relate to the outcome of a project, or that I might need to review for further project planning. Anything related to an action belongs in the action's note fields.

I don't see how it could be a bug. Since projects don't appear in context mode, why should their notes appear in context mode? Call it a feature request if you want, but not a bug.

[QUOTE=brianogilvie;22008] Anything related to an action belongs in the action's note fields.

I don't see how it could be a bug. Since projects don't appear in context mode, why should their notes appear in context mode? Call it a feature request if you want, but not a bug.[/QUOTE]

I disagree that anything related to an action belongs in the action's note field. After all, I might have a project with dozens of different actions, do I need to copy the same data to each and every action? What if need to change it? That seems rather ridiculous. Similarly, storing the information elsewhere also defeats the purpose. Besides, sometimes, project names *do* appear in context mode...

I agree it's not a bug as such, but I do think it might be worth thinking about. I wonder what the designers intend the project's note field for.

[QUOTE=zedboy;22017]After all, I might have a project with dozens of different actions, do I need to copy the same data to each and every action? What if need to change it? That seems rather ridiculous. Similarly, storing the information elsewhere also defeats the purpose. Besides, sometimes, project names *do* appear in context mode...[/QUOTE]

Project names do appear in context mode all the time, as part of an action. But I don't see why, a priori, that means that the note associated with a project entry should appear.

Could you give us a concrete example of the kind of note you mean? I think that would be more productive than talking about abstractions.

[QUOTE=brianogilvie;22045]Could you give us a concrete example of the kind of note you mean? I think that would be more productive than talking about abstractions.[/QUOTE]

With my "basketball signup" example, I can see wanting to keep a running list of teammates recruited to date that would be better attached to the project as a whole than to any particular action within it.

[QUOTE=Craig;22047]With my "basketball signup" example, I can see wanting to keep a running list of teammates recruited to date that would be better attached to the project as a whole than to any particular action within it.[/QUOTE]

I would be inclined to keep that in a separate file, in BBEdit or OmniOutliner, instead of in OmniFocus. It seems to be supporting material, not part of the task itself. With QuickSilver or LaunchBar, it would be only a few keystrokes away.

[QUOTE=brianogilvie;22051]I would be inclined to keep that in a separate file, in BBEdit or OmniOutliner, instead of in OmniFocus. It seems to be supporting material, not part of the task itself. With QuickSilver or LaunchBar, it would be only a few keystrokes away.[/QUOTE]


It's a fuzzy line, no doubt between "supporting material" to be kept separately, and the information needed handy to complete a task. But I would point out that, if I remember my readings of GTD right, these sorts of things would be kept in the physical folder for that project. By analogy, this should be accessible in OF, especially if it's an electronic resource. The designers obviously acknowledge this, as they made provisions to drag files and (soon) references e-mails into the note field. I'm only suggesting that the logical extension to this be considered.

For a concrete example, the issue for me was that I'm applying for a fellowship, and I wanted to put the URL to the guidelines in my project folder.

Another example that comes to mind is my wedding ring. I have into my actions things like "discuss ring styles with fiancee" "make appt with designer (where I need to tell him what one's i'm interested in)" "try on different styles (I still need to keep track of which ones I wanted to try on)" etc. etc.

None of these are more than a few lines, and keeping them in OOP or some other place seems unnecessary, IMHO, circumvents the idea of keeping things handy, even for a devoted quicksilver user like myself. :)

BTW, one thing that occurs to me is to have the project notes appear in the inspector (fine for small amounts of info), or in a drawer (if the goal is to support larger amounts of info).

[QUOTE=brianogilvie;22051]I would be inclined to keep that in a separate file, in BBEdit or OmniOutliner, instead of in OmniFocus. It seems to be supporting material, not part of the task itself. With QuickSilver or LaunchBar, it would be only a few keystrokes away.[/QUOTE]

I thought you might say that. :-) My retort would be: even if you keep it in a separate file, wouldn't it be nice to link to it from OF? (Which would require putting a file link in the project's note field, which returns us to the original problem.)

[QUOTE=zedboy;22057]BTW, one thing that occurs to me is to have the project notes appear in the inspector (fine for small amounts of info), or in a drawer (if the goal is to support larger amounts of info).[/QUOTE]

Hmm, having a drawer to hold project notes, links, and other supporting materials seems like an interesting idea to me.

[QUOTE=Craig;22064]I thought you might say that. :-) My retort would be: even if you keep it in a separate file, wouldn't it be nice to link to it from OF? (Which would require putting a file link in the project's note field, which returns us to the original problem.)[/QUOTE]

Clearly I've been spending too much time on this forum instead of getting things done! :-)

I can see your point. I guess I trust myself to recall what the supporting file is called, and I trust Quicksilver to put it in front of me when I want it.

Here's another use case for easy access to the project's note field. I'll often attached an email message to a project rather than the included actions. For example, suppose I get an email letting me know that papers that I've agreed to review are available for review. I'll often link that email from a project's note field. Under the project I have my actions: download papers, print papers, mark up papers, write reviews, post reviews. For the first and last action, I need the server URL that's contained in the email message. Quicksilver doesn't help me with this, because my email database is too large to catalog with Quicksilver.

That said, I don't personally need access to the project's note field in context view. Currently I can hit Cmd-opt-R, up arrow, then ctrl-f (my QS trigger to run my Open Linked Item script). I'm kind of crazy at remembering command-key combinations, so this work for me.

[QUOTE=curt.clifton;22100]suppose I get an email letting me know that papers that I've agreed to review are available for review. I'll often link that email from a project's note field.[/QUOTE]

And how do you do that? How do you link an email message from a project's note field?

[QUOTE=soundsgoodtome;23145]And how do you do that? How do you link an email message from a project's note field?[/QUOTE]

I did some further poking around and found your software page <http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~clifton/software.html>, which includes your various OF AppleScripts. So never mind. (And thanks for sharing the scripts.) :-)

[QUOTE=soundsgoodtome;23145]And how do you do that? How do you link an email message from a project's note field?[/QUOTE]

It took me a while to figure out, but I realized (with MailTags) ctrl-clicking on the message in mail, "copy message url," then pasting it in OF works. Is there an even better way?

If an incoming mail message causes me to create a new project I use my [URL="http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~clifton/software.html#OF-Mail"]Mail-OF script[/URL]. I select the mail message in Mail, trigger the script (using a QuickSilver hotkey), and edit the action description in the QuickEntry window.

When processing my OF inbox, I drag the item from the inbox to the sidebar to create a project, then add a next actions under it.