How do I complete a Project?
 

Please excuse the simple question.
I have a project with all the actions now ticked and completed, yet the project is still there. I have even right clicked and marked it as complete - now I have a completed project with a rather fetching green tick. My question is how do I get rid of/archive this completed project from my view without right click deleting?
I have also tried changing the view to 'remaining' - no joy

tks

I have done two things regarding completed projects: first, I usually use the "active projects" view, which does not display completed projects. Second, I made a special folder for storing completed projects that I don't want to delete, and set it to be inactive.

Still, I wish there was an automated way to get rid of them, especially keeping them from popping up in reviews. There's a thread of ideas on this somewhere in the forums. I don't remember if there was a conclusion.

Thanks anna,

perhaps I have an odd way of looking at GTD, but it seems that if its Done then it should be automatically gone, after all this is a GTD tool not a project management tool.....

[QUOTE=tanuki;22122]...it seems that if its Done then it should be automatically gone, after all this is a GTD tool not a project management tool.....[/QUOTE]

However, others in the past have insisted that completed projects not automatically be deleted as they need to view completed projects once per month - for example, for work related reports. That makes sense to me, although I think I'd rather have them deleted. But use "active projects" as anna suggests, that should make everyone happy.

Another reason to have a Project hang around is if you use it as a container.

For example, I have a Project "Subaru". This is where I put any tasks relating to my car.

Sometimes Subaru will be empty, if my car is healthy and happy. But I want the container to hang around, so I don't have to re-create it next time I want to enter an action for my car.

It can also serve as a trigger when I do my reviews: Subaru is empty? But I need to take it in for winterizing! I'd better put in the actions.

Make sense?

--Liz

[QUOTE]Another reason to have a Project hang around is if you use it as a container.[/QUOTE]

It makes sense if you believe a project never has an ending. I know that's always been debated on here, but for those of us who believe a project does indeed end, it would be nice to have the option of getting rid of it.

[QUOTE=gary;22959]It makes sense if you believe a project never has an ending. I know that's always been debated on here, but for those of us who believe a project does indeed end, it would be nice to have the option of getting rid of it.[/QUOTE]

If you want it out of your current file without deleting it, you can create a new OmniFocus file to archive your completed projects.

1. Quit OmniFocus.

2. Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/ and option-drag your OmniFocus.ofocus file (well, package, really) elsewhere.

3. Rename the copied file "OmniFocus Archive.ofocus" or something like that.

4. Double-click the new file. When OmniFocus opens, show all projects, delete them, and close the window. (Don't quit OmniFocus.)

5. Choose New Window from the Window menu. Your old OmniFocus file will open up.

6. Now, from the Finder, double-click on the OmniFocus Archive file.

7. Select a project you want to move out of the main file. Cut. Switch to the archive window and paste. Now you've archived that project.

The main drawbacks to this method are that you have to open the archive file in the Finder (or your Finder substitute or app launcher) to open it, and that the view state in the archive file is not saved. But it works. At least for now; this is alpha software still!

I feel this is a very important thing to focus on and there should be an archive section rather than just simply hiding the completed projects out of the Active view.

Also the fact that I must mark it as complete, rather than just having it be complete after all the tasks have been checked off. This is a big waste of time.

[QUOTE=recenelloa;26103]Also the fact that I must mark it as complete, rather than just having it be complete after all the tasks have been checked off. This is a big waste of time.[/QUOTE]

Projects often aren't fully planned out into actions before they are started. Instead, a project often (usually) serves as a stake in the ground that marks your goal. In your review, if you can say that you've satisfied the desired outcome of the project, it is complete, but often it will remind you of some extra steps you need to take.

If we were to mark the Project implicitly completed when it had zero incomplete actions, people would lose track of their remaining work.

On feature that isn't in yet that will make this easier is that when you have a project row selected, space should mark it completed, <bug://bugs/43349> (Hitting space with a project selected should mark it complete if it is active).

[QUOTE=recenelloa;26103]I feel this is a very important thing to focus on and there should be an archive section rather than just simply hiding the completed projects out of the Active view.

Also the fact that I must mark it as complete, rather than just having it be complete after all the tasks have been checked off. This is a big waste of time.[/QUOTE]

As Tim said, projects are not always totally planned out from the beginning. In David Allen's Getting Things Done method, which was the inspiration for OmniFocus (even if it's more flexible than GTD), a project is any outcome that requires more than one physical action to complete. The GTD planning model is that you should specify, for every project, at least one action that will move you closer to completing it, and write that on a context list. Once you've done that, your weekly (or more frequent) review should indicate whether you have, in fact, completed the project, or whether you need to identify the next action to take that will move it toward completion.

In this model, autocompleting projects is a Very Bad Idea. Autocompletion presumes that you have identified all necessary steps when you plan. I don't know about you, but that's not how I work, and I think it's not how most people work. Even my most carefully planned projects seem to need an additional step at some point. If OmniFocus automatically completed them, I'd be in deep trouble much of the time.

If you haven't read Allen's book [I]Getting Things Done[/I] or looked at some of the online resources on it, I suggest doing so. It will make many aspects of OmniFocus seem much more sensible than they might seem on first glance.