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-   -   Perspectives and View Bar - do you actually find this intuitive? (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=5288)

zoltok 2007-10-25 09:07 AM

Perspectives and View Bar - do you actually find this intuitive?
 
I have one major stumbling block in using OF so far - the "view" bar and perspectives. I have been using the app for over two months and I still find these completely unintuitive. Don't get me wrong, I think the [B]concept[/B] of perspectives and the viewbar is great, but I find the implementation pretty confusing.

I never remember which dropdown menu is supposed to do what - I always get the two first ones confused and have to open and close them a few times to do what I'm trying to do (those little icons are completely unclear). I haven't saved any perspectives yet because I can't really figure out how best to be using them. And as many have mentioned, the fact that they [I]sort of [/I] are positioned above columns, but don't actually serve as sorting functions to what's directly below them - it just seems to fly in the face of every habit we've built about how we're supposed to sort information.

I would hate to see this app released with this view bar in it's current state, which just seems awkward and unintuitive. I know, all criticism and no suggestions - I'll try and come up with some ideas! Just wondering if others agree or disagree?

rod 2007-10-25 09:23 AM

Yeah I agree, but I think part of the problem is that there is no "manual" yet to explain them properly. For example, what is the difference between "available," "remaining," and "next"? I too have shied away from using these features mainly because I just don't understand them yet. There are some other quirks in the interface that I don't quite get, such as the little stopwatch view sorter. I think that is to sort by estimated time, but setting that property is only available by looking at the inspector for the item. Seems it would be more useful to sort by things DUE in a specified amount of time, such as today, next week, etc. I expect these things will make more sense as we move from Alpha to Beta, and RTM versions.

brianogilvie 2007-10-25 09:49 AM

[QUOTE=rod;23382]Yeah I agree, but I think part of the problem is that there is no "manual" yet to explain them properly. For example, what is the difference between "available," "remaining," and "next"? I too have shied away from using these features mainly because I just don't understand them yet. There are some other quirks in the interface that I don't quite get, such as the little stopwatch view sorter. I think that is to sort by estimated time, but setting that property is only available by looking at the inspector for the item. Seems it would be more useful to sort by things DUE in a specified amount of time, such as today, next week, etc. I expect these things will make more sense as we move from Alpha to Beta, and RTM versions.[/QUOTE]

In Preferences, you can choose to show columns for start date, due date, and estimated time. That makes those features much more useful because you can set them just by tabbing from field to field.

As for the little icons in the view bar: they are brackets for group, a little stack for sort, a checkbox for what kind of actions are shown, a stopwatch for the estimated time filter, and a flag for whether flagged, unflagged, or all actions are shown.

Available actions are all those whose start date has arrived (if start date is set), which have a context defined, and which are either in a parallel project or the next action in a sequential project. Next actions are the single next action in a project, whether parallel or sequential. Remaining actions are all of those remaining (i.e., not completed) in a project, regardless of whether they are available. The best way to figure out these features is to focus on a few projects and then change the settings to watch what happens.

CatOne 2007-10-25 10:36 AM

I don't like the "one toolbar icon per perspective" thing -- it really clutters it a ton and you have to enable text in the toolbar to find which is which. It's a non-starter if you have more than a couple perspectives.

I'd like the toolbar icon to drop down a list of perspectives, personally.

pvonk 2007-10-25 10:46 AM

[QUOTE=CatOne;23389]
I'd like the toolbar icon to drop down a list of perspectives, personally.[/QUOTE]

Then why not just use the Perspectives menu; the drop down submenu lists all current perspectives.

curt.clifton 2007-10-25 02:03 PM

Responding to the OP's question: Yes, I find the view bar and perspectives perfectly sensible. I'm sorry that others don't, and suspect a manual and some videos will help with that. I also think that some built-in perspectives when first launching the application would help people to see the ways that the various options can be combined.

In [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=4860&highlight=perspectives"]an earlier thread[/URL] I posted several perspectives that I use regularly, along with the corresponding View Bar settings. That posting indicated that there was a bug in perspectives, but it has since been fixed.

fdlockhart 2007-10-25 04:19 PM

After several months of use, I finally am feeling comfortable with perspectives and the view bar. However, it has taken awhile and every so often I run across something puzzling.

I suppose this means that it was not as intuitive as I find the rest of OF, but many people seem to have no trouble at all (e.g. curt above). So I am waiting for the manual and the Schoonovideo mentioned on 43folders to better inform me.

Chris 2007-10-26 08:39 AM

To CatOne, send official feedback to Omni about that; I did. I think the "Perspectives" button should be a drop-down menu rather than an open-the-Perspectives-window button (which seems better as a menubar item to me).

To pvonk, the whole point of the toolbar is to allow the user to separate out common tasks from the forests of stuff in the menubar.

Right now I only have one perspective; the main reason I don't have more is because of the lack of a decent interface for them, and the fact that they don't remember all the necessary things (what's collapsed or expanded in the main window, for example).


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