Multiple databases
 

I've currently set up OF for several family members to manage our family farm. OF keeps everyone on the same page and remarkably I haven't gotten much grief over it. On the contrary, now that everyone is "Omni-ized" they want to know how to keep their personal listings private. They sort of need multiple OF's. Is this possible or do they need to set up different databases and switch between them (sign into different Omni-sync Accts)?

[QUOTE=Cohiba;101175]I've currently set up OF for several family members to manage our family farm. OF keeps everyone on the same page and remarkably I haven't gotten much grief over it. On the contrary, now that everyone is "Omni-ized" they want to know how to keep their personal listings private. They sort of need multiple OF's. Is this possible or do they need to set up different databases and switch between them (sign into different Omni-sync Accts)?[/QUOTE]

Easiest would be multiple iPads ;-)

No trivial way to change databases. It would be a real pain. The iPad is really a single-user device.

It's a little unclear to me whether the issue includes multiple users on the same iPad, or is just multiple users sharing a common database. If it is the latter, yeah, you could just switch between different omni sync accounts (but you need to make sure you sync first!) though it would be a hassle if you had to go back and forth between the common database and the personal one frequently, and I'm not sure the notification system would work very well. If you ever forgot to sync after making some changes before switching databases, you would lose those changes.

You could do the same thing if sharing an iPad, but there would be even more switching around required, obviously, and your privacy would be only as good as your attention to the detail of switching back to the common database (or just erasing the current database on the iPad) when time comes to hand the device to someone else. Not my idea of a fun time!

A word of warning: OmniFocus wasn't built as groupware, and there are some assumptions made that only one device at a time is making changes. If two of you edit the same item without syncing between the changes, the earlier change will be lost, even if you edited different aspects of the item (you edited the task notes and the other person edited the due date, for example). Frequent syncs help lessen this liability, but best of all is if you aren't all trying to edit the same part of the database at once.

Multiple devices
 

Everyone has their own devices (iPhones, iPads, and PowerBooks). The farm is one state and family members in different states. Everyone likes the ability to work off the same page and OF is simple enough for the non-techies but robust enough for some to add contexts. The problem is they like OF enough they want to use it for personal stuff without the rest of the family to see their personal itms.

OF did a great job for workgroups and also individual projects. So....how do I combine them?

OmniFocus 1 was designed around a single-user workflow. Better support for use in/by groups is something we've talked about for future versions.

At the moment, though, OmniFocus doesn't have any concept of privacy inside the database. It assumes you want to see all of the tasks you have entered, and doesn't take into account that "you" may actually be separate biological entities. :-)

[QUOTE=Brian;101261]OmniFocus 1 was designed around a single-user workflow. Better support for use in/by groups is something we've talked about for future versions.

At the moment, though, OmniFocus doesn't have any concept of privacy inside the database. It assumes you want to see all of the tasks you have entered, and doesn't take into account that "you" may actually be separate biological entities. :-)[/QUOTE]

Ok... I'm sure we can work around this. I'm just glad I wasn't missing something. You've got a great product and I'm pleased with your balance between easy enough for a non-techie and yet robust enough for someone who wants a lot of functionality.