Grouping Notes/Memos
 

Hi

I'm thinking of buying OmniFocus for the iPhone and then for the desktop later. Does OmniFocus let me group notes or memos in different groups? For example can I have a group of notes for financial stuff and another group of notes for work stuff?

Or would I need different software for that? I'm trialing Bento 2 but that doesn't help me with notes on the iPhone.

Thanks

Each action in OmniFocus can have a note attached to it, and you could certainly put those actions into various groups. If you're strictly looking for note-organizing, though, you may want to look at something like evernote; I have not used it myself, but a fair number of our customers seem to like it. They use evernote for their note-organizing, while using OmniFocus for their action-organizing.

I don't know if putting your "notes" and "memos" into folders will help. Folders seem to be a handy and intuitive way of breaking large varied lists into shorted bits.

Declan

[QUOTE=Brian;49124]Each action in OmniFocus can have a note attached to it, and you could certainly put those actions into various groups. If you're strictly looking for note-organizing, though, you may want to look at something like evernote; I have not used it myself, but a fair number of our customers seem to like it. They use evernote for their note-organizing, while using OmniFocus for their action-organizing.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Brian.

I had a look at Evernote but I don't like the way it doesn't let people save their notes locally. It seems it only stores the notes on the Evernote server so I would be reliant on their servers staying online as well as my being in an area where my internet connection is still available.

To be honest with the way OmniFocus handles the syncing process through MobileMe I'd be very happy if an update to OmniFocus included Notes that could be grouped into sections or folders.

Or even if there was a seperate "OmniNote" or "OmniMemo" app that lets people keep local copies of their notes on their iPhones and Macs, be able to have those notes grouped under headings or folders, and be able to be synced the same ways OmniFocus can be synced. And maybe had a search function. Now that would be a "killer app".

By the way, I bought OmniFocus for the iPhone and the Mac. I'll be checking it out more thoroughly this weekend.

[QUOTE=Peter Mount;49447]Or even if there was a seperate "OmniNote" or "OmniMemo" app that lets people keep local copies of their notes on their iPhones and Macs, be able to have those notes grouped under headings or folders, and be able to be synced the same ways OmniFocus can be synced. And maybe had a search function. Now that would be a "killer app"[/QUOTE]

Hmm, that sounds a lot like the mythical "OmniOutliner for iPhone" app that some people have been dreaming about, including me. :)

-Dennis

[QUOTE=Toadling;49450]Hmm, that sounds a lot like the mythical "OmniOutliner for iPhone" app that some people have been dreaming about, including me. :)

-Dennis[/QUOTE]

Interesting. I'll have to keep an eye out for that :-)

[QUOTE=Peter Mount;49447]To be honest with the way OmniFocus handles the syncing process through MobileMe I'd be very happy if an update to OmniFocus included Notes that could be grouped into sections or folders.
[/QUOTE]

As Brian mentioned, you can attach notes to actions, action groups, and projects. There's not really anything that I can see stopping you from building up a hierarchical structure in a top-level folder with your notes attached to each element. It's certainly a bit clunkier than the OO(iP) solution would be, but you can have it a lot sooner! In fact, if you make up your structure as an OmniOutliner outline, you can import it (File->Import), move the result out of the Inbox, and you're set!

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;49463]As Brian mentioned, you can attach notes to actions, action groups, and projects. There's not really anything that I can see stopping you from building up a hierarchical structure in a top-level folder with your notes attached to each element. It's certainly a bit clunkier than the OO(iP) solution would be, but you can have it a lot sooner! In fact, if you make up your structure as an OmniOutliner outline, you can import it (File->Import), move the result out of the Inbox, and you're set![/QUOTE]

Thanks for that. I'll try that and see how I go with it.

I misspoke a bit in my earlier post; importing from OmniOutliner will result in the OmniOutliner rows becoming OmniFocus actions, not notes (the OO notes will become OF notes). You could of course build your file in OO accordingly if you wanted everything to show up in OF as notes.

Having the text of your rows show up as the action names may or may not be convenient if your notes are long enough, but if there is a limit on action name length, I didn't encounter it in my OmniFocus desktop tests. I can imagine it might not be convenient on the iPhone/Touch if an action name is longer than would fit on the screen, but I'm just guessing there...

Since we're on the subject of notes...

I know that you open and close notes with apple-'. But is there any way to make sure notes stay opened? Is there an 'expand all' for notes? Or a default of 'always show notes' vs. 'always hide notes'? Something...

I don't find notes as useful as I might if they were more visible more often...without me searching for them individually.

Select one or more projects (or the whole library) in the sidebar, click in the outline, select all of the outline with cmd-A, expand everything in the outline with cmd-9, open all the notes with cmd-' and they should stay that way until you change them.

Note that this also interacts with the Always Show Full Row Text and Collapse Row Text When Not Editing feature on the View menu. If you have OF set to Collapse Row Text when not editing, then only the first line of an expanded note is shown.

[QUOTE=Peter Mount;49447]I had a look at Evernote but I don't like the way it doesn't let people save their notes locally. It seems it only stores the notes on the Evernote server so I would be reliant on their servers staying online as well as my being in an area where my internet connection is still available. [/QUOTE]

If you download the desktop version of Evernote (which requires having an online account), you can save and edit notes locally; your edits will be synced when you are next online (or however you set your prefs). You can even create local notebooks that are not synced to the Evernote servers.

[QUOTE=brianogilvie;49526]If you download the desktop version of Evernote (which requires having an online account), you can save and edit notes locally; your edits will be synced when you are next online (or however you set your prefs). You can even create local notebooks that are not synced to the Evernote servers.[/QUOTE]

But would I not still need to be connected to the Evernote servers to read those notes on my iPhone? I was really talking about viewing notes on my iPhone, I'm sorry I wasn't clear about that.

I could have another look at Evernote I suppose. But I'd still prefer to have my notes available offline on the iPhone, as well as the Mac, and synchronise with MobileMe.

EDIT: I've just downloaded Evernote again for the iPhone and Desktop. I did read a future update will include local storage of favourite notes on the iPhone. I'll still be open to whatever Omni product that might become available that serves as a note app on the iPhone.

[QUOTE=Peter Mount;49530]But would I not still need to be connected to the Evernote servers to read those notes on my iPhone? I was really talking about viewing notes on my iPhone, I'm sorry I wasn't clear about that.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, I thought you were talking about viewing them on your Mac (I should have gone back to the beginning of the thread for context). As you note, Evernote can't do that yet on the iPhone.

[QUOTE=brianogilvie;49537]Sorry, I thought you were talking about viewing them on your Mac (I should have gone back to the beginning of the thread for context). As you note, Evernote can't do that yet on the iPhone.[/QUOTE]

That's OK.

I've decided to give Evernote a try as they did say they will update it for the iPhone.