Getting the Same View in OF as in OF for iPad
 

I use the Forecast view on my iPad. So today I am looking at a list of Tasks that start today. I am trying to get out of the habit of using Due By dates/times even though it helps chivvy me along into getting things done.

I would like to get a similar view on my laptop in OF. How do I do it?

We do have plans to bring Forecast view to the Mac app (email the [EMAIL="omnifocus@omnigroup.com"]support ninjas[/EMAIL] to ask for it), but in the meantime, does a perspective like the following work for your purposes?

View -> Context Mode
View -> Sidebar Filter -> Remaining
View -> Grouping -> Start
View -> Sorting -> Start
View -> Availability Filter -> Available (hides stuff that hasn't started)
View -> Status Filter -> Any
View -> Estimate Filter -> Any

That'll give you a view with your in-progress items showing, with the oldest stuff at the top of the window and the stuff that starts today at the bottom.

(If you'd like, you can collapse the groups you don't want to see, and then tell the perspective to preserve that setting. See below.)

If that view would work for you, you can save it for future use by selecting Perspectives -> Save Window As -> New Perspective
from the menu bar.

Give the perspective whatever name you like. If you want to save the open/closed state of any of the groups in the window, make sure the "Restore: Expansion" box is checked in the Perspectives window. (If it isn't, just check the box, then re-save the perspective from the menu.)

Does that help?

Brian, that's brilliant! It works a treat. Thank you very much indeed.

Andy
Shetland
UK

Note that such a perspective is also useful on the iPad/iPhone for seeing actions which have started prior to the earliest date shown in the Forecast view but haven't been completed. If you change the action selector to Remaining instead of Active, it can also be used to see items starting beyond the latest date shown in the Forecast as well.

On the iPad/iPhone, the grouping by date is always done on a daily basis, but the Mac groups by bigger and bigger chunks as you move away from today. It can be helpful to turn on the start date column display in the perspective for the Mac to make it easier to see exactly when something in the "Starts in the next month" group starts, and it will have no impact on the iPad/iPhone display. Just turn it on with View->Columns before saving the perspective.

Thanks a lot WHP. I noticed the start date of many tasks in my OF view that I hadn't seen on the iPad due to their distance away in the past.

I have ended up with a Day- and a Day+ perspective. The former is now and before, whilst the latter is in the past, now and in the future. That works for me.

Thanks for your help.

Andy

@ Brian:
thanks a lot for the great tip. works great on the mac.
unfortunately I got all tasks with "no start date" in the same perspective on the iPhone. Any idea how I can get rid of those on the iPhone?

@Andy
Your 2 perspectives sound great.
How did you manage to split the start date into "now and before" and "later"? Seems I'm missing something to make that work.
Thanks for your help!

[QUOTE=viellieb;98737]@ Brian:
thanks a lot for the great tip. works great on the mac.
unfortunately I got all tasks with "no start date" in the same perspective on the iPhone. Any idea how I can get rid of those on the iPhone?[/QUOTE]

Sorry to butt in, but all that I did was collapse them.

Andy

[QUOTE=viellieb;98738]@Andy
Your 2 perspectives sound great.
How did you manage to split the start date into "now and before" and "later"? Seems I'm missing something to make that work.
Thanks for your help![/QUOTE]

Today- has an availability of Available (now and before view)

Today+ has an availability of Remaining (now, before and later view)

Andy

[QUOTE=Dogsbreath;98742]Today- has an availability of Available (now and before view)

Today+ has an availability of Remaining (now, before and later view)

Andy[/QUOTE]

Thanks a lot for your response and your Help Andy.
Impressively fast!