OmniFocus for Mac 1.9 approved!
 

Hello everyone,

We've made [URL="http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/download/"]OmniFocus 1.9[/URL] available on our site.

If you purchased your copy through the Mac App Store, the new version has been submitted to Apple. Once they approve it for sale, it'll appear in the "Updates" tab of your Mac App Store application.

If you purchased your copy through the Omni Store you can [B]Check for Updates[/B] from the OmniFocus menu to automatically download and install this latest update.

Highlights in 1.9 include improvements to badge counts, easier access to perspectives and a simpler setup process when syncing through Omni Sync Server.

For more information, including complete release notes, please visit the [URL="http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/download"]OmniFocus for Mac download page[/URL].

Thanks! And we hope you enjoy OmniFocus for Mac 1.9.

Can't hide item count
 

I just downloaded 1.9 and can't seem to be able to hide the item count badges even after unchecking the "Show item count" in the preferences. Specifically the badges in the contexts column.
Am I overlooking something obvious? (very possible).

The setting only applies to the menu bar and dock icon. Could that be the confusion? (They always appear in the sidebar.)

You know what comes after 1.9, don't you??? 2.0! ;)

Ah,
I can picture it now!
- iPad like forecasting
- sending tasks as emails like iPad
- collaboration
- linkage with projects

Mark

[QUOTE=mctheriot;95821]You know what comes after 1.9, don't you??? 2.0! ;)
[/QUOTE]
Well, it doesn't come before it, but it may not come immediately after it, either. Here's a bit of text from the OmniFocus for iPhone beta release notes:[indent]
OmniFocus 1.10 sneaky peek — April 5, 2011

OmniFocus for iPad inspired Forecast replaces the more limited Due Soon and Overdue listings from the Home Screen.
[/indent]

I surely hope that Omnifocus 2 will be a free update as well, because I just bought my Omnifocus license 2 weeks ago.

[QUOTE=Mau;95807]I just downloaded 1.9 and can't seem to be able to hide the item count badges even after unchecking the "Show item count" in the preferences. Specifically the badges in the contexts column.
Am I overlooking something obvious? (very possible).[/QUOTE]

It is puzzling why Omni chose to remove that feature without explanation. Fortunately, if you are willing to use the Terminal application (found in the Utilities folder of the Application folder), you can customize the sidebar badge display, including turning it off entirely on a condition-by-condition basis.

In the Terminal, when OmniFocus is not running, the following command will configure the options:

[code]
defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus <badgename> <badgetype>
[/code]

where <badgename> is one of:
[indent]InboxBadge, AvailableBadge, DueSoonBadge, OverdueBadge[/indent]
and <badgetype> is one of:
[indent]none, dot, count[/indent]
To remove any customization and restore factory settings, use

[code]
defaults delete com.omnigroup.OmniFocus <badgename>
[/code]

(This is preferable to setting the current default behavior, as that would prevent you from seeing any change Omni might make in the default behavior in the future.)

Note: all of these commands are case-sensitive!

The setting for InboxBadge is overridden by DueSoonBadge and OverdueBadge; if you have an overdue or due soon item in the Inbox and you've specified that they be shown, you'll get the display even though you may have turned off InboxBadge. InboxBadge might be thought of as InboxBadgeWhenThere'sNothingPressing, but InboxBadge is much easier to type :-)

Notice that <badgetype> includes an option not available through the normal user interface: dot. You just get a color-coded dot, somewhat smaller than the usual badge, no number. If you want a subtle reminder that there are actions in the Inbox, but not a number staring you in the face, or maybe the same for actions which are due soon, but not yet overdue, the dot is a nice option.

Just to stave off some potential confusion, I'll point out that these settings interact with the badge settings for menu bar and dock icon in potentially confusing ways. If you have set your preferences so that the dock icon count is the number of due soon items, but you've turned off display of due soon items (DueSoonBadge none), you will not get any indication in the dock icon, and you won't get a menubar menu at all! Similarly, if you turn on (InboxBadge count), but have (DueSoonBadge none) and (OverdueBadge none) set, you won't see a count of items in the Inbox whenever you've got an overdue or due soon item in there, because OF uses the most urgent item to decide how to style the display.

If you don't like the change Omni has made here, let them know via Help->Send Feedback. Similarly, if you like the change, also let them know via Help->Send Feedback.

A feature I'd like to see is the ability to set these options via URL (as you can do with the iOS versions). Had I had such a feature, this post would have contained a menu of links you could click to set all of these options. If you send in feedback asking for this, you can help me help you in the future :-)

[QUOTE=devastat;95830]I surely hope that Omnifocus 2 will be a free update as well, because I just bought my Omnifocus license 2 weeks ago.[/QUOTE]
Well, if it comes out within 30 days of your purchase, the money back guarantee will cover you. Otherwise, it's a major upgrade, and Omni traditionally gives you about 60-70% of the price you paid for any previous version toward the new version. However, given that there are two Mac apps (OmniPlan and OmniOutliner) due for major upgrades which appear to be in the pipeline ahead of OmniFocus 2 (OmniPlan 2 is already in limited beta), not to mention two more iPad apps (OmniOutliner, also in private beta, and OmniPlan), I'll be pleasantly surprised if we see OmniFocus 2 generally available under the Christmas tree this year...

Still no possibility to sort flagged items. (IE move them up and down)

That's ALL I really wanted for an update

:(

[QUOTE=jakobox;95833]Still no possibility to sort flagged items. (IE move them up and down)

That's ALL I really wanted for an update

:([/QUOTE]

A problem with any kind of manual sorting option for context mode is that you need to somehow keep a record of the order the user has chosen, both so that it doesn't evaporate if you close the window or quit OmniFocus, and so that the order can be synced to any other OmniFocus clients. Without that, it's a pretty slipshod implementation, in my view. Unfortunately, to add it likely means extending the file format, and suddenly it's a much more involved project than just twiddling the UI around a bit. My guess is you don't see it prior to 2.0 for that reason — they'll want to change the file format once, not twice in quick succession.

On the Mac, you can just drag and drop actions into another application, such as TextEdit, creating a list with your desired ordering. The actions will go over as links, and when you click the links, you'll be taken to OmniFocus and the corresponding action. Doesn't really help if you wanted to work off your iPhone or iPad, but it beats writing things down!

Anyone know if there are any benefits to using Omni Sync Server instead of iDisk sync?

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;95832]Omni traditionally gives you about 60-70% of the price you paid for any previous version toward the new version.[/QUOTE]

I hope this will count Mac App Store purchases as well.

[quote]Anyone know if there are any benefits to using Omni Sync Server instead of iDisk sync?[/quote]

I found the Omni server to be faster than syncing to iDisk.

[quote]I hope this will count Mac App Store purchases as well.[/quote]

Only if Apple changes its procedure so that discounts/upgrades can be offered through the app store.

[QUOTE=Greg Jones;95847]I found the Omni server to be faster than syncing to iDisk.[/quote]

That's what I was hoping for.

Is someone able to point me to some info on why the menu bar behaviour has changed?

[QUOTE=henry;95871]Is someone able to point me to some info on why the menu bar behaviour has changed?[/QUOTE]

Here's [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost.php?p=94921&postcount=7"]a link[/URL] to a post where I describe the thinking behind this change.

Hope this helps!

Brian, that post describes why the badges changed, but it doesn't touch on why it was decided to go from showing contexts to perspectives in the menu bar (or control-clicking on the dock icon).

Ah, right!

Contexts are a long list of things that you might potentially be interested in, but Perspectives are a shorter list of things that customers have explicitly said "hey, I'm interested in seeing these things frequently".

Rather than wade through a billion and a half contexts to find the one you might want, we now show you a shorter list with more frequently-useful options. (And one of those choices - the "Contexts" perspective - shows you everything the menu did previously.)

I can turn off the inbox count in the sidebar but not the other counts. I'm using the following:

defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus OverDueBadge none
defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus DueSoonBadge none
defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus AvailableBadge none

Any suggestions what I'm doing wrong?

Whpalmer4, thanks for the detailed information on hiding badges! I will try it.

[QUOTE=marcia;95914]I can turn off the inbox count in the sidebar but not the other counts. I'm using the following:

defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus OverDueBadge none
defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus DueSoonBadge none
defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus AvailableBadge none

Any suggestions what I'm doing wrong?[/QUOTE]

OverdueBadge, not OverDueBadge (overdue is one word, not two)

Marcia, another possibility here is that you're running the Mac App Store version of the app. If so, you'll want to use "com.omnigroup.OmniFocus.MacAppStore" in the command.

[QUOTE=Brian;95931]Marcia, another possibility here is that you're running the Mac App Store version of the app. If so, you'll want to use "com.omnigroup.OmniFocus.MacAppStore" in the command.[/QUOTE]
Had she been using the App Store version, she wouldn't have been able to disable the Inbox counter with my instructions, either.

One more reason for supporting the setting of these variables via URL: no need for a different string depending on the source of the program!

This also works, courtesy of Support Ninja,


defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus ShowSidebarCounters_v2 -bool NO

marcia - try this (from Omni Group directly):

defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus ShowSidebarCounters_v2 -bool NO

It worked perfectly for me.

What was the thinking behind changing to option double clicking to focus? You seem to have added another step for no apparent reason. Double clicking doesn't appear to do anything at all, so it's not as it's given over to something more important.

[QUOTE=DigiDoug;96034]What was the thinking behind changing to option double clicking to focus? You seem to have added another step for no apparent reason. Double clicking doesn't appear to do anything at all, so it's not as it's given over to something more important.[/QUOTE]

A surprising number of people would inadvertently double-click on an item, end up focused, and think they'd lost the rest of their data.

Option-Double-Click is less somewhat convenient, but much less likely to be accidentally triggered when trying to do something else.

“Focus in New Window” is also available on the contextual menu.

—Jim

[QUOTE=Jim Correia;96035]A surprising number of people would inadvertently double-click on an item, end up focused, and think they'd lost the rest of their data.

Option-Double-Click is less somewhat convenient, but much less likely to be accidentally triggered when trying to do something else.

“Focus in New Window” is also available on the contextual menu.

—Jim[/QUOTE]

I must admit I discovered it by accident, but found it incredibly useful. I don't understand why you would make your software less efficient to counter clumsiness without giving users an option of going back to the old, more efficient, behaviour (especially as double click does nothing now). I guess I'll have to email the Ninjas and just hope that it they think it's important enough to put right in the next version....

error pop-up after upgrade to 1.9
 

Just after upgrading to 1.9, every time a try to execute a task, I get a pop-up that says "Unable to execute SQL". The operation appears to complete successful (task disappears or moves), but I'm understandably concerned...

Can any one shed some light? Any one else seen this behavior?

Build details:

Product: OmniFocus-1.9.x
Tag: OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2
Date: 2011-04-08 14:25:07 -0700
Builder: correia
Host: tb106i.private.omnigroup.com
Revision: 147575

Xcode: /Developer
Xcode 3.2.5
Component versions: DevToolsCore-1763.0; DevToolsSupport-1758.0
BuildVersion: 10M2423

/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Configurations 147575
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Tools/FixStringsFile 134539
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Frameworks/OmniBase 146612
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Applications/CrashCatcher/Framework 116767
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Frameworks/OmniFoundation 147469
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Frameworks/OmniFoundation 147469
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Frameworks/OmniAppKit 146606
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Frameworks/OmniSoftwareUpdate 146952
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Frameworks/OmniMachO 112132
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Applications/CrashCatcher/CrashReports 112132
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Applications/CrashCatcher/App 112132
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/Nisus/LinkBack/Source 112132
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Frameworks/OmniInspector 130878
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Frameworks/OmniStyle 146813
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Applications/OmniOutliner/DataTypes 146929
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Frameworks/OmniCoreImage 112132
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Applications/OmniOutliner/OutlineView 144561
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Frameworks/OmniDataObjects 146813
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Internal/Store/OmniZuul 146699
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/ShortcutRecorder 145331
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/Growl 112132
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Tools/OmniLocalization 112132
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Tools/strip-omni 112132
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Applications/OmniFocus 147563
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Localizations/Resources/OmniFocus 147505
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/Scripts 147513
/tags/OmniFocus/1.9/GM-v77.75.2/OmniGroup/DiskImageTemplates 117265

Give the support ninjas a call (1-800-315-OMNI or +1-206-523-4152). It sounds like they've seen this sporadically, but if you have a solid case where it happens every time, perhaps they can get to the bottom of the issue.

Thanks whpalmer4!

Made the call, and spoke to support. The fix was to delete the cache file com.omnigroup.OmniFocus under home/library/caches. I lost all the changes I had made so far since the error occurred, but did lose the core data and I'm now able to continue

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;95838]A problem with any kind of manual sorting option for context mode is that you need to somehow keep a record of the order the user has chosen.... My guess is you don't see it prior to 2.0 for that reason — they'll want to change the file format once, not twice in quick succession.
[/QUOTE]

Hey WHPalmer, thanks for the insight! Totally makes sense what you're saying. I'll keep my fingers crossed for it for 2.0.

Interesting workaround you suggested! Don't think it really makes sense for me, but I had not idea you could to that.

It's really pretty quick to do, and useful in other contexts as well. For example, sometimes I'll want to prune down my flagged list to just a handful of items, but not want to discard the old flagged list and risk forgetting to put something back on it. I bring up the flagged list, select all the actions, and drag the whole lot over to a TextEdit window and save it. Now I've got a record of everything that was on the flagged list, and if I want to reconstruct the list in OmniFocus, I just click on the links one by one, an OmniFocus window opens each time showing me that exact action, and I can flag it, or maybe even do it, if I'm feeling unusually motivated :-)

Think of it as a way to take notes on your OmniFocus database and make lists without disturbing the contents.

The setting only applies to the menu bar and dock icon. Could that be the confusion? (They always appear in the sidebar.)

I hope a redesign for the Mac version is on the horizon. It works, but I prefer the sleeker graphical interface of Things which keeps things pretty and simple like Apple products. The iPhone app looks good but I love my iPad app :)

[QUOTE=Deedubau;97452]... I prefer the sleeker graphical interface of Things which keeps things pretty and simple ... . The iPhone app looks good but I love my iPad app :)[/QUOTE]

FWIW, I had comments that expound on just this snippet of thought in this thread ...

[url]http://culturedcode.com/forums/read.php?9,50297,page=3[/url]

So The Hit List is finally out and Appigo just launched Todo for the Mac. There's going to be some fierce competition in the Mac/iOS area and I really hope the OmniGroup steps up their A-game soon with Omnifocus for the Mac 2.0!

ios5 will support location-based todo's. Interesting to see on which base Apple will implement this feature

I think it's great to see some competition pop-up left and right. Omni has had a somewhat stable stream of improvements, but all of those were rather minor. There's lots of room for improvement for both the mac and iOS clients. I have no Pad so no comment on that.

And it's interesting, that apples notifications will, already in it's first release have features that OF for iOS has been lacking since version 1.0. (e.g. notifications popping up related to GPS information).

I'm really excited about all this. This will most likely increase development speed on all sides and be very good for us customers.

[QUOTE=FatalError;98492]
And it's interesting, that apples notifications will, already in it's first release have features that OF for iOS has been lacking since version 1.0. (e.g. notifications popping up related to GPS information).[/QUOTE]
I think that Apple as the provider of the underlying location services and API might have a slight advantage here, no?

Sure thing. But on the other hand, I know that there are already apps out, that ring an alarm if you enter a certain radius to your goal destination. E.g. let's you sleep on the train until you are 5km close to your destination, no matter what the trains delay is ect.

So it was possible before iOS 5 and also was done by non-apple developers.

I'm not trying to diss OmniGroup, but I think that (as I said above) there's room for improvement and having Apple as a new player in the task-management-business is great news for customers and will most likely accelerate development speed all over in this area.

[QUOTE=FatalError;98598]Sure thing. But on the other hand, I know that there are already apps out, that ring an alarm if you enter a certain radius to your goal destination. E.g. let's you sleep on the train until you are 5km close to your destination, no matter what the trains delay is ect.

So it was possible before iOS 5 and also was done by non-apple developers.

I'm not trying to diss OmniGroup, but I think that (as I said above) there's room for improvement and having Apple as a new player in the task-management-business is great news for customers and will most likely accelerate development speed all over in this area.[/QUOTE]

Speaking of iReminders, I'm definitely giving that a shot if Apple offers a web browser to view them in like their other iCloud services. I'm getting a little more than frustrated with finding an elegant, all in one solution for my todo based needs after a few years of searching (and jumping ship to macs) around. Toodledo badly needs a designer, RTM has a super unintuitive interface that relies on using hotkeys, Still waiting on Things to offer sync, The Hitlist is only run by one person (so you're pretty much screwed if something happens or he gives up on the project) Todo has color code based lists which I can't stand (Also hate the iPad app design) and Omnifocus 1.9 looks like a windows 3.1 app compared to the more modern and elagent looking Mac apps I use.

I'm reluctant to start a whole new thread on this, but does anyone know anything about OF 2? Is something under development? Will it be substantially different than OF? I see hints and rumors, but inquiring minds want to know!

[QUOTE=Stargazer;101151]I'm reluctant to start a whole new thread on this, but does anyone know anything about OF 2? Is something under development? Will it be substantially different than OF? I see hints and rumors, but inquiring minds want to know![/QUOTE]

Ken Case just tweeted that an OF UI update was in the works. Forecast mode was one of the things he mentioned. Check @kcase on Twitter.

Does this mean we're talking about OmniFocus 2.0?

In other words, will this be a major release cycle or another point release for 1.x? (Not that point releases aren't major in some cases)

Reason I'm asking is I'd love to get tags and smart folders in OmniFocus. Perspectives just aren't my favorite way of viewing my data. They can co-exist I think.

Tags can co-exist with contexts too. For those that prefer tags, they can just hide the context field and vice-versa. This would allow people to easily pick the way that works best for them.

The other major thing I'd like to see is better options for repeating tasks. Follow the path set by Things and The Hit List. For all of the things Cultured Code got wrong with Things, the repeating task part is something they got right.

Visual updates are definitely welcome too. I feel OmniFocus is the worst looking of the three major task management apps I've used but it's also the best in terms of features. So I keep coming back to it even though it's sorta terrible looking. It needs a bit of an iLife overhaul in the looks department... less overhaul on the features.. don't pull an iMovie on me. But definitely update the looks so that it feels like a real Mac app.

I know this isn't the best place to put this, and probably is too late if it isn't already in 2.0, but I second tags and smartlists. How convenient would it be to be able to keep my entire project and context structure intact and unchanged, and simply drop tags onto particular items to have them show up on a "today" smartlist, a "this week" smartlist, a "need to think more about this one" smartlist, and so forth. You can manipulate OF to generate most of these, of course, but the beauty of using tags is that you can do it quickly on the fly WITHOUT having to disturb the structure of your lists.

[QUOTE=Stargazer;101239]I know this isn't the best place to put this, and probably is too late if it isn't already in 2.0, but I second tags and smartlists. How convenient would it be to be able to keep my entire project and context structure intact and unchanged, and simply drop tags onto particular items to have them show up on a "today" smartlist, a "this week" smartlist, a "need to think more about this one" smartlist, and so forth. You can manipulate OF to generate most of these, of course, but the beauty of using tags is that you can do it quickly on the fly WITHOUT having to disturb the structure of your lists.[/QUOTE]

I'd love to see those as well. It's also the reason I've dabbled so much with The Hit List lately; that's exactly what it offers except it's missing some things I'd like as well.

I'm not a fan of perspectives really, and I am REALLY REALLY not a fan of the fact that I'm often forced to use context mode to use a number of filters and groupings. I have the "Leviathan" context, and I've tried things like just making @next and @someday contexts, as well as others that act as "tags" and using a combination of active and on hold context to hide things in project view. It's a pain because it breaks action groups, and a number of other things… :-( in many ways.