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Reordering Actions In Context View Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I can manually reorder actions in the planning view by dragging and dropping the action, but cannot reorder actions in the context view. The context view looks like it should have the same functionality, but the actions don't move. Any suggestions?
 
The context view is always sorting the list of actions by something, whether it be due date, context, or whatever. Thus, it doesn't really make sense to allow you to drag items around to reorder them in a context view. Why do you want to do this?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
The context view is always sorting the list of actions by something, whether it be due date, context, or whatever. Thus, it doesn't really make sense to allow you to drag items around to reorder them in a context view. Why do you want to do this?
I'm sorry; I thought I was making sense.

I have a large project and need to go to several different warehouses and pick up things from each one. (Syncing with my iphone allows me to create a checklist to make sure I get all 80 things for this project)

I've created a context named Warehouse and 'sub-contexts' named Warehouse 1, Warehouse 2, Warehouse 3 etc... In Warehouse 1 things are kept in five different areas. In each warehouse, things are grouped into different areas.

If I have a randomized list of 25 different things to pick up from Warehouse 1, it's not easy to collect things. I just want to group the things together in a more logical way. That is why I wanted to know whether I could move actions, like one can do in projects.

Perhaps the only way is to create another layer of "sub-contexts" under each warehouse, but that seemed like a lot of effort and I was hoping that I could just group the list in a way that was more logical for my use.
 
Okay, I see why you want to do it. Unfortunately, as far as I can determine, OmniFocus has nothing but an ephemeral notion of the contents and ordering of the context view, unlike the project/planning view. Where something would go in the context view depends on what else is in the view (and the view sort settings), unlike the project view, where the question is merely whether a given action is displayed in the view or not, and how it should be styled, as the order is predetermined. It might be possible for them to support a context view where you could drag items around, but that view wouldn't stick, you wouldn't be able to sync it to your iPhone from your desktop, etc. without substantial engineering effort, I would guess. Certainly, it won't be helping you with tomorrow's trip to the warehouses.

As always, your best bet for seeing a change in the program's behavior is to use the Help->Send Feedback command to get your wishes officially noted in their database.

Here's a workaround you can use given that you seem to have the ability to plan these collection trips in advance:

Go to your Warehouse1 context. Select all of the tasks, and do Edit->Copy. Flip back to Planning mode, make a new project called "Warehouse1 trip". Add a blank action to the new project. Click at the very left end (to the left of the dot) of that action, then paste in all those tasks. If you do this correctly, you'll end up with a project with a blank task followed by all the copied tasks, 1 per task. If you don't click in the right place, you'll end up with 1 task with all of them combined. Delete it and try again. Once you've got it done, you can reorder the tasks to your needs. Repeat for the other warehouses, sync to your iPhone, and use the Project view on the iPhone to track your efforts. When you get back with all the goodies, sync phone and desktop, and you can then do a bulk checking off of the items in the original context views and delete your tracking projects. Does that make sense?
 
Thanks for your help. I'll give it a try.
 
I'd like to resurrect this thread because the ability to reorder tasks within context view would be extremely helpful.

One use case: many people use flags to designate items for a "do today" list (and Omni validated this by adding a "Due or Flagged" view option). But this only gets you part of the way towards an ordered task plan. Why? Items often share the same attributes that are used for sorting—due date, flagged status, or whatever. And while some people make a fresh decision about what to do every time you switch tasks, task ordering is helpful when you want to plan out your day and simply work through a list.

Since tasks can't be manually reordered in context view, planning a list that you can work through sequentially requires:
  • renaming each task so "sort by name" forces a specific order, or
  • going outside OmniFocus
For the second option, Bill Palmer and Curt Clifton suggested workflows involving TextEdit or OmniOutliner, but any of these options is kludgy at best.

OmniGroup, please allow users to reorder tasks within context view!

Last edited by dbyler; 2011-01-06 at 01:04 PM..
 
Do you use the duration field at all? If not, you can get the ability to reorder tasks in a context perspective using the duration field. Set the grouping to ungrouped, sorted by duration, and enter time values to order the list. Tasks will be ordered top to bottom by least to most duration. Task with no duration assigned will drop to the bottom of the list.

You can leave gaps in the duration for adding and/or reordering tasks without having to change the duration on the other tasks. In other words, if I assign the durations to the tasks below, they will appear as:

Task A 2m
Task B 6m
Task C 10m
Task D Unassigned

If I later add a task that I want to appear in the middle of the list and also decide that Task D should appear at the top of the list, I can easily re-order the list by changing only Task D's duration and giving the new task (Task E) a duration that puts it where I want it in the list:

Task D 1m
Task A 2m
Task E 4m
Task B 6m
Task C 10m
 
Kludges? You want kludges, we got kludges :-)

Go to context mode. Select all of the actions you want to do in order. Edit->Copy. Now make a new window, switch it to Project mode, and make a new project. Paste in those actions you've got on the clipboard. Rearrange to suit. Do everything in the project, working out of project mode. Go back to your context mode window and mark off the originals as completed. This is easiest if the stuff you copied and pasted is readily identified (such as the contents of the "due today" or "start today" groups, for example). A smart guy like you could whip up a script that automated the cleanup, too.

No question it would be easier (for the users, if not the developers) if you could just drag things around in Context mode, but if you have a pressing need, waiting around for even the most responsive developer to get to your wish list doesn't work. That's where my bespoke baling wire and chewing gum designs come into their own :-)
 
I believe we have a feature request open on this - as always, interested parties should email the support ninjas and let them know they'd like to be attached to the request. Thanks!
 
This is literally the one feature I'm hoping Omnifocus integrates.

Having to copy/paste into a project to reorder is a hack and just feels broken.
I use context mode to show my day's tasks and and I want a way to manually reorder the tasks I do during the day...at the moment there's no simple quick way of doing that - but reordering is intuitive and simple. I'm currently having to copy/paste into a project to make it happen but then whenever a new task comes up, it breaks the whole system because i have to basically insert the new task twice.

Please integrate this guys...Something this straight forward shouldn't be missing from an app of your standard.
 
 


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