[Diver T]

Hi,

I’m new here.
I recently migrated from Windows to Mac and I don’t think I will ever look back. Although…. a few things stunned me, most notably the lack of a good integrated PIM like Outlook. So I started a search and found a partial solution that I want to share with you.
First, a bit on my background. I’m a personal efficiency consultant, I help people to keep a grip on the myriads of emails, documents, delegated tasks, textings, appointments, meetings, plans, issues, hypes, insights, boss behavior and other things that define their professional life. It often also means teaching them to use Outlook as an integrated PIM instead of a cluttered email inbox and calendar. Yes… you can make good money out of that, you really can…. LOL.
So from that professional perspective I migrated to the Mac, to find separated native apps that left quite a few things to be desired or were just pathetic, like iCal’s task manager.
First, I searched the web for integrated PIM’s and found Entourage, Daylite and Contactizer Pro(CP). I checked them out, rejected the first two and went for CP. But although CP has decent task management functionality, it cannot create nested tasks, so breaking down abstract or complex things into actionables is just as cumbersome as in Outlook, that has the same problem. I therefore searched for a powerful task management program that can sync with CP like the superb Achieve Planner(AP) can do with Outlook (OL). I found OmniFocus for this and the OmniOutliner turned out to be a good alternative for Bonsai Desktop, the veteran outliner I used under Windows.

I then developed the following system.
In Apple Mail(AM), I installed the Letterbox plugin and created two accounts, Private and Work-related.
CP can sync seamlessly to the native Apple Sync database on the Mac and will also pick up email from AM. I set up CP to sync tasks and events and pick up my Work-related email only. CP’s own task system I use mainly for basic work- and contact-related stuff.
I use OF as follows:
• I do GTD-style collecting and planning all kinds of tasks, chores, etc. This can include using Send to OF in Mail.
• I break down more abstract jobs/projects/things into subtasks and actionables.
• I often create a list of things to do today, by assigning the context “Daylist” to them and using that context as a filter to sync “to iCal”. In reality, OF syncs with Apple Sync, as does iCal. And so does CP, so I get all OF actionables with the Daylist context nicely displayed in CP, the dashboard where everything comes together.
In OO I of course keep checklists of all sorts, but I also make breakdowns for projects of the “Maybe next year, maybe someday” variety. Keeps a lot of clutter out of OF.

Though certainly not as powerful as the AP/OL combination under Windows, this OF/CP/AM/OO system works well enough for me. For now.
I have some questions or feature requests:
• In my system, due dates sync perfectly, but start dates do not. Can that be remedied or is this a limitation of Apple Sync?
• I now use a special context as a criterium for syncing tasks between OF and Sync, so the task loses it’s original context. It would be more convenient to use something else as criterium for syncing, like the flag or an extra flag. Please add that simple extra functionality to OF.
• It would be great if OO items could be synced to OF not to the notes field of a “From OO” task, but as tasks under their own name.