[indygreg]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I personally noticed that the enthusiasm for Things plunged just after it was no longer free to use.

It may be that tagging actions is a great feature (I personally disagree with that view, but I recognize that others may think differently), but I think that the reasons that particular products seem to generate enthusiasm online are probably misleading.

Part of the enthusiasm fallout with things was when it started to cost $$$, but I believe it was far more to do with the product development totally dying after everyone paid for it. There is a lot of dissatisfaction with them on their forums and it is with cause. The product is more beta now than it was in beta and they hardly even communicate. I paid for Things because I had used it for several months as beta and I thought the pace of updates would continue and I could wait until it did what I wanted. Nope. Waste of my money. I have no reason to think Hit List will be any different, no offense to them (and I know it is not fair to paint with such a wide brush).

Not sure if this is accurate, but since I switched to Mac I have found so much more of this . . . someone or a small teams makes a really good looking app with all kinds of potential and then it just stagnates and essentially dies. I get why it happens, creating something is fun. Taking it the final 25% with all stability and error free performance is where it becomes work. I recently have had this happen with a few apps . . . and it has forced me to start looking for more products that have a better chance of being around (with real updates) in a year or two.

[sfkeydel]

Originally Posted by indygreg

. . . and it has forced me to start looking for more products that have a better chance of being around (with real updates) in a year or two.

Well, when it comes to GTD-capable apps, I don't think you have to look too far ;-)

[indygreg]

Originally Posted by sfkeydel

Well, when it comes to GTD-capable apps, I don't think you have to look too far ;-)

You are correct there. OF for me for sure.

[Melan]

I'm an instant fan of:
* the card view
* the tabs (seem stable over app restart with view, tag, sorting!)†
* the preview for date entering (e.g. enter "monday" in a date field)
* thoughtful keyboard shortcuts (e.g. @ for entering quick context vs. 3xtab in OF)
* the timing feature

Complete agreement. And of course the presentation is amazing - it makes me want to use it. Being an OF user however makes it impossible to see past what's missing. I wish I could use it but it really is lacking atm. Not least of all, what do I do with a 'list' once I've done all the actions in it? I can't delete it because that deletes the archived actions. An 'archive' folder is a bit clumsy. There should be an 'archive list' or 'list is completed' button.

[jtkiley]

Even though I somewhat miss the iPhone app, I have been using THL lately. I bought OF for both Mac and iPhone, but I think OF has some distance to go in working simply for someone with relatively uncomplicated needs. I don't doubt that Omni will figure it out, as they have with their other apps.

I agree with the other who have said that the interface needs work. I think this is a holdover from the way Kinkless worked in OO, but it needs to be updated. Attractiveness is important in an app that you keep open all the time.

Also, please lose the inspectors. For an app that deals with media or documents and could potentially be maximized, I can live with them (and in some cases like them). However, I see no reason to have them in an app that will stay in a reasonably small window. I may be alone here, but I keep virtually all of my communication (Mail, iChat, Skype) and productivity (THL/OF, iCal) apps on one space with a layout that lets me see all of them at once. Inspectors frustrate that goal, because I do care about seeing the non-foreground apps.

OF has a lot of potential, and I would not be surprised to see them have and keep the lion's share of the market in this space, especially when they integrate sharing and OmniPlan to extend organization to the workgroup. I just wish it was easier for uncomplicated use, while making it easy to eventually turn on and use the more advanced features and controls.

[BevvyB]

I've just been playing around with THL's Smart Folders. This is exactly what I've wanted to see in OF - perspectives with proper boolean searches

You can now create smart folders in THL which will list practically anything based on a selection of searches similar to that built into the OS finder search

So instead of perspectives you create smart folders which can literally give you anything you want - add to that the fact you can tag anything with anything, and the search can look at text in the title or even body of the notes of a task and you really can see EXACTLY what you want to see with no limitations

Powerful stuff - smart folders, just like the finder

[tmilovan]

I had to do a review of THL few days ago and I have to admit I was a bit skeptical, especially because I was mostly satisfied with OF.

Today I almost completely migrated to THL. The main reason was because THL have much better tasks overview. I can much more easily and quicky see what I need to do with THL, while I'm mostly overwhelmed in OF.

Other reasons:
- iCal syncing done right
- support for multiple contexts
- tags
- smart folders
- tabs
- keyboard shortcuts

THL just does almost everything that OF does in much more simpler way. I am a fan of OF but I just cannont find the reason to continue using it after I tried the THL.

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by tmilovan

I had to do a review of THL few days ago and I have to admit I was a bit skeptical, especially because I was mostly satisfied with OF.

Today I almost completely migrated to THL. The main reason was because THL have much better tasks overview. I can much more easily and quicky see what I need to do with THL, while I'm mostly overwhelmed in OF.

Huh? Didn't you just say you were "mostly satisfied with OF", but now you're "mostly overwhelmed?" Isn't that a bit contradictory? ;-)

Admittedly, I haven't tried THL; maybe I should. But I've always felt that OmniFocus gives me a pretty good handle on all my tasks and projects (at least much better than Things). And I've got a decent sized database at 2,408 tasks and 187 projects as of this writing.

Originally Posted by tmilovan

Other reasons:
- iCal syncing done right

I don't use iCal syncing, but I'm curious: what does THL do differently than OmniFocus?

Originally Posted by tmilovan

- support for multiple contexts
- tags
- smart folders

Are tags and contexts conceptually different in THL, or are they the same as in Things?

Also, keep in mind that the Omni Group has stated that these feature are coming to OmniFocus. If you need them right now, then maybe THL is the place to go. But if there are other aspects you like about OmniFocus (e.g. iPhone client, blocking actions, nested actions, syncing across multiple clients, etc.), you may soon have the best of both worlds.

Originally Posted by tmilovan

- keyboard shortcuts

Can you be more specific? How is this different from OmniFocus?

-Dennis

[tmilovan]

Originally Posted by Toadling

Huh? Didn't you just say you were "mostly satisfied with OF", but now you're "mostly overwhelmed?" Isn't that a bit contradictory? ;-)

No. I'm generally satisfied with the way you input and manage tasks, but I tend to be overwhelmed when doing overview while working. In GTD language: collecting is great, organizing is great, even reviewing is not bad, but "doing" from the list can be a pain.

Originally Posted by Toadling

Admittedly, I haven't tried THL; maybe I should. But I've always felt that OmniFocus gives me a pretty good handle on all my tasks and projects (at least much better than Things). And I've got a decent sized database at 2,408 tasks and 187 projects as of this writing.

I absolutely agree with you.

Originally Posted by Toadling

I don't use iCal syncing, but I'm curious: what does THL do differently than OmniFocus?

I gives you total control over what will get into iCal and it does this automatically. I has rules similar to those in smart folders, and you use them to chose tasks for iCal.

To many people forget that calendar is essential part of gtd toolset. Using just OF is never enough for complete gtd implementation, so connection with iCal is very important and OF is just ignoring that part.

Originally Posted by Toadling

Are tags and contexts conceptually different in THL, or are they the same as in Things?

Also, keep in mind that the Omni Group has stated that these feature are coming to OmniFocus. If you need them right now, then maybe THL is the place to go. But if there are other aspects you like about OmniFocus (e.g. iPhone client, blocking actions, nested actions, syncing across multiple clients, etc.), you may soon have the best of both worlds.

Can you be more specific? How is this different from OmniFocus?

-Dennis

Just take 30 minutes and try the THL. My english is just not good enough to express everything I would like to say :))) and 30 minutes test run will give you pretty good picture. Especially regarding keyboard shortcuts. They are just more natural and you use them more intuitevly the in OF. It almost like using Quicksilver.

Just try it :).

[refulgentis]

Originally Posted by tmilovan

I had to do a review of THL few days ago and I have to admit I was a bit skeptical, especially because I was mostly satisfied with OF.

Today I almost completely migrated to THL. The main reason was because THL have much better tasks overview. I can much more easily and quicky see what I need to do with THL, while I'm mostly overwhelmed in OF.

Other reasons:
- iCal syncing done right
- support for multiple contexts
- tags
- smart folders
- tabs
- keyboard shortcuts

THL just does almost everything that OF does in much more simpler way. I am a fan of OF but I just cannont find the reason to continue using it after I tried the THL.

If you follow even the most basic tenet of GTD (next actions), The Hit List is relatively useless because it can't make this distinction for you.

With OmniFocus, I just have to click on my next actions/available perspective, and anything I can do *right now* is automatically there for me. With The Hit List, you need to select the contexts/tags frame, then select the context you're in, then figure out what exactly there is blocked and what you can do right now. It *definitely* isn't faster to see what you need to do in The Hit List versus OmniFocus, unless you don't completely understand available versus not available actions as they relate to next actions.

I think reading GTD is an absolute necessity to using OmniFocus, because you need to be convinced why contexts/next actions are important. Then, every feature of OmniFocus is easily understandable, and even beautiful. The 'quick reference' card on the OmniGroup product page for OmniFocus does an admirable job of getting 90% of the way there, and honestly I haven't read the manual so perhaps that explains it better than I realize.

Also, for your iCal synchronization: I created a context called 'tickler', and use due dates on it, synched to iCal, as a way to maintain task management in OmniFocus while still keeping hard landscape where it belongs (in a calendar).