[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by hotwheels22

I guess I was dragging and dropping to an open window pane and it is necessary to put the link in the notes is that right?

You just have to drop it on the action or project, you don't need to have the notes field open. You'll get a little curved arrow (if linking) or the green circle with the + (if option key is held down to embed) in the outline of the file icon you are dragging. When there's a light grey outline around your target, you can release the button and the file will be attached in the fashion you specified. If you are trying to embed, make sure you don't release the option key early! If there's any doubt, you can use the Attachment List window to verify that you've gotten the file in there; it will not appear in the Attachment List window if it is only linked.

For instance I would have a task called linked documents and then in the notes I could have a list of linked documents is that right? Or is there a way to make the actual linked document the note so you don't have to click into the note to get to the document (if that makes sense).

Image files smaller than 512x512 will be displayed inline; anything else you'll just get the icon and name. You can adjust the threshold for displaying images inline by following Ken's directions here: http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost...05&postcount=7

You could also store your documents related to a project in the notes for the project itself. I find this to be a cleaner approach than having an action devoted to storing documents; for one thing, you don't have the phony action cluttering up the view. The drawback, however, is that the procedure on the iPhone for getting to the note field for a project is different than that for getting to the note field for an action. A project's notes are accessed by going to the list of Projects, tapping the Edit button, scrolling to the project in question, tapping it, then tapping the > sign next to the project name. If you've got a file embedded, then you go to the same place except instead tapping the > sign, you scroll to the bottom and rummage through the Attachments section. One of the nice things about the iPad app is that you get to the corresponding information about projects and actions in the same way, but I digress even more than usual :-)

If I just want the link I should not hold down the option key, yes? If I hold down the option key there is no active link anymore is that right?

Correct: holding option key means the file is embedded, and no notice is taken of where it lived when you did so. No option key means the location of the file is saved, but not its contents.

I mean, if I /don't/ hold down the option key and update the doc and save it, it will get updated in Omni, yes? Can I access the document from /within/ Omni, update the document, save it and - I assume - have it get updated, yes?

If you didn't hold down the option key (file is linked), then when you double-click on the icon, OmniFocus just hands the file name off to the system and says "open this". You'll get whatever is there. If you embedded (held down option key), then OmniFocus rummages around in the database, copies the file out into a temporary file, and tells the system to open it. You can edit the file, and save your changes, and it even looks like OmniFocus picked them up — if you double-click on the icon again, it opens up the file and there are your changes. The problem is that it doesn't move the updated file back into the database and sync it to your other clients! However, if you saved a copy of the updated file on your desktop and replaced the old one as I suggested, then it won't matter whether this behavior is intentional or accidental; you'll have the latest copy in the database, and it should get synced.

I didn't follow this. I had been using Things but it was not so good for my needs. I am storing the file on Dropbox. But having the link to the file in Things was really nice. I could just open Things and click on the link and the document would open. I could edit, save and it would get updated all around. Are you saying I can't do this with Omni for some reason?

If you store the file in Dropbox instead of embedding it in your OmniFocus document, Dropbox will handle the file syncing for you (and does so very well, in my experience). You can even add the file to your "favorites" list in the Dropbox app if you need to be able to see it while you don't have internet connectivity (though you'll want to be sure that the app has an up-to-date copy before setting off into the wilderness if you've been editing it on another machine).

Now, the fly in the ointment is that OmniFocus on your iPhone doesn't currently have a way to ask Dropbox for a file, so you wouldn't be able to go directly to your document from the attachments list. You would have to know where the file lives in your Dropbox, launch the Dropbox app, and access it that way. On the Mac, there's no problem, but on iPhone/iPad it is a bit clunky. If Things can grab the files directly from Dropbox, they are doing at least one thing better than OmniFocus at the moment.

ALSO, is there any way to edit the document (a Pages document) on my iPhone or can I just access it from the phone...?

I'm not aware of any way to edit a Pages document on the iPhone, only on the iPad. There may be a way to do it; I haven't needed to do so and so haven't investigated. I just tried it on the iPad, and found that while I could hand the file off to Pages to be opened, I would have to save it somewhere else from Pages.