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A major feature omission Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I have one issue with projects.

You can only add actions to a project, actions with due dates and a context. This is all good and essential for organising & completing a project.

But what about assets and people involved in a project? There is no way to add anything other than a list actions, yes you can create a action as an asset but

What about the following:

o People, either from the address book or manually entered.
o Company details involved.
o Objects, like cameras for a film shoot/vehicles computer hardware.
o Locations/countries, like moving house or office.
o Revenue worth/risk of an item or action, with project cost calculation
o etc...

Some require access to the address book, but others would benefit from alternative input methods like drop-boxes. OmniOutliner allows the user to create custom columns, why not have OmniFocus to allow the user to create custom entries as an alternative to actions, or whatever.

There is not need for the complexity of OmniPlan but it does need to offer the flexibility of OmniOutliner.
 
txcob, all those things you mention are great.

But this is a GTD application (which is modeled in a hard way after David Allen's Getting Things done.)

None of that is part of this productivity method....and Omni isn't trying to have it be everything for everyone...they're trying to hit this specific target and do so very well.

It needs to be a strong GTD program...not omniplan, not omnioutliner...but rather OmniFocus.
 
I understand the GTD approach but there is different information required but different people. At the moment to be able to use OmniFocus I have to create a number of different context entries for the following:

o Contact (technical)
o Contact (business)
o Hardware
o Country
o Company
o Revenue impact

Companies base their priority based on many criteria, some regard a deadline as important, others also have to take into consideration revenue impact on the project. Call it a glorified list of stuff that needs to be associated with a project essential to aid its completion.

Projects can involve many companies supplying different products for a project in many cities in many countries involving different people with different roles.

OmniFocus runs the risk of just becoming another application where you manage lists of lists. Forcing the user to store project related information in yet another application!

Omni emphasise the 'Focus' part of the application, you even have a 'focus' button to just 'focus' on a single project, but if one has to keep referring to other applications for project related information the whole 'focus' methodology is lost.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by tcoxb View Post
OmniFocus runs the risk of just becoming another application where you manage lists of lists. Forcing the user to store project related information in yet another application!

Omni emphasise the 'Focus' part of the application, you even have a 'focus' button to just 'focus' on a single project, but if one has to keep referring to other applications for project related information the whole 'focus' methodology is lost.
OF is designed to be task management software, not project management. The project metaphor is used to group related tasks together, but it's not a project management software.

Sounds like what you need is OmniPlan, not OmniFocus. What you are asking for seems best suited for project management software, not task management/planning software. At some point OF will link with OP, but not right now. Also if you need to add columns of data, perhaps OmniOutliner Pro can suit your need better.

If you want to look beyond Omni, I can recommend Daylite (http://www.marketcircle.com/daylite/) since it will do what you are asking in one program, but it's not as refined or offers as many features in task management as OF.

It might not be wise for Omni to create a bloated application that does everything when there are other solutions in their offering that can accomplish what you need..

Last edited by ksrhee; 2007-11-24 at 02:33 AM..
 
The I am totally confused why OmniFocus refers to Projects!!! If it is indeed nothing whatsoever, closely 'project' related then the Omni folks need to ditch the 'Project' references in their application and provide clearer description of what it designed to help users with.

And what I was referring to in my last posting was tasks and NOT projects. If you read my previous posts you would have seen me already state that OmniPlan too over the top for the purpose.

Daylite is also not what I am looking for, it touches many areas outside managing tasks that has lead to your quote of a 'bloated application'...printing address labels, project pipeline, just a little bloated I think!!!

It looks like I will stick with OmniOutliner, its a shame because I was excepting more from OmniFocus, beyond just another application of lists. Something OmniOutliner does very will already.
 
I hope you didn't feel anyone was trying to be short or argue with you .
I can tell you that trying to use omni focus without having read David Allen's book " getting things done " is like trying to use Franklin Covey software without having taken any of their training courses or reading any books by Mr. Covey or Hyrum Smith [the founder ]

Omni Focus "says" it's flexible to use with any task managment system but it's really designed for GTD ..
 
tcoxb,

"Project" is the term that Allen uses for any desired outcome that requires more than one concrete, physical action. That's the sense in which OF projects are appropriately named.

Several of us have asked for support for arbitrary meta-data attached to actions in OF, along with UI support for entering/editing that data. Based on long-ago rumblings from the Omni folks, I anticipate that we'll have that eventually, but not in version 1.0.

I'm sorry that OF doesn't meet your needs as it stands. But it is most emphatically not just another application of lists. It's really a combination outliner and special purpose database. The context, view, and perspective features provide a very powerful way of querying outlines to focus on the precise subset of the data you need at the moment. The power of this metaphor will be multiplied when we have arbitrary meta-data, but it is really quite powerful already for personal task management.

You aren't going wrong by using OmniOutliner for your purposes. It is also an extremely powerful application. Hmm, I wonder if some of the view features of OF might eventually migrate back to OO...
__________________
Cheers,

Curt
 
There have been several discussions here about storing various kinds and numberless bits of data in OF along with the task item reminding one to do something with all that info. The general answer continues to be that OF should help you decide what to do now, next, soon, and later, but the actual doing should go on elsewhere. OF does accept links to things, such as an OO document, to help streamline your workflow. Does it really need to do more?
 
yes, it needs to do more.

Unless I'm missing something, I can’t attach an address book contact to a task. If I can and I'm just not seeing it, my apologies.

But I tried creating a task and dragging a contact over to it and it put the name of the contact there but no link to the AB entry.

I posted this on another thread talking about how OF handles Notes. I’m not a big fan of the current paradigm, but even if it’s kept the way it is, there are a couple things I'd like to see.

First, the ability to link more types of data to a task. And yes, I've read GTD. Great book. But these aren’t sheets of paper dropped in an in-box. This is a computer and has the capability to cross-reference data to save time and enhance productivity downstream. So if I'm creating a task to call someone on a certain date, why can’t I link to their AB contact from within the task itself? That makes sense to me.

Second, I'd like the option to display within the Notes field either the link itself or an icon representing it that when clicked displays the item in its native application. For example, I don’t want to view PDFs in OF. I have Preview for that and it does a better job of it.

I understand the sentiment that OF is not designed to be a project manager and I totally agree with that statement. And while I think a line needs to be drawn somewhere here, I think it’s reasonable to be able to attach PDFs, contacts, emails and pictures to a task for reference purposes.
 
Right click on a name created by dragging an address entry to the OF note field. You can then select 'Open with Address Book'. It worked!
 
 


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