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-   -   Moving to OF from Palm/Missing Sync/ical - can I import from ical? (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=13635)

Don Richmond 2009-09-01 09:03 AM

Moving to OF from Palm/Missing Sync/ical - can I import from ical?
 
Hello all -

As the title says, I am a long time Palm (currently Treo 700P) user, for years using the Palm desktop on Windows, then in the last couple years working with the Missing Sync, synching with ical and address book on my Mac laptop. I've also been a fan and practioner (to the best of my ability) of GTD for several years, and have a pretty workable system set up in the Palm. However, the Palm's days are numbered, unless you want to switch to Sprint, which I don't.

I am exploring OmniFocus and considering getting an ipod touch to work with it - I also don't want to use ATT for phone, as their coverage is not good around here. I'm on Verizon now, and would just get a basic phone for phone stuff and use the ipod touch for organizing, scheduling and email - sort of like when I had a separate Palm Pilot and phone before I got the Treo.

My question is, will OmniFocus pull in all the stuff that I currently have in ical in when I sync it for the first time? I assume I'd have to set up the proper contexts and map the calendars to them? Is there a guide somewhere to navigating this process? I've done searches on this forum and found some more or less applicable stuff, just nothing quite like this. Thanks to all for any help - looking forward to getting started with OmniFocus.

Lucas 2009-09-01 02:20 PM

I would think that it would be easiest to copy and paste from ical into OF in batches.

Don Richmond 2009-09-01 02:41 PM

Thanks, Lucas - I suppose I should just resign myself to cutting and pasting from the various multiple places where the data is - some in ical, some in the Missing Sync, some just on the Palm in Bonsai, where I keep a lot of project plans in outline form. Just trying to get out of some work, you know? But it would probably be much better sort of hand-crafting it all into place anyway - it would be a heck of a review process if nothing else. Thanks again, and if anyone else out there has any bright ideas, I'd love to hear them! All best to all - DR

whpalmer4 2009-09-01 03:12 PM

Out of curiosity, what does a project look like when the Palm stuffs it into iCal? As I recall, OmniFocus just puts all the actions from a given context into the associated calendar for that context, as To Do items, not as calendar events. Probably you couldn't reverse the process to regenerate the project from the iCal data.

Lucas 2009-09-01 05:35 PM

Remember, if you have a a long list of todos that you are copying, OF can paste them in as a bunch of individual items. Also you can batch assign them to projects and contexts. That might save you some time.

Don Richmond 2009-09-02 07:27 AM

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;65875]Out of curiosity, what does a project look like when the Palm stuffs it into iCal? As I recall, OmniFocus just puts all the actions from a given context into the associated calendar for that context, as To Do items, not as calendar events. Probably you couldn't reverse the process to regenerate the project from the iCal data.[/QUOTE]

Yes, it's quite a mess, and I'm sure that just rebuilding it all via cut and paste is the best way - otherwise even if it's possible to make it flow in the opposite direction it would be even more of a mess. Ical/Missing Sync makes new calendars for everything - so you end up with calendars that are contexts, categories of to-do's, categories of actual calendar items - it's quite a mish-mash. The whole idea of syncing the Palm with the Mac apps via the Missing Sync does not work well, in my experience - too much pounding square pegs into round holes. I'm hoping for something better from OF and ical separately, letting each one do what it does well.

I spent a couple hours last night cutting and pasting projects that I exported from Bonsai (outlining program on Palm) to Palm memos, syncing them to the Missing Sync Notes application, then pasting into OF. It actually worked, as cumbersome as it sounds. Going straight from ical into OF will be easier.

Thanks for your answers - let me know any other input that might pop in, and best to all - DR

Don Richmond 2009-09-03 06:00 AM

Just in case anyone is searching the forum looking for answers to a similar challenge, I thought I'd report that I've succeeded in moving my more than a hundred projects (and countless tasks) from Palm and ical, using cut and paste and nothing much fancier. It took a few hours on a few evenings, but it wasn't too bad, and as I said above, it's a great way to get a very thorough review. Now I just have to get the mobile part of the equation happening, which I guess means an ipod touch for me, but I haven't made that leap yet - want to investigate both the things I'm not choosing (the Blackberry world for example) and the things I am (ical - just what will it do?).

Thanks to all as always - DR


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