Feature Requests: User-generated fields & Tags
 

A lot of us have different workstyles, and it seems that the more open-ended a feature is, the more people can customize it to really fit their own workstyle well. So, I would love to see that ability to add your own fields/properties to each task. So along with context, project, estimate, flag, etc, you could make something that makes sense for you. Just add another column and tell it what kind of field/variable it contains (text, date, currency, time, etc)

For example, I would like to see an additional time-related field along with Estimate that allows me to put in how long a tast actually took me, and so I can compare my estimates with reality, and get better at estimating. But I don't see this ever being something that so many people demand that Omni would invest the resources to add it. But the openness of this would allow it to meet many people's needs without having to make the application too complicated or having to invest a lot of time programming/testing tons of new features.

A user-generated field option could solve a lot of people's problems/requests/wishes... just add another column and tell it what kind of field/variable it contains (text, date, currency, number, time, checkbox, etc). People could use this for all kinds of things, and if we all share on the forums how we're using it, we'd probably get all kinds of great creative ideas from one another.

Also, I would love the ability to add tags to actions, and to sort by these tags. This could be handled by the custom field above too, but if that's not anything you'll consider for the near future, tags would certainly make a huge improvement for my workflow. It might also solve a lot of other people's problems, or at least provide a workaround, for example multiple contexts could be handled by tags since you can have several. Or, another example, someone just posted a request for listing actions by each and every day... they could add a tag with the date, and then sort projects by the date tag, which would show up like how she wants to see it, rather than being processed into time with weeks and months and so on.

Anyway, I'd love to hear people's thoughts on these and whether or not it's even something Omni would consider. Thanks!

Nathan

Nathan,

The [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=5787"]monster thread on multiple contexts[/URL] gets into tagging and Omni's plans for adding custom meta-data in a future version. The [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=3836"]even more massive thread on priorities[/URL] also touches on another use for custom meta-data.

The short story, custom meta-data has been discussed as a version 2.0 feature. It [URL="http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/02/omni-invests-in-the-future-with-ipad-delays-mac-updates.ars"]appears the OF 2.0 on the Mac may be pushed back[/URL] by [URL="http://blog.omnigroup.com/2010/01/29/ipad-or-bust/"]Omni's pivot toward the iPad[/URL].

+1 on that nathanw

Tagging or meta-data could make a lot of people very happy and would solve a lot of those discussions Curt mentions too.

Please don't stall on introducing this feature in OF for Mac for too long, Omni.

Thanks.

Robert

Thanks for the replies. I'll check out the links to those forums.

Glad to hear Omni takes users' feedback seriously and is working on those features. Can't wait to see them (as well as the iPad version).

Closing this thread (and similar ones in the other OmniFocus forums) in favor of [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=28176"]the consolidated thread for this topic[/URL].