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Support for 'Focus' and 'Perspective' ? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I am experimenting with the trial desktop version and need some information on the iPhone version.

Currently, I have a few high level folders in my OF desktop - Home, Work, Family, Travel & Entertainment that I use to effectively manage functional area's of my life . On the desktop, I can easily 'Focus' on any of these folder's.

Now, is it possible to do the same on OF iPhone - constrain the 'Focus' to a particular folder or constraining the OF to a defined 'Perspective'. If possible, will this setting also apply to calendar notification and alerts?

This is very important to me because, I have one desktop OF and 2 iPhones - one for me and the other for my wife and I want all but the 'Work' folder available on my wife's iPhone at all times.

Additionally, applying the GTD principles to my life, when on vacation, I do not want to be bothered with 'Home, Family & Work' and I want to 'Focus' on travel & entertainment or a similar constrained 'Perspective'.

This it me is very important and I would like to know if I can do this on OF for iPhone.

Thanks.
 
You can tunnel into particular folders in the iPhone UI, and you can use context-mode perspectives on the iPhone. There isn't an ability to apply a focus in project mode that carries over to context mode, notifications, or calendars, however. You can't sync just a portion of a database to a device, so your wife's iPhone would get the whole thing, or nothing.

So, if context-mode perspectives are a sufficient level of focus, it might work for you.

I hope the info. is helpful.
__________________
Cheers,

Curt
 
Thanks for the info. Doing some additional digging, I find that 'Focus' as implemented in OmniFocus desktop is not available on the iPhone. SHOCKED !!!

In fact, the Product name is 'OmniFocus' and 'Focus' should be the number one fully supported feature supported on any version of the product.

This is a PR disaster in waiting if the word gets out.

I love the desktop version, however I am bummed by the lack of support for 'Focus' in the iPhone version.

Hopefully, staff is reading this post and has a response to this.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by booya View Post
This is a PR disaster in waiting if the word gets out.
Really?
 
If you've divided up your projects into Home, Work, Travel, etc. and put them in folders, I think you could mark the containing folders as Dropped and not see any of the stuff you didn't want to see while on vacation, unless you configure the iPhone to show it to you. Come back from vacation and mark the folders as Active again and everything else should be as you left it.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ifonline View Post
Really?
Well, Omni is a reputed Mac shop. I don't really think it is a PR disaster. I was just making a strong point. However, I am bummed that they did not think this through properly for the iPhone. At $20, you expect better integration with the desktop product. Other that, it is a beautiful and elegant TODO list manager in its current form.

Dont get me wrong, I am a big fan of Omni in general and the quality of their products, and I love the OF desktop (Mac). However, the OF for iPhone fall's short for the moment.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by booya View Post
Well, Omni is a reputed Mac shop. I don't really think it is a PR disaster. I was just making a strong point. However, I am bummed that they did not think this through properly for the iPhone. At $20, you expect better integration with the desktop product. Other that, it is a beautiful and elegant TODO list manager in its current form.

Dont get me wrong, I am a big fan of Omni in general and the quality of their products, and I love the OF desktop (Mac). However, the OF for iPhone fall's short for the moment.
I use the focus feature on the desktop all the time. I don't miss it at all on the iPhone. There's a different style of working on the iPhone app, and it just isn't an issue for me. I don't see it as a matter of not being thought through properly at all. You've got a device with a much different interaction style and very limited screen real estate, with the result that while you can do planning on the iPhone, it is better suited to ubiquitous capture and context-based execution, neither of which really demands the focus function of the desktop in most cases.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
If you've divided up your projects into Home, Work, Travel, etc. and put them in folders, I think you could mark the containing folders as Dropped and not see any of the stuff you didn't want to see while on vacation, unless you configure the iPhone to show it to you. Come back from vacation and mark the folders as Active again and everything else should be as you left it.
Good hack. However, I am not sold on having to change my workflow constantly to make up for the lack of this feature.

When I go home in the evening after work, I want my Focus to be 'Family'. On the weekend, I want it to be 'Home' so that I can get my home projects done. When, I am back at office, I need to change my focus back to 'Work'. Friday evening's, I usually divert my focus to 'Entertainment' to check the list of 'Restaurants' that I want to go and / or 'Movies' I want to watch. I also keep a list of 'Bar's and Strip Clubs' that I like to hang out with my buddies, when my wife and kids are not in town ;-)

When I am traveling on business trips to Europe and Asia, I need to alternate my Focus between, 'Work' during the day and 'Travel' & 'Entertainment' after the days proceedings so that I can buy the gifts and souvenirs back home or visit a particular art museum that I have been planning for a year.

These are just some of the example's why 'Focus' is so important. I cannot possibly keep changing the status every day on all 'Folder's so that I can zero-in my focus on one. Not a viable solution.

Thanks.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
I use the focus feature on the desktop all the time. I don't miss it at all on the iPhone. There's a different style of working on the iPhone app, and it just isn't an issue for me. I don't see it as a matter of not being thought through properly at all. You've got a device with a much different interaction style and very limited screen real estate, with the result that while you can do planning on the iPhone, it is better suited to ubiquitous capture and context-based execution, neither of which really demands the focus function of the desktop in most cases.
I agree, in the end it all depends on each individual's style of working with GTD. I am more productive given a particular 'Focus' and depend less on 'Contexts'. Additionally, without this, I am not able to separate my 'Work' priorities from my 'Home' priorities.
 
We did think about the focus feature: the phone app doesn't have a built-in Focus command, but if a perspective synced over from the phone says "Focus on X/Y/Z", it respects that.

Rather than constantly focus and re-focus on items in real time, make a couple of perspectives that focus on the projects you need in those settings, sync them over to your phone, and you're good to go from then on.

We may add this at some point - folks have asked for it before. But this request has had fewer than 10 customer votes attached since we launched the app. It looks like the top of the "we need this feature" list (linking to address book contacts in some fashion) has almost 70.

I understand you want this quite a lot - you should email the support ninjas and add a vote for the feature. For what it's worth, though, most customers seem to be doing okay without it.
 
 


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