Keeping reference material learned during projects
 

While working on a project, there are pieces of information learned, notes taken, that need to be stored in some sort of reference system for later.

The concept of reference material has been elluded to in different posts, here's another idea.

What if there were a way to mark a task as reference, so when a project is completed, reference tasks are copied into a reference depository.

"reference" tag for tasks
 

I think this would be extremely useful.

I think that note-taking programs are better suited for reference materials. Programs such as [URL="http://www.circusponies.com/"]NoteBook[/URL], [URL="http://www.flyingmeat.com/voodoopad/"]VoodooPad[/URL], [URL="http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/product/mori"]Mori[/URL], etc, are excellent for storing notes on projects.

My workflow for projects involves using either NoteBook or VoodooPad for all project notes and tidbits learned for reference, and action items in kGTD/OmniFocus. That keeps my action items lean and without distractions.

That's just my opinion. I suppose it depends on the types of projects involved.

The problem is keeping the notes with the project. When you have over 50 projects, searching through your notes in a seperate application offers resistance. The note being next to the task or inside of the project is more readily available.

Currently I use Memo Pad from Mark/Space the missing sync. It's an extremely limited notetaker, but it syncs with the palm and allows me to take my notes with me.

I use a program called memo leaf
[url]http://www.redwood-creative.com/global/memoleaf.htm[/url]
Which is probably the only application that I use tagging on.

In OmniFocus, you will be able to store rich text notes with attachments on your projects (as well as on individual tasks).

(Basic plain text note support is there right now in the current sneaky peek builds; the plan is to add rich text support before we release a public beta.)

Id strongly second this

Im currently using Backpack and it's really handy to just jot down misc notes relating to a project - FTP info, budgets, names etc.

It feels like the project view is missing a panel to dump stuff thats not actions/to-dos. I know each task currently has its own note/attachment field, but this feels a bit too fiddly and task-specific.

It could mean the difference between having all your stuff in one place, or divided over several apps.

But, I guess you have to a draw a line somewhere as to how much 'support/reference material' should be included.

This is something I struggle with as well. But for many of my projects I have so many different things (pdf's, assorted emails, written docs, graphics, ideas I've jotted down) that somehow attaching them to a task doesn't really work for me - it would be just too cluttered.

I like rich text support, and wouldn't mind being able to drag a doc to a task and have it linked to opening it in its correct app. But I personally need something else for management, either Devon or simply a project folder. Frankly, I still haven't been able to go to using spotlight and shoving all my docs into one big giant folder. I just don't trust that I'll find everything, so I'm still old-school folder-per-project oriented.

Perhaps, for 2.0, you could build on the plumbing OF uses to get to/from Mail, and use it for note-taking apps (VoodooPad is cool).

But ship OF 1.0 first!

For this kind of stuff, I have noticed that (currently disabled) in the Edit menu, there is what looks to be the start of LinkBack support. If you could slap just any LinkBack supported document into an OF note field, that would be fantastic. And yes, that does include VoodooPad, OmniGraffle, KeyNote and so on. It would be pretty nice to be able to brainstorm a project in OmniGraffle or Curio, and have that available in OF.