[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by kray

I have been using OF since it came out and have been reading a lot about using Start Dates to help organize action items. But one thing drives me nuts - if I set a Start Date for today, the action does not appear in my Next Action list even if it is before the start time assigned to the action.

An action with a start date in the future is not available, by definition. The Next Actions view shows only available actions which are the next action(s) for the selected project(s) or context(s).

If I have a project to paint the ceiling, and the very first thing I can do to move the project forward is to buy the paint, buying the paint is my next action. However, if that action has a start date/time of today at 9 AM, when the paint store opens, it is not an available action until 9 AM. The Next Action view is designed to give you a short list of available actions to choose from to do, and so showing you next actions which are not yet available would be counter-productive.

That is, it's 8:15am on 2/2 here right now, and if I have an action with a start date of 2/2 at 5:00pm, it is not considered a Next Action and disappears from my list, even though it is actually several hours before it is supposed to start!

That is exactly correct—an action with a future start date/time is not available and thus will not be shown as a next action.

This inconsistency has made me have to set invalid start dates (one day later than it really should start) or not use start dates at all, or be forced to use Remaining instead of Next Action.

This part I don't understand. I would be interested to see a screenshot showing an action with a future start date as available, as your statement implies you see.

Is there a reason why OF handles actions in this manner? (Even if there is, it would be great to have a Preference that lets the user say whether to respect the start time or not related to Next Actions.)

Why are you interested in polluting the Next Action view with unavailable actions?