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

 
help with perspectives -- "Available" filter for project? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Hi. I'm new to OmniFocus this week and I'm awfully impressed.... One week in to the 14 day trial and I'm already in too deep to turn back now... the product is clearly so well thought through...

One thing I'm trying to do is customize a perspective. I'd like to list just the actions that are available, sorted by folder/project. I've almost got it working this way:

* View mode: Project
* Project Filter: Remaining
* Grouping: Folder
* Availability Filter: Available

This works well for me because I can only see the actions that are available (due to the start date and/or just because it's the next task in a sequential project).

The only problem is that this perspective still lists the projects with no available actions (even though there are no actions within them). Is there a way that I can remove these projects from the perspective so I only see projects with 1 or more actions available? I was hoping to see something like a Project Filter option called "Available", but no luck there. And the "Active" filter still shows the empty projects. This is a slight nuisance because I've got a few dozen projects and the unavail projects clutter what could be an easy one screen view of my available actions. (I also don't want to view by context because I operate more on a project-by-project basis.)

Thanks for any help! There seem to be so many ways to customize things that I'm hoping there is a way to do this. The iPhone app does this if you set it to show projects that are "Available", so I'm hoping the Mac app does it too...

~y
 
Not positive this is what you are looking for, but perhaps changing those Projects with no active items in them to "On Hold" and then making sure the Project Filter is set to "Active" will work? In my mind, if a project has no action items then it should probably be set to "On Hold."

Last edited by cgriffin; 2010-10-09 at 11:49 AM..
 
thanks for the feedback. Interesting point. I haven't used the "On Hold" concept yet, but my initial take is that that might cause an issue for me: some of these projects are Miscellaneous/single action projects where I might drop new things in at any point and some of these projects are where the first item in the sequential project just isn't available yet. In either case, my reluctance to put them on hold is that I would need to think about taking them off hold. Correct? As it stands, they just happen to not have anything that needs attention today, but they might need attention tomorrow... "On Hold" seems like it risks another level of task management that isn't necessary. Does that make sense? I could be misunderstanding how this stuff works...
 
I think I understand what you are trying to accomplish. I just recently had to start to move away from OF and start to find another resource (Oh man...I will miss this program) because I can't get the perspective I need to keep my "radar" clean (A multitude of projects that have no current tasks that I did not want to see until necessary). The stalled grouping did not work for me because the "active" filter still picks them up.

I tried the "on hold" method, but the problem was...I would be in another program (let's say mail) and have 5-emails come in that I needed to add a task to 5 different "on-hold" projects. Seems easy....but ....it was a big problem because they stay on-hold. The tasks will not show up on your list of things to get done unless you physically go back and take the project off hold.

I found out the hard way this was the case and almost missed some tasks.

I have initiated a feature request (and I have to say this company rules as far as communication and helping customers)...but until there is a middle ground...I have no where to go with this.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by yuvigroovy View Post
(I also don't want to view by context because I operate more on a project-by-project basis.)
Context mode, group and sort by project, show available actions looks to be very close to what you want (you don't get the folder name).
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by figman View Post
I tried the "on hold" method, but the problem was...I would be in another program (let's say mail) and have 5-emails come in that I needed to add a task to 5 different "on-hold" projects. Seems easy....but ....it was a big problem because they stay on-hold. The tasks will not show up on your list of things to get done unless you physically go back and take the project off hold.
I asked you for more details in the other thread, but you never responded. Here's a different question: how do you propose OmniFocus should know that you want these projects to be taken off your "inactive" status?
 
thanks for all the quick feedback. yes, you're right -- using context mode and then sorting & grouping by project nearly gets me there... definitely good enough for my purposes.... thanks!
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
I asked you for more details in the other thread, but you never responded. Here's a different question: how do you propose OmniFocus should know that you want these projects to be taken off your "inactive" status?
Sorry about the no answer on the thread...must have missed the question.

The only solutions I have come up with would be to add a few possible options (ps. I do not believe in making a 100% change to any program, but just adding a possibility for those who may desire it...so when I say option ...I really mean option).

1. The first choice option that I would love to see is to have a choice to make it so a project automatically becomes active when a new task is added. This would most likely cause some people grief..but for some like myself it would be a the best choice.

--When clipping, It could be as simple as a dialogue box that pops up if a project is on hold when you try to add a task. It could ask "do you want to make this project active"?, and we could answer yes or no. It could have a simple "do not ask me again"checkbox if the question doesn't fit into your workflow.

2. A filter setting that could hide stalled projects (even though they are active) would also do the trick.

3. Even just a grouping filter "has tasks" would work.

Overall, I am just trying to hide all of these projects that I am waiting on others to do their part.

This is what I have come up with so far.

Thanks for any help (and attempts at help that I may have unintentionally overlooked).

Last edited by figman; 2010-10-10 at 07:35 AM..
 
 


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Perspectives and "Active" context filter on iOS versions bard OmniFocus for iPad 4 2011-02-28 03:41 PM
bug in status filter "due soon" when showing grouped tasks in project view howardtnyc OmniFocus 1 for Mac 17 2010-05-18 03:27 PM
2.0 Wish - View Filter Tasks "Perspectives" manfromuncle OmniPlan General 7 2008-12-24 09:27 PM
Adding Tasks in project view w/"next" filter johnrover OmniFocus 1 for Mac 6 2007-06-07 02:53 PM
Request: Additional Project Filter "Unfinished" gotung OmniFocus 1 for Mac 3 2007-06-07 10:28 AM


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 04:19 AM.


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