[Fireproof]

Please help me understand the best way to do this.

I'm surfing the web on my iphone and find some text or a link I want to do something with later, so I want to create an action out of it.

How do I easily get that URL or selected block of text into a new Action in my OF Inbox on the phone?

thanks,

[whpalmer4]

Take your pick:

• Tap the + button and email a link for the page to an address you've configured to be processed by the OmniFocus mail processing feature on your Mac (see help for "processing mail")
• Install the new bookmarklet in version 1.6 of the OmniFocus for iPhone app and use the bookmarklet to transfer the page information to OmniFocus

The first option works well if you have a number of links you want to send to OmniFocus because it doesn't interrupt your browsing session, unlike the second option which transfers you to OmniFocus to complete the entry. In either case, to copy some selected text, you'll need to find a way to copy that text to the clipboard on the iPhone, either to add it to the email or paste it into the notes respectively. That's easy if you are on a page where you can edit (for example, if I wanted some of the text from the page containing this post, I could hit the Quote button to start a reply, and copy), but I don't know how to do it with a web page that can't be edited. You can scribble some notes to yourself about what it was on the page that interested you, so long as you aren't trying to capture something from an ephemeral page, of course.

To install the bookmarklet, go to the settings page, experimental section, and tap the Install button. Read the resulting directions carefully, as you have to do a bit of editing before the bookmarklet will work.

[Fireproof]

Thanks for the help.

I did not know about the second option and will look into that. It seems that is what I need. Cool.

The first option doesn't work for me (I think) because I'm not using Apple Mail on my Mac. All my email is web-based GMail (and Google Apps Email) on my Macbook, so if I read correctly about the mail processing - that only works with Apple mail.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

In the meantime - I'll check out the bookmarklet you mentioned.

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by Fireproof

The first option doesn't work for me (I think) because I'm not using Apple Mail on my Mac. All my email is web-based GMail (and Google Apps Email) on my Macbook, so if I read correctly about the mail processing - that only works with Apple mail.

Yes, you would need to run the Apple Mail app to get the processing done, but that doesn't mean you would have to use the Mail app for all of your mail processing, just that you would need to have it running and configured for the account you use for emailing things to OmniFocus. That could be a completely separate account from your normal ones, if you want. And if you are using IMAP, it shouldn't interfere with any other application handling your mail, because it will only mark the ones aimed at OmniFocus as read, and leave the rest alone. So, if you want to be able to email items to OmniFocus, you should be able to do so without having to change your preferred mail handling setup.

[whpalmer4]

Just to answer the question of "well, why would I want to do that?" -- you could send yourself interesting items or new actions or whatever from any computer that can send plain text email, not just your iPhone, so long as you can control the sender field, or know what it will be in advance. As a security measure, the email has to come from a known list of valid senders. This means your spouse can only add things to your to do list by email if you make it possible :)

[Fireproof]

Great insight!! Very helpful - thank you!