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I have an Assistant and I'd like for her to also use Omnifocus.

Couple questions:

Is there a way for her to enter Projects and Tasks into my Omnifocus file?
Is there a way for me to send her (email?) a list of those tasks for which she herself is the "Context?"
Can she have her own OmniFocus file on her computer into which she imports that daily task list?

Basically, is OmniFocus appropriate for a multi-person environment?

Should I be using OmniPlan instead?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
I think I've answered one of my requests.

I can have my assistant email me Actions with herself as the Context using the Add Mail Rule.

Her email will then become an Action in my Ominifocus account. Cool!

The missing feature, at least I can't find it, is to create an email message from an Action. It would be the reverse of Add Mail Rule.

This feature would allow me to create an Action for my assistant, file in the Context for her, and then email her the information. I could set the Due Date within Omnifocus on when I needed to follow-up with her.

Also, likewise, it would be very helpful to be about to print/email all the Actions within a single Context.

Additionally, it would be great to be able to add a symbol within an incoming +Omnifocus email which would then designate that an Action is finished. I could then manually create a list of completed Actions to review within my Omnifocus.

The above suggestions would allow Omnifocus to be used by multiple people.
 
The latest version of OmniFocus has syncing capabilities. Search around and figure out how to get yourself on the SneakyPeak. Using that you could theoretically sync the same database, by storing your local database on your local machines, and syncing to a common place on the network.

I'm glad you're getting your assistant on OF. I *am* the assistant and I want my boss on OF. He tells me I am his OF ;-)
 
I can't really recommend a single OmniFocus database for multiple users. A better solution would be a tight integration between OmniPlan and OmniFocus (which we're working on).

While you could use OmniFocus syncing the way Saaby describes, you'd lose data frequently if you both make changes to the same tasks at close to the same time. There's also no way in OmniFocus to see who made what changes when. And no way to keep your assistant from accessing all your projects.

I think you'd find that using OmniFocus with a shared database would be forcing a round peg into a square hole.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lizard View Post
I can't really recommend a single OmniFocus database for multiple users. A better solution would be a tight integration between OmniPlan and OmniFocus (which we're working on).

While you could use OmniFocus syncing the way Saaby describes, you'd lose data frequently if you both make changes to the same tasks at close to the same time. There's also no way in OmniFocus to see who made what changes when. And no way to keep your assistant from accessing all your projects.

I think you'd find that using OmniFocus with a shared database would be forcing a round peg into a square hole.
Here is another idea on how to share an OF database - similar to that used with many other applications like CRM software.

Very happy with OF on Mac and Iphone. Now my wife wants her copy of OF for her Mac - happy to pay for 2 separate licences.

If we go to OF > Preferences > Syncing > Disk and in my Mac point to wifes database on my hard drive, on wifes Mac point to my database on my hard drice ( we have them both on a LAN), then at the end of the day both our Mac's OF files will be in sync.

Any comments or suggestions on this proposed strategy?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisblair View Post
Any comments or suggestions on this proposed strategy?
You mean other than "it won't work"? :-)

You really need to point them both at a neutral country, so to speak; OmniFocus doesn't operate directly on/from the shared copy, but rather its local copy, whether that copy be stored in the iPhone or on your hard drive. When you do a sync operation, it combines what is in the shared copy with what has changed in your local copy and stores the combination both locally and in the shared copy where the other OmniFocus instances will find it. The local copy doesn't do any of the synchronization handshaking stuff with client files and so on, so when your copy of OmniFocus did a sync to your wife's local copy, it would probably start corrupting the data. If you wanted to do syncing via disk, you would want to pick a spot on one machine or the other (or your fileserver, if you have one) and establish the shared data file there, and both copies of OmniFocus would use all the secret handshakes and signals and not step all over the data. But if you do that, you aren't going to be syncing with your iPhones, at least not conveniently...
 
Many thanks for very helpful advice and education - you explained issues very clearly. Here is a proposed schematic of how this might work. Did not know any of that important stuff - are there any tech articles out there that you know of about these issues that you can point me to?

This proposal to sync 2 Macs and 2 iPhones uses LAN to W2000 server for OF "neutral territory" and BusySync for iCal sync over LAN. See attached image for the connections.

All comments and suggestions on this idea appreciated. Thanks again.

Any feedback about BusySync?

PROPOSED SETUP


Sync 2 Macs OF with 2 licences for OF over LAN to Server. Arrange different sync times to avoid conflicts

Sync 2 Macs with iCal over LAN using BusySync

Sync Each Mac to individual MobileMe accounts

Sync each iPhone to individual Mobil Me accounts

End result is each iPhone has synced iCal and OF. That is the aim anyway :-)

Last edited by chrisblair; 2008-08-10 at 07:11 AM.. Reason: Problems in attaching the file - edited text
 
Yeah, I'm not quite sure what you're trying to accomplish here. If you both want to have identical databases that you can both change and have the changes appear in the other's databases (on both iPhone and desktop), you can do it by having everything sync with one (1) MobileMe account (you would still need two OmniFocus licenses, unless only one of you was ever running the desktop version at a time). You may have the occasional collision if you both decide to work on the same tasks at once (buying the contents of the grocery list, for example). As I don't use the iCal sync stuff, I make no predictions about how well that will work. If you're trying to do something trickier where you each have your own private projects that don't appear in the other's "world" and some shared projects, OmniFocus isn't the program for you, as it just isn't built with that in mind.
 
Thanks again for helpful comments that make me think.
Aim is to have a reliable system of 2 iphones and 2 Macs running OF and ICal where changes in one system are synced up with all the other systems. No need for private projects or other worlds.
I contemplated running the one MobileMe account but was concerned (as you pointed out) that collisions and conflicts may occur.
I took on board your "neutral country" comment in thinking about possible strategies.
The Con of this proposed strategy is the cost of the extra MobileMe account for the second iPhone, which IMHO is still very good value.
The Pro is the reliability and the ease of trouble shooting any glitches as the sync processes are broken into discrete steps, rather than all being melded into one MobileMe update. Still learning lots about how MobileMe works - esp in how to trigger an iCal update from the iPhone.

Working with single use apps to use with multiple users is a good mental workout - my history is that I started with maths at University in 1964, then Basic on an Apple II in 1980 with BPI software. Then dBaseII in 1983, then dBaseIII and then multiuser Clipper - the Clipper stuff started with S87 and some programs are still in use 20 years later - thunking in a DOS box in W2003 Terminal Server. BTW the acronym OF for me is apt in other contexts also :-) So am on a pretty steep learning curve.
 
Multiple desktops and iPhones sharing a single MobileMe account should be a supported configuration, provided that they are all expected to have the same data. I've been syncing with 3 desktops without any trouble (well, without any trouble that I wouldn't also have had with just 2 machines), and the sync code hasn't behaved in any fashion that would lead me to believe that it would break down with an additional client in the pool.

The MobileMe (or other WebDAV) server acts as the "neutral country" I mentioned, but perhaps a better characterization would be the "office gossip" -- it knows everyone's business, and tells it to any and all who ask :-) The OmniFocus.ofocus file (package, actually) there is handled in a fashion designed to allow essentially simultaneous reading and writing by multiple agents, whereas the local database is not.
 
 


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