[goldensteve]

Hi All,

Newbie question I'm afraid. I have just recently got into using the project features in MS Entourage and like the way that I can integrate things with the email. However, prompted by how poor Office 2008 is, I am finally really considering moving to Mail. (I hesitate because of the long experience with Entourage).

I am therefore hoping for some sort of personal productivity tool that will add to Mail (which will become the centre of my activity universe). It looks like OmniFocus has many desirable features, but can anyone give me some impression of how it integrates with Mail?

I'm prepared to put the time in to work it all out, but it would be great to hear some real-world experiences - even if it means that this is not the product I am looking for.

Thanks

Steve

[steve]

Hi Steve,

I haven't used Office 2008, but I have had terrible experiences with older versions of office such as having my entire project/email database corrupt.

The mail.app has a built in to-do feature which is oddly under-developed. However, the mail.app and omnifocus work very well together.

Here is my plan of attack when it comes to email.

1. If I can do it in two minutes or less, I get it done out of the inbox.
2. If the task is more than two minutes, I invoke free third party program called Mail Act-On which enables me to do the following:

• move the message to a folder called actionable
• invoke an applescript that opens the "quick entry" window. I can then turn the email into a project, file it under another project, assign start and/or due dates, or simply drop it into the OmniFocus inbox.

When I am working in OmniFocus I'll see the action or actions that I have created out of the email. In the body of the OF next action there will be a link to the original email and a clipping of the original text of the email.

This process has freed me from the feeling that email is more urgent than other incoming tasks.

There are lots of other ways of getting the job done. If you decide to stay with microsoft, I think you can clip parts of an email message and throw them into Omnifocus.

Good luck!
Steve

[goldensteve]

Thank you so much for this. I am looking at this, and also MailTags, and it seems now certain that OmniFocus is the way to go.

Thanks again

Steve