Hitting Return
 

From the Message of the Day - September 14:
[Quote]Hitting return in the title column will again insert a new row instead of ending editing.
Option-return works again to insert a newline in the title column instead of creating a new item.
Hitting return in a non-title/non-note column will confirm the entry w/o ending editing.[/Quote]

More kudos to the OmniGurus. Having to hit return twice to add a new action was such a small thing, but, to me, a large aggravation over time. Thanks for fixing that. And it works in both project/planning mode and context mode. Hooray!

Edit: Submitted as formal feedback.

Unfortunately the new behaviour substantially slows the entry of new actions, especially in the Quick Entry window. When entering new actions, you used to be able to:

part-fill in the context field
hit return to accept the suggested context
hit return again to close editing of the context field
hit return again to enter a new action (or option-return in quick entry, with return closing quick entry)

With the current build, the last 2 steps don't work so you now need to take your hand off the keyboard, click on the action you've just entered to close editing of the context field then hit return to enter another action.

This is specially irritating in the quick entry window, where you also now need to hit save with the mouse to close the window rather than just hitting return twice when you've entered your last action! Please change it back, guys.....

[QUOTE=al_f;21231]Unfortunately the new behaviour substantially slows the entry of new actions, especially in the Quick Entry window.

Please change it back, guys.....[/QUOTE]

Whoa! Sorry to hear that. Perhaps they haven't finished tweaking it yet.

The escape key is your friend. Once the QE is to your liking, hit esc to stop editing then return to send the action to OF. This also works within OF proper.

Optionally, escape cancels QE. I turned that option off in preferences to avoid accidentally cancelling. (You can still use Cmd-. to cancel.)

Thanks, Curt - didn't know about those key shortcuts! Will need to break the muscle memory of double-tapping return, but I guess that's the price of being an alpha tester. :)

I have tried your suggestions out: I may be being dim, but I can't work out how to trigger entry of a second item in QE when I've finished filling in the context field: I used to hit return to accept the context then hit command-return to enter another item, but if I now hit escape to close editing of the first item the command-return shortcut doesn't work and hitting return just closes quick entry. Any ideas?

[QUOTE=al_f;21231]hit return again to close editing of the context field
hit return again to enter a new action (or option-return in quick entry, with return closing quick entry)[/QUOTE]

Woops, sorry that broke: that's an unintentional regression. We'll fix it.

(By the way, you can also use Command-S to save your items in Quick Entry.)

Thanks very much, Ken (for the fix and the shortcut!).

I have to say again that these forums are pretty indispensable to me right now - I know all this stuff will be in a manual eventually, but it's great to have this resource to find these things out if you're too dim to find them yourself. :)

Thanks guys!

Return, Enter & Escape
 

I can see the benefit of Return committing a title edit and creating a new task.

But why is this behavior limited to just the Title field? The first Return in the Context, Start and Due fields completes a partial entry (e.g., "tod" becomes today's date). A second return in the same field does nothing at all. This inconsistent Return behavior seems like a usability trap/bug.

I'd like a complementary key to commit an edit in any field, including completing a partial Context or date value. From an earlier note, I discovered the Escape key does that. But it never occurred to be to try that because, to me, Escape has a strong association with Cancel, not commit.

From my first day of using OmniFocus, my right hand has been futilely hitting the Enter key to commit a change. That habit is STRONGLY set from applications (e.g., FileMaker) and from pushing the default button in a dialog box.

From time to time, I've considered using QuicKeys to have Enter do a commit. However, the Escape now seems to be the commit key for OmniFocus outlines. So binding Enter to Escape would now cancel dialogs. Sigh.

[B]Please[/B] have Enter be the editing commit key.

[SIZE="1"][submitted as formal feedback][/SIZE]

But in OmniOutliner and in OmniFocus, but not in the QE dialog, the enter key toggles note editing. Esc has always (well, since May when I came on board the alpha) exited editing mode in OO, OF, and OF's QE; that's not new.

I personally prefer that OmniOutliner and OmniFocus retain their consistency.

[QUOTE=curt.clifton]I personally prefer that OmniOutliner and OmniFocus retain their consistency.[/QUOTE]
Curt and I are both consistency advocates, differing only in what's consistent with what.

Both our worlds can be consistent if keyboard shortcuts are a user preference. Alternatively, adding a Commit action to the Edit menu means I can use QuicKeys or Menu Master to customize/add my favorite keyboard shortcuts (e.g., like having Command-H hide Photoshop).