Context for projects?
 

Would you please help me to understand the purpose of context for projects?

Especially in 'No contexts' of 'Contexts' view.

As I understand context is an action oriented attribute. Projects usually include actions that require different contexts. So usually context for a project would not be relevant.

Contexts for projects may be helpful if I would like actions put into certain project to automatically acquire certain context attribute. Does such feature exist in OmniFocus by the way?

Context for a project may be considered as a summary of project actions' contexts. But it is not created automatically if all actions of the project or most actions of the project have similar contexts.

Besides in 'Context' view 'No Context' option shows projects without context attribute. When I go to 'Context' view I expect to work with actions, it could be actions grouped into projects, but not projects themselves.

If this is a necessary feature could I at least turn off the showing of uncontexted projects in 'Contexts' view?

[QUOTE=makesense;85304]Would you please help me to understand the purpose of context for projects?

Especially in 'No contexts' of 'Contexts' view.[/QUOTE]

Most projects won't have a context assigned, so they'll show up under No Context. This probably isn't so useful when you're trying to look at a Contexts list (in which case just click on "Contexts" in the sidebar to exclude everything which doesn't have a context), but it's very useful if you're trying to look at everything which is coming due this week, or everything which has been recently modified or completed, etc.

[QUOTE]If this is a necessary feature could I at least turn off the showing of uncontexted projects in 'Contexts' view?[/QUOTE]

As noted above, you can hide everything with no context by clicking on Contexts in the sidebar.

You can also hide everything which is unavailable by setting your View->Availability Filter to "Available", which is how I usually look at my context lists. (In that case, you'll only see projects show up once all of their actions have been completed, in which case that's probably a fine time to either check them off or add more actions.)

Finally, you can simply select "View->Hide Parent Items in Context Mode" if you simply want to hide all projects and groups.

Hope this helps!

[QUOTE=Ken Case;85312]in which case just click on "Contexts" in the sidebar to exclude everything which doesn't have a context)[/QUOTE]

I see the following problem here:

I will have a lot of project without contexts. I will also have a lot of actions without contexts. It will be difficult to follow actions in Context View mixed projects without context. And I will not be able to hide all 'No Context' items as I still need to see my actions.

I would love to be able to turn off the showing of uncontexted projects in Context View.

[QUOTE=Ken Case;85312]but it's very useful if you're trying to look at everything which is coming due this week, or everything which has been recently modified or completed, etc.[/QUOTE]

I will think about it, thank you.

[QUOTE=Ken Case;85312]You can also hide everything which is unavailable by setting your View->Availability Filter to "Available", which is how I usually look at my context lists. (In that case, you'll only see projects show up once all of their actions have been completed, in which case that's probably a fine time to either check them off or add more actions.)

Finally, you can simply select "View->Hide Parent Items in Context Mode" if you simply want to hide all projects and groups.[/QUOTE]

Yes, this can help at some point. But these are extreme solutions for me.

On a review stage I would like to be able to see all the actions with groupings (incl. actions with no context and not available). This is not a focused approach but I'm sure I will use it often to estimate overall position.

I too am confused about having my no context actions mixed with the no context projects. I am having a hard time getting around this feature, although I have been using OF for years. How do I separate the no context actions from the no context projects when scanning this list? Seems to me this will take some time if the project list is long, which it is.

To re-quote Ken.

Filter by available.

You will not see projects in the no context list, unless the project has no actions.

If you see projects in no contexts, complete or add actions and they will disappear from the no contexts.

[QUOTE=SpiralOcean;85343]To re-quote Ken.

Filter by available.

You will not see projects in the no context list, unless the project has no contexts.

If you see projects in no contexts, complete or add actions and they will disappear from the no contexts.[/QUOTE]

Filtering by available won't let you work with the remaining part of the database which is equally important.

Filtering by available narrows down the actions to actions that are doable. You don't need to see the other actions.

If you need to reorganize the project, then flip to project mode so that the actions you think you need to do are available.

It may make this easier if you post a real world project example where you are having problems.

[QUOTE=SpiralOcean;85345]Filtering by available narrows down the actions to actions that are doable. You don't need to see the other actions.

If you need to reorganize the project, then flip to project mode so that the actions you think you need to do are available.

It may make this easier if you post a real world project example where you are having problems.[/QUOTE]

Scanning your whole database is a helpful tool regardless the project. You may do a focused scan with Project View, Availability, Completed, etc. Scan of the database grouped by projects is as useful as scanning the database grouped by contexts - it is a different thinking process.

Scanning projects in project view is the same as scanning grouped projects in context view.

[QUOTE=SpiralOcean;85347]Scanning projects in project view is the same as scanning grouped projects in context view.[/QUOTE]

That is true if contexts of your project and all actions related to project are the same.

But in Contexts View you not necessarily want to scan projects, you might want to scan actions by contexts.