Please submit bug reports and feature requests via email!
 

We appreciate the feedback that we're getting from everyone, but we wanted to ask a favor.

Feel free to discuss things you'd like to see in OmniFocus, problems you're having, and so forth here on the forums, but myself and the other Support Ninjas would really appreciate it if everyone tried extra-hard to send feedback to us via email.

We do what we can to make sure that we get feedback into the system regardless of where it comes from; when we're as busy as we are right now, though, it's very easy for one of those requests to get lost in the shuffle here on the boards.

If you use the Send Feedback item under the Help menu, or send it to us at [EMAIL="omnifocus@omnigroup.com"]omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/EMAIL], it goes straight into our trouble-tracking system, and I can guarantee that the appropriate folks will read it.

We'll handle your feedback in whatever form you send it to us, but here are some guidelines on how folks can make things easier on us:[LIST][*]Tell us what version of the OS you have installed. It never hurts to have that info, and some bugs only happen on particular versions of the OS.[*]One issue per email helps us get things into the bug database more easily. That way, we don't have to edit the email as we attach it to multiple items in the bug database. If you have five requests, send five emails.[*]Please include your feedback in the email, not an attached document. That way, we don't have to hunt down a copy of Word or Excel, copy out of that, and then copy out of your email to get everything into the database.[/LIST]

Post your email, Ninjas.
 

Just a nte to the Ninja plea. It would have been handy to have the email posted.

[QUOTE=ethan]Just a nte to the Ninja plea. It would have been handy to have the email posted.[/QUOTE]

You need to use the Send Feedback menu item within OmniFocus. Then the subject line includes information about the build that you're running.

It's worth pointing out... this is true for every OmniGroup application - use [B][I]Help>Send Feedback[/I][/B] first, then post in the forum second.

Do you want us to use Send Feedback for feature suggestions as well as bugs or just bugs?

Send feedback is best, because sometimes it's helpful to have the version number on feature requests too. For example, if you're running version 123 and we add your feature in version 124 and then read your email, we'll wonder whether you didn't find the feature, or are really asking for something else. But if we know that you're running that older version, we can let you know that grabbing the software update will probably make you happy.

The forum is primarily to let you all talk to each other. There's no guarantee that anyone from Omni will read a particular thread. So if you want to discuss and develop a feature idea with other users, go right ahead and chatter away on the forums. But if you want to make sure we hear your idea, send feedback.

If I send ten unrelated requests/suggestions, do you prefer them in one email or ten separate emails?

[QUOTE=grsilverman;21667]...I think us beta testers are owed a minimum level of support.[/QUOTE]

Technically speaking, we're still alpha testers, not beta testers. OF has made me break my vow not to trust my data to an alpha, but it's still temerarious of me. My impression is that the folks at Omni are moving toward a public beta and focusing (so to speak) on those aspects that are still incomplete, especially printing. They may be a bit overwhelmed and not able to respond to individual users' problems. Plus, I get the impression lately that they actually take part of the weekend off, now and again!

Could you post a couple screenshots? Alternately, if you send me your OmniFocus.ofocus file, I can take a look at it on my setup and see if I can figure out the problem.

[QUOTE=grsilverman;21667]Needless to say, I'm not to happy about this lack of responsiveness, although I love the Omni group! I'm probably dong something stupid, but I think us beta testers are owed a minimum level of support.[/QUOTE]

Sorry about the delay in answering your support question: we do respond to every message (eventually), but we've had an overwhelming amount of feedback sent to [email]omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/email] since we started the sneaky peeks and right now our support ninjas are 2-3 weeks behind (with 1,055 messages to go to catch up). We're in the process of hiring another ninja now, but while that will help in the long term it takes even more time out of our schedules in the short term (as we interview candidates).

As for your problem itself: as Curt suggested, you might try switching to showing all your remaining actions (rather than just the available ones). You might also check your toolbar Search field in Project view to see if a search string is accidentally entered that might be filtering out all of your actions. (We've started preserving the contents of the search field, which might be a surprise.)

I hope this helps!

Oh, and to explain the situation a little further: we've actually received over 2,000 messages in the last three weeks, so 1,055 messages behind means we've answered about half of those already. Each support ninja typically works through the queue on a first-come, first-served basis, but the ninjas who usually work on other products may have to leave some of the more in-depth questions for the ninjas who know the most about OmniFocus.

In other words: if you send us an easy problem you might get a response in the next few days, but if you send us something trickier your response might take a few weeks.

What if you don't use Apple Mail?
 

Okay, so I realise you prefer us to use the "Send Feedback" option in OF, but what about those of us who don't use Apple Mail? I assume the "Send Feedback" command uses a "mailto:" link or whatever to link to your mail app, but what about us gmail users who don't have a regular mail client on their machine? All the "Send Feedback" command does is bring up the "Configure Apple Mail" wizard -- and I hardly want to set up Apple Mail (even if I could -- I don't have a regular POP3 mail account any more) just so I can send feedback!

Is there any way to send feedback using gmail -- or even some way of copying the contents of the "Send Feedback" message so I can paste it into gmail for sending?

Thanks,

- Erik.

If you want to send us feedback from a webmail system, the important part is to include the build you're currently running. You can find the build number in the "About OmniFocus" dialog (found in the File menu).

So something like this:
To: [email]omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/email]
Subject: 1.0 alpha 2 (v36.0.93011)

Hi Lizard,

[QUOTE=Lizard;23101]If you want to send us feedback from a webmail system, the important part is to include the build you're currently running. You can find the build number in the "About OmniFocus" dialog (found in the File menu).[/QUOTE]

Thanks!

How many outstanding messages do you have now? I ask this because the updates don't seem to be addressing my issues. So I assume it's because there are lot's of outstanding messages.

Also, when sending feedback on bugs, would you like visual feedback in the form of a screen recording showing what I did and what the program does in response?

[QUOTE=kit;26410]How many outstanding messages do you have now? I ask this because the updates don't seem to be addressing my issues. So I assume it's because there are lot's of outstanding messages.[/QUOTE]

I doubt that the incoming message queue is what is used to prioritize bug fixes. Software development just doesn't work that way. As the support team processed over 20,000 feedback messages, I suspect the list of bugs is quite long. The fixes will likely be done in priority order, not in order of messages received. Lately Tim has been alluding in posts that they have a schedule for the bug fixes to include in 1.0.

feedback
 

I have been using the feedback option for a few issues that I have been having and never got a reply. this is why I am starting to think that the forums might be the best place for me to get answers. and I am not complaining I know you are very busy just posting my 2 cents. also I think that your software is great.

thanks
edward

Judging by the fact that I’m now getting mail replies to feedback I submitted in mid November I’d say they were a couple of weeks behind. Which doesn’t surprise me as there will have been an increase since the beta was opened to all.

[QUOTE=Brian;14625]We appreciate the feedback that we're getting from everyone, but we wanted to ask a favor.

If you send it to us in email, though, it goes straight into our trouble-tracking system, and I can guarantee that the appropriate folks will read it.[/QUOTE]

Today at 2:55 PM PDT I sent a note complaining about seeing times when I only want to see dates. At 3:06 PM PDT I get an update with it fixed. Don't you think this is carrying "Do it Now" to its extremes? ;-)

Nice job.

(I'm sure I couldn't have been the first to report it.)

Printing?
 

I've been using the full yay-it's-been-released version of omnifocus for about a month now. And I use 3X5 index cards to keep track of things when I'm wandering about without my laptop (the so-called hPDA). I like the fact that when you hit print from omnifocus it prints whatever the current list is. However, I'd love to see some more configurable print options. I had no problem changing the paper size to 3X5, but the text by default shrank with the paper size. When I upped the scale to 200% (which seemed to be the only customizable option), the columns didn't resize. So, because I have start and due date displayed on my screen (even though, in the case of the list I printed this morning, those columns are blank) it "printed" blank space for those columns. I would like the option not to print blank columns. Also, because of that, I have my "action" field wrapping 7 lines long on the card, even though the right hand side of the card is completely blank. It's a waste of paper, even of little cards.

So, I'd love to see customizable print fields. And generally more control over printing. If this is to be useful for tracking items on the go as well as at my computer (and alas, I don't have an Iphone!), I need to be able to print with more precision.

Thank you!

Here is the information from the omnifocus build:
Product: OmniFocus-1.5
Tag: OmniFocus/1.5/rc2-v77.13.2
Date: 2008-10-27 12:46:39 -0700
Builder: kc
Host: tb104i.private.omnigroup.com
Revision: 106199

And I am running OSX 10.5.5

You can create another perspective for printing which doesn't show the unwanted columns, adjusts the width of the desired columns, etc. See the Page Setup and Printing help page for the details.

Is there any place that lists the various bugs in work, and suggestions that have already been submitted?

I'm thinking of something like Ravelry uses which is a list with bugs and also a list of potential future enhancements. Some are marked as in work and others are marked as requested. Users of the Ravelry site can vote on the various new features and the ones that get the most votes rise to the top and are being implemented faster than others. Each feature has a comment section so people with differing ideas of how it should work can post their versions and the entire user community can comment on it.

The method of sending an e-mail to Omni means each person describes the change differently and there is no way for a new user to get a feel for what has been requested before sending in a new request.

Take a look at Ravelry.com for the way they have their bugs/enhancements forum set up. It's their Ravelry Issues list and you have to be a member to see it.

Oogiem, see [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=13320"]this thread[/URL] for discussion of a similar topic.

Enhance MailTags link
 

Current MailTags enables one to assign OmniFocus-defined Projects to emails and create action items in OmniFocus. It would be very helpful to be able to similarly create keywords in MailTags that were the same as Contexts defined in OmniFocus, so that in creating action items, one could set both the project and context while in Mail.

[QUOTE=RRW;92015]Current MailTags enables one to assign OmniFocus-defined Projects to emails and create action items in OmniFocus. It would be very helpful to be able to similarly create keywords in MailTags that were the same as Contexts defined in OmniFocus, so that in creating action items, one could set both the project and context while in Mail.[/QUOTE]

Someone skipped the day they focused on "reading comprehension," I see :-)