[jgastin]

I use Omnioutliner (OO) to brainstorm. I use OF to track tasks. As a result I find myself going back and forth between the two apps all the time.

If you own both apps, could OF spawn an OO outline as a child of an OF task or project? Imagine working on your task list, but then you want to brainstorm ideas (not tasks) for a project. Wouldn't it be cool to just hit a key and have an OO window open for your ideas? The OO document could live in the OF document, or be saved out independently.

[Brian]

There's a technology called LinkBack that would make this possible, though both OmniOutliner and OmniFocus would need a few changes.

We've got feature requests open in both apps for the relevant bits; interested parties should send email to the OmniFocus and OmniOutliner support ninjas and voice their desire to see it added.

Thanks!

[Finlay Boo]

There was a thread not so long ago that ended up pointing to these Applescripts. Well worth a look.

http://jhh.med.virginia.edu/main/OmniFocusScripts

[jbkendrick]

I recently added Harrison's scripts to which Finlay Boo is referring and have found them very helpful. I have a button for the script on my OF toolbar, click on it and I am in an OO file which is associated by file name to the project that had the focus when I clicked the button. I am currently using that OO file mostly for meeting notes. This helps keep my OF file a bit smaller. I highly recommend you try these scripts until a more permanent solution is implented. John

[WillisRB]

I have also downloaded these scripts, and been IMMENSELY helped by them. I was struggling in my GTD practice because I wasn't sure how to keep track of my project planning and support material in a relevant and helpful way. Being able to mirror project support material as separate hierarchical folders in the finder is very helpful. The ideal would clearly be to have links embedded to the omni outliner files, and if LinkBack is the way to do this I would strongly encourage all to request this feature!

As one additional note, I often use OmniGraffle for initial brainstorming and idea organization, and then migrate to OmniOutliner for more developed project planning, and then finally into OmniFocus to define actions. By editing Harrison's second script for opening notes by replacing ".oo3" file type with ".graffle" filetype, and each instance of "OmniOutliner Professional" with "OmniGraffle Professional", a duplicate script to open up related omnigraffle documents in the same folder is possible.

Until we get full link back support, this is a great fix.