Just bought OO2

• External keyboard TAB + SHIFT TAB - good !
• bullets and triangles less obtrusive - excellent.
• UI to work-area contrasts quieter - much better ...

But

1. Saturated orange all over the place - unfamiliar and distracting. Why ? A gritty insistence on 'decoration' ?
2. Bright white screen - no dark screen alternative. Thumbs down from the research on this. Especially in the evenings.
3. No way of sending current line(s) to OmniFocus – I can do this from Editorial or Drafts, why not OmniOutliner ?
4. No workflows or Python scripts. Again Editorial has these, and Drafts has url schemes. A strength of OSX OO is scripts. A pity to have fallen well behind the competitive curve on productivity here.
5. Markdown ?
6. Markdown ?
7. Markdown ?

Will I use it ?

Occasionally, I hope. Maybe when I need to use columns for some reason.

But I'll still be living in Editorial and Drafts. A general feeling here of falling behind the competition in terms of productivity and inter-app exchange. And in terms of UI design both of those are visually much less mannered and intrusive.
In particular, less orange ...

I hope that Omni isn't defining its graphic goals in decorative terms ('bright white + saturated colors').

omz:software and Agile Tortoise are clearly defining theirs in terms of what is needed by productivity: deference and clarity. No mistaking workspace for decorative canvas or portfolio exhibit.

An in Editorial I can choose between a white screen and a dark one. No orange flourishes everywhere.

http://omz-forums.appspot.com/editor...05660105883648

Originally Posted by RobTrew

No orange flourishes everywhere

As in:

"Yes, yes, I know I'm working in OmniOutliner – I hadn't forgotten that – but can I please focus on my work now ?"

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PS another thing for the 'excellent' list:

the right-hand thumb area + controls for adding nodes in various relational directions

Really good pragmatic design. Thanks !

[DerekM]

Originally Posted by RobTrew

Bright white screen - no dark screen alternative. Thumbs down from the research on this. Especially in the evenings.

If you set a dark background color on your document, the UI switches to dark theme.

Good – that would be a workable hack if the text also inverted, but it seems to leave me with black on black invisible text. So each time I print I presumably have to manually change both background colors and print colors ?

What would you recommend (in the absence of workflows/scripts) as a quick way of switching between a dark and light scheme ?

(In Editorial, for example, a single switch inverts the display scheme, without changing the printing properties of the document).

Got it, thanks !

Template themes – works well. That's very encouraging.

It's a pity though, that the UI elements (bullets and triangles etc, become more obtrusive in the dark version).

(On the white screen they are very well subdued and deferential)

[DerekM]

The contrast will be adjusted in the next release. For the handles, anyways. Other elements will still need to be looked at.

Perfect – thanks !

( Perhaps, more generally, one could formulate a UI goal of 'reversible [dark/light] deference' )

Many thanks for the newly muted handles (bullets and triangles) in dark views.

Much less distracting now.

The filename, however, remains brighter and bolder than the user's text (brighter and bolder, in fact, than anything else in the UI – see screenshot in previous post).

Apple are getting this right, I notice, muting down the contrast level of the filename, rather than brightening it up.



Can I suggest a similar approach in iPad OO2 ? A visible but quieter filename would would be less distracting for users in both the light and the dark views.

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