[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by jack.n

As far as PDF attachments are concerned, you say this feature works but I am unable to do it. 1) I add a PDF attachment to a note in Omnifocus on my Macbook Pro (being careful to include the actual file - not just a link to it.). I sync (to Mobile Me). When I sync with my other Mac, the PDF attachment is there. But when I sync with the iPad, there is no PDF attachment. Photos and voice recordings work fine.

Did you see a + sign when you dropped the PDF file into the note on the Mac? If you bring up the Attachment List window on the Mac, does it show that action? You can sort the list by clicking on the column headers. The behavior you are describing sounds exactly like what you would get if you did not embed file, but just linked to it, and happened to be linking to a file where the same link would work on the other Mac.

I just embedded 3 PDF files into an action on my Mac, synced it and my iPad, and the PDF files show up in the attachment panel of the editor, just as expected, and are appropriately displayed.

[jack.n]

My thanks to whpalmer4.

I tried the PDF attachment again being very careful to embed rather than link. This time it worked so I must have been doing something wrong and embedding rather than linking. So next, I retried the MP3 file and the keynote files. They appear on the ipad also! Yey!

For the keynote file, I have three options 1) quick look, 2) open in keynote and 3) Open In .... Both quick look and open in keynote work great! Open in ... crashes the application and returns you to the ipad main screen. No loss of data when you return though.

For the MP3 file, I have two options 1) open in.... and 2) open in Air Share (which is another application I happen to own). As with the keynote file, open in.... crashes the application and returns you to the ipad main screen. However, Open in AirShare opens and plays the MP3 file! (Interestingly, none of my other file viewing options like Good Reader show up.)

So it looks like I have some experimenting to do with different types of attachments. And the Open In.. option definitely looks like a bug. But thinks are working better than I thought they did.

Thanks again, whpalmer4. Now am I doing something wrong with the SEARCH feature or is it definitely incapable of searching notes?

jack

[atreinke]

I just tried this out also. I took a pdf and drag and dropped it into the note field of a task on my Mac. It did put it there but never gave me a "+" sign to tap. I did a sync and the task was transferred to my iPad but not the pdf. I then set up another task on my Mac, copied the pdf and pasted into the note field of the task on my Mac. Then did a sync and the task and pdf were on my iPad.

[endoftheQ]

Originally Posted by hypotyposis

Tags are a different issue, but again as far as "GTD" per se is concerned, you'll notice that David Allen himself is "skeptical" of them (podcast on "doing" if I remember correctly).

Sorry hypotyposis, but I'm a neo-GTD'er! I'm not knocking fundamentalists (although I notice it hasn't stopped them going over from pen & paper to computers) but I want as many features as possible.

Take multiple contexts. I have 'desktop', 'laptop', 'iPad', 'iPhone', etc. I've also ended up having combinations such as 'desktop or laptop', 'laptop or iPad'. I'm guessing that multiple contexts would probably allow me to halve the number of contexts that I'm using.

I hadn't really thought about tags much until JohnJ80 suggested that they could be linked to contact information such as email addresses. The possibilities that opens up really got me thinking!

If Omni implements a feature such as tagging that doesn't mean a slavish follower of DA has to use them. It just means that us neo-GTD'ers have the option. :)

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by jack.n

Now am I doing something wrong with the SEARCH feature or is it definitely incapable of searching notes?

Search does not include notes. I tend to think of that as a bug, not a missing feature. I've reported it and encourage others to do the same (gear menu → Context Omni).

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by jack.n

For the MP3 file, I have two options 1) open in.... and 2) open in Air Share (which is another application I happen to own). As with the keynote file, open in.... crashes the application and returns you to the ipad main screen. However, Open in AirShare opens and plays the MP3 file! (Interestingly, none of my other file viewing options like Good Reader show up.)

If you mail yourself an MP3 file as an attachment, do you get any other choices? I believe that like on the Mac, applications register the types of documents they are willing and able to open. I wouldn't necessarily expect Good Reader to do anything useful with an MP3 file, but I do know that AirShare plays them (and now that I try it, I see that Good Reader will also).

I just tried attaching an MP3 file (downloaded from Amazon) to an action and syncing it over to my iPad. It only offered me the choice of opening it in Good Reader (the iPhone version, don't have an iPad version), and played properly. I wonder if there is something amiss on your iPad? If you want to send me a sample Keynote to try, I'll report back. Send it to me at gmail.

So it looks like I have some experimenting to do with different types of attachments. And the Open In.. option definitely looks like a bug. But thinks are working better than I thought they did.

After you sync your iPad with iTunes, you can retrieve the crash logs by going to Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/<your ipad name> in your home directory. Any OmniFocus crash logs will have a name starting with OmniFocus. Mail those to omnifocus-ipad@omnigroup.com along with a description of what you did to help them diagnose the issue in case it doesn't fail for them when they try to reproduce it.

Thanks again, whpalmer4. Now am I doing something wrong with the SEARCH feature or is it definitely incapable of searching notes?

I believe the search function is known to not search notes in the initial release, and that it is supposed to shortly — it had some additional functionality in the alpha test that was pulled in my understanding because it didn't search notes. Right now, you only get the results that the search function in the iPhone app would provide, although you do get them incrementally, which is an improvement, and with a bit of the note field shown as well.

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

Search does not include notes. I tend to think of that as a bug, not a missing feature. I've reported it and encourage others to do the same (gear menu → Context Omni).

Be sure to file the same complaint against the iPhone app, if you use it...

[steven]

Originally Posted by jack.n

And to Steven: I'm glad we make each other laugh. I get a kick out of people that are loyal to a "brand" or a "concept" regardless of functionality.

Then prepare for more gladness, 'cuz you just caused another chuckle.

Okay, you want attachments, and the app doesn't support it enough in its first release. But you go further, implying that it's inherently flawed, at it's price point. Not enough evidence to back that up, man.

My database is on the large size (says support), and when syncing became excruciatingly slow, turns out the only option available to me was deleting almost all the attachments from my dbase. My dream of some usable task manager with attachments stored in the dbase was done. No quick voice notes on the iPhone syncing back to laptop & desktop, no PDFs, nothing.

That sucks, what can I do? I complained, but is OF really not worth the cost now??

And don't get me started on lack of tags, for god's sake. I'm constantly suppressing my rage at not being able to tag an item "needs attn" and "on laptop" at the same time. "Use flags" is the big suggestion from everyone - what a joke.

If I had a magic wish, I would wish for more speed, better attachment function, F'ing tags, and maybe Nuance voice recog in-app. I'd pay 3 or 4 times the current price in a second.

Originally Posted by jack.n

Steven, price isn't really an issue with me. I don't mind ponying up $4 for a Starbuck's coffee even though it's over priced because it's also the best. But if I buy a cup and find it's been sitting on the burner for half a day and tastes like crap, I feel entitled to complain without someone telling me to stop complaining because it's Starbucks coffee. Get it?

Yeah, I get that OF isn't worth 10 cups of coffee "to you," so you can name it Omnif**ked-me, but folks seem to be outvoting you by buying it, so I guess it's not Omnif***edUs.

You'd really rather they were still adding features instead of releasing? Did you ever have to use the iphone app on the iPad? Sweet God, that's what I complained most about.

Anyway, no hard feelings:)

[Lightstorm]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

Search does not include notes. I tend to think of that as a bug, not a missing feature. I've reported it and encourage others to do the same (gear menu → Context Omni).

Curt, to my recollection Search does not search content of notes on the iPhone app either.

Unless, of course, I'm doing something wrong...

[DerekM]

Originally Posted by jack.n

Open in ... crashes the application and returns you to the ipad main screen. No loss of data when you return though.

Thanks, we weren't aware of this crasher. It's been filed and we'll get that fixed!