[dgaland]

I tried going through past posts, but am not sure what's still valid with the current release...
Can anyone briefly explain what the Sync with iCal function will actually do and how to enter/update projects/tasks from within iCal?

[Lizard]

Sync with iCal will create a calendar in iCal corresponding to each context in OmniFocus. (named "OF: errands", "OF: phone", etc.) Then it will create "To Do" items in those calendars for each task in OmniFocus that has a context assigned. The project name will be added to the task name in brackets, in case you have the same task in several projects.
If you change a 'to do' in iCal (rename, check off, change priority, etc.), the next time you "Sync with iCal", those changes will be applied to the tasks in OmniFocus (and iCal will be updated with any changes you made in OF).
If you add a 'todo' to an OF: context calendar in iCal, that item will be brought into OmniFocus the next time you sync. It will show up in the Inbox with its context set, but no project.

[pvonk]

Is it an all or nothing? I would hope OF will give us the option to indicate which contexts to sync and which not to sync. Also, if a start date is in the future, will OF sync the task? Or only if the start date has already occurred?

[brab]

Does it rely at all on SyncServices? I'm asking because I use SyncTogether to synchronize my iCal calendars, and I also synchronize the OmniFocus files between two computers. Many applications I've played with really dislike this kind of setup (they get really confused about what has been synchronized if changes are propagated both through iCal and through the application files).

I guess my question is about using OmniFocus on several computers, but I should start a new thread about this.

[sdennett]

I'm just starting with the beta and want to copy my current tasks from Entourage into OF. To do this I've pulled them into iCal and then run iCal sync from within OF. But nothing gets transferred to OF.

I tried renaming my Entourage calendars in iCal with "OF: " in front of the calendar name. When I did this, then synced, they all disappeared from iCal but again OF came up empty.

Is this a bug? Am I misunderstanding the process? Thanks.

Steve D.

[Lizard]

sdennett: I've seen the same behavior myself. I am about to check with the engineers about whether this is expected, and whether we can change it. (It'd be bad if someone had a calendar starting with "OF: " that had nothing to do with Focus, and then Focus decided to delete it.)

[michelle]

We knew iCal synching would be a very important feature from the start, particularly since it would allow us access to the Palm and other devices. We didn't want to show OmniFocus to the public before this feature was implemented, but we knew people were anxious to see what we had done so far. The first alphas were released with an "export to iCal" feature which triggered an AppleScript. This was a temporary solution while one of our engineers finished "sync to iCal" in a separate build. Two weeks ago (5/23) he integrated his changes into the public build with lots of warning to back up your data and be careful with this new feature. It is still very "alpha" and there will be a lot more work done on it before we ship. We encourage you to send us your feedback and feature requests. We're also curious to hear your synching workflow and what other applications you are using.

[sdennett]

Right now my mail goal is to find a way to migrate all of my current tasks, projects and categories from Entourage into OF with as little re-typing as possible. :-)

Currently I use Missing Sync to keep Entourage synced with my Palm OS device. What I'd really like is to find a way to keep my calendar & task list in sync between several computers (or computer and external hard drive) and my Palm device (or whatever replaces it).

I'll keep trying OF builds and let you know if I see any odd behaviors.

[gotung]

Would be nice if the iCal sync would put all the calendars into an OmniFocus calendar group.

[Lizard]

gotung: good idea! (I didn't even know there was such a thing as a calendar group.) I will put this idea in the bug database immediately.