[Ward]

When I enter a symbolic date (e.g., "today", "wed") or a partial date (e.g., "3 apr"), the Return key fills in the field with an actual date.

The Escape key does the same date resolution ... as long as the field was empty before entering the date value. If I'm replacing a date (e.g., changing a due date to "tom"), Escape discards the new date, leaving the field unchanged.

It took me a while to figure out what was happening to my date changes because I'm so accustomed to Escape doing the right thing that I'd move on without verifying my change had been accepted.

BTW, Escape in a text field accepts an edited string.

-- Ward

[submitted as formal feedback]

[whpalmer4]

Thanks, Ward, that likely explains a few mishaps I've had with date entry, usually when in a hurry. I use the ESC key so rarely that I didn't notice the pattern.

[JKT]

I think the latest sneaky peek (not the April fools one) fixes this if the release notes are anything to go by...

[Ward]

Originally Posted by JKT

I think the latest sneaky peek (not the April fools one) fixes this if the release notes are anything to go by...

The 1.6.1 sneaky peek train left the station without me. I've scurried down the tracks and jumped aboard.

There are the two mentions of Escape in the latest release notes:

OmniFocus 1.6.1 sneaky peek - Mar 30, 2009

• When picking dates using the popup calendar, fixed some bugs with using the keyboard to confirm (Enter) or cancel (Escape) the selected date.

OmniFocus 1.6 - Mar 10, 2009

• Main window
  • Pressing Escape when using SmartMatch will revert to your previous selection rather than taking the current value.

In both notes, Escape means cancel.

For quite some time, I've understood Escape to mean "I'm done editing; accept my changes." in both OmniFocus and OmniOutliner.

What's happening now is Escape means "I'm done editing; accept my text field changes; cancel a Context change, even if there was No Context; accept a Date if the field was empty but cancel a changed Date."

I believe that having Escape behavior change from field to field is a usability bug, not a desirable feature.

-- Ward