Auto-expand on a drop (à la OmniWeb)
 

1. I started with a project with 4 actions:[list][*]A Project[list][*]abcd[*]efg[*]qrs[*]XYZ[/list][/list]2. I wanted the first action ("abcd") to be an "xyz" child action. So I dragged the first action to just below the last. Ooops! What happened! It disappeared!

3. After that moment of panic, I noticed the small disclosure triangle before XYZ. Clicking the triangle revealed the "lost" action.[list][*]A Project[list][*]efg[*]qrs[*]XYZ[list][*]abcd[/list][/list][/list]
I realized after this that I'm conditioned from arranging my OmniWeb bookmarks to expect a parent line to automatically open when I drop a new child on it. I suggest OmniFocus follow OmniWeb's lead when dropping on a collapsed Folder, Project or Action.

[SIZE="1"][copy of formal feedback][/SIZE]

I second this.

I don't use omniweb bookmarks, but expanding the the collapsed item while dragging and being in the position of dropping it into the item would make things clearer. The line that is now showing is sometimes a bit tricky.

It would also be nice if projects and folders in the sidebar were spring loaded. Then you could drag a task from the inbox onto the sidebar and have the content pane switch to show the project or folder. I've submitted a formal feature request for this. If you like the idea, please do the same.

I'm not really sold on this. There are times when I may rearrange many things. I may be in some subset and may want to move all its tasks out of it and into other sets (projects or parent tasks). I don't think I'd want the destination container to open and stay opened, since I may want to move another task from the original location into other containers farther down the list. If tasks open and stay open each time I drop something into them, that list becomes longer and longer. I'd want to close the sublists to get the global view back.

Consider Apple Mail. If I move an email from the inbox and begin searching around for a destination as I'm dragging, mailboxes and sub boxes open to let me drill down if I need to. That's fine. But when I drop that email into the final location, the open, nested mailboxes then close (assuming they were closed to begin with). This is what I'd like in OF if projects and tasks are to open when we drop stuff in them. I want them closed immmediately after.

<edit: Oops.. Curt beat me to the punch. I think what I describe here is what curt describes as "spring loaded".> Note: it seems folders are spring loaded, but not tasks having subtasks.

I definitely like spring-loaded expand when dragging a Mail message into a closed folder (especially a cascade of sub-folders), with auto-collapse after the drop.

In addition to clearly showing what's happening, auto-expand also gives the ability to precisely position the drop location rather than having the dropped item appear arbitrarily at the beginning or end of the sub-list. (That doesn't apply to Mail folders, which keep messages in order.)

Although I've never felt the need for auto-collapse in OmniWeb's bookmarks window, it would be nice to have a user preference to satisfy individual work habits.

[SIZE="1"][submitted as formal feedback][/SIZE]

pvonk,

We're talking about almost the same thing. I was really talking about the behavior of spring-loaded folders in Finder. You can drag and drop an item onto a Finder folder and it just goes in at the top-level of that folder. But if you drag and hover an item over a Finder folder, the folder pops open. This allows you to navigate down through a folder hierarchy. I tend to have fairly deep nesting of projects and sub-projects, so would appreciate similar behavior in OmniFocus. OmniOutliner already works this way if you drag an item from a hoisted portion of the outline onto the utility drawer.

Now if sub-projects were visible in the OmniFocus sidebar, then behavior like in Mail.app would work nicely.