[jordy]

Hi,

I have a parent task:
Resubmit Manuscript

This parent task has two subtasks:
Print out manuscript
Fix manuscript

Once these subtasks are done, I would expect that the parent task (Resubmit Manuscript) to show up in the context view. But, it never seems to. It has a due date and a context. But regardless of what visible settings I choose (e.g., due soon, available, remaining, etc.) Resubmit Manuscript never shows up.

Do I have a setting wrong or something?

Thanks,
J

[whpalmer4]

No, you don't have a setting wrong, and neither is it a bug. The "parent task" as you put it is actually called an action group, in some respects like a miniature project, and like a project, the container does not appear in a context mode view. This behavior has been discussed a few times over the past few years, and I'm not sure anyone finds the current situation to be ideal, but many find it workable. Use Help->Send Feedback or email omnifocus@omnigroup.com to make your suggestions and requests for improvements.

[jordy]

Darn. I don't think I'll be able to work around that. How very disappointing.

[whpalmer4]

What exactly about it is a show-stopper for you? You can configure the program to automatically mark the groups complete when the last item is checked off. The previous lack of that feature seemed to be the usual reason users wanted to see action group names in context mode listings.

If you tell us what is unique about your situation, the collective experience of the many forum participants can probably offer solutions. I find very little I can't do in OmniFocus, with a bit of flexibility.

[JKT]

I'm hitting this as a usability flaw as well - I am assigning due dates to the parent so that all the children are set to end on the same due date. However, if I need to update the due date (yeah, I know, not good GTD practice etc, but it is how I operate), then you can't do it under Context view. This is a pain as, when I view my Due perspective, I often have actions that are due listed (but no date is shown as it belongs to the parent) for which I have no easy means of altering the date.

It would be much better for me if the parent was shown (with the children nested below it) in Context view.

[whpalmer4]

What I do is double-click one of the items to be rescheduled, bringing up a window focused on the containing project. Switch to project mode and fix up the due dates, then jettison the window. Most of the time, I will need to change other dates (or at least check for the possibility) so I don't find this terribly burdensome in practice.

Where/when do you envision the action group parent appearing in a context mode view? The children might be scattered all over the view, and if it only appears when all the contained actions have been completed (as has been suggested elsewhere) it wouldn't seem to offer any help for your scenario, would it? I guess you could have the parent appear multiple times, but that certainly won't win many style points!

[JKT]

Never occurred to me to try that and, with hindsight, what I was thinking of would actually only work for one set-up of the filters (i.e. the Due perspective) and would probably break in all the others. I can stick to the double click of a "date-less" action now I am reminded of it, so thanks.

[Greg Jones]

Another option to accomplish this in the same window is to right-click the task in Context mode and select 'Show in Planning Mode' or for those wanting to use the keyboard as much as possible, Option-Command-R toggles between the Context and Planning views.

[Lucas]

Following Greg's comment, there is also a toolbar button that can be added to switch the view, which I use. I don't think that it is in the default set but is in the customize toolbar sheet.

[JKT]

Neither of those options is very convenient (the second is what I had been doing already) as it takes me away from what I am doing, i.e. reviewing my actions in their context with all the others. The new window trick at least lets me keep my prior view at the same time, so I'll be sticking with that one for now.