Lost on Perspectives
 

Has anyone struggled with the Perspectives and then had a Eureka moment?

Perspectives never works for me the way I expect, so it is very frustrating. I think part of the problem is that I keep expecting to be able to filter and sort by all the heading in the viewbar, but they are inconsistent.

The "Start" versus "Due" seems to have created problems in my work planning because the perspectives have such weak sorting capabilities. For example, is there a way to sort all tasks by start date? Is there a way to filter a perspective to show only those tasks with start dates?

I have been struggling with OmniFocus for a couple of weeks now. I have watched the McAllister videos, some of the Lynda.com, and the MacSparky (the best), but I still struggle with creating a good workflow in OmniFocus.

Hi Nortin,

perspectives can be confusing but are one of the major advantages of OF over the competition. For one I recommend reading this article and considering to buy the presented ebook (no, Im not the author ;) ) for a few dollar. I have heard it is worth it, especially if you struggle with perspectives: [url]http://www.macstories.net/mac/creating-flow-with-omnifocus-is-the-book-every-of-user-should-read-review-and-giveaway/[/url]

You can very well create a start date perspective, for example by setting both "sort" and "group" to "start date". That gives you a sorted view of tasks, those with a start date first. It gives you groupings like "started within the past 6 months", "started within the past week" etc.

[QUOTE=Nortin;103925]For example, is there a way to sort all tasks by start date? Is there a way to filter a perspective to show only those tasks with start dates? [/QUOTE]

Welcome to the forums - happy to help! It's important to understand that the sort tools operate differently in Planning view and Context view. In Planning view, projects are sorted against each other, but we don't mess with the contents of your projects. In context view, the contents of each of your "Group by" buckets will be sorted against each other individually.

For info on setting up a "tasks sorted by start date" perspective, check [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=20324"]this thread[/URL].

For a perspective that hides tasks that have no start date, a basic framework's available in [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost.php?p=75570&postcount=2"]this post[/URL]. With some minor modifications to the steps there - using "Start" for the "Group By" setting and hiding the "Start any time" group - sounds like what you're looking for...

Hope this helps!

Thanks!
 

Brian and Christian,

Thanks so much. Your advice saved me pulling out my hair. I feel like I have made a leap forward.