Integrating Windows at work and Mac based GTD
 

Like a lot of people I spend my day at work using Windows. Integrating my work day into my Mac-based GTD workflow has been a challenge and a real impediment to making GTD a life habit. To that end I've developed a couple complementary tools to help me out, one for Windows and one for Mac. Together they let me add tasks and information to my GTD system from my Windows workstation with just a few simple keyboard shortcuts.

With these tools you can add tasks to OmniFocus and/or save information from emails, web pages, and other documents. The data is transferred from Windows your your Mac either with scp or via Dropbox.

See the README file for a lot more detail about these tools. I've been using them for a while now and the improvement for me is impressive. It's so easy now to hit Win-O, type "work on something", and hit enter. Done. Task quickly added to the inbox without the need to navigate around or find the right window.

Once the tools are installed and running the following actions will be a keyboard shortcut away in Windows:
[LIST][*]Add a task to OmniFocus using the currently active email or web page.[*]Add a web archive to Yojimbo[*]Add a web archive to Yojimbo and a related task to OmniFocus[*]Add a bookmark to Yojimbo[*]Add a bookmark to Yojimbo and a related task to OmniFocus[*]Add a note to Yojimbo[*]Add a note to Yojimbo and a related task to OmniFocus[*]Add a task to OmniFocus using a freeform Quick Input Panel[*]Add a note to Yojimbo using a freeform Quick Input Panel[/LIST]Notes:
• Only plain text is allowed at this time.
• Some actions will only trigger when used within an appropriate application.

I've updated the file in the first post to v1.1
[LIST][*]Added Internet Explorer support on Windows the same as Firefox.[*]Uses Growl on the Mac only if it's installed and enabled.[*]Reduced the pleonastic verbosity of the README file.[/LIST]

Have only just started experimenting with this, using the Windows-O and Windows-T functions.

It works well and should be really useful.

Thanks very much GrumpyDave!

GrumpyDave, this is pretty great. Thanks for posting it! I'll look and see if there's a bit we can flip to make disk images uploadable.

Okay, I see where I can turn them on, but disk images are (AFAICT) at a minimum, 7MB in size. That's an awfully big attachment. I think that's actually why .zip files are enabled but disk image files aren't.

Brian,

for an existence proof otherwise, see the attachment to this post. Created it with DropDMG.

Thanks Brian! The DMG contained in the attached ZIP file is only 40K. Created with DropDMG just like Bill's example.

[QUOTE=hooverbag;92675]It works well and should be really useful.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the feedback. I was starting to wonder if anyone was interested. I thought perhaps the prominent mention of Yojimbo was distracting from the fact that it's still useful for just OmniFocus users too (hence why I posted it here).

FWIW, even though it does what I need in its current state, I'm working on adding EagleFiler and DEVONthink support too. Umm, not that I'm supposed to be discussing future development plans or anything :)

[QUOTE=hooverbag;92675]Have only just started experimenting with this, using the Windows-O and Windows-T functions.

It works well and should be really useful.

Thanks very much GrumpyDave![/QUOTE]

Not working for me. I think I installed everything right. I'm using dropbox and made the changes in the script to make that work. If I hit widows O I get the data entry screen. After I enter the data. I hit ok and it says Request qued. But when I look in the assigned dropbox folder, there's nothing in there.

Want to make sure the files were getting into the drop box before activating applescript and folder action. Have I done something wrong here?

TIA

Hmm, you should only receive the "Request Queued" message if the file was successfully written to disk. Can you paste exactly what your "SetWorkingDir ..." line is in the Win2GTD.ahk file? Can you also log in to the Dropbox website and check the list of deleted files to see if it thinks the file ever existed? You might want to temporarily point to a directory on your hard drive instead of Dropbox until we can figure this out.

I have Windows machines at work too.

I don't bother using the work machine for GTD management.

I have an iPad with OF for iPad that I use instead (I used to use an iPod Touch with OF for iPhone/iPod Touch, and still use from time to time to be sure I have my lists and ubiquitous capture with me when the iPad is impractical)

The various OF's sync very nicely and the added expense of a an iPod Touch and OF software would be worth it, over this kind of kludge.

First of all thanks a lot for this very useful scripts.

I used IE8 on Win7 in VMWare to test it and when hitting Win+T (or Win+Shift+T) nothing happens. I had text selected in the website and the location bar as well as no text at all. Hitting Win+O works great.

Any suggestions?

BTW, how to get rid of the Yojimbo stuff? I don’t use this program and I’m already using conflicting shortcuts for other AHK scripts at work.

Thanks in advance.

[QUOTE=kingsinger;93148]After I enter the data. I hit ok and it says Request qued. But when I look in the assigned dropbox folder, there's nothing in there.[/QUOTE]

Kingsinger, I may have found your problem. There's a sequence bug in the script that causes the working directory you set to not be used if it doesn't already exist, even though that's a condition I accounted for. Chances are all the files you generated are sitting in the same directory as the script. Please take a look and let me know if that's the case.

I'm posting a new version of the tool in a few minutes that will have a fix for that.

[QUOTE=Dalmet;93569]I used IE8 on Win7 in VMWare to test it and when hitting Win+T (or Win+Shift+T) nothing happens. I had text selected in the website and the location bar as well as no text at all.[/QUOTE]

The "Task" shortcut only fires if Firefox, IE, or Outlook are the active window and you've already said you're in IE. The script you have knows IE is active by looking at the window title for the string "[I]Microsoft[/I] Internet Explorer". Well, it turns out that my employer gives us a modified version of IE with that title. The real IE has the title "[I]Windows[/I] Internet Explorer". I'm posting a new version of the script in a few minutes that will include a fix to inspect the window class instead of the title for IE. That should fix your problem. Thanks for reporting it.

[QUOTE=Dalmet;93569]BTW, how to get rid of the Yojimbo stuff? I don’t use this program and I’m already using conflicting shortcuts for other AHK scripts at work.[/QUOTE]

Glad you asked! The new version of the tool I'm posting in a few minutes uses an ini file for customization and lets you easily change the key combinations for each hotkey action. Setting one to an empty value will disable the function entirely.

Updated to v1.2
 

I've updated the file in the first post to v1.2
[LIST][*]Moved all the configuration options to an ini file on Windows to make future script updates easier.[*]Added the ability to change the keystroke combinations for each hotkey action. Setting any key sequence to a null value will disable the action. This is handy to disable Yojimbo if not needed or to map your Windows and Mac shortcuts to the same keys where possible.[*]Changed the naming convention of the transaction files.[*]The folder action script on the Mac now silently ignores unrecognized files.[*]Now includes a pre-compiled standalone executable of the Windows script. You no longer need to install AutoHotKey. The script is still included if you prefer to run from source. There is no performance gain either way.[*]Fixed a bug where the working directory would not be used if it didn't already exist.[*]Fixed a bug where Internet Explorer wasn't being recognized for anyone but me.[/LIST]
[COLOR="Red"]Note: The pre-compiled script executable had to be removed from the posting due to file size restrictions. I'll be asking Omni if the limits can be changed.[/COLOR]

[QUOTE=GrumpyDave;93582]Kingsinger, I may have found your problem. There's a sequence bug in the script that causes the working directory you set to not be used if it doesn't already exist, even though that's a condition I accounted for. Chances are all the files you generated are sitting in the same directory as the script. Please take a look and let me know if that's the case.

I'm posting a new version of the tool in a few minutes that will have a fix for that.[/QUOTE]

I'll check.

[QUOTE=GrumpyDave;93582]Kingsinger, I may have found your problem. There's a sequence bug in the script that causes the working directory you set to not be used if it doesn't already exist, even though that's a condition I accounted for. Chances are all the files you generated are sitting in the same directory as the script. Please take a look and let me know if that's the case.

I'm posting a new version of the tool in a few minutes that will have a fix for that.[/QUOTE]

Yes, you are right. The tasks re in the directory with the scripts.

[QUOTE=kingsinger;93628]Yes, you are right. The tasks re in the directory with the scripts.[/QUOTE]

Okay, thanks for checking. That confirms that you were hitting the bug I mentioned. The new version attached to the first post in this thread fixes that.

[QUOTE=GrumpyDave;93630]Okay, thanks for checking. That confirms that you were hitting the bug I mentioned. The new version attached to the first post in this thread fixes that.[/QUOTE]

Just set it up with the new package. Seems to work. Is there any way to make it work with Thunderbird as well as Outlook on the PC? That would be kind of cool.

JL

I've updated the file in the first post to v1.3
[LIST][*]Added support for Thunderbird[COLOR="Red"]*[/COLOR] on Windows[*]Removed references to the standalone executable of the Windows script.[/LIST]
[COLOR="Red"]*[/COLOR] Note that emails sent from Thunderbird don't include the From, To, Sent, or CC headers. Thunderbird (like Firefox) is not scriptable and those fields are not available. Only the body of the email or the selected text will be included in the task or note. Fortunately the email subject is available through some trickery and is used for the task or note name.

Cool. I'm going to try that out right now. Wish I could get even that much functionality out of TB on the Mac.

Thank you very much for your work. It is very much appreciated.

This is so awesome! I've got it working nicely on the Windows side. On the Mac side I ran into issues with the folder action script. It only works once and stops after that. I couldn't figure out why (maybe the throttling?) Anyway I have Hazel installed and I edited the applescript slightly to use Hazel instead. It works perfectly. Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm wondering what the issue with the folder action is. I do know that without the throttle hack it does the same for me, works once then doesn't for a while and then works again. What version of OSX are you running?

If you'll share what changes were necessary to make it work with Hazel I might be able to add support for that in the next release. I do have a couple updates planned for the folder action script.

[QUOTE=GrumpyDave;94203]Thanks for the feedback. I'm wondering what the issue with the folder action is. I do know that without the throttle hack it does the same for me, works once then doesn't for a while and then works again. What version of OSX are you running?

If you'll share what changes were necessary to make it work with Hazel I might be able to add support for that in the next release. I do have a couple updates planned for the folder action script.[/QUOTE]

Hi GrumpyDave,

I'm using Mac OSX 10.6.6.

Here is what I did to make it compatible with Hazel

* renamed occurrences of _file to theFile
* where the script says "on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items" I replaced it with "on hazelProcessFile(theFile)"
* commented out the "repeat with _file in added_items" loop

I found a minor character encoding issue during my tests. I'm using both Mac OS and XP in German here and when I add a task with German characters (e.g. ö, ä, ß) on XP these characters they end up scrambled on the Mac. I'm using Dropbox to sync.

I've played around with iconv in Terminal but cannot get it to work properly in AppleScript.

I'm guessing the characters are being mangled on the Windows side. The basic version of AutoHotKey doesn't have Unicode support, but the AutoHotKey_L version does. I'll look in to what needs to be changed in the script to support it.

I have built the command

$ iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8

on the Mac into your AppleScript after that fixes it for me. However, I do not know any method where I can find out the encoding of the source file. Apps like TextMate can do this automatically but I have no clue whether AppleScript or the shell can do this. I've googled around a little without success.

Updated to v1.4.0
 

I've updated the file in the first post to v1.4.0
[LIST][*]Added Unicode support. The transaction files are now coded as UTF-8.[*]Added support for Hazel. The Mac AppleScript can now be used as a folder action script or a Hazel action with no changes needed.[*]Fixed a regression where the task notes on the quick input panel were not being populated with the clipboard contents when requested.[/LIST][COLOR="Purple"]Note: This version requires AutoHotKey_L on Windows. The basic version of AutoHotKey is no longer sufficient.[/COLOR]

Sorry, I was away from my Windows PC at the office for a couple of days. The new version works perfectly. Thank you very much.

This is fantastic, thank you for sharing!

Uhauu!

I was stuck in the windows world because of my work. Now I can easily introduce task in OF from my PC and see them in my iDevices!

GrumpyDave just sold me the complete OF package (Mac, iPhone and iPad)! I was using toodledo.

BTW, I´m from Portugal.

Thanks

Thank you for this amazing tool. I, too, was a Toodledo user, since I'm stuck on a Windows machine at work. This has me 100% using OmniFocus now. I also wrote about it on my [URL="http://www.40tech.com/2012/02/26/how-mac-only-omnifocus-can-accept-tasks-via-a-quick-entry-dialog-box-on-your-windows-pc/"]blog[/URL].

I'm using this with Hazel, but I'm not having any luck getting it to work the way it is intended to work (automatically/behind the scenes). I set up Hazel to watch my Dropbox folder that receives the tasks, and I set it up to run the script on any file in the watched folder, but the script will not run on its own. If I manually run the rules in Hazel on the folder, all of my tasks are added to OmniFocus, but only when I do this manual run. Has anyone else run into this? Is it something with the throttling?

By the way, I did try to set up as a folder action only, but I kept getting errors about Yojimbo not being installed (I don't have it), but when I run it in Hazel, no errors are shown. Also, I did have to comment out the UTF-8 line to get it to run.

well... this is quite nice, but as i understood it it's only working with OF for Mac, right? Not with the iPad-Version itself? I personally dont have a Mac but using OF at the iPad atm and it would be great to add tasks from my PC...

Hi jaemie, I'm currently using this script with Hazel too. I don't have any issues like you though. But I remember when I was trying to use folder actions, I also got some errors about Yojimbo not being installed. I simply downloaded Yojimbo from their website, put it in my Applications folder and the errors went away. I don't think I've ever even opened the app.

Sorry, I didn't see these messages earlier. Apparently I don't get an email anymore when someone replies in this thread.

Jaemie, not to pass the buck but what you describe sounds like a Hazel issue. If it works when you run the rules manually but it doesn't automatically then I think Hazel has a problem.

hubutz, I don't think this kind of automation is even possible on the iPad.

For those who don't have Yojimbo you can open the applescript with the Applescript Editor and remove the references to Yojimbo. Find the block of code that looks like this:

[CODE]
on Add2Yojimbo(_type, _name, _URL, _note)

...lots of lines here...

end Add2Yojimbo
[/CODE]

Delete all the lines between those two lines and add one that just does a return. When you're done it would look like this:

[CODE]
on Add2Yojimbo(_type, _name, _URL, _note)
return
end Add2Yojimbo
[/CODE]

Then save the file and proceed with setting it up as folder action script.

I don't know if I'll be adding any more features to this tool. I'm unhappy with the direction Apple is taking OSX these days and I'm actively looking at other platforms. That and I've lost the battle with the Omnifocus UI and stopped using it some time ago. I will try to help anyone if I can though.

[QUOTE=GrumpyDave;112849]I'm unhappy with the direction Apple is taking OSX these days and I'm actively looking at other platforms. That and I've lost the battle with the Omnifocus UI and stopped using it some time ago.[/QUOTE]

FWIW I mainly use OF for light management of document-based projects now – a kind of front end for DEVONthink, which is the main thing that keeps me booting OS X for the moment.

My attention was recently drawn to [URL="http://ethan.schoonover.usesthis.com/"]this[/URL] interesting interview (on software/hardware choices) with Ethan Schoonover, who initiated the OmniFocus project.

( He has now moved for most purposes to Arch Linux, retaining an OS X booting capacity mainly for the Adobe suite )

It seems to me that Apple Inc. and its shareholders have taken the view that the consumption-platform business concentrates capital faster than the work-horse platform business. Hence the progressive iOssification of OS X.

Inevitable ? Perhaps the future of work is generally more with open source, and the future of play (or at least the digital grazing component of play) with commercially-based consumer platforms, like iOSX

[COLOR="White"]--[/COLOR]

An interesting interview. Thanks.

Not to go too far off topic, but my dissatisfaction with Apple goes well beyond just the iOSification of OSX and the counterproductive changes that comes with it.

I'm unhappy with the extremely flawed MAS, the increasing tendency to obsolete their own hardware every couple years as if they were disposable iPhones, and their lack of a road map or support for anything less than the absolute latest version.

These are business practices that I simply don't care to support anymore. Unfortunately, it's hard to argue that they need to change when the money keeps rolling in by the truck load. About all I can do is leave.