[makesense]

You might want to see all contexts and related actions as well... Also you might want to assign contexts to 'No Context'ed actions.

[SpiralOcean]

Use project view for scanning projects.

The contexts are visible in the project view.

Select Library
Select top project

To expand all projects select:
View:Expand all

All projects, actions and their contexts are visible.

[makesense]

Originally Posted by SpiralOcean

Use project view for scanning projects.

The contexts are visible in the project view.

Select Library
Select top project

To expand all projects select:
View:Expand all

All projects, actions and their contexts are visible.

I don't want to scan my projects. :)

I want to scan my actions grouped by contexts. Having 50 non-contexted projects and 100 non-contexted actions make mess in "No context" tab. I don't care about projects in Context View. If I check 'availability' I will 'lose' non-available actions together with non-contexted projects.

[Ken Case]

Originally Posted by makesense

You might want to see all contexts and related actions as well... Also you might want to assign contexts to 'No Context'ed actions.

Does "View->Hide Parent Items in Context Mode" not give you the view your looking for? If not, please let us know how it's different!

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by makesense

I don't want to scan my projects. :)

I want to scan my actions grouped by contexts. Having 50 non-contexted projects and 100 non-contexted actions make mess in "No context" tab. I don't care about projects in Context View. If I check 'availability' I will 'lose' non-available actions together with non-contexted projects.

Why do you want to have so much stuff without contexts? Is this a transient situation? If not, why not make a placeholder context to assign to those items which you don't wish to assign true contexts, allowing you to easily scan for items which don't have a context, but should?

[makesense]

Originally Posted by Ken Case

Does "View->Hide Parent Items in Context Mode" not give you the view your looking for? If not, please let us know how it's different!

Ken, "View->Hide Parent Items in Context Mode" would be enough if it only affected 'No Context' tab. Actually this is what I'm asking for.

Together with non-contexted projects (mine usually have multiple contexts so I don't context them) there are usually plenty of small and simple projects that could be easily contexted. So far OmniFocus supports contexting projects I will use this feature when possible. This may be a good visual aid helping to understand your database state.

Yes, you can turn on hiding parent items, proceed your no-context items, then turn the hiding off, and proceed the remaining context. But it would be great to have a preset. It is more straightforward to manage projects in Projects View, but the view is more descriptive if you have a sub-tab of a project under context.

[makesense]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

Why do you want to have so much stuff without contexts? Is this a transient situation? If not, why not make a placeholder context to assign to those items which you don't wish to assign true contexts, allowing you to easily scan for items which don't have a context, but should?

Thinking process sometimes take long time and up to 20 dozens of entries. To save time and not to miss the thought I don't waste time contexting them. I may return to such items days after because I switch to other activities.

Placeholder is one of the possible solutions together with hiding parents.

Each method has its own deficiencies.

It will take additional time to reconsider which items are not supposed to have context and which items are supposed but were not contexted right away because of lack of time and huge amount of entries.

[makesense]

To sum-up.

I think OmniFocus has all I need in this area with one exception:

I don't want to see non-contexted projects in 'No Context' tab, while i have option 'Show Parent Items in Context Mode' turned on.

[SpiralOcean]

Maybe the question is:

why are you spending time scanning actions in the context mode?

You may not be trusting your system.

Try this test:
click on context view
select the context you are at (computer?)
do the first action at the top of the list

Do you feel any resistance to completing that action? If so, it may not be broken down enough into an actionable step.

Switch to project mode (there is a switch button in the customize toolbar that will take you to that project)

Ask yourself this question:
what steps do I need to take to complete this action.
create child actions for that action with contexts
switch back to context view, select context do the first thing on the list.

If you can't do the action, repeat the process I described above.

Other questions to ask:
Why can't I complete this action?
-Action is in wrong context.
-I don't have the tools to complete the action.
-I'm waiting for someone else to do something
-I'm waiting for a future time (create start date the action will disappear from the available filter until the date arrives)
-I need to complete other actions before this one can be worked on. (create child actions or actions that precede that action in the project)
-I'm resisting doing this action for some other reason.

The more you break apart an action into smaller actions, the more you break up the resistance to completing the action.

An action like
Change oil in car
has more resistance than
find companies close to me for oil change in google maps

The goal in planning mode is to plan out projects so that you don't need to plan in context mode. When you are in context mode, there should be little to no arguments about what to do next. You have made all the planning decisions in planning mode. Context mode is for Action.

[makesense]

Originally Posted by SpiralOcean

why are you spending time scanning actions in the context mode?

The goal of scanning in context mode is revision and rethinking. As I mentioned before it is a different thinking process with different anchors that may help make amendments and optimizations.
For example, your Phone, Phone: Home, Phone: Office may be easily interchangeable depending on circumstances.