[dtgriscom]

I'm quite confused about the many and varied ways dates and times are used in OmniFocus. For instance:

- Start date (the date an action may become available?)
- Due date (when an action should be done? but is this used anywhere?)
- Complete date (when you checked the action as done?)
- Repeat every XXXX (duplicates the action at the specified interval?)
- Estimated Hours (your guess as to how long it will take? is this used anywhere?)
- Review Next, Every YYYY, Last (how does one "review" something?)

... and I bet there are more.

I know that the implementation may be in flux, but I don't even understand the designed behavior. Is there a document anywhere that goes over the use of dates and times in OmniFocus? 'Twould be extremely helpful...

[GeekLady]

Are you just getting confused by seeing people talk about these on the forums? OF has done a good job of keeping functionality that you don't want to deal with out of your way unless you ask for it.

Four of these date functions are pretty self-explanatory, but here is the functionality anyway:

Start date: This hides an action until the date it becomes available, so you don't have to look at things you can't do yet.
Due date: This is the date by which the task or project should be completed. If you group or sort by due date, it shuffles the things that are due earliest to the top of your context list. Things that are late go at the very top, of course.
Complete date: This is the date the task was completed on. It's important for establishing repeating tasks.
Estimated Time: How long you think it will take. So far this doesn't do anything except hold your time estimate, but if it freaks you out, you can turn the column off.

Repeating Tasks and Review are a little more complicated since you have to use the inspectors to expose them.

Repeat every X: This function has 2 settings, repeat every X from date of completion, or recur every X from the start date. It's accessible from the Repeat Inspector

Review: GTD says you should review your progress on you active projects. You set a time interval for how often you should be reviewing a project, and then can stamp it reviewed. Stamping it reviewed sets a new review date X days/weeks/years from the date it was last reviewed. This is accessible from the Project Inspector. Review is a GTD concept - if you don't use GTD you don't have to fuss with it.

[dtgriscom]

I've wanted to start using the date functions, but haven't been clear about how they work. For instance:

- If you set a Complete date that is in the future, the action is marked as completed. Is this a bug or a feature?

- Does "Repeat" create a new action, or does it re-enable the existing one?

- Start, Due and Complete all look the same, except that when there's nothing entered (and the insert point isn't inside) Start and Due show a gray "None", while Complete shows nothing. Why?

I'm not really looking for specific answers to these questions, but for a general guide as to how dates and times work in OmniFocus. As the product (presumably) gets closer to shipping the features must be settling down, and there must be a document somewhere that goes over all this. It would help people use OmniFocus better, and help people understand what needs to be reported to OmniGroup as a bug.

[GeekLady]

All actions will have a complete date, and you don't have to set this - when you check the action as completed it will autofill the current date. The complete date is for use by the program.
Not all actions will have a start date or a due date, these fields are available for your use.

Maybe the Complete field should be read only in the Date Inspector to help avoid confusion?

Repeat and Recur create new actions - if you set your filter to All and have repeating actions, you will see both the completed actions the the currently available repeating action.

OF is still in Alpha, it's a little early to expect documentation, other than geeks with long lunch breaks on the forums.

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by dtgriscom

I'm not really looking for specific answers to these questions, but for a general guide as to how dates and times work in OmniFocus. As the product (presumably) gets closer to shipping the features must be settling down, and there must be a document somewhere that goes over all this. It would help people use OmniFocus better, and help people understand what needs to be reported to OmniGroup as a bug.

In alpha-testing it typically doesn't pay to write much documentation. Features are subject to change. As an alpha tester your job is to poke and prod and try things. If something doesn't work as you expect, report it. Even if the feature is working as designed, that doesn't necessarily mean that the design is correct. At this stage our feedback is as much about whether the design is right as it is about whether the implementation follows the design. So Send Feedback on anything that is odd or confusing to you.

[brianogilvie]

Originally Posted by GeekLady

Estimated Time: How long you think it will take. So far this doesn't do anything except hold your time estimate, but if it freaks you out, you can turn the column off.

Just a slight correction: you can filter by maximum time required, so if you have 30 minutes available, you can show only tasks that you have estimated will take 30 minutes or less. You can also show tasks of 1 hour or more if you have a big chunk of time in front of you and want to do a major task.

[Lizard]

It's kind of intentional that the completion date is changeable by the user. If I finished some stuff last night, but went straight to bed and forgot to check it off in Focus, now I can go check it off and change the completion date to last night if I care to keep my records precise.

But the comment about the other two fields saying "None" and that one being blank is a good one. Thanks!

[GeekLady]

I was just a little concerned that he was confusing the complete field for "complete by" and trying to fill it with a due date in the future, but accidentally completing the task instead.

Originally Posted by Lizard

It's kind of intentional that the completion date is changeable by the user. If I finished some stuff last night, but went straight to bed and forgot to check it off in Focus, now I can go check it off and change the completion date to last night if I care to keep my records precise.

But the comment about the other two fields saying "None" and that one being blank is a good one. Thanks!

[Finlay Boo]

I'm wondering if it may be nice to do a little more with this completed date information in terms of reporting on what tasks have been completed within a certain time period.

For instance, I would find it useful to create a list of completed tasks against a project or projects in the last week so I can go through them at team meetings. Obviously all the information to do this is recorded in OF so it would be nice to get at it.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Finlay Boo

I'm wondering if it may be nice to do a little more with this completed date information in terms of reporting on what tasks have been completed within a certain time period.

For instance, I would find it useful to create a list of completed tasks against a project or projects in the last week so I can go through them at team meetings. Obviously all the information to do this is recorded in OF so it would be nice to get at it.

- In Project mode, focus on the project or projects.
- Change to Context mode.
- Set the second and fourth view bar buttons to "Completed"
- The list under "Within the last week" and everything above it is what you want.

Obviously it's a legitimate feature request to want more control over such reporting, but I thought I'd just point out that the example you gave is already possible.