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I am a new user of OmniFocus. Really like many / most of the feature set. However there is one issue that I would like some suggestions on how to deal with.

I am a manufacturers rep and represent 12 different manufacturers. I need to identify / group / view my tasks based upon what mfr the task is related to. I've thought about creating contexts for each mfr, but that takes away my ability to do 'normal' contexts which are also important.

Has anyone else dealt with this issue? I am open to any ideas about how to setup my system to deal with this.

TIA
Nick
 
Would it be practical to have project folders for each manufacturer? (I.e., is each project related to only one manufacturer?) If you are able to structure your projects this way, you can then use 'Focus' to limit the currently viewed tasks to those contained in that group of projects, even when switching to a context view. And then you could also set up a perspective for each manufacturer to automatically bring up those focus+view settings.
 
Create a unique text in the note field. Something that you can search for without getting other results.

--my tag--

Then create a search for that text and save it as a perspective.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by AEG Colorado View Post
I am a new user of OmniFocus. Really like many / most of the feature set. However there is one issue that I would like some suggestions on how to deal with.

I am a manufacturers rep and represent 12 different manufacturers. I need to identify / group / view my tasks based upon what mfr the task is related to. I've thought about creating contexts for each mfr, but that takes away my ability to do 'normal' contexts which are also important.

Has anyone else dealt with this issue? I am open to any ideas about how to setup my system to deal with this.

TIA
Nick
I, too, am a mfg rep for about that many lines. What I do is this:

1. I have nested set of projects in customers folder and a nested set of projects in a supplier folder.

2. I have nested contexts that go Supplier->Supplier Company Name ->person's name for each supplier (there are only a couple of people per supplier usually that matter).

3. I have perspectives created that allow me to see just the projects for a given customer.

What I find is that as a rep, we have a pretty complex job. In my case, I'm an electrical engineer, business owner and employer as well as a sales person. I have all the normal contexts like "Phone", "Mac", "Office" etc.. But I also have a lot of contexts that are people - I have to delegate or follow up with that specific individual so they are really just a context to me. By doing this, I can come up with all the action items for a given supplier, for a given person, for a given customer or a given customer's project. There is NOTHING better than to be able to sit down at dinner with a supplier and go over all the things that I need from them from the list on my iPhone. Really successful for keeping things on track.

I've made some other modifications that work super well when I combine it with several applescripts that I've either written or modified from stuff that was done here. My main applescripts are:

1. Create a text of a list of selected actions and put it on the clipboard. This allows me to select a list of actions and to then paste those actions into an email that I send to someone.

2. Take the last email sent and create a descriptive string as a link. I use this to paste into the notes field as the email I sent to someone that is important for the note. This allows me to take an email that I sent to a supplier's employee for example to record it and to be able to quickly find it again to refer to it.

3. Take the selected text from (anywhere) and create a Omnifocus action from it. This allows me to take meeting minutes and select individual actions item and turn them into actions.

4. Since I tend to take my notes in OmniOutliner, I created a script to take the selected items in OO and turn each one into an individual action in Omnifocus. This works great.

My further workflow includes Circus Ponies Notebook that I use to keep track of all my notes on both the Mac and it syncs to the iPad. I use an iPad as my notebook when in customer meetings or traveling and I use my laptop the rest of the time. I have OF on my iPhone, iPad and Mac and keep them all synced - can't believe how useful this is.

Now, if OF would just do something like Notebook that would allow me to send an individual item to OF or to accept easily an outline from OO, I'd be in heaven. CP Notebook will import OPML files from OO without drama but it just isn't the same. I'd also like to be able to in iPad OO to export selected items into the inbox of OF.

Now if Omnigroup would just allow me to email actions from iPhone OF and a list of actions from iPad OF, we'd be in really good shape for those of us that have to delegate and manage people (suppliers) etc...

I'd love the ability to tag things too have given a thought to using the format #<tagname> in either the action name or note field and then figuring out how to search for that (saved searches?).

Anyhow, hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. As an OmniFocus newbie (coming from Daylite), it will take me a while to assimilate this.

JohnJ....I might have more questions for you re: your workflow if you don't mind.

Nick
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by AEG Colorado View Post
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. As an OmniFocus newbie (coming from Daylite), it will take me a while to assimilate this.

JohnJ....I might have more questions for you re: your workflow if you don't mind.

Nick
I'm here. Let me know know what you need.

J.
 
 


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