The Omni Group
These forums are now read-only. Please visit our new forums to participate in discussion. A new account will be required to post in the new forums. For more info on the switch, see this post. Thank you!

Go Back   The Omni Group Forums > OmniFocus > OmniFocus 1 for Mac
FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

 
Creating Rules in OF by Email (different problem) Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I've been trying to get this to work for a few days now, and I can't seem to get things right. Before you ask, I've read the FAQ and none seem to be addressing my problem. I think for me it's more of a syntax issue.

I have no problems sending an email and having OF read that email and create a task from it. My problem seems to be getting that task to drop into the correct project and context because something is not correct with my Syntax. In the below example, the capitalized PERSONAL correspond to Folders I use for focusing. I think my problem stems from not understanding how to automate dropping a task into a project inside a folder.

Here is an example of the body or subject.

-- Learn to Play Guitar > PERSONAL : Misc @ Someday

If I understand things correctly from the manual, this should create a Task called "Learn to Play Guitar", in my "PERSONAL : Misc" project and in the "Someday" context.

What it actually created was "Learn to Play Guitar : Misc" in my "PERSONAL : Run Errands" project with the "Someday" context.

I'm not sure what exactly I'm doing wrong, maybe the single colon is throwing things off, but any help sure would be appreciated.

Last edited by Nyte; 2008-08-27 at 05:32 PM.. Reason: -subject edited for clarity
 
I think this snippet from my console log after I tried to reproduce your situation says it all:

Code:
2008-08-27 18:45:56.397 OmniFocus[276] OmniFocus calling process_message in MailAction script
2008-08-27 18:45:57.191 OmniFocus[276] Special character ':' found but not handled!
I filed a bug report with Help->Send Feedback, you may want to do so also.
 
Wow, thanks mate. I didn't know what exactly was going on, but I've done enough messing around with programming to spot a syntax problem when I see it.

Does anyone else use the Focus function? Even though I've set things up to take advantage of it, I don't think I've ever actually used it.
 
I use the Focus functionality constantly in two primary ways. One is a Non-work Actions perspective that focuses on all my top-level folders except the one for my work role. I'm a horrible workaholic and that perspective helps me ignore work when I should. The other way I use Focus is when I double click the bullet next to an action in context mode. This causes OF to open a new window in planning mode focused on the appropriate project.
__________________
Cheers,

Curt
 
@curt

Do you ever add tasks via email? How do you direct a task to a specific project inside of a folder? What syntax do you use?

@everyone

I've also been wondering about abbreviations. The manual indicates you can type the whole project or context or you can use abbreviates. Is there a way to know what abbreviations will work, or do I need to play with it to find one that works?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyte View Post
Do you ever add tasks via email? How do you direct a task to a specific project inside of a folder? What syntax do you use?
I don't use tasks by email. My MBP is my home and work machine so I'm never on-line but away from OF.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyte View Post
I've also been wondering about abbreviations. The manual indicates you can type the whole project or context or you can use abbreviates. Is there a way to know what abbreviations will work, or do I need to play with it to find one that works?
The way project abbreviations work on the desktop is based on matching a subset of characters in the fully qualified project name, where "fully qualified" means all the folders above the project plus the project name itself. This means that an abbreviation's meaning can change if a new project is added. But the "subset" part of the rule also means that if you have unique project names, you can match them without worrying about the folders. So, I'd suggest playing on the desktop to see what abbreviations match to your deeply nested projects, then just use those abbreviations in your emails, omitting the colon to specify nesting.

As a concrete example, I use folders to separate my areas of responsibility. So I have a folder named Advance and propagate knowledge of computing and another named Help manage our household. Under each folder I have a single actions list to keep miscellaneous tasks. For the example folders, I name these single action list "Singleton actions-Adv" and "Singleton actions-Hous" respectively. Here's why: now the abbreviations "advsing" and "singadv" both match the single action list under my Advance folder. The first abbreviation matches the folder name then the single action list. The second abbreviation matches the single action list directly. So, whichever order my brain spits out, I get the right match.

I do not add the folder-based suffixes to most projects, just when it's needed to make the project name unique.

(Full disclosure: I started using this naming scheme to work around a bug in a very early sneaky peek of OF 1.0. Once the bug was fixed, I found that I liked the redundancy of this naming scheme.)
__________________
Cheers,

Curt
 
Curt,

Thanks again. I'm wondering if that kind of intelligent matching of abbreviations will help me. Typing something distinct like the full folder name (I use folders for areas of responsibility too) and the just a space between that and the actual project i.e. FINANCIAL house like you said without the colon. would go to my Sell or Rent my House project under the FINANCIAL folder. I'm continually amazed by how versitile and intelligent this program is.
 
 


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Email Rules Work, but are not automatically triggered krunk OmniFocus 1 for Mac 4 2011-04-13 09:36 PM
Creating an email from inside Omni Focus. ucs308 OmniFocus 1 for Mac 1 2009-09-03 05:34 AM
+omnifocus@ (email rules) jka33331 OmniFocus 1 for Mac 20 2009-09-01 06:11 PM
Alter email parsing rules? slane00 OmniFocus 1 for Mac 1 2008-12-23 11:46 AM
adding +omnifocus for mail rules - Apple problem? mhedstrom OmniFocus 1 for Mac 12 2008-08-08 08:26 PM


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 12:24 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.