[ifonline]

Hm... I use groups to help organize longer lists of actions under projects. For example, I have this structure in OF on the Mac:

-RC Analysis Software development
------Modify Contract Data table and window
------------Add column in table for insurance company
------------Add column in datagrid for insurance company
------------Add combobox for insurance company

When I look at OF on the iPhone under Projects, I see:

-RC Analysis Software development (tapping this drills-down into the project)

-Modify Contract Data table and window (this item is gray and will allow me to drill-down into the group)
-Add column in table for insurance company
-Add column in datagrid for insurance company
-Add combobox for insurance company

When I look at OF on the iPhone under Contexts, I see:

-Modify Contract Data table and window
-Add column in table for insurance company
-Add column in datagrid for insurance company
-Add combobox for insurance company

I both situations, I would expect to see only the group, and from there I would drill-down into the group to see the actions. Why is this not the case? Under Projects, I can drill-down into the group, sure, but the actions under that group are also listed along with the group headers. This is confusing to me, although the group headers are formatted differently. Worse yet, under Contexts, the group headers are listed along side the actions and are formatted to look just like other actions. I don't understand this logic.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[Brian]

Nutshell version: over the years, we discovered that having certain rows not appear in context mode was really confusing for some customers. They didn't use parent rows as containers - they wanted to us them as tasks.

They would enter a task that looked like any other in project view, but they couldn't find it/check it off when they looked in context view, even after checking off the subitems. This change is meant to help folks that want to use OmniFocus this way.

Check this thread on the OF/Mac v1.8 sneaky peeks. Most discussion about this change has been taking place there...

[ifonline]

For clarification, I was referring to the iPhone version, not the Mac version. Additionally, if I create a group, I want to see that group on the iPhone behave as a group (i.e. allow me to drill-down into it to see the group's actions). That's why I created a group. As it is, the iPhone sort of does this under projects, but definitely does not do this under contexts. All I want it to have groups behave like groups on the iPhone.

For that matter, I want to see groups behave like groups on the Mac under contexts as well. Basically, the way groups work on the Mac under projects is exactly how I would expect groups to work everywhere else. But unfortunately, groups don't work that way.

[ifonline]

Hm... maybe I was a bit too tired the other morning when I posed my original post. Looking at contexts again on the iPhone, I don't see the group headings. Based on this revelation, the current implementation on the iPhone is ok. I still would like groups to behave like groups on the iPhone (drill-down), but I can adapt to the way it is.

Of course, with the changes coming to OF 1.8 on the Mac, I might have to re-adjust again in the future, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Thanks again for the insight.

[Toadling]

I think one of the goals of context mode is to display everything in a flat list so that items can be sorted and grouped individually by the view bar filters.

Planning mode, on the other hand, is designed for working with items in hierarchical groupings (that's why the view bar operates on projects in planning mode and on actions in context mode).

-Dennis

PS - I'm referring to OmniFocus for Mac here, but some of this applies to the iPhone version too.

[ifonline]

You may be right, and I am starting to think the real issue here is just that I need to become familiar with how OF works (on the Mac and the iPhone) and adjust my routines accordingly.