[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by pvonk

However, isn't it possible that one of the tasks, perhaps reminding you to send a thank you after the project has been completed, might have a due date after the project? How are we to predict every possible case? Shouldn't OF be general enough to handle such unusual situations?

Then the tasks that were due by the project deadline should be in an action group with the true due date. The Thank You task should be a sequential task following the action group.

[korm]

There is another inconsistency (to my mind) in the planning view (project view) when displaying projects that have no due date. In that view, if the "due" grouping is selected, the due-dateless projects are bucketed into "due within the last month", "due within the last week", etc.

The logic OF applies seems to be based on whether any single action within a project falls into one of the buckets. That is, a project that itself has no due date, but has actions that do, and that were due last month, will show up in the "due within last month group".

(Since we cannot, yet, sort actions within projects by due date, is it curious that OF does just that - behind the scenes?)

Now, I would have expected that when I ask OF to cluster *projects* by due date, then *projects* without due dates would fall into a "no due date" bucket. The context view behaves that way, putting due-dateless *actions* into that bucket.

I can imagine lots of heady discussions before white boards in the OF team room working out the clustering logic! I'm looking forward to the future release (1.1?) that Ken Case mentioned above.

[Brian]

OmniFocus will use the earliest due date it can find associated with a project when sorting in the planning view, since missed due dates are far worse than seeing something a bit early.

Take a look at this post for info on how to get a sorted list of actions within a a project (or a subset of your projects).

[ptone]

Originally Posted by korm

There is another inconsistency (to my mind) in the planning view (project view) when displaying projects that have no due date. In that view, if the "due" grouping is selected, the due-dateless projects are bucketed into "due within the last month", "due within the last week", etc.

While the intentions are good - this is an area on which I've commented several times, that is the confounding of projects and actions with regard to the primary role of the groupings and view bar in planning and context mode.

In general, projects take priority over actions in planning mode, and actions are the primary element in context mode.

However there are these exceptions, which must similar to the frustration of our language exceptions to a non-english speaker.

Omni has good intentions with these exceptions, but I think they will pay the price of repeated confusion in new users.

-P

[yucca]

This is another instance where actually being aware of and practicing GTD will help the OF user. Don't use due dates unless they really are absolutely "the world will stop turning" deadlines. To facilitate this concept, I recommend against setting project due dates; and, as a useful alternative, create milestone tasks (with due dates) within the project as needed.

Re: OF UI inconsistencies - - as long as OF's manual adequately describes the inconsistencies and provides solutions to common problems with the inconsistencies, the inconsistencies shouldn't pose a significant problem to users who are disciplined enough to RTFM.

[VicDiesel]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

enforcement would disallow setting the due date on children later than the due date on their parents. There's been some talk about doing that, but it would make some editing operations more cumbersome.

Then it's up to the designers to come up with a good interface for that, but software should not allow you to create logically inconsistent or contradictory data.

I know, a powerful program should be a loaded gun, pointed at your foot at all times....

Victor.