[vmarco]

You may have some legitimate dissappointments, but this is beyond "not sugar-coating it". My assessment is that it fits pretty well so far. I love OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner, and this feels similar with a lot of potential for really nice integration between the apps now and down the road.

What I like about the idea of OmniPlan is this integration, as well as the momentum the OmniGroup consistently produces. We have seen both OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle (especially the Pro versions) really beef up over time. These guys get iterative product development. I also am betting that scriptability through AppleScript will be much better down the road than with any other planner app. This app is usable in its beta form, and given that MSProject import/export tests well (I've noticed some possible initial problems) this app is one that meets my needs now, is comfortable to work in, and has great potential in future revs.

But it does have a ways to go. To me it is already better than MSProject and FastTrack. Moving tasks around and filling in a project went rather smooth. I did feel that linking task dependencies was a bit haphazzard in whether the app decided to change duration or add a link. I liked the auto leveling, which worked as I expected. Resource assignment fit pretty well. I didn't think date selection was as fluent as I'd like. I'd like a small calendar popup next to the date fields.

Bottom line is that this app did leave me with a good feeling, but not the awesome feeling I got from OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle. It doesn't seem worth jumping from Merlin for, however, I'm not writing it off yet.

Vince
President of Enterprise Frameworks, Inc.