Selective syncing
 

I use [I]OmniFocus[/I] at home, at work, on the iPhone, and on the iPad.

Is there a way to sync partial data to my work account, so only work-related information gets synced there and only personal data gets synced at home?

It seems like a fairly common use-case, particularly with the release of the mobile apps, but I'm still guessing the answer is no. I thought someone might have a creative workaround with an AppleScript or something, though, so I thought I would check here.

Any thoughts?

No way to do it at the present. It would be non-trivial to make it work right in all cases, I think. Consider a project where you make some changes, then decide that it belongs on the other side of the selective sync "fence" — you have to put all of that history in the other database, and remove it from the current database if the current database isn't supposed to have it.

You don't explicitly say so, but I take it you do want your databases on the mobile devices to have everything, both work and personal?

Thanks for the quick response.

Yes, ideally the mobile versions would carry all of the data, so that whenever I think of an action item for work or home, I could stuff it in the inbox.

If it were to be implemented, it seems like you could flag folders as "do not sync" and those settings could be different for each desktop client.

I'm sure you are right, that it is non-trivial, but it seems like this potential feature could be added to development stack rank, be costed, and prioritized like any other feature. That is, if the developers agree that this may be a common use-case now that mobile usage is a big part of their focus, of course.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;87424]You don't explicitly say so, but I take it you do want your databases on the mobile devices to have everything, both work and personal?[/QUOTE]

Hmm, I guess I could set up two separate accounts...a non-MobileMe account at work to sync my iPad (since I need it for meetings) and then use my regular home account paired with my iPhone. Not ideal, but it sounds like a good Plan B.

Thanks.

If it helps at all, I sync my entire database to all my machines, but I have a Perspective set up (using the Focus command) to show me only my work-related projects; that's my main view when I'm in the office.

Would it work for you to do that at work, and something similar at home to show only your home projects?

(Hopefully) same effect on your workflow, but wouldn't complicate the sync code as much. ;-)

You can set up multiple databases on the same MobileMe account by making a directory for each and adjusting the URL accordingly.