[wilsonng]

Originally Posted by Butter

I agree and I'll go one step further and suggest that OmniGroup make a dedicated OmniCalendar and OmniContact module that will work with Focus and Plan and will integrate with iCal and AB for syncing. I'm currently using Daylite for contacts and calendar and I'm dying to find a better solution, and believe me, so are countless other mac users. There is a great void in this area for mac users.

Regarding the overlap of Focus and Plan. I have both as well, and honestly, the structure of both is very similar. If you're a project manager you can pretty much do everything that Focus does with Plan and if you just need GTD, then Focus is really all you need since you can schedule and iCal the items. I use Plan for work and scheduling Projects, and I use Focus for brain dumps, and sorting tasks. I theoretically can do that with Plan if needed as well. But sure, if we can create a perfect scenario then there really should only be ONE application, not 2 with similar attributes.

Hello Butter,
Well, I see you're still looking around.... I agree that the Mac really needs a calendar/contact solution. Haven't seen that since the old Now Up-To-Date/Contact days. I see you at the Daylite forums as well looking around just like me. Looking for something.....

Maybe the Omni-folks should just buy out BusyCal! That would give Omni a ready-made calendar product! I hear that the BusyCal folks are a small outfit. Throw some resources their way and maybe we can get to the OmniContacts portion much faster!

Yes, I'm not too fond of Daylite either. Their contact solution works OK but their calendar definitely needs a lot of work.

Daylite's workflow is so roundabout. It would take me a few more clicks to do something that just seems to flow in BusyCal.

I've been trying to figure out SOHO Organizer but their tech support has not been quite sufficient. Their lack of a user forum prevents other users from helping each other out.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by wilsonng

I've been trying to figure out SOHO Organizer but their tech support has not been quite sufficient. Their lack of a user forum prevents other users from helping each other out.

Ya, I've been looking for a good Contact/Calendar solution for quite a long time, LOL. I don't want this to be about Daylite bashing, as it could take up a new thread, but... let's just say if another company came along with the right solution, it could stand to make a lot of money.

I've been staying away from Filemaker apps, like SoHo and Bento. I don't think the structure is well suited for professional use and integration. And recently Now Software went out of business, so there is even fewer choices out there. Daylite, and Contactizer Pro.

The apps that I've used from Omni are designed well and work well. I would definitely consider a OmniCalendar or OmniContact module that would integrate with Focus or Plan. Thinking about it further, it doesn't even need to sync with iCal or AB, if they would provide other syncing methods, like via Bonjour or WiFi.

Anyway, good luck and may be cross fingers for a good solution.

[dancingbrook]

Originally Posted by Lizard

[on Jan 15th 2008] We are looking at ways to create more cooperation between OmniPlan and OmniFocus in 2.0 (of both apps). Also, OmniGraffle Pro has a nifty little outline sidebar that will probably become even more powerful in 5.0. All this to say that we agree the lines between these apps are a little bit fuzzy and we continue to seek the balance between flexible tools and feature bloat.

So here it is nearly three years after the above message and still nothing that comes close to integration or cooperation.

No tags in OF. No multiple projects in OP. No live integration between OG and OO. I wouldn't mind (even paying for) 4 distinct apps if they could just talk to each other.

[Brian]

Yep, we've been wanting to work on things like that for a long time, and we still do.

That said, it's true that the time we needed to work on our iOS projects - including the syncing that was part of that effort - have meant that some of our Mac projects have taken longer than they were originally planned to. (When the post you're quoting went up, the iPhone app store didn't exist yet, FWIW.)

I know it's frustrating, and I'm sorry for that. If it helps at all, the Mac apps will ultimately benefit from everything we've learned from doing the iOS projects. It's taking longer than was planned, but there is at least some silver lining to that dark cloud.

[mikirby]

Seriously. You guys are slower to update your apps than any other company ever. Three and a half years ago, in Jan 2008, someone posted in this thread that you were working on v1.5. Now, in Jun 2011, the apps are up to 1.7. And Omnigraffle has been frozen somewhere between version 5.0 and 5.2.3 for how long now?

Personally, as I've waited in vain for much-needed improvements, I've felt for a long time that you simply abandoned your mac users in favor of cashing in on the iOS gold rush. Your products are not yet mature but have incredible potential. But unless the next major version upgrade is the equivalent of _at_least_ the two major version releases that should have occurred in almost 4 years, I can't see how you expect to be taken seriously by your user base.

I mean, you have four different apps that deal with hierarchically organized data, and after 4 years of user requests they still don't talk to each other? That's like something I expect from Windows apps. No, excuse me, Microsoft has had some sort of functionality like that in their apps for, what, 15 years? 20?

After all these years, Omnigraffle's graphviz DOT rendering still only uses a "subset" (read: slightly short of the bare acceptable minimum) of the DOT spec - and that's when it succeeds in reading it, rather than just crashing the entire program, which is often. And, in 2011, THIS is the most advanced graphing app on the Mac? Has this platform turned into a complete joke?

Back to the thread topic, here's what I need: an outlining program that uses the contexts and other convenient features like OmniFocus, but which lets me add extra columns which can be totaled or averaged, and, if any each outline item contains start/end dates/times, I want to see a Gantt chart, complete with critical path. Apparently, in 2011, this is too much to ask from the Mac platform. I'm getting ready to sit down and write it myself at this point!

I'm glad you got your feet in the door of the iDevice gold rush. I hope you make a fortune, all buy bigger houses, and hire a bunch more skilled programmers. Now, could you please forget about the obsession with fashionable little toys, and create something that runs on actual computers and is adequate for actual business users?

There are so few apps that are capable of what you need them to do anymore. It's like everything's been dumbed-down, and power users who need actual working tools are, for the most part, out of luck on the Mac platform nowadays.

I really wish Omni would buck that "80% of needed functionality is good enough" trend. Your apps have so much potential. But, I don't know if I speak for anyone other than myself, but you need to make the next major revs work double-plus good, or I'm gonna finally be convinced you're just not dedicated to fulfilling my (not extraordinary) business needs.

[mikirby]

Anyone who replies TL;DR is a dead man ;-)

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by mikirby

Anyone who replies TL;DR is a dead man ;-)

OK, alternate version:

The food sucks, and the portions are too small!

[elektroglide]

Originally Posted by mikirby

I don't know if I speak for anyone other than myself, but you need to make the next major revs work double-plus good, or I'm gonna finally be convinced you're just not dedicated to fulfilling my (not extraordinary) business needs.

hi

i'm the great grandson of the OP. you're not alone in thinking this...

[mscarborough]

A program that combined the functionality of OmniPlan with OmniFocus would be the next killer app on par with the spreadsheet, the word processor, and the web browser. The Omni Group should make it happen, but if it hasn't happened after three years of user begging; it probably isn't going to happen.

[nailen]

Originally Posted by mscarborough

A program that combined the functionality of OmniPlan with OmniFocus would be the next killer app on par with the spreadsheet, the word processor, and the web browser. The Omni Group should make it happen, but if it hasn't happened after three years of user begging; it probably isn't going to happen.

No, I don't think it will. They took the poll down from my thread (not very classy) which showed overwhelming support for this among OmniFocus users indicating they're not moving in this direction:

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=13966