[PatrickH]

I've signed up for a WebDAV account and I'm going to try and sync OF on my Macs at home and work.

I've set several preferences in OF on my first Mac and would like OF's preferences on the other Mac to be the same. Can I simply copy ~/Library/Preferences/com.omnigroup.OmniFocus.plist to my second Mac?

Thanks!

[dave256]

The Perspectives are located in:

~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/Perspectives

I've successfully (i.e., haven't noticed any problems) copied the contents of that directory to multiple machines. I would recommend quitting OmniFocus on each machine before making the copy.

[Michael McCarty]

It would be great if there was an option to also sync the preferences.

[Macquarian]

Originally Posted by Michael McCarty

It would be great if there was an option to also sync the preferences.

I second that, to the point of bending the support ninjas' collective ear over it. If anyone else feels similarly, please do the same - it'd be nice to tinker once, apply everywhere!

Failing that, can anyone confirm/deny/point-in-direction-of-further-instruction that copying ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/Perspectives and ~/Library/Preferences/com.omnigroup.OmniFocus.plist to their respective locations will duplicate settings across machines? Is this advisable/possible/going to create a dimensional rift of some sort? Enlightenment greatly appreciated.

[dave256]

Originally Posted by Macquarian

I second that, to the point of bending the support ninjas' collective ear over it. If anyone else feels similarly, please do the same - it'd be nice to tinker once, apply everywhere!

Failing that, can anyone confirm/deny/point-in-direction-of-further-instruction that copying ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/Perspectives and ~/Library/Preferences/com.omnigroup.OmniFocus.plist to their respective locations will duplicate settings across machines? Is this advisable/possible/going to create a dimensional rift of some sort? Enlightenment greatly appreciated.

I don't think you want to copy the plist file as that may indicate which the machine name for syncing, but as I said above, I've successfully copied the Perspectives directory contents w/o problems.

[Ken Case]

Originally Posted by PatrickH

I've set several preferences in OF on my first Mac and would like OF's preferences on the other Mac to be the same. Can I simply copy ~/Library/Preferences/com.omnigroup.OmniFocus.plist to my second Mac?

We already synchronize several preference settings, such as the default due time. If there are others which you'd like to see automatically synchronized, please let us know! (We've added syncing perspectives in v1.7.)

In the meantime, yes, the biggest danger in copying you com.omnigroup.OmniFocus.plist between machines is that it copies several sync preferences which really shouldn't be the same on multiple computers. You can see which preferences we've told Leopard's preference syncing not to sync by looking at the com.apple.PreferenceSync.ExcludeSyncKeys section of OmniFocus.app/Contents/Info.plist, but here's a current (and annotated) copy of that list:

<!-- window/UI state: don't necessarily have or want the same perspectives on two clients -->
<string>SavedViewState</string>
<string>SavedWindowStates</string>
<string>PerspectiveWindowVisible</string>
<string>PerspectiveControlHidden</string>
<string>PerspectiveSnapshotSound</string>

<!-- iCal syncing preferences: two different machines shouldn't publish to iCal -->
<string>CachedCalendars</string>
<string>CalendarsForContexts</string>
<string>SyncCanDeleteActions</string>
<string>SyncShouldPublishBlockedActions</string>
<string>SyncShouldPublishCompletedActions</string>
<string>SyncShouldPublishContextName</string>
<string>SyncShouldPublishDueDateTimes</string>

<!-- Focus syncing state: make sure each machine thinks it is itself re: focus syncing -->
<string>RemoteFocusSynchronizationURL</string>
<string>LastSyncClientState</string>
<string>LastSyncDate</string>
<string>LastSyncError</string>
<string>SyncClientIdentifier</string>
<string>SyncServerIdentifier</string>
<string>XMLSyncServiceCachedServerEntry</string>

<!-- backup: what if you don't have the same folder on every machine or would rather back up less often on your laptop than desktop? -->
<string>AutomaticBackupMinutes</string>
<string>AutomaticBackupFolder</string>
<string>AutomaticallyBackupWhenQuitting</string>

<!-- Printing: probably have different printers on different machines -->
<string>DefaultPrintInfoArchive</string>

[Macquarian]

Forgive me posting perhaps a little ahead of myself - I think I've opened my mouth before using my brain. I'm still toying with an OF setup that works for me, syncing via USB drive. Now that I'm getting my Perspectives on, I'm most looking forward to Perspective sync in 1.7. The only other that really struck me would be some form of toolbar sync - I like having custom-icon buttons for my various Perspectives just so!

In the meantime, given my particular setup, would it be possible/advisable to create aliases in ~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/Perspectives to point to a single folder stored on my USB drive (assuming I always have said stick connected when using OF on my various machines)?

[whpalmer4]

It will work with a symbolic link; I'm not sure it will work with an alias. I would make a single link for the entire Perspectives folder, not links for each perspective. That will allow you to save new perspectives from any of the machines without any extra steps.

[Macquarian]

Grand - that was what I meant and failed to explain (linking the entire folder). Now off to brush up on my mad Terminal skillz (and learn the difference between alias/symlink)... thanks for the help!

[shhQuiet]

Originally Posted by Macquarian

Grand - that was what I meant and failed to explain (linking the entire folder). Now off to brush up on my mad Terminal skillz (and learn the difference between alias/symlink)... thanks for the help!

An alias is just a command-line symbol to something. It's not tangible.

A symlink is a special file that points to another file. It is real.

HTH :)