[Yury]

As I use OmniFocus more and more I am finding one feature severely lacking, and I found out a way to get around it thanks to an export script.

The one thing that OmniFocus needs is TAGS. Not for the purpose of using it as part of the GTD flow but in terms of organization and being able to pull up things.

As an example I hand a number of accounts for my company and I have each one of those in a Folder for each company.

But then there are some things that I need to do to figure out what partner I am dealing with at that company (which I would like to add to all of the ToDo's) and also for other things like who else I am working on from my company on for a particular account. What competitors if any are in the company... etc etc.

Currently I have TextEdit open on the side where I have outline the tags in the

#Tag format and then I copy and paste it in to the note field so it can be searched as part of the Todo.

While it does work it is a bit tedious to do so, I would rather not have that and have the ability to actually select these from a Tag list and search for them later as part of TAGS only search.

Now how I use the search is simple, as I am doing my daily planning it is not only going through the folders but also looking at it from the Tag perspective. For example if I am involved in some engineering or evaluations for customers (across multiple companies) I would just search for that tag and see which projects and tasks relate to that topic. Then as part of my planning I can evaluate what is more important, a current project that needs my attention in an area of importance vs. looking at this on a project or context basis.

Another example is I work with 4 sales people in my company. If I wanted to see all the projects I have for Sales Person 1, vs Sales Person 2, vs Sales Person 3... etc. It is just easy for me to search for the #SP-Name and just evaluate as part of the review my commitments to a person, and based on my next action selection for the day let the person know if I can accomplish tasks or new tasks, or tell them that I am not able to accomplish the task in a time frame that he/she would like.

All of us are overburdened with Tasks, and I have a huge number of tasks which are mostly ON-HOLD until my daily review. At which point based on the commitments, priorities, time allowed, I can make a certain number active per day to see what I can accomplish.

[wilsonng]

Sorry but tags has been discussed in these two previous threads. It's long but here are your answers:

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=29379

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=28176



The short answer is "no." OF1 or OF2 will not have tags. It may be considered in the future.

Tags is oftentimes seen as the obvious short-cut fix for searching for tasks but may not always be the correct answer.

You'll have to adjust your workflow to deal with lack of tags. Many have simply moved on to other task management programs. Others have learned that life without tags is sometimes easier.

Various workflows to deal with the lack of tags are discussed in the conversation links posted above.

Tags are not necessarily the band-aid that will magically fix an overhwhelming number of tasks.

I've been able to use a number of custom perspectives to deal with what really needs to be done.

Take the time to read the threads and you'll find the solutions there.

[psidnell]

My half assed solution to this is to tag externally to OF and link in:

When I create a significant OF project I also create a markdown or TaskPaper file with the same name where I would keep any reference notes that I want to keep after the project is complete.

When I set this up I put a link to the OF project at the top of the document (right click on the project, select copy as link and paste it in).

Then I drop document into the OF project notes, which creates a link the other way.

Now I can jump back and forth between the two just by clicking on the links.

The external file can be tagged using your favourite software. I mostly use nvAlt and leap for the document/tag management. I guess when Mavericks arrives you can just use that.

This may sound cumbersome but it only takes a few seconds to set up and no doubt some enterprising soul could automate it...

[Yury]

Wilsong,

I read every message in the thread, and the problem is that those threads were talking about Tag's to be used for the GTD system as part of the workflow. I am talking about using tags simply as a reference point.

I can search for things inside of the Note, and the tags would be exactly as I do now but adding text in to the notes field of the system now. Same exact thing....

The only difference is:
If I wanted to do it manually I would of used Windowzz, but on a Mac it is a shame not to be able to do it easier. All I am proposing is a pop up window of sorts to make it easier to do reference tags. Not a system to be implemented in to the GTD system as everyone else was talking about.

Also would look better if it was bubbles instead of. Having this is a first line.

#TagA, #TagB, TagC <--- Which is what I do now.

Originally Posted by wilsonng

Sorry but tags has been discussed in these two previous threads. It's long but here are your answers:

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=29379

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=28176



The short answer is "no." OF1 or OF2 will not have tags. It may be considered in the future.

Tags is oftentimes seen as the obvious short-cut fix for searching for tasks but may not always be the correct answer.

You'll have to adjust your workflow to deal with lack of tags. Many have simply moved on to other task management programs. Others have learned that life without tags is sometimes easier.

Various workflows to deal with the lack of tags are discussed in the conversation links posted above.

Tags are not necessarily the band-aid that will magically fix an overhwhelming number of tasks.

I've been able to use a number of custom perspectives to deal with what really needs to be done.

Take the time to read the threads and you'll find the solutions there.

[Yury]

Originally Posted by psidnell

My half assed solution to this is to tag externally to OF and link in:

When I create a significant OF project I also create a markdown or TaskPaper file with the same name where I would keep any reference notes that I want to keep after the project is complete.

When I set this up I put a link to the OF project at the top of the document (right click on the project, select copy as link and paste it in).

Then I drop document into the OF project notes, which creates a link the other way.

That is a Lot of work.... I rather just keep a Text document opened where I can just copy and paste from. Maybe I will create an AppleScript to do this by popping up a window. Should be easy to do, but just requires time.

Would be a lot easier for Omnigroup to just POP it in to the system for reference purposes only. Once again... Not talking about changing the OF GTD workflow (before someone states that) and already can be done now just manually which is the pain part.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by Yury

That is a Lot of work.... I rather just keep a Text document opened where I can just copy and paste from. Maybe I will create an AppleScript to do this by popping up a window. Should be easy to do, but just requires time.

Would be a lot easier for Omnigroup to just POP it in to the system for reference purposes only. Once again... Not talking about changing the OF GTD workflow (before someone states that) and already can be done now just manually which is the pain part.

So, writing an AppleScript is harder than Omni Group just "popping" in a new feature?

Here is a free suggestion. Go download a trial of TextExpander and make a snippet using the fill-in option with a popup menu for all your tags. Then in OmniFocus instead of copy/paste use this snippet to enter your tags. If you like this solution purchase the application and use it.

TextExpander - http://smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/index.html

There is even TextExpander Touch which will synchronize your snippets using Dropbox and can be used to expand snippets on your iOS device as well.

[psidnell]

Omni are between a rock and a hard place here. With tags becoming a first class feature in Mavericks, IF they implemented tags there would be an expectation that it would work with the tagging scheme used by the OS (presumably open meta).

Without this even though tags might work IN OmniFocus if you brought up the new Finder and did a search for "Shopping", it would find your tagged documents but not your tagged OmniFocus project.

A technical problem here is that tags are held in metadata on files, whereas the OmniFocus data is held in one huge database - a single file.

OS level tags are document based, and OmniFocus isn't.

There is some wiggle room here - I discovered that if you drag a perspective onto the desktop it seems to be a file containing a COPY of the query that defines the perspective.

It's a file. You can tag it. It opens Omnifocus on whatever the perspective is supposed to show.

Hooray?

[psidnell]

Originally Posted by psidnell

It's a file. You can tag it. It opens Omnifocus on whatever the perspective is supposed to show.

Hooray?

Just to add some detail on this:

- Select a project, focus, filter - whatever
- Save this view as a new perspective and give it sensible name
- Show Perspectives
- Drag your new perspective to the desktop or wherever.
- You can delete the perspective in OmniFocus if you want.

The xxx.ofocus-perspective file can now be tagged with Leap, Tags, Punakea - whatever. Double click the file and it restores the perspective.

[Yury]

For those of you who would like to use Tags in OmniFocus (of some sort), I have created an AppleScript to bring up a selection window and then populate them in to the clipboard for pasting. (Can be used for more then OmniFocus).

If you want to just go here

Post For the Script