Dashboard widget: Where to Focus
 

I've just posted my first Dashboard widget for OmniFocus. It's free from [URL="http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~clifton/software.html#WhereToFocus"]my software downloads page[/URL]. Here's the promo. blurb from the page:

[QUOTE]
You use OmniFocus to pick your next action in your current context. But how do you decide what context to put yourself in? Introducing a new Dashboard widget that displays a bar chart of the number of available actions in each of your OmniFocus contexts. Click a bar to display the available actions in OmniFocus.
[/QUOTE]

[ATTACH]638[/ATTACH]

Hopefully folks will find it useful. Share and enjoy.

I like it!

link problem?
 

The link in the post is 404 error for me.

[QUOTE=techsavvyguru;44019]The link in the post is 404 error for me.[/QUOTE]

Fixed. Thanks!

[url]http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~clifton/software.html[/url]

Curt,

Is this a Leopard-only widget? Doesn't seem to work for me on Tiger.

I've only tested on Leopard.

I'm guessing that the widget will have trouble on Tiger. I'm using Unicode in the communication between the widget and the scripts that interact with OmniFocus. Unicode support in AppleScript was a bit dodgey in Tiger. Sorry about that.

Not a problem, I just didn't want to waste any time trying to figure out why it didn't work if it was functioning as designed :-)

Cool widget Curt. I love the visual display. very smooth animation.
Thank you.

That [I]is[/I] a nice widget, Curt. My only issue is that I have a lot of contexts (probably too many, but that's a problem I'm still working on).

It'd be nice if the widget would allow me to resize its window and scroll the overflow contents with a scroll bar. What do you think?

-Dennis

Seems like that would be dangerous, unless it sorted the big ones to the top.

[QUOTE=Lizard;44203]Seems like that would be dangerous, unless it sorted the big ones to the top.[/QUOTE]

Dangerous? Do you mean I might not see contexts with lots of actions (long graph bars) that are scrolled out of the view port?

If so, yes, I agree there is a chance that the contexts might not be seen if I don't scroll down. But "dangerous" sounds like too strong of a word to me. Unless there's some consequence I'm unaware of. ;-)

But anyway, sorting by number of actions with long bars on top would be a nice addition to the scrollbar idea. And it would make things look neater too (to satisfy my OCD).

-Dennis

Yes, that's what I meant by dangerous. Not destroying data or stabbing you with pointy objects. Just lulling you into a false sense of having an area of responsibility under control when you don't.

Sorting is tough, since subcontexts are indented under their parents, and parents may or may not show the counts of their children.

I also like being able to develop some spatial memory of which context is which.

Besides using a scroll area, an alternative way to shorten the list would be to provide an option to just show the parent contexts. Would that help?

How hard would it be to flip the chart on its side, to match the aspect ratio of the display? The GTD "bed of nails" :-)

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;44304]How hard would it be to flip the chart on its side, to match the aspect ratio of the display? The GTD "bed of nails" :-)[/QUOTE]

Or they could extend from the top: stalactites of doom!

It would take significant effort to change the orientation. I'm using a list display for the bars. That won't work in with vertical bars.

I suspected your answer would be something like that.

The list view (without scrolling, or a taller screen than mine) has the slightly perverse effect of encouraging one to tackle the contexts with the fewest remaining actions, to get everything back on the screen. Just the opposite of the intended goal, perhaps :-) Looking at my 65 contexts, I see only one that I no longer need, and don't see some that I will need sooner or later, so it isn't an theoretical issue for me!

Play the OmniFocus game! If the list fills the screen vertically, or one of the bars spans the screen horizontally, you've failed, your data gets wiped out, and you get a fresh start :-)

[QUOTE=curt.clifton;44301]Besides using a scroll area, an alternative way to shorten the list would be to provide an option to just show the parent contexts. Would that help?[/QUOTE]

That's not a bad idea. But I still like a scroll area the best, even at the risk of not seeing some of the longer bars immediately. I'd just have to remember to scroll through the whole list. :)

-Dennis

Philosophically, I'm targeting a very quick heads-up display. It seems like tuning the widget so scrolling isn't needed would be the best approach for that. Besides hiding child contexts, another approach would be to let you select which top-level contexts should be included. Then a person could launch multiple instances of the widget side-by-side each showing a different set of contexts. How does that idea sound?

I'm not necessarily averse to scrolling, but want to explore the possibilities before sinking a bunch of time into it. I'd have to add manual resizing of the widget and deal with adjusting the bar lengths depending on whether or not the scroll bar is showing, show it's non-trivial.

[QUOTE=curt.clifton;44346]Besides hiding child contexts, another approach would be to let you select which top-level contexts should be included. Then a person could launch multiple instances of the widget side-by-side each showing a different set of contexts. How does that idea sound?[/QUOTE]

That would work for me. Sometimes I forget how handy it is to open multiple instances of a widget.

-Dennis