[postzavtra]

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.

[postzavtra]

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.

[Saaby]

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 ;-)

[Lizard]

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.

[chrisblair]

Originally Posted by Lizard

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?

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by chrisblair

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...

[tah]

This our need too (and I suspect lots of other small companies). The need to have an application with quick entry and contexts, that you can push tasks to each other in workgroups, track task times, do basic time charting of tasks and timelines for scheduling (so you can plan).

This seems like a real need for lots of 2-10 person companies out there. But no software does it.

Apps like Daylite are mostly about managing contacts (and much of what it does is redundant with Addressbook/iCal/mail). And it task and project management is too basic to be useful.

Omnifocus isn't able to handle multiple users, and is too "heads down", based around only what I need to do now. It doesn't provide tools for "heads up" management, to see, track, and timeline what is coming down the pike.

Omniplan, is traditional gantt chart project management. Doesn't work well in the real world. Takes too much time to enter and edit projects. Too much entry overhead for lots of tasks, no contexts, no quick entry, no automatic gantting of task lists.

I don't see anyone making good software on the mac in this catagory. In my mind omnifocus and omniplan should be merged into another product for small workgroups. Take all of the features of OF, add the charting of Plan as a view type, use the sequential/parallel settings to automatically build gantt charts, add the "today", "this week" and time traking features of "The Hit List". Add the ability to share projects with others and push tasks to other people. Add 'person' tags in addition to context.