Handling Project Support emails and other material?
 

I use OF for all my email processing by clipping it from Mail into OF. Some of this email is essentially Project Support. I can cut and paste it into the Attachments field of a Project but I would really like something like an NA that had no check box so that this PS could appear in the list. The current attachments list is a bit cumbersome.

I've submitted this as a feature request from within the app so no need to log this but I was wondering if anyone had suggestions about how to handle this in the existing OF?

Thanks - Michael

My workflow doesn't tend to involve a lot of support files, but I think DevonTHINK, Evernote, and Dropbox are the leading methods by which folks manage the files related to their OmniFocus actions.

If nothing else, running some searches here looking for threads that mention them should give you some starting points.

This is one of the more commonly-requested areas to get some attention in future versions of OmniFocus; I don't have any specific info on what our plans might be, but suggestions are always welcome.

[QUOTE=Brian;101700]My workflow doesn't tend to involve a lot of support files, but I think DevonTHINK, Evernote, and Dropbox are the leading methods by which folks manage the files related to their OmniFocus actions.

If nothing else, running some searches here looking for threads that mention them should give you some starting points.

This is one of the more commonly-requested areas to get some attention in future versions of OmniFocus; I don't have any specific info on what our plans might be, but suggestions are always welcome.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Brian. I got some feedback to this effect as well from your support guys. All I really want is easy linking from the Project to emails or files. For files you can currently do this but emails are not quite so easy. I'll search around here.

Regards - Michael

Michael, you can just drag a message from the list in Mail and drop it in an OmniFocus note field for either a project or an action. You get a link which will open the Mail app (if necessary) and produce the linked message in a new window. It's identical to the "Original Message" link OmniFocus inserts if you clip the email with the Clip-o-Tron, and occupies negligible space in your database. Unfortunately, it will only work on your Mac, not on iPad/iPhone/iPod touch.

Thanks. That's interesting. I had been cutting and pasting so you get the whole message not a link. I work a lot on a laptop so drag and drop is not so useful. I can't seem to move it via spaces or anything ? Do you know how to do this with limited screen real estate ?

I don't use Spaces, but I flip back and forth between apps frequently with cmd-tab. To do the Mail->OF thing, I would go to OF to dig out the project or task where I wanted to attach a link to the email, open its note field, cmd-tab back to Mail, click and start dragging the mail message from the list, without releasing the mouse or trackpad button, cmd-tab to go back to OF, finish the drag and drop it in the note. Looks like the default setting in Spaces switches you to a space with open windows for the application you are switching to, so there's no extra work. I do this operation whether I'm on an 11" MBA or 27" iMac (w/Magic TrackPad) as I've usually got a pile of windows in each app and can't see both source and destination at the same time. Just don't let go before you've gotten to the target app!

Thanks very much I will give that a try. How do you find the 11" MBA by the way ? I am very tempted but wondering about the smaller screen than by 13" MBP. I use it with a monitor and keyboard in the office so it's only at home and out and about the screen matters.

It's my sweetie's machine, primarily. I mostly use it when we're out of the house and she decides she'd rather play Plants vs. Zombies on my iPad than do some work :-) So, my remarks aren't coming from the perspective of someone who has used nothing but that machine for an extended period.

We've got the loaded version of the 2010 model, not the current offering. It's a nice little machine, and I've got an old 17" Apple Studio Display (bought with the Ti PowerBook G4 that also brought me in contact with Omni software for the first time) that can be cabled up when the small screen is too confining. I'm not sure I would recommend it for elderly eyes unless there's an up-to-date prescription for corrective lenses. Battery life is okay, portability is great, performance doesn't seem to be an issue as long as you aren't doing anything too CPU intensive (we don't use it to work on our big Aperture library, or convert DVD movies for the iPad). It boots very fast, and the low latency of the SSD makes it pretty snappy even though the CPU is no speed demon. If you want something that's about as portable as an iPad, but better for work requiring a keyboard, it's worth considering. We went with the smaller one for greater portability knowing that we were also going to get a high-end 27" iMac to handle the heavy lifting — if it's going to be your only machine, the 13" might be preferable, with or without an external monitor. Definitely buy it with all the possible RAM, as you can't upgrade that. I understand OWC does sell upgrades for the SSD. I'd say the main regret we've had with it is that we couldn't get this year's model last year, or last year's model a year earlier :-)