What's the best replacement for calendar syncing?
 

Hello, everyone!

As many of you know, OmniFocus currently has the ability to sync with local iCal calendars. Over time, Apple has moved away from synchronizing local calendars in favor of simply storing those calendars in the cloud—and as people migrate their calendars to the cloud, they find they're no longer able to sync those calendars with OmniFocus (or any other app which uses Apple's Sync Services).

We know that a lot of you are using calendar syncing. But we've observed that calendar syncing is usually not an end in itself; it's usually a stepping stone which you're using to solve another problem. With that stepping stone starting to disappear, we could try to build another stepping stone which looks more or less the same—but perhaps it's time to take a step back and ask a more fundamental question:

What are people actually trying to accomplish with calendar syncing, and can we find a better way to accomplish that end?

Calendar syncing in OmniFocus has always been intended a stepping stone, never a destination. iCal doesn't actually do a very good job of handling a large number of structured tasks—if it did, we wouldn't really need OmniFocus! But we thought it was important to be able to take your errands with you on the go, syncing your errands list with a mobile device which supported tasks (such as a Palm or Nokia phone), and the easiest way to do [I]that[/I] was to sync with something those devices already knew how to sync with, namely iCal.

But all that was before the iPhone and iPod touch and iPad existed. Now that they do exist, our mobile editions of OmniFocus (for iPhone and iPad) are a much better way to take your tasks with you, synchronizing them through the cloud and giving you much better access to your lists on the go.

So that huge benefit to calendar syncing is gone, but I know a number of you are still using calendar syncing, so... What else are you using it for? Syncing with mobile devices which can't run OmniFocus? Sharing tasks with other people? Is there something we can add to OmniFocus which would solve your needs more directly, rather than trying to shore up this sinking stepping stone?

Please let me know, either here in this thread or by sending me direct email at [email]kc@omnigroup.com[/email].

Here's how I use iCal for Collaboration & Delegation:
. Create a Calendar on Mobile Me
. Share this Calendar
. Create a Project Folder in OmniFocus with the same name as the Calendar
. Create a bunch of Tasks and sync them to the MobileMe calendar
. Share this Calendar with 'N' User
. Have them create the same Project in their version of OmniFocus
. Have them Sync
. We now have a type of Delegation and Collaborative Task Sharing system in place.

I was doing this with BusySync, but ultimately decided against it since we could only use this workflow via Bonjour. I found myself wanting to Delegate from the iPhone or iPad and didn't want to always have to sync back to my Laptop to push these items to the Shared Calendar.

+1 for delegation it is something that I have always tried (usually unsuccessfully) to implement. I tried with Calendar syncing once and have not used it since then. I use Spootnik to get it done now with Basecamp.

OmniCal or Integrated Calendar
 

My 2 Cents:
1. Code OmniCal :) to play nice with others. Use the same syncing engines in Focus.
2. Or simply build it into Focus.

Love what you guys are doing.

-Jarrod

CalDAV Calendar
 

I use multiple calendars hosted over MobileMe, CalDAV and Exchange at the same time. If OmniFocus were able to sync with my GoogleApps CalDAV calendar task list, that would be nice.

However, I'm not sure how much I would use it since it is so convenient just to have the OmniFocus App on my iPhone and iPad.

I am using BusyCal at the moment as a replacement for iCal. I would LOVE to see better integration with BusyCal if you could work with them...

[url]http://www.busymac.com/[/url]

I would like to be able to use the sync in order to get access to my omnifocus tasks from my Windows pc at work through mobileme online. I don't need access to all the functions, just enough to be able to see what's there and be able to put in a task which I can modify later.

Thanks for everyone contributing, but it's going to be most helpful to us if folks can describe what they're using calendar sync for. Detail is good.

Examples: when folks say that they use calendar syncing to delegate or share information with other folks on a team, or to see their tasks on a windows machine, that lets us know that we should be looking at supporting those workflows better, so those folks don't need to go through the calendar hack they're currently using. It's better to provide folks with the feature they actually want than a way they can kinda sorta get it. :-)

In general, we [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost.php?p=54443&postcount=49"]still feel[/URL] that OmniFocus and calendars track different types of information - we're hoping to get a better understanding of the benefits that folks are seeing when they mix them.

Thanks, everyone!

I use cal export, to provide view of and reminders for scheduled/end date tasks.
Cal sync, as you state, hasn't worked since the move to CalDAV - which I use with my Google Apps account. It's only use when it did work was same as above, for me.

Would be useful to have a way to easily add the exported cal to google/mobile me... I have cal view on iPhone and mac, but not from google calendar.

OK, so what I'm hearing so far is:
[INDENT][URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=87509#post87509"]policarpo[/URL] and [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=87512#post87512"]BenBrooks[/URL] are primarily interested in delegation.

I'm not sure what [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=87515#post87515"]jarrodjob[/URL] or [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=87519#post87519"]joeworkman[/URL] are looking for exactly, possibly an integrated visualization that shows the calendar and task list in the same window? I'd love to hear more!

[URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=87518#post87518"]Xevious[/URL] says it would be nice if OmniFocus could sync with his GoogleApps list, but he's not sure how much he'd actually use it anyway since the iPhone and iPad apps are so convenient.

[URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=87522#post87522"]marisa8184[/URL] wants to be able to access her OmniFocus tasks from Windows.
[/INDENT]
So I'm going to count that as two votes for task delegation within a team, and one vote for accessing tasks from Windows. Hopefully jarroddjob and joeworkman will chime in with clarifications on what they're trying to accomplish, and I look forward to hearing more!

Edit: woops, while I was editing I missed that post by [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=87525#post87525"]QuaCKeReD[/URL], which looks to me like a vote for integrated visualization. (We have reminders now through our calendar export, which works on all platforms and was affected by MobileMe's changes. Though I find I no longer use calendar export now that my iPhone supports local notifications—it's always in my pocket, so I just rely on getting its alerts.)

I don't use iCal sync, primarily because it didn't do what I expected. I thought iCal sync would populate my calendar with events corresponding to my OmniFocus tasks, but instead it populated iCal's practically useless task list. This wasn't what I expected because in the OF dialog for this feature, it says it synchronizes with a calendar, which is technically true in the sense that the tasks correspond to a calendar in iCal, but the tasks don't show up in the calendar view I actually look at.

This was my intended use case: I wanted a visual of my upcoming tasks. I wanted to see, at a glance, what days had more obligations coming due or starting. If could see that, say, Tuesday had a lot of tasks, I might be able to get a head start on a slower day. I know that it's possible to subscribe to due reminders with the WebDAV sync, but (as best as I can tell) it only shows available reminders.

The other obvious use case--getting at my tasks when I'm not near my Mac--doesn't go well either. I can't usefully sync or access my tasks on my Android phone using any of the built in syncing mechanisms and I haven't had success syncing through some intermediary service. (And before you ask: I'm not considering an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. Objections to Apple's device lock-down aside, I'm not going to lug around another device or switch carriers just for OmniFocus.)

To work around the lack of visualization and my inability to access my data on my phone, I've whipped up an export script and a web app for myself to work around these issues, but it's read-only. I'm too busy actually doing things to go beyond that myself.

I'm really happy with OmniFocus, but getting an overview of my tasks (barring a review) and getting my tasks away from my Mac are my two biggest pain points.

I have since moved to carrying an iPod Touch plus my Treo phone because iCal sync didn't work. My use was to try to get something I could carry with me all the time that had my tasks. The limits of the iCal synch and problems with Palm OS drove me to finding a new device. I can't switch phone carriers in my area, Sprint is the only viable option here, so I'm forced to carry both devices for now.

If we could get a Sprint version of the iPhone I'd be all over it in a flash, and yes, I know that means using a different network but Verizon doesn't work here at all, ATT is poor so Sprint is the best choice we have.

If OF was on an Android phone I'd probably be moving that direction instead and I'd still prefer it.

@ddbeck: the new 'Subscribe in iCal' in 1.8 creates Events in your iCal Calendar.

Also, the Forecast view offers you an @ a glance view of what you have in store for yourself. Just create a custom Perspective to enable this feature (it translates nicely on the iPhone as well).

Hi Ken,
thank you for giving us opportunities like this!

I paste here something I wrote about iCal sync in another thread:

During my weekly review many times I found items that I like to do in the next week, particularly in some day when I think I have time/context to do them, but I don't want to mark them as due in that day, because for me a due date is a real deadline.

Yes, I know, I should put those items on the calendar, but I think that OF (mac version) is very better than any calendar application to track things to do (the sort of things that would stay in the "all day" section of a calendar).

The workaround for me is to set the review date for the project that cointains the action I want to do to the date I'd like to do that action, since I do a daily review, and during it that project with that action will show up in the morning, and I will flag it (I use flags to mark actions I want to do today)

But I'd really like another date field, not start, not due, just "on": those items should be synced within the calendar, for the folks that like to have all the stuff they need to do (things and appointments) in just one place.

Original post: [url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=82764#post82764[/url]

Bye,
Francesco

I was using the "Publish due reminders as a calendar" feature, and then synching this to MobileMe. That way, I could see my due items on my calendar on all my PCs and devices.

Now that Apple has gone to CalDav and abandoned syncing, this doesn't work for me any more.

I'd like to be able to publish the due reminders to CalDav or Google calendars. Thank you.

I wanted to use iCal "todo" sync to pupulate "alarms" a little tool by MediaAttelier ([url]http://www.grandtotal.biz/Alarms/[/url]) which is a kind of "focusing-on-what-you-have-to-do-now" tool by poping up an alarm which never stops as long as you don't check the task as done OR reschedule it later. It would be a very nice synergy to have these tools synced for me.

I realise that, even if it synked, it still wouldn't work for me because "alarms" uses the "useless ical ToDo" feature while OF now creates events as I understood by reading an answer above.

Is there a public API to access OF's actions from another app? Maybe I could write to the "alarms" developer as well ?

Thanks for you do!

Mike

feature request
 

I would love to access OF action items by context at a work computer (all windows) via the MobileMe calendar. I do not have an iPhone, so my current workflow is to print out a project's tasks in OF or email myself the project as a PDF at work.

Being able to set a separate iCal/MobileMe calendar for OF items would be awesome!

For a long time I worked on the assumption that using Apple's built-in data stores for calendar events, tasks, address book entries, etc. was always going to give me the greatest flexibility and interoperability going forward. At the same time, I wanted more power than was available in iCal, Address Book, etc. So I looked for more capable third-party applications that still, preferably, used Apple's data stores directly, or if not at least synced with them.

For tasks specifically, although I never really settled on one, I wanted to use one of the little utilities like Today or Anxiety to display just the tasks I was working on at the moment. I also wanted to use things like MailTags to get tasks into the system. For the past year or two, though, I've been finding that nothing else out there matches OmniFocus's capture or (using Perspectives) selective display capabilities anyway. It goes without saying that OF is way ahead of anything else when it comes to organizing and managing tasks. So there's still a nagging concern that one of these days I'm going to want to switch to something else and it's going to be a huge pain to get my data out of the OF silo, but until then, syncing tasks isn't the issue that I thought it was going to be.

That said, this may be going a little too far afield for this thread, but one capability I'd really like to have is integration between OmniFocus and Daylite. Getting that to work smoothly would require syncing not just at the task level, but also the project level.

The only reason I use the calendar sync is to get tasks onto my Blackberry. Sync with iCal -> use Blackberry Desktop Manager to sync the tasks over to the Blackberry, then sync the tasks into SlickTasks (much better task manager than the standard Blackberry tasks app).

Of course I'd love to see a version of OmniFocus for the Blackberry, but barring that, syncing up with an online service like Toodledo would be an option also as there are task management apps for the Blackberry that will sync with it.

Thanks for listening!

Steve

I don't bother syncing with iCal; it's just too limited to be useful.

Instead, I love the Forecast view on the iPad. This fits the bill perfectly because it tells me when I've scheduled too many things for any single day. By adding the number of items listed under the date, you actually save me the trouble of clicking on each day too.

In a perfect world, I would ask for a calendar to simply be integrated into OmniFocus (and synced with iCal for those who want it). This way I could click on a day and get a list: Scheduled appointments on top, with my scheduled tasks below. Since there's a notification system built into OmniFocus, my appointments would still notify me via alarm. In the Forecast view, Scheduled Appointments would be one color, with # of tasks another.

Maybe out of the scope of what you're asking, but that would totally RULE!

heya guys! would love to see the due dated tasks integrated in iCal with a little more detail (iPad Version). This means that an estimated eg an end time would be needed. So the tasks will show up in the calender for example: 16:30 - 18:00 and not just a standard half hour for each task.
Also,in the forecast view on the iPad, in the later tab there would Be Nice to see a summary for the ongoing week so that you can See the whole week in a glance and decide when there will Be Time for some more things to do, without switching from Tab to Tab and keeping them in your Head.
But especially since the tasks in the forecast Show up with their due Time its an awesome feature. And, I think with omnifocus a calender is only needed for Professional sellers and, that's Not for sho.

[QUOTE=micamou;87561]Is there a public API to access OF's actions from another app? Maybe I could write to the "alarms" developer as well ?[/QUOTE]

Ooh, now there's an idea! Omni guys, are you listening? ☺

[QUOTE=micamou;87561]Is there a public API to access OF's actions from another app?[/QUOTE]

There certainly is! Every attribute of the OmniFocus database should be exposed through our AppleScript interface—which is available through AppleScript itself, of course, but also any language which easily bridges to AppleScript (including Objective C, python, and ruby). This is how we wrote our first iPhone web interface during the OmniFocus beta (before there was a native iPhone SDK).

We've included several sample scripts inside the OmniFocus app itself, in OmniFocus.app/Contents/Resources/SampleScripts. For example, there's a "Publish to iCal" script in there which seems particularly relevant to this thread.

Ken,

Random thought from someone [I]not[/I] using calendar sync in any way: if Quick Entry in OF (or any entry in OF for that matter) recognized a task with a scheduled "do" date, and was able to automatically move it to calendar app, that would be sweet for my particular workflow. This is one of the few features I miss from reQall: the ability to have one unified task entry system, but preservation of the calendar/task list separation.

OF is great, but it doesn't do EVERYTHING. I love Toodledo's extra tracking options, particularly two levels of goals that can be associated with a task. I can get info to Toodledo (online) by syncing OF to iCal, iCal to Appigo's ToDo, and then ToDo to Toodledo. Is it worth it? Not really. I'd love an easier way.

Sometimes, I'll sync up THINGS (via iCal) just to get another view of the tasks.

And sometimes it is nice to see tasks on an actual calendar. iCal won't show them on the grid, but BusyCal and SOHO Organizer both will. Mark Forster's latest Autofocus system calls for each task to have an "expiration" date. Seeing these on the grid gives a great overview.

+1 for an integrated calendar.
 

[QUOTE=jarrodjob;87515]My 2 Cents:
1. Code OmniCal :) to play nice with others. Use the same syncing engines in Focus.
2. Or simply build it into Focus.

Love what you guys are doing.

-Jarrod[/QUOTE]

I'm all for it. OmniFocus is my preferred app of this source, but lately I've been considering a move from OF and OmniPlan to SharedPlan Pro instead. One reason is the integrated calendar.

Calendar view is useful when a task that's part of a OF project really does have a must-do date.

"Prepare for concert" is an OF Project with lots of little tasks. "Pick up tuxedo from tailor" must be done Wednesday at 2:00, but is still part of the project.

Anyone remember "In Control"? The task list was an outline, but there was a calendar to the side. Any task could be dragged to the calendar. All very pre-GTD, but I remember loving it.

I have been singularly unsuccessful at any syncing solution. Basically, I wanted to used Omnifocus to save time and fooling with syncing takes too much time. I gave up.

Here are some suggestions that would help me:

A view in Omnifocus that shows OF tasks and calendar events in one view. I would like to be able to edit both right there in that view.

Ability to do the same on a webpage.

Not sure how to do that but those two things would solve lots of issues for me.

One more thing I would like.
I would like to be able to be able to view/edit in an OF that shows tasks related to people in my address book. In other words I would like to be able to focus on a person and tasks related to him/her whether they are delegated to them or tasks are just related to them. While I am dreaming I would like to be able to do the same with a group of contacts. Thanks

Could you just make syncing to my MobileMe Calendar work?

Yes I know this is a double post for the request ;^) but I am just upset since I have to use Things now for this delegation workflow ;^( It sees the MobileME calendars just fine...

This is my workflow:
. 4 Team Members @Contexts
. 5 Calendars (4 for them and 1 for all of us)
. Share 5 Calendars on MobileME
. Email each Team Member a link to their Shared Calendar
. Sync Things @Contexts to appropriate Calendar(s)
. Team Members receive Email Task Notifications
. Review new Tasks via Anxiety or iCal ToDo Panel (Anxiety is much nicer)
. Team Members can add notes or complete Tasks
. I receive Email notifications when Tasks are changed or completed
. Team Members can add new Tasks and I see them in my Things Next and then categorize them accordingly
. Completed Tasks are Logged in Things
. Rinse and repeat to GTD2CYA

This workflow is pretty fluid and I would really like to apply it in OF.

Thanks,
-policarpo

Hi,

I used to use the sync with iCal feature to get my due soon tasks into google calendar, so that I could use google calendar's agenda/notification emails to let me know what I had coming up today, without having to even open OmniFocus.

I did this in a rather convoluted way:
[LIST][*] Use OF to publish to my reminders to MobileMe[*] Use MobileMe iDisk to share my calendar - I was fine with the inherent security risk of this!!! I should note that I only had to do this because Google Calendar can't deal with authenticated calendar feeds[*] Paste that URL into Google Calendar so I could subscribe to it[/LIST]
Unfortunately this stopped working for some reason (I think it was an issue on the Google side) and also I'm currently trialling syncing with Spootnik.

Thanks,
Paul.

Calendar View for Organizing Projects
 

Trying to visualize all projects and their due dates is hard when you are trying to schedule a new project between other active projects.

When I think of time and scheduling I visually imagine the traditional monthly view calendar in my head. It would be great if Omnifocus had a calendar view built-in that would display tasks on days of the month corresponding to the dates applied to the task.

If a task had a start date and end date, maybe the two dates would be presented like a multiple day event in iCal.

Selecting one task would display some sort of visual queue of other tasks in the same project. Projects could be listed on the left like they are now. Selecting certain projects in the list would alter what displays in the calendar view.

Also, I'm not sure if this fits here or not but being able to create project templates with dates set based on the relative start date of the project would be awesome. For example, if you have a project template with 3 tasks and each task started two days after the previous task, setting the start date to the 10th of the month would mean that the first task started on the 10th, the next on the 12th and the third/final on the 14th.

Being able to create templates like this to quickly throw a project in a calendar view with a list of due dates would be beneficial to managing project quickly and efficiently to see how it's tasks fall within your already scheduled projects. You could then click and drag to move projects to different days. Moving a task to a different day from the default set in this template project could display an options dialog window to let you decide if moving this task would affect previous or future tasks by the same number of days.

I love how Omnifocus provides a list view of everything, but sometimes having a more touch/click approach to move items around when due dates are extremely important would be beneficial.

krisblack, sounds like you need OmniPlan instead of just a calendar (with planned OF integration)

[QUOTE=krisblack;88023]

When I think of time and scheduling I visually imagine the traditional monthly view calendar in my head. It would be great if Omnifocus had a calendar view built-in that would display tasks on days of the month corresponding to the dates applied to the task.

If a task had a start date and end date, maybe the two dates would be presented like a multiple day event in iCal.
[/quote]
One problem here is that tasks tightly specified are better put on your calendar directly.

Tasks not so tightly specified don't fit the calendar model so well. Consider a task that will take you an hour or two, but you can't start work on it until Monday, and it is due Friday at the end of the day. Is smearing that out over 5 days on your calendar going to be a useful time-planning tactic, or represent how you will actually spend the time needed to do it? And let's consider that you have a handful of such tasks, plus some involving longer and shorter timespans. Are you really going to be able to make better sense of your load on any given day, when this view shows you a list of everything you might potentially work on that day?

Go too far down this path and I think you really need a tool like OmniPlan to do the resource availability side of the problem.

[quote]

Also, I'm not sure if this fits here or not but being able to create project templates with dates set based on the relative start date of the project would be awesome. For example, if you have a project template with 3 tasks and each task started two days after the previous task, setting the start date to the 10th of the month would mean that the first task started on the 10th, the next on the 12th and the third/final on the 14th.
[/quote]
Check out Curt Clifton's Populate Template Placeholders script. Couple it with Dan Byler's Defer script for the part where you postpone portions of the project.
[quote]

I love how Omnifocus provides a list view of everything, but sometimes having a more touch/click approach to move items around when due dates are extremely important would be beneficial.[/QUOTE]
Be sure to send in any feature requests with Help->Send Feedback so they get into the development database.

iCal & OmniFocus
 

The way I use omniFocus is to build a list of things that I need to d, and by when I need to do them ... but I actually organise and visualise my time in iCal. Even the feature in the iPad version that shows the future tasks, whilst a great addition, is nt the same as a calendar. Tasks and events get added to the calendar from many sources ... TripIt, Exchange, a phone call, someone coming into my office etc etc. So OmniFocus is one tool to help me organise my thinking, but is not the centre of my planning ... if for no other reason than the fact that I can't SEE my days, weeks, months laid out in front of me. This was the way I was trained to think in the old filofax days ... for good reasons .. it works.

So, to have OmniFocus tell me what needs to be done and when is very important. Then I can organise how and when I do my tasks in iCal. So, yes, I would like to have the to-do function back please.

And I do agree with people who call for integration with OmniPlan ... to do the basic thinking in OmniFocus, then to do the planning and detailed resource allocation etc in OmniPlan.

Oh man, I am in a bag of hurt now. I can no longer use OmniFocus for sharing my ToDo's through iCal.

We were using BusyCal and BusySync to share our tasks on the LAN, but now since upgrading to the new MobileMe, it no longer works.

There are just too many hoops to jump through now to get shared tasks distributed to my team. There are too many manual steps now. :(

Please please please...for the love of pete, please support CalDAV so I can get back to using OF for my team work.

Sorry to keep harping on this, but man, moving all of my stuff back into Things is just a pain in the arse...the workflow is so different. Sure I can do it, but I don't like it.

iCal and OmniFocus
 

I have not yet moved into the new iCal calendar because it won't work with OmniFocus. I use OmniFocus to enter and keep track of all my projects and tasks and some personal/family projects and tasks. Other personal/family tasks and appointments are entered in iCal. While I manage those tasks in OmniFocus, I sync with iCal so that my tasks are visible in the to-do list. I am self-employed, and everything is on that calendar. I like being able to look at a calendar to get daily, weekly, and monthly views, see the tasks due, block off time to accomplish my tasks and have the ability to move those blocks around. I will be extremely disappointed if OmniFocus no longer supports that function - it was one of the reasons I moved to OmniFocus in the first place. While it does not work flawlessly all the time - 90% of the time I have had no issues syncing everything between desktop, laptop, and iPhone so I have information at hand in an easy format wherever I go.

Unified View of Events and ToDos
 

Just another vote for using iCal sync for alternative visualization purposes. I like to see a unified view of all of my events (created in iCal) and todos (created in OmniFocus) for a given day/week in iCal. I am sure one can also do this with the OmniFocus reminders calendar, but in the past I found it very nice to assign todos to different calendars (e.g., context "home" to a calendar "home" etc.), which also allows to filter the unified view of events and todos in iCal. Obviously, there may be other (better) ways of achieving the same goal.

Well I am back to using OmniFocus after a week of grappling with Things. I am bummed about our lack of CalDAV support in OmniFocus so I've resorted to sending each of my team members a .PDF of their tasks they are covering for the week.

There's nothing automatic about this process and it will probably add about an additional 45-60 minutes a week to my regular workflow.

Man, I thought computers were designed to make life smoother...I had my Delegation and Collaboration working thru iCal and BusyCal for a good 6 months. It's really hard going back to paper for this stuff.

Grrrrrrrr.....

The good news is that Things is definitely out of the picture for me. It felt like I had to consistently prune the weedy Things tree to keep it ordered the way I wanted it to be. How anyone can deal with that is maddening to me.

[QUOTE=Ken Case;87505]
So that huge benefit to calendar syncing is gone, but I know a number of you are still using calendar syncing, so... What else are you using it for? Syncing with mobile devices which can't run OmniFocus? Sharing tasks with other people? Is there something we can add to OmniFocus which would solve your needs more directly, rather than trying to shore up this sinking stepping stone?

Please let me know, either here in this thread or by sending me direct email at [email]kc@omnigroup.com[/email].[/QUOTE]

I use it to create for my daily timeline management. 6 of the most important to-dos are distributed throughout the day along with breaks and "gotta minute" time to deal with inevitable encounters.

It's critical.

Is everyone submitting the request for CalDAV support as a feature request?

If not, please do. :)

Apologies for not reading the whole thread, but I wanted to get my vote out here.

My wish for OF of the future is to be able to sync tasks with an Exchange calendar for work. Even if it was only one way, it'd be fantastic to be able to rapid fire create tasks on my work PC through onenote, and then have them sync well with OF on my phone or mac (which often follows me to work anyway.)

Having multiple places for my tasks is a bit frustrating--this sort of sync would be mind-bendingly awesome! :)

Cheers,

Jason

Calendar integration
 

Hi, Ken. Since you've asked for use cases and not a list of specific features, here is my answer to your question at a high level.

First, my demographic: I am a brand new OF user -- only a few days into learning the tool. I use a Mac and an iPhone. I have a work calendar which is hosted on Exchange and accessible from both my devices. I don't currently use local iCal calendars and I am not a MobileMe user.

I would like OF to become the single place I visit to get stuff done. To me, a meeting is a task like any other item I need to complete. I'd like such tasks to appear in OF so I can see the totality of what's on my plate at any time.

Often, a meeting is a task I need to prepare for so I'd like to be able to associate other tasks with this meeting in some way.

Meetings are scheduled into my calendar using Outlook or other tools that are customized to my work environment. I have no choice but to use those. Therefore, having a read-only view of my "meeting tasks" in OF would be sufficient.

Josh

Ever since I upgraded to MobileMe beta several months ago, I didn't have this functionality, and I thought I would miss it, but after several months, I have to say I don't miss it at all.

I prefer to have my calendar and tasks all in one place in the past for the planning, but now I am not so sure. Given OF in multiple devices, I can have one device showing calendar and another showing OF; so, the need to have everything in one view is not so critical any more.

As far as I'm concerned, the calendar serves a different purpose than a task manager such as OF; so, I wouldn't want to mix two functions into one.

Just want to share my experience.

Calendar
 

I did quite a bit of research before settling on OmniFocus and its ability to sync with my mac, my laptop, and my iPhone AND its ability to sync on all three with iCal. Though the process was not completely flawless, and iCal has its limitations, it really solved a lot of issues for me and made my work and personal life easier. That's why I invested with OmniFocus software and the iPhone app instead of other time or project management software products. I tried quite a few, but OmniFocus seemed to offer the best solution. Failing a work around for the iCalDAV - I would love to see a robust calendar function within OmniFocus, or have OmniFocus sync with a more robust (than iCal) calendar. For my needs, calendar + project management system working together = less work.

Ken,

Great question. I currently use iCal integration to allow me to view OF tasks in a more "holistic setting." I find that in order for me to work effectively, I want to have not only my tasks, but related material available to me as well. So, for a particular project, I want to see related tasks (OF) but also related emails, appointments and files.

I have not settled on a solution, but one I have been playing with is Bento. By synching OF with iCal, I can then have OF tasks available to me in Bento by virtue of the fact that I can see them in iCal (which is accessible directly from Bento).

Hope this helps.

Ken
Have you formed any kind of conclusion on this topic yet? It's really interesting and educational to hear of lots of people's workflow and ways of using OF in their work, so this topic has had spin off benefits for me, but I would really like my ical syncing back please! Thanks

Hi Ken,

I use OmniFocus on my iMac, iPhone and iPad. Maintaining a current set of sync'd tasks is important to my workflow. Having these tasks in my calendar (as appointments) is equally important, otherwise time goes by, as it does.

When iCal syncing worked it wasn't that good for my needs anyway.

The challenge for myself (and probably for many) is what do I look at for the day ahead. My calendar or OF? Where do I put a new task that I have to do? Is it part of a project?

My preference is to have OF as my one place to go, to manage and structure my workflow. With the iPad and iPhone versions I am never without it. If I have to open iCal for a calendar view that is fine, but I would like to see OF integrated for tasks. I would also like the ability to access the address book from within OF.

Hope this helps,

Peter

Hardscape tasks in calendar
 

Ken-

I stick with the cannonical GTD approach: I have a subset of certain contexts (i.e. "Errands:Hardscape") that I sync with iCal (although I am a BusyCal user). This way, tasks that must be done on that day are on my calendar. A majority of the time, if it needs to be done that day, I can also assign a time and an alarm to the task (in BusyCal). I evaluate these items during my weekly review.

A disadvantage of this is that these tasks assigned to the subcontext are not sorted with all of the other tasks in the "meta"-context (in this case, the context "Errands"). If I need to modify the task, I need to remember it is "hardscaped".

I have often though that a checkbox in the inspector would be better than a subcontext. This way, if the task needs to be in my calendar, that fact becomes a property of the task, not a context to force the property. I'm not sure how deep you could drive the info into a local calendar or CalDAV. It would be awesome if calendar properties could be applied in the inspector (i.e. alarm, time; maybe even specific calendar in iCal (you could assign the task to the "delegate" calendar in iCal or the "Hardscape" calendar in iCal)).

The other half of this is what happens to the task on the calendar. I send my "hardscaped" tasks to specific calendars. When reviewing my calendar, I delete all the tasks in that calendar (if I need to keep the task on my calendar for some reason, I move it to another calendar). This way, whatever changes I made via Omnifocus are imported to it's proper place without worry of duplicate tasks, etc. Of course, if I could know that I could reliably check a task as "done" in BusyCal, and a sync would modify it correctly in OmniFocus, I would do that. But Sync Services is fragile and I choose the more labor intensive management to avoid the frustration of having to unwind the damage Sync Services had wrought. Obviously, Omni would love Sync Services to be more reliable also. I have often wondered if Omni would benefit from forming a relationship with calendar suppliers (Google, BusyCal) and develop a sync program that runs out of system preferences.

To sum up, I would like to see calendar syncing being driven as a property in the inspector, and would like to see Omni bypass Apple's sync (and attending issues) by developing Omni's own sync service.

Thank you for soliciting feedback on this issue.

Thanks for asking!!! I was just bemoaning the fact that I cannot make my iCal events visible in the Forecast view on the iPad OF app. The Forecast is great to see whether my tasks are distributed ok. In this context it would be great to right there have a chance to see iCal events to see whether my scheduling of tasks and projects might clash with appointments, travel etc that I have logged into my iCal calendars. That option would truly integrate the Forecast view (which I sincerely hope will soon also be available in the OF Mac application!) into my planning! Thanks!!

So here's what I am currently doing using a competing product* via MobileMe.

. Create a Calendar called SharedTasks
. Share it with my Wife
. She accepts my request to Share the Calendar
. She opens the competing app
. Syncs
. Sees the newly Shared Calendar
. Adds a handful of items
. Syncs
. I get an email notifying me that she's added some things
. I open the competing app
. Syncs
. Review the new items
. Accomplish the tasks
. Check them off
. Syncs
. She gets an email that I've finished the tasks
. She opens the competing app
. Syncs
. Sees that they are checked off and that I've added notes to them as well
. Rinse and Repeat

I still don't understand why sharing Tasks is such a burden to accomplish in OmniFocus?????

I want my Tasks to be free and Shareable with my Wife, my Team, and all my collaborators. :)

Thanks,
-policarpo

*The competing product is 2Do on the iOS platform. You guys should really look @ it and see how they elegantly handle the following:
. Sharing
. Deferring
. Editing
. iCal Support
. Emailing

[QUOTE=policarpo;90110]

I still don't understand why sharing Tasks is such a burden to accomplish in OmniFocus?????

[/QUOTE]

Because that's not what it's designed to do? It's really not a task sharing/task delegation application. That's what YOU WANT it to be, but it wasn't one of the top 100 features I'm sure in the design of 1.x. It probably wasn't even considered. You've just managed to cobble together something that works, but it's complicated.

[QUOTE=CatOne;90121]Because that's not what it's designed to do? It's really not a task sharing/task delegation application. That's what YOU WANT it to be, but it wasn't one of the top 100 features I'm sure in the design of 1.x. It probably wasn't even considered. You've just managed to cobble together something that works, but it's complicated.[/QUOTE]

I'm not talking about the past, I am talking about the Present and Future (and where OF should go). This thread is about how we use iCal, or want to use it. I know I am a broken record on this subject, but as GTD gets more Main Stream, this feature of collaboration and sharing of Tasks is central to a Knowledge Workers workflow (heck, just sharing a simple repeatable Grocery list with the wife eases friction in life).

. Emailing Tasks is in the iPad (but one @ a time) - weird oversight IMHO
. No Emailing on Desktop or iPhone
. No iCal syncing of any sort anymore (just this weird local syncing to iCal)

I had once cobbled something usable together...but I can no longer sync Tasks to iCal. :^( My collaborative tasks are essentially in a silo now and live on as .PDF docs I send out to my team - so 20th Century ya know :)

The forecast feature on the iPad is great and I would love to see it on the desktop version. With that feature on the iPad I've stopped using the iCal sync to see how many tasks I had on certain days.

The only thing I can imagine that would be nice is to see on my calendar the number of tasks I have planned on days. I'm not sure something like that is possible with iCal (perhaps with Busysync, which I use, but iCal is more accepted. If it works on iCal, it works on Busysync).

--edit
Something else that would be great is if you can sync start dates to your calendar. That way you can see from a birds eyeview how your upcoming days/week can look like.

New here, still a way from ninja (+ loose with GTD ) but few observations/ comments.

Current iCal sync has ltd value for me as it lists *all* tasks and not as events.

Firstly here's my ideal scenario. (ignoring where i do it for now)

- Ability to show due actions on daily, week (poss mth) view calendar as events.

- *key* Ability to drag & drop actions within cal to amend time/dates/durations + add time/due date to non scheduled actions by dragging it onto cal view from a list (right pane) - non scheduled list also filterable by keyword.

- Ability to view other cals (ical/gcal etc) + toggle those cals to quickly see bottlenecks (also useful for delegation when at certain consult jobs)

Why:

Speed, often little time to plan day(s) ahead, work in manic places (freelance - ad agencies, media etc)- sometimes teams/sometime not, need to juggle/manage expectations constantly. Joint actions/events calender only way to do it.

How:

Best if could do drag drop/scheduling in OF but still big value to sync to calendar. However needs event changes in one to reflects in other (true sync)

Can kinda do above with iCal/OF currently but the *all* task list in ical is overwhelming + have to copy task to an ical event. I want to *sync* iCal/OF inc time/dates/durations changes.

I think following option in OF ICal sync prefs (+ full auto sync engine) would go way to achieving above. Outside full calendar in OF.

- Sync actions in 'due next xx days OR All' as 'event OR tasks' on ical/gcal.


That'll do for now, past my bedtime.


Olly

ps. Some/All above would be great but already a fantastic piece of software doing wonders for my stress levels. Thanks

I agree . . . a very big part of my poject planning is to see when I might be able to do what. The forecast option on the iPad is great, but I still cannot see my iCal events. It would be good to allocate my actions to days without having to switch back and forth to my iCal to see whether I might actually have back to back meetings on that day or am out travelling.
Visual integration of iCal events with OF Project planning would really up the potential of making OF my central point for project planning AND time allocation.


[QUOTE=AE Thanh;90215]The forecast feature on the iPad is great and I would love to see it on the desktop version. With that feature on the iPad I've stopped using the iCal sync to see how many tasks I had on certain days.

The only thing I can imagine that would be nice is to see on my calendar the number of tasks I have planned on days. I'm not sure something like that is possible with iCal (perhaps with Busysync, which I use, but iCal is more accepted. If it works on iCal, it works on Busysync).

--edit
Something else that would be great is if you can sync start dates to your calendar. That way you can see from a birds eyeview how your upcoming days/week can look like.[/QUOTE]

Is there any resolution/action on this yet? It has been some time that this is being considered and I really miss being able to sync to mobileme calendars.

me too, keep waiting...

[QUOTE=joeworkman;87519]I am using BusyCal at the moment as a replacement for iCal. I would LOVE to see better integration with BusyCal if you could work with them...

[url]http://www.busymac.com/[/url][/QUOTE]

Hear, hear! BusyCal is a fantastically useful program...

+1 in favor of this! I mean Oilbert's post! post 55

I primarily used the iCal sync feature to share my tasks and deadlines with someone else.

For my purposes, it is a one way street. I want to show someone else a current list of my tasks. But don't need them to be able to edit or add to that list.

OF is not helping me keep deadlines
 

[QUOTE=Ken Case;87505]
.... What are people actually trying to accomplish with calendar syncing, and can we find a better way to accomplish that end? ....[/QUOTE]


I need alarms that will remind me to take care of scheduled actions/tasks. I have to keep checking my actions/tasks, or, make another list on my desk(top) to keep from missing deadlines. My old Palm Task List was simple, but the alarms were effective and got my attention.
I've tried OF Events to iCal - it is not working for me.
I use OF on iPhone and MacBook.
Thanks

WH1 - is your iPhone running iOS 4? If so, there's a "due reminders" feature that can be turned on in OmniFocus' settings screen.

If you have the Growl library installed on your Mac, OmniFocus (as well as many other applications) can use it to pop up notifications that you can customize to suit your needs.

You can grab Growl here:
<http://growl.info/>

Do either of those help in the short term?

Not sure if this thread is still relevant or not.

I need tasks with a deadline to sync with a calendar e.g. Google calendar so that I can see appropriate reminders on a widget on my android. This is a show stopper for OF and I'm trying to find a way to do it.

Suggestions would be much appreciated.

Gazhayes, if I understand your request correctly, the "Publish due reminders as a calendar" option in Sync preferences should do what you're after. Does that help?

the problem is: Will Omni ever provide support to CalDav...?
waiting for an asnwer since october 2010...

thanks

amelchi

My interim bodged solution
 

In iCal I have created duplicate calendars 'on my mac' which mirror my real calendars in MobileMe and given them the same colours as their counterparts. They have the word Omni before the actual name, eg Omni Home, Omni Work, Omni Errands etc.

Then I mapped them over through Omnifocus in the usual way, and I can have my tasks in iCal, with dates, etc. I can put alarms in through iCal if I want and they work.

I collapse the omni calendar list out of the way, and it's a workable solution for iCal.

Of course this doesn't give me my tasks in MobileMe online, but I don't use that much anyway. But, it's a bit of a bodge job. What it does do is help with planning. No point in allocating a bunch of tasks to do on a day that's back to back meetings!

Hope this helps someone else who really only wants this function for planning purposes.

I publish my due reminders...
 

I publish my due reminders as a calendar. This works great for me, as I set alarm to go off one hour before the item is due.

I used to synch with iCal calendars but never really used that at all. Now that the new MobileMe doesn't allow for this kind of synching, it's not biggie for me. As long as I can view my task reminders as a separate calendar, I'm all set. I especially like the link back to OF that I can click on when using my iPod. Allows me to mark off the task as done.

Like others, I'd like OmniFocus to sync with iCal/Google Calendar so I can visualize my to-do list on top of events. I often travel for business and have to set up projects between different groups of people in different cities and we all share the same Google Calendar to keep track of this. While it won't be necessary for them to run OmniFocus, it is necessary for them to know which tasks have been completed, which tasks I feel are an immediate priority, and where I will be. It's also a good way of keeping track of the progress of projects you've already done (e.g., if somebody asks me about a project, I can look back on my calendar and see when it was started, approximately how many tasks it took, how long it took, who finished which tasks, when it was completed, when major milestones were completed, and how many people per task per week).

To keep my data free
 

I am currently trying to setup Calendar syncing so that I can access my OF data on my Android phone. I think its great that you guys have a iPad and iPhone application but as your own documentation points out the calendar is the best way to get your data out and collaborate.

So put simply the reason Omni Focus needs to Sync the cloud calendars is because it is the most universal way for people to get at their task information regardless of platform.

Additionally this allows access from any web browser in the world meaning when you leave your Mac at home you can still manage your tasks from your works Windows machine.

In the end this Thread seems like the Omni Group is not interested in adding the needed support for syncing our Calendars with Google or else where. I hope I am reading this wrong but the tone and direction is of a developer trying to guide people towards the idea that they do not need sync and it isn't a good fit for the Calendar. And to that you may be correct but it is the prevailing standard and the Calendar is the location task lists get added by most software vendors.

I agree with Kris...

we need a definite word about the CalDav support...!

amelchi

There is nothing in this thread about the developers intentions except a desire to understand how you use OF "So that huge benefit to calendar syncing is gone, but I know a number of you are still using calendar syncing, so... What else are you using it for? Syncing with mobile devices which can't run OmniFocus? Sharing tasks with other people? Is there something we can add to OmniFocus which would solve your needs more directly, rather than trying to shore up this sinking stepping stone?"-KC

Couple that with the concept that OF and calendars serve distinct purposes and putting time/date sensitive tasks in OF directly is not considered among best practices for GTD it is not surprising that just CalDav syncing would be all that helpful.

Perhaps it would be helpful to post your workflow where and invite others to discuss ways to improve it and spark the imagining of new tools.

Sry to not read 8 pages of this thread.

I don't really understand what's happening here. I had iCal Sync through a WebDAV (which also is used for syncing OF for Mac + iPhone. From that WebDAV I also used the due dates in a subscribed calendar so they show up in iCal, making it possible for me to plan around due dates. Imo, very essential process for an App trying to organize tasks + timing.

This still works on the mac, but on the iPhone I can't find the "Add subscribed calendar" option anymore. Am I blind? How am I supposed to get this working again on the iPhone. Currently all due dates are not up-to-date due to calendar on the iphone not having the subscribed calendar. Where can I add that?!?


UPDATE: Solution found: Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar > Add Account > Other > Subscribed Calendar

when using MyDrive enter
[url]https://webdav.mydrive.ch/OmniFocus-Reminders.ics[/url]
then add your username + pw

This is the identical setup I have used in iCal to add that subscribed calendar.


Works great and is just what I need.

I, like many others contributing to this thread, like to see upcoming todo's and actions in a calendar view, either by day, week or month. This is what we get in iCal (and BusyCal, which is much better).

This is the reason we want good sync with OF. If OF had a calendar view, we wouldn't need iCal or BusyCal.

I need to access my ToDo's from something other than an Apple Device
 

I really like OmniFocus, however I need to access this data from non Apple devices. I have been a Palm Pilot, since that was a device and long before GTD was a buzzword. Since OmniFocus synced with iCal it was an excellent source database for my project planning. This allowed me to update my projects from my Palm Devices and web browser via MobileMe. But this latest move has completely alienated my other PDA's, smartphone and Windows laptop. I am now becoming reliant on Evernote, which is everywhere I am and on every device I have 100% synced. Since OmniFocus has limited itself as an Apple proprietary app- well not even that now since it does not play with MobileMe anymore, I guess it has become a relic of the past. I don't use an iPod, iPhone, or iPad, but I do work in a Palm and PC world. OmniFocus was my core task collection, planning, tracking, and execution platform. The iCal sync was a hub for this critical plan to be disseminated to everywhere I went. When I got back to my Mac, it collected all of the resulting status of my events and collected new ones from my email. It was a bit extended, but the automation was real time saver and very efficient. But I guess that is what happens when I use to many cogs to reach me. Evernote seems to have overcome this OS platform and device limitation, but I am having to recreate what I already have in OmniFocus and was already tracked in MobileMe. I have been a long time user of BusyCAL and really like it for calendars. It was great to update my tasks from within the program while I used it knowing full well that my master database would be accurately updated. From what I can see the tasks since the upgrade are still on MobileMe and they reference a URL that has OmniFocus in it. If OmniFocus will not work in a way where it can be accessed on the Web (OS and device independent), then it is dead to me. :(

Ok so I got bumped from the other thread. I read all 8 pages and I have no clue why no pointed out that a calendar view is simply a better way to organize time, especially if others are involved. Like QWERTY, calendars may not be the best solution, but it's what everyone uses.

Ok so I want:

[B]OF and Omniplan integration. [/B] I want to pick an OF project and then have the option to have that whole list of tasks show up in OP, complete with dependancies, gantt chart, etc. And I want to go backwards... if make a change in OP, for example finish a task, reassign a context, add subtasks, etc. I want that to show up in OF.

[B]I want to publish some tasks or some contexts to my ical[/B] I want to be able to take a list of dated but untimed tasks and have them show up in iCal as allday events... but after I take the time to move those events to my schedule, I want those new data to show up in omnifocus.

For me, the context view is pretty useful, but the ultimate "context" view that runs my life is my calendar. Please don't make me enter data twice (I already have a weekly block dedicated to updating OP, OF, etc... not to remind myself but rather so others know that I am busy for that 2 hours.)

(For the record, Ical is a piece of crap. But at least I can have my ical calanders and gcal calenders. Plus they finally allowed others to update subscirbed calanders, or so apple claims. Saddest part of the iPhone/iPad success is how poorly the whole mobileme implementation sucks. Leave me be with my dot mac address. Thanks.)

Sure, I could hire an admin to do this for me, but I thought the whole point of technology was to reduce as much scutt work as possible.

Thank you I will take my answer off the air.

Calendar entries more than one week out?
 

I only check in on the forums occasionally, and it looks like the calendar discussion has been going on for a while. I just found the "publish due reminders as a calendar" option; good, but it only publishes a week in advance. I would like to be able to have due dates far into the future added too.

Some of my projects have deadlines that are months in advance. When planning travel, for example, it would be nice to see all of this in a calendar view (integrated with the other calendars that I subscribe to).

And a side note... On the Mac desktop calendar app, if I open the note section of a due item, I can highlight the URL, and get the related OmniFocus task to pop up. On the iPhone calendar application, the URL is already linked, and a simple click takes me there. On the iPad, it takes a copy, then into Safari, and a paste.

Much of the hassle would be eliminated if a calendar were added to OF. And if that happens, I'd love to see a continuous series of weeks, in addition to the standard day/week/month views. If I'm scheduling something towards the end of one month, it would be very useful to see the first couple of weeks of the next month. The "month" granularity is arbitrary, and not particularly useful.

(and thanks for everything you've already done. OF is a life saver!)

[QUOTE=profmadden;93684]I just found the "publish due reminders as a calendar" option; good, but it only publishes a week in advance. I would like to be able to have due dates far into the future added too.
[/quote]
That's there to give iPhone/iPad users reliable notifications in iOS 3.x without relying on network connectivity, before the advent of the local notifications in iOS 4. For the purpose, it doesn't make sense to be exporting dates very far into the future—it just needs to cover a reasonable amount of time that you might be without connectivity. Writing the dates much farther into the future would just slow down syncing, especially when you don't have a speedy upload. The entire reminder file has to be rewritten on each sync where anything with a due date changes. Also, it doesn't give an accurate picture where repeating actions are concerned, because only the next one is shown.

The due reminders calendar currently goes out 2 weeks, not 1.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;93699]That's there to give iPhone/iPad users reliable notifications in iOS 3.x without relying on network connectivity, before the advent of the local notifications in iOS 4. For the purpose, it doesn't make sense to be exporting dates very far into the future—it just needs to cover a reasonable amount of time that you might be without connectivity. Writing the dates much farther into the future would just slow down syncing, especially when you don't have a speedy upload. The entire reminder file has to be rewritten on each sync where anything with a due date changes. Also, it doesn't give an accurate picture where repeating actions are concerned, because only the next one is shown.

The due reminders calendar currently goes out 2 weeks, not 1.[/QUOTE]

That makes some sense; it there a better way to get long-range visibility of deadlines in a calendar view? For example, I've got research proposal deadlines that are close to a year out, and when planning travel and other things, I need to be aware of them. Many of the constraints that I have to work around come in through calendars that I subscribe to, so a "calendar view" seems the most reasonable solution.

I could presumably write a script that would periodically walk OF to get things with my "deadline" context, and then generate an iCal from that (any chance such a script already exists?), but it sort of feels cobbled together. I abandoned Linux years ago because I was tired of trying to stitch tools together with bailing wire, and I'd like to avoid going back to that life style.

[QUOTE=profmadden;93701]That makes some sense; it there a better way to get long-range visibility of deadlines in a calendar view? For example, I've got research proposal deadlines that are close to a year out, and when planning travel and other things, I need to be aware of them. Many of the constraints that I have to work around come in through calendars that I subscribe to, so a "calendar view" seems the most reasonable solution.

I could presumably write a script that would periodically walk OF to get things with my "deadline" context, and then generate an iCal from that (any chance such a script already exists?), but it sort of feels cobbled together. I abandoned Linux years ago because I was tired of trying to stitch tools together with bailing wire, and I'd like to avoid going back to that life style.[/QUOTE]

The forecast view on the iPad offers something similar Omni Group has stated they've heard this feedback and are thinking of ways the bring the functionality back into the desktop version of OmniFocus; this sounds like a good example of what that should cover.

What we don't have is a real timeframe for that yet. They said they wanted 2.0 in CY 2011, so I guess worst case 10 months ;-)

I use cal syncing to access OmniFocus on non-supported platforms (Windows and Android).

We need a web app!

Artist's Perspective
 

I haven't seen anybody address what I primarily use iCal syncing for, but then I read kinda quick through all the posts.

I'm a freelance illustrator who frequently develops motion comics, and I use iCal syncing specifically for capturing and visualizing tasks [I]without[/I] needing to have OF running. Rendering some of my video work and such means freeing up every chunk of RAM I can or face longer rendering times. Also, it's nice to have OF out of the way because when it's running, it can be just as addicting as being in my email all day futzing with stuff. (I know that's not OF's fault, but knowing it's always open is still incentive for bad GTD habits.) I'm surprised OF doesn't have this functionality already.

I'm not working on Snow Leopard yet, so maybe there are updates to get the Quick Entry Window without having OF active or activate afterward (which is why I don't like the Quicksilver script). I made an INBOX context which syncs with my default iCal calendar. Using FlexCal, I hit a few keys, capture my action, and then sync when I open OF for my evening review. Without context or project info, OF puts all the actions in the INBOX context straight into the actual inbox anyway.

In terms of visualization, I use iCalBuddy + GeekTool to display my calendar agenda above my synced next actions to my desktop so I can review all the things I should be doing throughout my day without having OF running. A scheduled sync would be nice, but since this isn't going to work with the future of CalDAV, I see why it's not implemented.

This is my two cents about OF calendar syncing since I'm a creative worker not necessarily a knowledge worker. OF is not very useful for visualizing or analyzing the progress made on my 'hard GTD landscape'. Even making contexts based on scheduled time periods (drawing, designing, etc.) or assigning estimated times to actions in OF makes absolutely no difference to me unless that translates into a visual component which I can assign compared to the rest of my time. If a task is going to take me more than 15 minutes, I don't even bother putting it in OF because it isn't useful to track using a list.

If OF doesn't want to implement some sort of calendar visualization, they could at the very least offer some progress status bars and countdown status bars next to projects and actions.

I think progress bars and countdown bars should work this way: When adding actions to a project, you [I]have[/I] to assign an estimated time to the action (default of 2 mins. obviously). The total estimated time of all actions produces a visual progress bar which shows you how close you are to finished. This would let you see how and where to assign your time especially if you have only three actions left and a long way to go before you're finished.

These should work in conjunction with countdown bars. When you set a Project/Action Due Date, OF generates a status bar representing the time between start date to due date. It then fills/counts down as time goes on. Maybe starting by showing days, then scale to hours, or whatever. This would easily allow you to gauge how much you have left to do (progress bar) in how much time (countdown bar), and probably help you prioritize projects with more to do and less time to do it over small projects with far off due dates. If your progress bar is about as big as your countdown bar, it's crunch time. You could tell this at a glance. As it stands, OF doesn't give you an easy way to find a starting point without doing extraneous flagging, etc. All of which doesn't display on the desktop when synced with iCal.

If OF had those status bars, and I could display/capture without having the program running, that'd be a dream come true. I don't know if that kind of implementation would work very well for team GTD or not. That's just what I use syncing for, and what I'd like to see replace it.

In any case, I'll probably never switch from OF unless I absolutely have to because I've tried almost everything else, and I only trust OF to keep my GTD fu in good practice. That said, I'll toss my hat in the ring for BusyCal integration and CalDAV support also. (Loved BusyCal but more than I needed at the moment.)

Rubbing my nose in it
 

I am really absent minded and muddled. To get around this, I use Geektool to embed important information straight to my desktop where I can't avoid seeing it - my calendar, my email inbox etc.

I prefer to sync to iCal as a way to embed the tasks I actually want to get done today into my desktop, where I can't avoid seeing them. That way, there's less chance I'll get sidetracked and distracted, and I might actually get them done.

There are scripts I can use to do this instead, but they're a bit clunky.

How I intended to use it
 

[QUOTE=Ken Case;87505]Hello, everyone!

Please let me know, either here in this thread or by sending me direct email at [email]kc@omnigroup.com[/email].[/QUOTE]

I am seriously looking at getting OmniFocus. My indented use of the iCal synching was to keep OmniFocus in sync with my CRM app Daylite. However, they are in the same boat with the new CalDAV issue. So this is no longer possible through iCal/MobileMe. Now, if OmniFocus and Daylite were to be able to directly sync to each other, I would be VERY happy. I really like much of what Daylite does, but it's data presentation is a bit weak. I really like what I can do with OmniFocus. I'd love to use OmniFocus as the front end and yet have the items stored in Daylite as well so I have the linking functionality it provides.

The why for iCal and Omnifocus integration
 

stumbled upon these articles from the NYT: (forums rules require that I first make a post, before posting URLs, thus double post coming!)

This to me explains pretty clear why calendar syncing is for me personally essential to a to do list, thus I'd tend to not replace calendar syncing, but look for a new and better version of it.

my ten cents :)

and the links
 

[url]http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2011/02/a-better-way-to-manage-your-to.html[/url]

[url]http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2011/03/what-to-do-with-your-to-do-lis.html[/url]

[QUOTE=Lusule;94151]I am really absent minded and muddled. To get around this, I use Geektool to embed important information straight to my desktop where I can't avoid seeing it - my calendar, my email inbox etc.

I prefer to sync to iCal as a way to embed the tasks I actually want to get done today into my desktop, where I can't avoid seeing them. That way, there's less chance I'll get sidetracked and distracted, and I might actually get them done.

There are scripts I can use to do this instead, but they're a bit clunky.[/QUOTE]

Did you try Rob's script to populate GeekTool from OF? [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=19419"]Script: custom OmniFocus action lists on the desktop, using Geektool[/URL]

"Clunky" comes to mind for any solution involving syncing to iCal (which doesn't even happen automatically, and is thus not reliable for someone who claims to be absent-minded!), but not for the GeekTool script Rob provided. "Geeky", sure :-)

We'd like to be able to publish the Due reminders to Google calendars. Thanks.

Next week it will be 5 months since the first post in this thread. Nearly half a year. Has there been any progress of any kind on this?

[QUOTE=marisa8184;94524]Has there been any progress of any kind on this?[/QUOTE]

Yes, there has. They've gathered 86 customer opinions with new ones arriving as recently as this afternoon. Was anything else promised?

Grumpy Dave
That's not progress, that's fact finding. When I bought Omnifocus, there was (for my purposes) a good basic link to my calendar. This was an advertised feature.

I realise that Apple moved the goal posts by changing MobileMe, which is not Omni's fault. It became obvious when the beta of MobileMe calendar came out that there might be problems with this function, that was months before this thread started. Quite rightly the devs waited to see what the full release would bring and it was interesting to have the questionnaire to see how people were using this function.

However, in every project the fact finding has to come to an end at some point, and planning and action begins. (Or a declaration that no action will be taken and the reasons.) I was trying to find out where exactly things stood right now.

I don't understand why you are so prickly about my polite enquiry. Absolutely nothing has been promised. You are quite right. Nothing whatsoever. That is exactly my concern.

A key function (for me) no longer works. I would just like to know if there is an update on how Omni are viewing this problem.

I apologise if my original enquiry caused you offence for some reason.

Sorry, I must have been feeling a bit Grumpy when I wrote that. :)

Anyway, to be honest I've only been using Omni products since last Summer but one thing that's crystal clear is that OmniGroup is not one of those companies that releases a quick stream of minor fixes and updates for their products. Releases are few and far between for them. I don't know if it's because they're understaffed, overstreched, or just plain slow. Maybe they have a very long regression test cycle? Or perhaps they like to put a lot of time into the research and design aspect? Whatever the reason, it seems clear that changes will come in their own sweet time and OmniGroup is not in the habit of pre-announcing their intentions or timelines. It's unfortunate but understandable.

No probs, I was just trying to find out if they were inclining towards or against any particular kind of solution. I love Omnifocus, but I'm finding it a complete pain to try to gauge if I'm being over optimistic with what I'm trying to get done in any one week.

Having to try to compare the calendar with my projects and time available etc, it's a bit of a mare. I loved being able to just sync it all up through mobileme and adjust the task pane to only show tasks scheduled for the timeframe shown. It was really helpful.

I'd rather let people know sooner rather than later if a schedule will have to slip, but if I do that and then get it done in time, I look stupid, so it's a balancing act. Personally I think all my problems would be solved if I could just have one week with no phone calls and no meetings :)

Do you typically put duration estimates on your tasks, and if so, are they generally accurate? There's a script floating around that sums up the estimates of the selected tasks. If you have an estimate of how much time you have available for the next <insert your favorite measure here>, you could select the tasks that fall due in that same interval, run the script, and see if there's a problem. Less fiddling around than trying to schedule everything on the calendar, and less time wasted rescheduling everything when it doesn't work out the way you planned (which seems to be DA's beef with making lists of what you are going to do today).

[QUOTE=marisa8184;94563]I love Omnifocus, but I'm finding it a complete pain to try to gauge if I'm being over optimistic with what I'm trying to get done in any one week.

Having to try to compare the calendar with my projects and time available etc, it's a bit of a mare. I loved being able to just sync it all up through mobileme and adjust the task pane to only show tasks scheduled for the timeframe shown. It was really helpful.[/QUOTE]

I wonder how hard it would be to write up a script that would take a timeframe and then make a table of the meetings and the due tasks in a particular week.

I have to say that I'm surprised that is helpful information, though. In my experience, the further out I am looking the less I know about what will actually be due at the particular time.

I think I remember seeing some note on the forums that they were planning on bringing the ipad version's forecast view to the mac. I'm sure, like anything, it's something that takes time.

[QUOTE=marisa8184;94563]I'd rather let people know sooner rather than later if a schedule will have to slip, but if I do that and then get it done in time, I look stupid, so it's a balancing act. [/QUOTE]

Why would that make you look stupid? To me that would make you look like a hard worker.

[QUOTE=Lucas;94569]
Why would that make you look stupid? To me that would make you look like a hard worker.[/QUOTE]
One example is when the organization spends a bunch of money that it didn't have to because you thought you weren't going to get your part done in time. While that may be better than what happens if you don't get it done in time and didn't raise the warning, it still tends to make you look like someone who has trouble managing their work.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;94576]One example is when the organization spends a bunch of money that it didn't have to because you thought you weren't going to get your part done in time. While that may be better than what happens if you don't get it done in time and didn't raise the warning, it still tends to make you look like someone who has trouble managing their work.[/QUOTE]

Yes, ok, I guess it might depend on your customers or colleagues.

Would love to share tasks with other people -- especially sharing lists and misc items with my wife!!

In a discussion with Ken this morning, we realized that we hadn't mentioned to folks that the feature still works just fine as it did in the past. (With local calendars.)

Switching to the MobileMe servers converts all your existing calendars to an incompatible format, but you can still use iCal to make a new local one (File -> New Calendar -> On My Mac) and sync OmniFocus with that just as you have in the past. Sorry we didn't mention that earlier!

(We still have a feature request open for adding CalDAV support in a future version, of course.)

Sync with MobileMe's new CalDAV service?
 

I am currently using OmniFocus for Mac, iPhone and iPad for tasks, and BusyCal on Mac for calendar (+iCal to be able to subscribe to public calendars).

On iPhone and iPad I use Pocket Informant for calendar.

What I am missing is a proper way to have access to my OmniFocus data through my calendars, be it on my Mac, my iPhone or my iPad.

Will OmniGroup develop a sync option using Apple's new MobileMe CalDAV solution with XML lists for tasks, or is it possible to use the existing WebDAV solution in that way?

Merging your post with an existing thread that contains the info you're looking for, but wanted to post here so the forum software notified you about what I was doing. :-)