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Hi all
Normally I use the Mac version for everything except a few tasks on the iPhone, namely inbox entry & checking errands and other contexts away from the Mac. But recently I've been on the move a lot and so was working a lot more from the iPhone. I have a few quibbles with the UI which I thought I'd share to see if others agree.

1. Processing Inbox: on the iPhone its CONTEXT then PROJECT, while on the Mac its the reverse. I dont care what the order is, but I would like consistency, please.

2. No easy toggle of status of Available/Remaining/All for projects and Next/Available/Remaining for Contexts. If I'm looking at a screen and I cant see what I know is there OR I'm drowning in too much stuff, the only way I can find is to go back to the Home screen, select Settings, change the status, and then navigate all the way back to where I was. Is there an easier way ?

[If you're looking for some screen real estate, perhaps consider remove the Locations button??]

3. Concept of review date isn't to be found on the iPhone anywhere - not on the project, and I cant get a list of projects ordered by Review date. This later is a real shame as in those little 5 min blocks one gets in life it would be great to knock off the next review that needs doing.

4. Finally, that strange beast "Due or Flagged" that I resisted for so long on the Mac, but which I now swear by, hasn't migrated yet the iPhone.

Thoughts ?
Kazza
 
Hey Kazza,

Don't forget to send in your votes/suggestions to Omni ('Send feedback' in settings menu) so they can get counted.
1. I'm pretty sure people have already remarked on the context/project ordering Mac vs. iPad, and I think I even sent in my vote.
2. Ooops, realized you were talking about OF iPhone, not OF iPad... Well, the easiest way to set this up would be to have different perspectives; but to have perspectives you need to have OF Mac. What would make sense would be to have a feature similar to the 'eye' menu on OF iPad, which allows direct triage based on action status similar (I think) to what you're looking for.
3. Hmm... I think a perspective could solve that problem, but you run into the same limitation. I'm assuming this is an area where Omni might be learning from their iPad app in the future. That said, doing a review on the iPhone sucks, and perhaps integrating this function would place an even larger demand on the iPhone's already limited capacities. Have you tried OF iPad yet? I think you'd enjoy it a lot as it sounds like it could be a good solution to all the problems you're pointing out!
4. I must confess my ignorance–due or flagged?

Cheers,
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by hypotyposis View Post
4. I must confess my ignorance–due or flagged?
Check out the view bar while in context mode on the Mac. The Status Filter offers a bunch of choices as of the revamp in OF 1.8, so you can bring up a view of available actions which are due OR flagged, for example (a popular request to make constructing a "today" list easier).
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
Check out the view bar while in context mode on the Mac. The Status Filter offers a bunch of choices as of the revamp in OF 1.8, so you can bring up a view of available actions which are due OR flagged, for example (a popular request to make constructing a "today" list easier).
Ohhh, view bar in context model, something I hadn't experimented with in quite some time! Thanks, Bill!
While I'm at it, any recommendations of what to use to open OmniOutliner's OPMLs on an iPad while waiting for OO iPad to come out?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by hypotyposis View Post
While I'm at it, any recommendations of what to use to open OmniOutliner's OPMLs on an iPad while waiting for OO iPad to come out?
Not a clue, sorry....I've just been printing to PDF and stashing in Dropbox for those things where I don't need to make changes, or mashing into OmniFocus where I do (mostly checklists, so it fits pretty well). Fortunately I don't really need to take outline notes very often where I can't just take along the MacBook...but looking forward to OO for iPad!
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by hypotyposis View Post
While I'm at it, any recommendations of what to use to open OmniOutliner's OPMLs on an iPad while waiting for OO iPad to come out?
Hi Hypotyposis

I'm currently using CarbonFin's Outliner and a colleague's got ZeptoLiner to import OPML.

I was probably going to buy the OmniOutliner App when it came out (after seeing the Board's opinion, having bought OmniGraffle and OmniGraphSketcher and subsequently replaced them!). However, on learning that there isn't currently a plan to bring OO onto the iPhone, I'll be sticking with CarbonFin's Outliner as this is available on both iDevices and I carry my iPhone 24/7 whereas my iPad not so much!

Although there's no Mac desktop version of CarbonFin's Outliner, it does have a web interface and, probably because I'm not a heavy outliner user, I've practically abandoned OmniOutliner on the desktop in favour of Outliner and the associated web interface.

I also like iThoughts and iMandalArt (people either love or loath this one!) for their ability to import OPML and display it as either mindmaps or mandalas.

Hope this is helpful in the interim.
 
Thanks Bill and endofQ!

I actually own CarbonFin on iPad, but for some reason it really doesn't stick with me... I hadn't realised, however, that iThoughts does open OPML! Thanks for the tip! Aside from the impossibility of using your own icons, I think it's a great mind mapping app, and the Dropbox sync works great–now combined to opening OPMLs, this is all good news, thanks again endofQ!
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kazza View Post
1. Processing Inbox: on the iPhone its CONTEXT then PROJECT, while on the Mac its the reverse. I dont care what the order is, but I would like consistency, please.
Yep, and they continued the inconsistency on the iPad :(

What if you could switch the order of the columns on the Mac, would that be a satisfactory resolution?
Quote:
2. No easy toggle of status of Available/Remaining/All for projects and Next/Available/Remaining for Contexts. If I'm looking at a screen and I cant see what I know is there OR I'm drowning in too much stuff, the only way I can find is to go back to the Home screen, select Settings, change the status, and then navigate all the way back to where I was. Is there an easier way ?
No, there's not, although you could build a set of perspectives to use instead, as hypotyposis suggests. Not very satisfying, though. For me, the thing that blunts the pain a bit is that I mostly use the iPhone app for capturing (where this doesn't matter) and doing (where it doesn't matter so much either, as I won't be doing things that aren't available) and so leaving it set to Contexts show Available and Projects show Remaining works acceptably most of the time.
Quote:

3. Concept of review date isn't to be found on the iPhone anywhere - not on the project, and I cant get a list of projects ordered by Review date. This later is a real shame as in those little 5 min blocks one gets in life it would be great to knock off the next review that needs doing.
Not only can't you get the list of projects ordered by Review date (because the iPhone and iPad don't yet do project-based perspectives), but also you can't mark that you did review the project. My first reaction to this point was that someone had copied one of my posts, btw — this was probably my biggest grumble about the iPhone app.
Quote:
4. Finally, that strange beast "Due or Flagged" that I resisted for so long on the Mac, but which I now swear by, hasn't migrated yet the iPhone.
It has, but can only be used in a perspective. If you set up a perspective using it on the Mac, it will appear and work on the iPhone.
 
 


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