[stormer]

I'm completely new here (Omni Focus as well as GTD) and am slowly getting my head round it all so please excuse the potential idiocy of this question: is iCal even necessary if I can set all my events in OF?

[pjb]

You may elect to "Do" out of iCal (most here don't) instead of out of the OF Context view but mostly iCal becomes an avenue for moving tasks between a PDA and OF.

In iCal I have several Calendars and a companion for To Do's (ie, Work and OF:Work). The Calendar items do not sync to OF but the To Do's/Tasks in the OF: Work "calendar" do sync.

[luomat]

Originally Posted by stormer

I'm completely new here (Omni Focus as well as GTD) and am slowly getting my head round it all so please excuse the potential idiocy of this question: is iCal even necessary if I can set all my events in OF?

I've regretted it ever since I clicked the button.

I just don't want all that stuff cluttering up my iCal.

[al_f]

Originally Posted by luomat

I've regretted it ever since I clicked the button.

I just don't want all that stuff cluttering up my iCal.

Unfortunately, as pjb says, it's the only way to sync OF tasks to a PDA at the moment. Maybe that will change with the sytem-wide todo functionality in Leopard (sp. if Apple implement todo sync to the iPhone and ever release the iPhone over here in Europe), but iCal might still need to be used as the conduit.

[PatriciaW]

I've already reported my various sync problems to technical support but I thought I would mention here that I consistently get errors when I delete a To Do in iCal.

[Ethan Schoonover]

iCal sync is, as surmised, one of the best ways to ensure that a wide variety of PDAs, phones, etc. get supported. There will be some more refinement of the way this works, but iCal is a good hub option for pushing tasks to most devices (except, um, the iPhone, at least right now) and pulling them back out.

[Mindflayer]

Originally Posted by Ethan Schoonover

iCal sync is, as surmised, one of the best ways to ensure that a wide variety of PDAs, phones, etc. get supported. There will be some more refinement of the way this works, but iCal is a good hub option for pushing tasks to most devices (except, um, the iPhone, at least right now) and pulling them back out.

Alas, but for iPhone task support.

Grrr - get with it, Apple!

[pjb]

Right now, the only difficulty I'm having with my system of Palm->iCal->OF (and back) is that tasks from the Palm are flagged in OF, making that functionality otherwise unusable. But in general, it works. I often don't show the ToDo's in iCal, but they transfer just the same. Since I keep separate calendars for hardscape Events and ToDo's in the same area of interest (differ by only the OF: prefix), I have some control over what gets synced and what gets shown.

I noticed that my main level tasks of a project came over into iCal, but sub-tasks did not. Is that by design? I realize that a task with sub-tasks is really a project in itself, but wasn't sure the best way to approach this.

Any thoughts?

[PatriciaW]

Originally Posted by phpjeff

I noticed that my main level tasks of a project came over into iCal, but sub-tasks did not. Is that by design? I realize that a task with sub-tasks is really a project in itself, but wasn't sure the best way to approach this.

Any thoughts?

Possibly I am misinterpreting your post but my experience is different. I created a project with an action (Test Action 1) and a sub-action(Test sub-action 2) . When I synchronized, it created a To Do in iCal "Test sub-action 2 [Test project]"

I did have a bit of a problem getting it sync'd and I had to make several attempts ... initially the sub-activity did not have a context ... perhaps that made a difference, but after I assigned on the next Sync added the To Do to iCal.