Location Based Contexts
 

This is just a thought for a future feature I think that would nifty for the iPhone version of OmniFocus.

The premise is that you could assign a "Location" to a task, whether it be a physical address or GPS coordinate. When you are out running errands and want to know if there is anything else nearby you can do, you can use the built in "Current Location" GPS function of the iPhone to track where you are and show a map of what other tasks are nearby. You could set limits to how far you are willing to travel (1, 5, 10, 25, etc.. mile radiuses).

A practical example would be you are going out to return a book to the library. You want to see what other things you could do that are nearby. Using this proposed function, you could see that you about 5 miles away from the grocery store where you could pick up the some ingredients you are missing for dinner.

Since you can already set-up default contexts for projects, you could also do it for Locations. Anything that goes in my grocery list gets the default address of my grocery store.

Of course, just a nifty idea.

Cheers,

Drew

Doesn't the current implementation already pretty much give you all of this?

[quote]The premise is that you could assign a "Location" to a task, whether it be a physical address or GPS coordinate.[/quote]

I assign locations to tasks now, by assigning contexts to tasks that have a location assigned to the context.

[quote]When you are out running errands and want to know if there is anything else nearby you can do, you can use the built in "Current Location" GPS function of the iPhone to track where you are and show a map of what other tasks are nearby. You could set limits to how far you are willing to travel (1, 5, 10, 25, etc.. mile radiuses).[/quote]

Does all that now, other than one cannot set a limit on how far I am willing to travel. However, the list ranks the context's location from near to far, so I only need to scroll down the list as far as I am willing to travel.

[quote]Since you can already set-up default contexts for projects, you could also do it for Locations. Anything that goes in my grocery list gets the default address of my grocery store. [/quote]

Set up a grocery context, give it a location, and assign the context to the grocery list project. Everything added to the list will inherit the project's context, and by extension, the project's location.

This is already built into the OmniFocus iPhone app. I would suggest you download the manual [URL="http://s3.amazonaws.com/downloads.omnigroup.com/software/MacOSX/Manuals/OmniFocus-for-iPhone-Manual.pdf"]here[/URL].

Ah sorry...
 

I do most of my work in the desktop version of Omnifocus which I've never seen any of the location services in (to at least assign the addresses for use later in the iPhone version). Sorry about making the assumption. Is there a way to assign addresses in the desktop version?

Thanks!

[QUOTE=Fxdrew;66223]I do most of my work in the desktop version of Omnifocus which I've never seen any of the location services in (to at least assign the addresses for use later in the iPhone version). Sorry about making the assumption. Is there a way to assign addresses in the desktop version?

Thanks![/QUOTE]

No I believe there is not as this is an exclusive feature for the iphone since its the one with the GPS chip

Not at the moment, but it is a feature that OmniGroup has said is intended for a later update of the desktop version, irrc.

A GPS would not be needed for the desktop - the data could be pulled in from Google maps, so all you would need is an address for the intended location for your context.

Also, Snow Leopard includes location services. Currently it just works using a database of WiFi access point locations, but I bet we'll see GPS in future MacBook Pros.

[QUOTE=curt.clifton;66233]Also, Snow Leopard includes location services. Currently it just works using a database of WiFi access point locations, but I bet we'll see GPS in future MacBook Pros.[/QUOTE]

sounds cool! :)

Context Locations Editable
 

Even if the full iPhone find by location, etc., isn't put in the desktop. It would be extremely helpful to be able to edit lat/long and/or address of the contexts that are setup [B]on the Mac[/B].

Right now, that has to be done on the iPhone and while that works fine, when doing maintenance, working on the Mac, etc., it would be really helpful to be able to edit that data on the Mac just like the iPhone. A bonus would be some of the search by location features, etc., on the Mac. But don't wait for that, giving us context address editing sooner would be really great.

Greg