Pasting from OmniFocus to plain text with indenting
 

I am enjoying using OmniFocus very much. However, I am in IRC quite a bit for my work and often will need to paste task data there. Currently as far as I can tell, nested items do not paste with any indenting or other signs of indentation level such as - or --. Am I missing something? If this is missing it would be great to have some sort of ability to export as plain text with indentation etc. or the ability to configure how that would work per installation.

File->Export, using Plain Text format exports in Taskpaper markup.

Thanks very much for this. I am glad to know about this, though it is not optimal. You can only export the while project from what I can see and notes are prepended to tasks rather than put underneath them. This technique will work for me for now but it would be nice to be able to export things to clipboard so that the exported text looked more like the layout of the task hierarchy.

UPDATE
I see that tasks following notes are not properly handled. They don't get properly indented and sometimes are on the same line as the previous task's note. I'll look for discussions on that. All in all, thanks to takspaper reloading notes that change on disk, this should work ok for me for now. Thanks again for your reply.

[QUOTE=imarsman;110018]You can only export the whole project from what I can see[/QUOTE]

FWIW the following script will copy to the clipboard (in TaskPaper format):
- Any task(s) selected in the OF content panel.
- All the children and descendants thereof.

(i.e. if you select a parent, there is no need to select its children).

[CODE]
-- Copies to clipboard a Taskpaper version of whatever is displayed and selected in right-hand content panel

property pblnToMail : false

on run
tell application "OmniFocus"
tell default document
if number of document window is 0 then
make new document window with properties {bounds:{0, 0, 1000, 500}}
end if
end tell

tell document window 1 of front document
set lstTrees to selected trees of content
if (count of lstTrees) = 0 then
try
display dialog "Nothing selected in the right-hand panel." & return & return & "Select material to export, and try again." & return
end try
else
-- Generate a TaskPaper string of the selected content
set blnContext to (selected view mode identifier is not equal to "project")
set lngIndent to 0
set strTP to my ExportTrees(lstTrees, lngIndent, blnContext)

set the clipboard to strTP
end if
end tell
end tell
end run

on ExportTrees(lstTrees, lngIndent, blnContextView)
-- if the tree is a task give full detail
-- else just name and any note
set strTP to ""
set strIndent to ""

repeat lngIndent times
set strIndent to strIndent & tab
end repeat

tell application "OmniFocus"
repeat with oTree in lstTrees

set oValue to value of oTree
set clValue to class of oValue
if clValue ≠ item then
set strName to name of oValue
if length of strName > 0 then set strName to my EscAmpersand(strName)

set strNote to note of oValue
if length of strNote > 0 then set strNote to my EscAmpersand(strNote)
else
set strName to ""
set strNote to ""
end if

if (clValue is not equal to task) and (clValue is not equal to inbox task) then

-- Project or Folder
if clValue is not equal to folder then
if clValue is not equal to project then
--Inbox (No details)
set oWin to first document window of front document
set strName to name of first selected tree of (sidebar of oWin)
if strName ≠ "Inbox" then set strName to ""
set strTP to strTP & strName & ":" & return
else
-- Project (Name and possibly note)
if length of strName > 0 then
set strTP to strTP & strIndent & strName & ":" & return
if length of strNote > 0 then ¬
set strTP to strTP & strIndent & strNote & return
end if
end if
else
-- Folder (Just name - no note)
set strTP to strTP & strIndent & strName & ":" & return
end if

else -- Task (with details from specified columns)


-- set recFields to {fldName:name of oValue, fldNote:note of oValue, fldDone:completed of oValue, fldContext:strContext, fldStartDate:start date of oValue, flddueDate:due date of oValue, fldDoneDate:completion date of oValue, fldDuration:estimated minutes of oValue, fldFlagged:flagged of oValue}


-- write first line of task, followed by tags
set lstLines to paragraphs of strName

set strTP to strTP & strIndent & "- " & item 1 of lstLines

-- Add any tags
set oContext to context of oValue
if oContext is not equal to missing value then ¬
set strTP to strTP & " @" & name of oContext

set dteStart to start date of oValue
if dteStart is not equal to missing value then ¬
set strTP to strTP & " @start(" & my DateString(dteStart) & ")"

set dteDue to due date of oValue
if dteDue is not equal to missing value then ¬
set strTP to strTP & " @due(" & my DateString(dteDue) & ")"


set lngDurn to estimated minutes of oValue
if lngDurn is not equal to missing value then ¬
set strTP to strTP & " @mins(" & (lngDurn as string) & ")"


if flagged of oValue then set strTP to strTP & " @flag"

if completed of oValue then set strTP to strTP & " @done"
set strTP to strTP & return

-- write any remaining lines of task as note text
if length of lstLines > 1 then
repeat with strLine in rest of lstLines
set strLine to my RTrim(strLine)
if length of strLine > 0 then
-- change any trailling : to :-, to avoid misinterpretation as a header
if last character of strLine ≠ ":" then
set strTP to strTP & strIndent & strLine & return
else
set strTP to strTP & strIndent & strLine & "-" & return
end if
end if
end repeat
end if

-- append any attached note text
set lstLines to paragraphs of strNote

repeat with strLine in lstLines
set strLine to my RTrim(strLine)
if length of strLine > 0 then
-- change any trailling : to :-
if last character of strLine ≠ ":" then
set strTP to strTP & strIndent & strLine & return
else
set strTP to strTP & strIndent & strLine & "-" & return
end if
end if
end repeat

end if

-- if the current node has sub-trees then recurse
set lstSubTrees to trees of oTree
if (count of lstSubTrees) > 0 then
set lngNewIndent to lngIndent + 1
set strTP to strTP & my ExportTrees(lstSubTrees, lngNewIndent, blnContextView)
end if

end repeat
end tell
return strTP
end ExportTrees

on RTrim(someText)
local someText

repeat until someText does not end with return
if length of someText > 1 then
set someText to text 1 thru -2 of someText
else
set someText to ""
end if
end repeat

return someText
end RTrim

on DateString(dte)
-- yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm
set strDate to ""
if dte is not equal to missing value then
set lngMonth to month of dte as integer
set strMonth to lngMonth as string
if lngMonth < 10 then set strMonth to "0" & strMonth

set lngDay to day of dte as integer
set strDay to lngDay as string
if lngDay < 10 then set strDay to "0" & strDay

set strDate to strDate & (year of dte) & "-" & strMonth & "-" & strDay

set lngHrs to (hours of dte) as integer
set lngmins to (minutes of dte) as integer

if (lngHrs > 0) or (lngmins > 0) then
set strHrs to lngHrs as string
if lngHrs < 10 then set strHrs to "0" & strHrs

set strMins to lngmins as string
if lngmins < 10 then set strMins to "0" & strMins

set strDate to strDate & " " & strHrs & ":" & strMins
end if
end if
return strDate
end DateString

on EscAmpersand(str)
set strOldDelim to text item delimiters

set text item delimiters to " @"
set lstParts to text items of str
set lngParts to count of lstParts
if lngParts > 1 then

set strNew to item 1 of lstParts
repeat with n from 2 to lngParts
set strNew to strNew & "_@" & item n of lstParts
end repeat
set text item delimiters to strOldDelim
return strNew
else
set text item delimiters to strOldDelim
return str
end if
end EscAmpersand



[/CODE]

Yes, that works extremely well! Thanks very much!!