User-Definable Meta-Tags
 

When, for the love of god, is this happening? You guys have been talking about this for over two years.

We still plan to do it. Adding the feature that will give you the ability to do this is not trivial and affects the entire user base, though. It means changing the file format. It has ramifications for sync. It would also mean localization changes and revising both manuals.

I'll be very happy when it happens!

Okay, got it. When? Like I said, you guys have said you were doing this for literally years.

When it's ready. At earliest, it appears to be a 2.0 feature, and we haven't seen 1.7 yet. To quote Ken, from about a month ago:

[quote="Ken Case"]
[URL="http://twitter.com/kcase/status/1714332525"]We're still in the process of taking @OmniFocus 2.0 apart, haven't yet switched to the stage of putting it all back together…[/URL]
[/quote]

This is honestly my most desired feature. There are so many fantastic things I could do with OmniFocus if I had metatags.

Fix applescript = user addable meta-tags
 

Well, another option is to patch the notes applescript functions so that we can add and delete text from notes without losing attachment meta-data. I already have meta-tags working in OminFocus, but if the note has a folder, file, etc. added to it, when Applescript processes the note, I lose the link to the file etc.

If you fix this, we can add meta-data ourselves.
-Allen H.

a11en, does ken's post in your [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=9693"]other thread[/URL] address your concern, or is there more you need?

>>When, for the love of god, is this happening? You guys have been talking about this for over two years.

+100!! The legit need for this has been explained by many on this forum over & over & over. While I know I'm free to not use OF, or write my own app if I don't like it, etc, I can't help thinking this is some kind of GTD process dogma stalemate. Wasn't Omni super-friend Merlin Mann against task tagging? i.e. "users will spend less time 'doing' & more time 'labeling.' (sorry, I'm typing on an iPhone & have no citations for this right now)

Here's a simple example of why it's ludicrous to NOT have at least one "non-note-text" field of some kind: There are many tasks one can perform "on the computer" - if, however, a user splits effort between, say, a Mac Pro for big media work, & a MacBook Pro for travel, business, & management work, there's some shortcomings.

If you want to assign some useful context to the task BASED ON THE TYPE OF EFFORT, such as "find" or "create" or "organize," you've now USED UP your single context - there is now no reasonable way to differenciate between "tasks on the desktop mac" and "tasks on the laptop mac." You can create a redundant context hierarchy, (MacPro Organize AND MacBookPro Organize) but that means you can't look at all your "Organize" tasks together now. Of course, you can contaminate the notes field with data, i.e. "@ltop" or "@dtop" and get at them with search, but ugh. I may only be a simple caveman, and of course I know that if you say it's difficult then it's difficult... but it's _one field_ for pete's sake.

Well, I'll just say "thanks for an otherwise fab app, and I hope you Omni guys succeed; I've bought everything you've ever developed, starting years ago with OmniWeb.

(I think this feature-void is magnified by OmniFocus being best-in-class in every other way. I feel like those folks who were furiously going after Apple for lack of iPhone cut & paste, lol)

[QUOTE=steven;62168]The legit need for this has been explained by many on this forum over & over & over.[/QUOTE]

And Omni has stated over & over & over that the feature is coming. So I don't think it's a question of legitimate need; we all agree it would be useful. I think the wait is more that there's a lot to be done, some other things (like syncing improvements) have been given priority, and Omni wants to make sure things are done right. The last I heard, the feature is still targeted for OmniFocus 2 and it's still on schedule.

[QUOTE=steven;62168]Wasn't Omni super-friend Merlin Mann against task tagging?[/QUOTE]

Yes. At least Merlin scoffed at the idea when I heard him speak at WWDC last year.

But while Merlin is an influential speaker (and very convincing, I might add), I don't think he solely determines the OmniFocus feature set. As I mentioned above, the Omni Group has been planning user-defined metadata all along. And for a long time now, they've held the position that the feature is slated for OmniFocus 2. The only thing to do now is wait.

Personally, I've found OmniFocus to be extremely useful even without tagging. So I'm not sure I agree that it's "ludicrous" that it's missing. But who knows, maybe I'll end up actually using tags once they're available. :-)

-Dennis