[BevvyB]

I want this too, with a bit of extra functionality too..

I need reminders to check to see if money has moved from my account

Certain bank withdrawals go out on certain days of the month like every 2nd of every month. So would like to be able to type 'every 2nd of month' and OF knows what to do about it.

However

Banks don't do transactions on weekends. If the 2nd lands on a Saturday or Sunday the transaction happens on the Monday, so it could be as late as the 4th. Would be terrific if you could have a tick box to make these repeating events day-aware with a 'rollover' feature.

This stuff is super important to me and it should be in OF. Many bills, transactions and standing orders work by day of month. It's the world we live in. I don't make the rules!

[whpalmer4]

Have you come across any calendar software that will do this automatically? iCal will let you do the 2nd Monday of each month, for example, but I don't see a way to get the 2nd of each month when it is a weekday and some nearby date when it falls on a weekend or bank holiday.

What I do is not bother making it a repeating event, and instead just enter a year or two of them all at once with start dates so I only see 1 at a time, and a reminder action to put in more near the end of the run. Or I enter it as a repeating action (or action group) with a note (or an explicit action) to fix up the date on the next one. Which approach I choose depends on whether or not it might be useful to see a list of upcoming actions instead of just the next one.

[jdavenport]

Originally Posted by Brian

...there are more votes attached to the "I need repeating actions like the desktop" request than to the "I need more flexible repeat options" request.

I think as soon as you give the first to the iphone, you'll get the second.

I am an iphone user and I just ordered a MacBook Pro. I'm taking the plunge after being a PC and Pocket-PC user for many years. I have always used tasks on the Pocket-PC and MS Outlook. I am trying to find a good iphone/Mac applications now as replacements. I've been using Appigo’s ToDo and have become intrigued by the GTD concept. Omnifocus looks like the application I want to use, but I need repeating task. Not just repeating tasks. If I cant set tasks to repeat at the times that I need them too, its pointless. I, like others here from what I gather, need things like... repeat on last weekday of the month, repeat only on weekdays, repeat on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. A task manager is supposed to help you be more productive, not kill your productivity trying to find a work around for what I think is the basics, scheduling the task when it is to be done. Your product looks fantastic and does way more then what I was even expecting to find, however its missing something crucial for me. Its kind of like having all the bells and whistles on a sports car but the engine was left out. Please develop this as quickly as possible and I'll be the first in line to place my order. (Heck I'll probably go ahead and buy it anyway to mess with it, but it will never meet my needs until more options are added for scheduling.)

Thanks

J Davenport

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by jdavenport

I think as soon as you give the first to the iphone, you'll get the second.

Is there some reason to believe that iPhone/iPod users need a richer set of repeat options more than the desktop users?

In any case, the latest version of the iPhone/iPod client has repeating options, just like the desktop.

Omnifocus looks like the application I want to use, but I need repeating task. Not just repeating tasks. If I cant set tasks to repeat at the times that I need them too, its pointless. I, like others here from what I gather, need things like... repeat on last weekday of the month, repeat only on weekdays, repeat on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. A task manager is supposed to help you be more productive, not kill your productivity trying to find a work around for what I think is the basics, scheduling the task when it is to be done. Your product looks fantastic and does way more then what I was even expecting to find, however its missing something crucial for me. Its kind of like having all the bells and whistles on a sports car but the engine was left out.

I think you'll find that OmniFocus is rather more useful than a car without an engine! A better comparison would be a car whose radio didn't let you have preset stations. You have to tune the radio every time you want to go to a different station, and it seems like a nuisance at first, but if you just do it for a week, it turns out not to be nearly the obstacle you originally thought. Sure, it'll be nice when the new radio comes out that has presets, but the old radio doesn't prevent you from listening to music, much less driving places in the car.

I've got hundreds of repeating actions, many of them on schedules that OmniFocus can't handle automatically. I spend about 5-10 minutes per month adjusting dates, at most. It's only as big of an obstacle as you want to make it. To quote Henry Ford, "whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right." These tasks can be handled quite adequately with the tools provided; when Omni adds the richer repeat support, which I am confident they will, it will be easier, but not in a life-changing way. I haven't seen a calendar program yet that didn't force me to do most of the same things I do in OmniFocus. Yes, the startup cost will be a bit higher, but these are repeating actions, and in any month after the first one, I'll bet that by far the majority of your repeating actions will be ones previously set up, and thus the amount of time spent setting up new repeating actions will be quite small.

[jdavenport]

whpalmer4, there isn't a reason that iPhone/iPod users need a richer set of repeat options than the desktop users. To use your analogy of the radio (which I like much better than mine by the way) I think the only reason they are hearing more from iPhone users than desktop users is because iphone users didn't even have the radio, so why would they be complaining about presets. Like I said give them one, and you'll get the other. The desktop version is what attracted me to Omnifocus in the first place. I love my iphone, but I would not want to enter in my "brain dump" into the iphone. I think of it as a great extension to the desktop.

[c.nick]

Originally Posted by jdavenport

I, like others here from what I gather, need things like... repeat on last weekday of the month, repeat only on weekdays, repeat on the 2nd Tuesday of the month

Dear OmniFolks, what between earth and sky keeps you from implementing such a basic function? Schedules like these simple examples are absolutly common in many occasions: Financial deadlines, sports schedules, deadlines for writers, school and university schedules, business reporting, - the world is full of "needs to be completed by every 3rd friday of the month"...

The only "reason" I can think of is that you probably want to keep the program as simple as possible. OF is all about simplicity and "not getting in your way".

But friends, if I as a user need to remind myself every single week or every second month - or so - and think of this and build workarounds in order to not forget and to perform a very common recurring task - then I must say: It would be MUCH simpler for me if you could add a button for that.

It's the workflow, st... sweetheart ;-)

Cheers, Christian

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by c.nick

Dear OmniFolks, what between earth and sky keeps you from implementing such a basic function?

I suspect it's other feature requests. Everyone has one or two features they really need right away. And Omni is stuck with the rather difficult task of deciding which has priority and when each should be implemented.

I do vaguely remember reading that more repeating/scheduling options are planned, but I can't remember if it was slated for a release before 2.0 or not.

If you really want this feature, be sure to let Omni know directly via Help -> Send Feedback. That's the best way to "vote" for a feature request.

-Dennis

[JayEpoch]

+1 vote for weekday recurrence. No reason the recurrence options shouldn't be as robust or better than iCals imo.

[babbie]

I agree with the above suggestions for a more flixible set of options for repeats (though I don't need the rollover from weekends, but would not oppose it).

I would add a more modest request. I am now using OF for a bunch of daily chores. I appreciate the reminder, but I do not need to accumulate thousands of "completed" tasks. How about an option to [ ] Do not save completed task.

[curt.clifton]

Use Help → Send Feedback to submit bug reports and feature suggestions to get them entered in the development database. (See this sticky thread at the top of the forum for details.)