[rmathes]

As I'm testing this app and deciding whether or not to make the switch from iGTD, one issue that is persistently troubling me is OmniFocus’ approach to task notes. If I clip an email into OF, it shows as a task with no display of the note. If I want to see the content of the email or the link to it, I have to click on the tiny Note icon in the right corner of the line. Then everything is beautifully displayed, but within the task list display.

I’m not arguing this was a good or bad design decision. I can see why some would prefer this paradigm. But I've grown accustomed to the iGTD paradigm of a separate Notes display under the task list, and that as soon as a task is highlighted in the task list, any notes are auto displayed along with any links. For me, a great many of my tasks come from emails. I’d say, conservatively, at least a third. I find myself constantly looking at a task in OF and thinking “is this an email based task? Do I have notes I need to see for this?” then I click on the Note icon, and sometimes I get notes, sometimes I find it’s a task without notes.

For MY workflow (again, I'm not trying to impugn the app), this is highly inefficient. Takes me much longer to really view all I need to see about a task, and then when I do view notes, having them display within the task list now ‘crowds out’ the other tasks in the list, pushing them off the display.

The more I use OF, the less I like this behavior. This alone might be enough to keep me with iGTD, frankly. I know some would hate it but I'd far prefer to display notes automatically in a separate pane along with any links to files, emails or websites and not have to hit a small greyed out icon to see what I need to see. This paradigm seems, to me, to underemphasize the importance of what Notes can mean to a task.

Just my two cents.

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by rmathes

I find myself constantly looking at a task in OF and thinking “is this an email based task? Do I have notes I need to see for this?” then I click on the Note icon, and sometimes I get notes, sometimes I find it’s a task without notes.

I find the in-line display of notes adequate. I haven't used iGTD, so don't know whether I'd prefer a separate note display.

A couple of items for living with OF's notes:

The note icon only appears for actions that have notes, or when you hover the mouse over the row with a note. Is that not what you're seeing?

Also, with an action selected you can press Cmd-' to toggle display of the note.

[rmathes]

honestly, never noticed. The note icon is so small and difficult to see in the first place that this behavior never was apparent to me.

But it doesn’t matter.

This handling of notes is fundamentally problematic for me. SO many of my tasks are so note-centric that having to do this to view and deal with them is just one more way OF makes me work in an inefficient manner.

[VicDiesel]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

I find the in-line display of notes adequate. I haven't used iGTD, so don't know whether I'd prefer a separate note display.

Considering that Omni Outliner has a switch between inline and panel display of notes, they should really add the panel display option.

My OF tasks rarely have notes attached, but in OO I have so many notes that I have the panel display permanently open. I can see the point of the OP's request.

Victor.

[rmathes]

hadn’t gone back to OOP for awhile (I do most of my outlining in Notebook, just fits my needs better) so fired it up. This is exactly what I'd love to see for notes.

I’d say well over half my tasks have notes. I want my note to be descriptive but concise, and most of my tasks are either somewhat involved, require resources to complete or were driven from an email or some other communication. This would really help me streamline my interaction with OmniFocus.

I appreciate all the folks who’ve chimed in on this.

[joelande]

I agree. There should be an option to automatically display the notes, when an item is clicked.

HOWEVER. You should be able to see if there is a note there already. Items with notes already attached display the note icon. Items with no note attached have the icon dimmed grey (clicking on the grey icon allows you to add notes).

[iBsteve]

I also agree, there should be a better way to handle notes. Even double clicking on the task to expand the note would be a help but also something like an expand all and a conversion option to make a note into an action would be nice.

[ksrhee]

I have used iGTD in the past, but I prefer the layout of OF much better. As far as auto expanding note, etc., it might be possible to have that as an option, but for me, that gets in the way for me. I have a lot of tasks and projects I have to manage, and I really don't want to see any extraneous stuff in my main view including notes . . .

If I need to see what's in the note, it's only a click away, and I don't have to select the task to see what's in the note anyway. So, I can quickly browse all the tasks with attached notes one by one.

[taglia]

I also switched from iGTD (and from kGTD before that), where I found all the fields and options more distracting than useful.

I actully like how notes are managed in OF: using the shortcut mentioned by Curt to show a note (CMD-'), and CMD-4 to move from the sidebar to the main window, it's very fast to focus on a particular action and the corresponding note.

The only thing that I miss is a shortcut to open a note without editing it (using CMD-' can be annoying if a note is longer than the window height, as the cursor is at the end of the note).

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by iBsteve

I also agree, there should be a better way to handle notes. Even double clicking on the task to expand the note would be a help but also something like an expand all and a conversion option to make a note into an action would be nice.

Select all (Cmd-a), then Expand Note (Cmd-').