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I already emailed Omni with a suggestion for relative dates (and I'm sure I wasn't the first to do so), and I've been getting on their case (sorry Ken) about the damn columns.

In my view there's too little clarity about which column is which but—perversely—too much feedback where it is not needed. Why, for example, have a clock icon beside the time slot? Using the same logic, there should be a calendar icon beside each date field. The clock icon simply wastes horizontal space for no gain in comprehension. And why do I need to see the icons for time, flag and attachment flash up when I mouse over the text at the left-hand end of the row? On my screen this is a full hand-span away from where my attention is directed and yet I am distracted by items which do not interest me at that moment.

But then when I am actually looking for the date slots for a project I have to use psychic powers to divine where they are and to identify which is which. Why not provide column headings? It would conserve horizontal space and absolve the poor user from having to keep this stuff in their own precious RAM.

I'm told that there is a problem with column headers because the columns aren't consistently in a straight line all the way down. But this just raises the question, why not? OmniOutliner does a fine and elegant job of aligning columns, even with indented rows.

Also, tabular presentation can be tighter and more economical of space by using a lightweight grid. It helps the eye to separate items and removes some of the burden of brainwork required to comprehend at a glance.

Last edited by coconino; 2007-06-03 at 08:46 AM..