[avit]

Why do Projects have context and how do you use this in your own workflow?

I'm just getting started with OmniFocus and trying to figure out why in my Contexts view, projects such as the sample "Get started with OmniFocus" show up as "No Context".

Without a context they pile up in there, and make it look like I'm doing it wrong.

Do you assign contexts to all your projects?
What context do you use, when contained tasks can have various contexts?
Any other tips on the utility of this feature?

[whpalmer4]

If you don't like seeing them, you can use View->Hide Parent Items in Context Mode to hide them. It's a toggle, so you can turn it back on at any time.

Also, if you aren't hiding them, then viewing Available actions instead of Remaining actions will hide them except when all of the contained actions have been completed (or there are none), at which time they will reappear. This allows you to quickly spot that you've completed all the work you've set for yourself on a project (and thus be alerted that it is time to add some more or mark the project completed).

Yet another approach is to exclude the No Contexts bin from your regular working perspectives, by de-selecting it in the sidebar before saving the perspective, or just cmd-clicking it if you only want to temporarily remove it from the view.

I have contexts assigned to some projects, but not all. If it makes sense for a particular project to have a default context (all of the actions are going to be in the same context, for example) then I will add one. If not, either I won't add one at all, or I'll add a dummy context that I know no action should ever be assigned to.

[Severisth]

I had the exact same first-time experience as avit. Makes me wonder how many other people had it also. If the omnifocus development team reads this, a suggestion may be to have 'hide parent items' on by default. Something to consider anyway.

Thanks whpalmer4 for the very thoughtful answer!

[lasdjfk]

yes, I agree. Why would one possibly want to assign a context to a project? I mean, the nature of projects is that they consist of many actions, which have different contexts. Sensible defaults people!!

[Greg Jones]

I mean, the nature of projects is that they consist of many actions, which may have different contexts.

Fixed it for you! Projects don't have contexts by default, but a default context can be assigned to the tasks assigned to a project. Bill pretty much describes the rationale for this feature in the last paragraph above.

Unchecking the 'Show Projects and Action Groups' in context mode in the Preferences>Data pane will hide them completely in context mode.

[DrJJWMac]

Here are two cases when I use a Context on a Project:

* Occasionally, I have Projects that are completed entirely in one Context.

* Occasionally, I want to assign a default Context to all actions in a given Project and then override it on a case-by-case basis.

[trenchantly]

Agree with this. A default context for certain projects where you are more or less certain what the context will be, would save a lot of time.

[CatOne]

Originally Posted by trenchantly

Agree with this. A default context for certain projects where you are more or less certain what the context will be, would save a lot of time.

The feature is there already ;-)

I use it, because OF loses most of its functionality without contexts. And so I set one by default… otherwise the sidebar in context mode has nothing at all :-/