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Outlook, GTD, Netcentrics -- moving over Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I work for the man. The man uses Exchange so I'm obliged. I am running my mac with VMWare though as my daily machine.

I use the GTD addin for outlook and would love to use OF. Anyone have any experience with keeping their calendar, email, etc in Parallels or Fusion and using OF?

Any tips for moving my projects/actions over?

I might think about firing up Entourage when the next version ships but for now think it's more of a science project than I'm looking for.

Appreciate any thoughts

John
 
oh wow! I don't know how I missed this thread - it's good to hear another OF user out there from the Netcentrics camp!

Before I babble too much - how is your transition going? I just started 9 days ago and not having a feature to connect an EventItem to a project like you can with the plug-in is my biggest gripe right now.

Perhaps we can use this thread to focus on Netcentric to OF switchers!
 
I just joined the forum looking for lessons learned on converting from the Outlook GTD addin to OF. I currently use an iMac in my home office (because it's stable and easier), an OQO 02 running XP Tablet (taking notes on the screen in one note), and a HP TC1100 tablet pc running vista (when I need a larger tablet screen than the OQO). I use Outlook on the windows pc's connected to a hosted exchange server. I have a windows mobile phone that also syncs to the exchange server.

I'm looking at the new iphone, and trying to figure out if it's the final straw that moves me off windows and maybe exchange too for my trusted GTD system. I already have a .mac account.

Any insight would be appreciated.
 
hey zack! do you have any specific questions I can answer for you?

I can tell ya my overall experience with OF (I've been using it for about 10 days now) is great. Mind you, there are a few things that might be different about my situation:
  1. I no longer own any Windows-targeted hardware. I started waning myself off WinXP since my Thinkpad died a sorry death in Aug 2005 and made a commitment to Web 2.0 via a mac mini.
  2. I've been using Parallels primarily for apps I haven't found replacements for for about 2 months now. I've pretty much eliminated my dependency on Outlook (and Office- yeay!) and the GTD Add-in at this point.
  3. my iPhone is my primary mobile device. my primary decision for making the switch is the award the Omni Group got for location-based context lists - I've been dreaming of this for ages! I had been using tada lists as a stopgap solution for a few months before OF. now it's not even necessary.
  4. I don't use Exchange. gmail works amazingly well on the iPhone via IMAP. as you know Exchange support is coming and remains to be seen how this goes.
  5. I stopped using the email feature of the GTD Add-in ever since I migrated to Google Mail as my primary interface. I have to admit it is a nifty feature but its novelty has waned over time.
  6. per my last post - you might miss the event/project integration (this is one to top things on my wish list! hint hint.. ;)
  7. how OF deals with hiearchial project structures/actions compared to how sub-projects were implemented is a godsend alone
  8. being able to re-organize your contexts hierarchy, on-the-fly is just as amazing.

I could go on and on but that's a taste of my experience - usability is king and that's what I'm getting with OmniFocus so far so kudos to the team!
 
I'm reviewing this thread and thought I'd say more about my transition over from the GTD Outook Add-in but to be honest - it's been a satisfying transition. I share my final thoughts on day-specific next actions and surprisingly don't feel as big a need for iCal integration as I initially thought which is great news.

If anyone else has questions in regards to the transition, please feel free to chime in!
 
I feel like I need an OmniWiki...

this is my 4th week with OF and noticing another benefit not listed above that is a huge improvement over the GTD Add-In:
  • ability to define sets of actions in one shot. Completing actions and having OF automatically sequence to the next action really ensures you don't drop balls. It inspires a sense of confidence in the system that was not present in the past!
 
I am transitioning from Outlook, GTD add in to mac omni focus. My question is how I can best use omni focus. I was considering purchasing an i pod touch so I can have all my data with me at all times. I cannot go the i phone route as I am locked into my currect cell phone provider for 2 years.
 
beto: You can use an iPod Touch with OmniFocus for iPhone to have all your OmniFocus data with you at all times. "How to best use OmniFocus" is a big, vague question. A lot of people here will probably be happy to offer advice if you can provide a little more description of what kind of work you do, what sorts of projects you put in OmniFocus, etc.
 
My two cents:

I was a long-time user of Outlook with the GTD plugin. I'm significantly happier to have made the switch to Omnifocus overall. I am not as happy with Omnifocus for iPhone because it has problems with large Omnifocus files. i tend to have a large OF file precisely because it is such a great app - clipping makes it easy to really suck in emails and text into actionable items. However, with the network and application size, the iPhone isn't as kind to a huge data file.

As an Outlook/GTD plugin user, I really was bought into the idea of the single big app (or integration between components) for calendar, contacts, and to-do lists. However, I have been pleasantly surprised that I really don't need them to pass data back and forth. For example, I don't use the to-do synchronization between iCal and OF.

Like others have mentioned, I really do miss the ability to create an event/appointment directly from an email. There is basic functionality to create iCal appointments from the Apple Mail app but I don't think it is as good.

To a lesser extent, I miss being able to DELEGATE and email and create a WAITING FOR action in the to-do list but it isn't a deal-breaker.

Overall, OF is a great app. And if I can get the OF data file down to a reasonable size so OF-iPhone doesn't keep crashing, I may be happy with that as well.

Irrespective of Omnifocus, I have to say that I do not miss Windows Vista at all. Using Windows Vista was hands-down the most painful computing experience I have ever had.

:)
 
@felix: wow - thanks for sharing! i share your sentiments!

you do hit it on the money in regards to transforming emails into next actions and having a data structure to reference the original email (opposed to storing it) - this is what the Outlook Add-in did best.

that said, one of the reasons I went with OF was the vision to have the desktop paired with a mobile client in the first place. That was sorely missing for me when I was on the Palm and Windows Mobile. I never felt like I had GTD with me except for my printouts which was only a old snapshot at best.

@beto: I would love to help you with your transition after already having done it - do you have some very specific questions for us?
 
 


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