Spontaneous change of perspective
 

I hope this is an easy one for you experts!

I have spent the past two weekends studying the manual and reading many posts, and have a fairly firm understanding of perspectives (and have set up perspectives for "Tickler", "Waiting", "Important" and "Today", along with keyboard shortcuts), my "Waiting" context, my "Someday/Maybe" folder/context, my "Tickler" folder/context, and two great scripts (Complete and Await Reply, and Defer, both of which are now resident on my toolbar).

I have found a little issue which I cannot figure out, though. When I go to my "Tickler" perspective (for example), which shows up in context mode, and move an action to a different context (when it becomes important for me to take action), the view shifts so that ALL contexts and their associated actions are visible. The title remains that of "Perspective: Tickler".

Interestingly, this only happens if the action is a "Next Action", "Due Soon", "Overdue", but not with "Blocked" actions.

Is there any way that I can move an action to a different context, yet remain in the same context focus?

Thanks!

Is it possible to go into a bit more detail about how exactly you are doing these things? Maybe a screenshot or two? The only thing that I can think of is perhaps OF is trying to adjust the display parameters so that the item you moved remains visible (which might then cause many other previously hidden items to appear).

You can change the context of an item (in a context mode view) a number of ways, including:
[LIST][*]select item(s), bring up inspector, change context setting[*]right- or control-click on selected item, set context from pop-up menu[*]drag item to a different context in the sidebar[*]enter or select new context in context field, if showing context column in view[/LIST]

Further info...
 

Thank you for the reply.

I have been trying to find a pattern, and don't really have a specific clue.

I created 12 projects under a 'Tickler' folder (in Planning mode), each named for a month, each with a review date 15 days before the beginning of the month, and each with a review interval of 1 year.

I then can create a new project under a specific month, and when I do a review, that specific month's Tickler project will show up 15 days before the month in question.

Please take a look at this screenshot, with three created actions under the 'June' Tickler project. I used different dates for start and due dates.

[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=906&stc=1&d=1240460371[/url]

Now, if I grab Tickler Action 4 and drag it to the 'Mac' context, it disappears from this view and i can find it in the 'Mac' context. The view does not change.

But if I grab the Tickler action 5 and drag it to the 'Mac' context, I get the new view (still labeled 'Perspective:Tickler' on the toolbar, but with no context highlighted in the sidebar):

[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=908&stc=1&d=1240461099[/url]

(Note that I have dragged the window so you can see where the dragged action is found).

Does this have to do with Active vs Blocked actions? With the dates?

I would like to be able to work out of the Tickler perspective and drag a bunch of actions into the appropriate contexts without jumping back and forth between different contexts.

Thanks for the help!

You have kind of a confusing arrangement. Basically, you have a "tickler" context, which is what you are marking these tickler actions, until you move them into other contexts. You are finding that sometimes when you drag and drop an action from the tickler context to another context, the tickler context becomes deselected, sometimes not. I can't discern any relevant difference between these actions that would cause the context to become deselected. If you hit undo and drag that same action again, does the tickler context become deselected again?

I'm glad I wasn't the only experienced hand who found that confusing! Why do you want a tickler context in addition to the perspective? I can see a reasonable case for using the tickler projects, if you want to have an easy way to see what is going into the main flow for any given month, for example. I can't see why a tickler context would be desirable, however; could you elaborate on your thoughts there? I'm always interested in seeing different approaches...

A further experiment that you could try, just to eliminate the possibility that the deselection is due to an unintended and unnoticed mouse click during the operation, would be to use the inspector or the contextual pop-up menu to set the context of the action being assigned a new context. If you don't see the funny behavior using those options, then the issue probably doesn't have anything to do with whether the actions are blocked, etc.

[QUOTE=Lucas;58973]You have kind of a confusing arrangement. Basically, you have a "tickler" context, which is what you are marking these tickler actions, until you move them into other contexts. You are finding that sometimes when you drag and drop an action from the tickler context to another context, the tickler context becomes deselected, sometimes not. I can't discern any relevant difference between these actions that would cause the context to become deselected. If you hit undo and drag that same action again, does the tickler context become deselected again?[/QUOTE]

Thanks, Lucas.

I spent the past two weekends reading and re-reading threads, trying to synthesize a number of ideas, and trying to create my personal best practice for using OF. So none of this is a verbatim regurgitation of one person's suggestions, but is a synthesis with my own efforts at customization. Being relatively new to GTD and OF, I suppose I have created this confusion...

I wanted to establish a few modalities for addressing ticklers and 'waiting for' s, in particular, as these were the hardest for me to handle. For ticklers, I followed the approach of creating individual months as projects in a Tickler folder in planning mode. I can then open this folder and just check the next month's anticipated projects and actions, in Planning mode.

I created a Tickler perspective so I could just punch in my keyboard shortcut and see those projects and actions due in the next period of time relative to today, regardless of month, in Context mode.

Now to specifically answer your question: After I move an action, and get all contexts visible with none selected in the sidebar, I perform an undo, and i return to the view of the Tickler context only, with the action back in place.

If I do this with a blocked action, I see it disappear from my list, without a change in view. When I 'undo', this blocked action simply returns to the Tickler context view, without any change in that view.

With either of these, the title bar says "Perspectives: Tickler", no matter what I do.

If it helps at all, the 'switch' in views takes me to all contexts. I can click on my 'Mac' context and just get the 'Mac' actions, or click on the 'Tickler' context and just get the 'Tickler' actions.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;58976]I'm glad I wasn't the only experienced hand who found that confusing! Why do you want a tickler context in addition to the perspective? I can see a reasonable case for using the tickler projects, if you want to have an easy way to see what is going into the main flow for any given month, for example. I can't see why a tickler context would be desirable, however; could you elaborate on your thoughts there? I'm always interested in seeing different approaches...

A further experiment that you could try, just to eliminate the possibility that the deselection is due to an unintended and unnoticed mouse click during the operation, would be to use the inspector or the contextual pop-up menu to set the context of the action being assigned a new context. If you don't see the funny behavior using those options, then the issue probably doesn't have anything to do with whether the actions are blocked, etc.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, wh-

I opened the inspector, selected an 'active' task from my context view in the 'Tickler' perspective:

[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=909&stc=1&d=1240507238[/url]

I then dragged this same action to the 'Mac' context, the view changed, and the inspector now appears:

[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=910&stc=1&d=1240507238[/url]

I hope this is helpful.

In particular, perhaps I don't need a 'Tickler' context. My purpose was to be able to see all upcoming reminders, after which I could add them to my active To-Do lists in their proper contexts. Maybe I should just save them to the Tickler folder in planning mode, under the appropriate month's project, with delayed dates. I am entirely open to suggestion.

Thanks!