The Omni Group
These forums are now read-only. Please visit our new forums to participate in discussion. A new account will be required to post in the new forums. For more info on the switch, see this post. Thank you!

Go Back   The Omni Group Forums > OmniFocus > OmniFocus 1 for Mac
FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

 
“What is a project” and other confusion Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Quote:
Originally Posted by brianogilvie View Post
Have you looked at TaskPaper from Hog Bay? It might be what you want.
TaskPaper is ok, but it's so basic I could really just stick with homebrew command line tools and/or pen and paper. What I think OmniFocus offers vs. the simple tools are the two explicit modes (planning, doing). That's really the "essence" of OF to me.. being able to plan a project in steps, but then focus on just @home and @calls at the same time, etc.

Last edited by OOO; 2007-11-25 at 09:54 AM.. Reason: clarification
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ext555 View Post
as a registered user of omni plan I'm not getting why you refer to it as " big guns " only ? yes , it's true that it's designed for a multi user enviroment, but it's easy usable by one person
Sure, OmniPlan is great and you can scale it back to use just a few of the features as you say. But - and maybe it’s just the cheapskate in me - US$150 seems a lot just for these. Especially when it would seem easy to add a simple time-visualization view to OF, which is all I’ve been suggesting. Let’s face it, OF isn’t going to be cheap either and the two apps together would be a pretty expensive package for individual task management. I’m totally hooked on OF and would hope to see it stay exactly the same, but with that extra magic icon which, when I click on it, lets me see my tasks set out in timelines to help planning and let me tweak them if necessary.

Maybe I’m missing something, but I can’t see why this would somehow totally change the nature of the app, bloat it, move it into a different class, etc. It would just another view of the same data.
 
You're not being a cheap-skate ..I"d prefer not to pay for multiple apps also but , My time " visualization" needs are a little different .. I'm a one man I.T. dept in a non-profit with 65 win/mac desktops in the building plus 7 servers .

I need to make sure I'm not biting off more than I can chew every day-week , so laying out " non-routine " stuff in OP allowing for a certain % of interruption time and routine tasks factored into my " efficiency " is the way I get some idea of when I might actually finish projects and tasks .

My usage and your timeline idea [I'd use it too ] go beyond GTD style task management so you'll probably never see it in OF. And it's already in O.P. and the folks at Omni keep their apps lean and don't duplicate features from what I can tell .

I"ve been following GTD since 99 and for all the lists that I"ve reviewed weekly etc etc .. it's never failed that a boss has wanted to know " any idea when such and such will be completed ? " hence the time factoring .
O.P is probably the easiest program I've ever used for project management . Merlin has probably twice the power for $50 or so more , but I don't need to have the manual out every time I use O.P. ; )
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcoad View Post
Maybe I’m missing something, but I can’t see why this would somehow totally change the nature of the app, bloat it, move it into a different class, etc. It would just another view of the same data.
The issue is that everybody wants their own "one additional feature". The forums have been rife with such requests this week. Among them, tagging, priorities, multiple flags, and multiple contexts. The choices about what features to add need to be driven by some overall philosophy. So the question is, does some sort of time visualization change the basic character of the application?

Personally, I don't think so. But if I was betting, I would bet that graphical visualization of timelines remains an OmniPlan feature. There's a reason OmniPlan costs about twice what OmniFocus is planned to cost.

I've been pondering a script that uses OmniGraffle to generate time visualizations from OmniPlan data. Would something like that meet your need?
__________________
Cheers,

Curt
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ext555 View Post
task paper fills a special niche....
Yes, but it seems from what OOO wrote that it's what he or she might be looking for.

Just on a lark, I exported my current OmniFocus file into TaskPaper format and opened it in TaskPaper. I think I would be able to work pretty easily in it, despite my appreciation for many of OmniFocus's features.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by curt.clifton View Post
The issue is that everybody wants their own "one additional feature". The forums have been rife with such requests this week. Among them, tagging, priorities, multiple flags, and multiple contexts. The choices about what features to add need to be driven by some overall philosophy. So the question is, does some sort of time visualization change the basic character of the application?

Personally, I don't think so. But if I was betting, I would bet that graphical visualization of timelines remains an OmniPlan feature. There's a reason OmniPlan costs about twice what OmniFocus is planned to cost.

I've been pondering a script that uses OmniGraffle to generate time visualizations from OmniPlan data. Would something like that meet your need?
OmniFocus data, I guess you mean. I’d wondered about the same re OmniGraffle. The problem is that such a vizualization would need to be dynamic, changing as the OF data does, and vice versa when it is tweaked itself, which would be hard to achieve in another app unless it was integrated. Omni’s reported plans to integrate OF and OP would presumably achieve this, but wouldn’t get over the overkill/expense problem. Unless of course they created some form of OP Lite, which would provide low-level time visualization without the multi-user, complex-flow extras.

I’m glad you agree with me that adding this view wouldn’t fundamentally change the nature of the app, and my guess is there are a lot of users out there who feel the same. But you’re right, the signs are it’s all pie in the sky as far Omni’s thinking goes. But, then again, suggesting features and discussing them is part of what the forum is all about. And while some people clearly do seem to confuse OF with OP, or Merlin, or even DEVONthink, it’s hard to see how some at least of these suggestions (this one, multiple contexts, variable labels) would change the philosophy of the app, unless you hold to a really rigid, dogmatic view of GTD - which the Omni site and Ethan’s video are at pains to say they don’t. But, then, it’s all a matter of opinion... Over to Omni...
 
Quote:
time visualizations
I've been thinking about a similar script, or more likely, a browser based one, perhaps as a spin off from the web interface project. (I haven't worked with ruby yet, though, so it'll probably be a while before i get to anything like that.) I'd be interested in collaborating, though if anyone wants to....
 
 


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
More iCal Confusion dcwinton OmniFocus 1 for Mac 2 2012-02-29 09:19 AM
Inspector Confusion! nyc OmniPlan General 1 2010-11-24 08:36 PM
Status Confusion JimMullane OmniFocus 1 for Mac 4 2010-08-20 06:15 AM
Folder confusion Bob Nahasapeemapetilon OmniGraffle General 0 2007-03-10 09:50 AM


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 06:21 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.