[HappyDude]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

If you want your "Waiting For" actions to be available, then make sure your Waiting For context is set to Active, not On-hold. You can change this by right-clicking the context in the sidebar of Context mode.

Ah. That pause sign suddenly made sense.

Thank you so much!

I love that i'm understanding OmniFocus more and more daily.

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by HappyDude

I'm also now wondering, is there any way my projects can be sorted out automatically in alphebetical order?

Automatically, no. But you can have it sort them for you on command. Select the contents of the sidebar, then Edit->Sort->(your choice of sort key) and they'll be sorted into the order you requested. You can also sort a subset, if you want to keep a couple of hot projects "in the cache" at the top of the list, and have the rest sorted alphabetically, for example.

[HappyDude]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

Automatically, no. But you can have it sort them for you on command. Select the contents of the sidebar, then Edit->Sort->(your choice of sort key) and they'll be sorted into the order you requested. You can also sort a subset, if you want to keep a couple of hot projects "in the cache" at the top of the list, and have the rest sorted alphabetically, for example.

Hey that's not bad. Just tried it out, works well.

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by HappyDude

This tinkering around with OF, and perspectives between "Next Actions" & "Available" makes me want to ask....

....Are these views pretty much the same? Considering most, actually all my projects are parallel....aren't I just getting the same perspective with next actions and available views? The only difference being "Available" gives me the actions that I was seeking throughout projects that at one points become sequential? I'd just like a confirmation on this cause I might stick to Available from now on instead of just next actions views.

If you are only looking at sequential projects, then yes, Next Actions and Available will show you the same thing. If you look at parallel projects, however, you'll see all of your choices with the Available view, and only the one at the top of the list with a Next Action view. Finally, looking at single action lists, you'll get all the available actions for either a Next Actions or Available view. The Next Action view is intended to help you focus on getting things done, by eliminating the need to choose what to do next and the occasional paralysis that will cause when there are too many options. I find my working style doesn't really call for much use of the Next Actions view, except for when I unexpectedly find myself with a short amount of time on my hands, in which case I'll pull up a Next Actions view just to cut down the amount of time I might otherwise spend picking something to fill the time. Oh, all right, most of the time I'll fill it by going to the Omni forums, but sometimes there aren't any new posts to read :-)

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by HappyDude

I'm also now wondering, is there any way my projects can be sorted out automatically in alphebetical order?

See whpalmer4's post on sorting project contents. But if you're looking to sort the projects themselves alphabetically in planning mode, have a look at the sorting options in the view bar. The 4th menu from the right offers an option to sort projects by name. However, this does not impact the actions contained in projects. For that, whpalmer4 has you covered.

-Dennis

[HappyDude]

I've garnered 2 more thoughts i'd like to ask about here on this thread. Both have to do with completed projects.

1st: I don't particularly enjoy going through each one of my projects under projects to see if anything else is still in there that needs to be completed that didn't make it to the contexts area; I do place all my actions with a context but I still go through each project looking to see if anything was missed. But more importantly this question falls more under how to mark a project as being completed or dropped or whatever, once all of the actions within the project have been completed? As of now i'm going through all my projects one by one and will notice a project that no longer has any actions in it, since i've completed them all. Therefore the project has been completed and I right click the project title and mark it as "complete" but hate having to scan through all my projects looking for a project with no actions to tell me i'm done with that project..

Is there an alternative i'm missing in this regard? Without having to riffle through my projects ? Better yet is there a way the project itself automatically can consider itself as completed once all actions inside of that project have been completed?

2nd: This question is more of me wondering what your perferred "completed" tasks/actions view is? I remember reading on these forums and the OF screencasts mentioning its nice to take a look at all the small actions & projects you've recently completed to remind yourself you haven't been completely slacking off; no matter how much you may think you haven't been totally productive.

so I took a look at 3 interesting perspectives. Again, i'm simply wondering your personal favorites and obviously not one view is superior to all others; its all just personal preference.

I pulled up these 3 views with "completed" actions (to view what I had already accomplished). The three variations consisted of seeing these finished steps in views of:

1. Context: Where they were completed.
2. Project: Just what exactly had been done towards the finalization of an array of projects.
3. Completed: Which shows actions completed the same day, yesterday and within the last week.

I enjoy the context look to determine how much I GTD'd or slacked off at a particular location, and the project context one is interesting and the completed view shows me I got more done today than yesterday, though today's tasks were minor ones while yesterday's were bigger important tasks.

As you can see, I'm a bit pensive on the matter. Any input is appreciated, I really love using OmniFocus, but don't feel quite at home yet seeing as I know I'm not utilizing all of my time just yet...

...Distracted easily. (lol.)

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by HappyDude

1st: I don't particularly enjoy going through each one of my projects under projects to see if anything else is still in there that needs to be completed that didn't make it to the contexts area; I do place all my actions with a context but I still go through each project looking to see if anything was missed.

An easy way to look for actions missing a context is to flip over to context mode and click on the "No Contexts" container at the top. That will show you all the actions which have -- wait for it -- no context assigned. As long as you haven't set your view bar options so that it won't show you everything (like only looking at completed actions, or contexts that are on hold, or ...) you should be able to quickly spot any actions missing a context. If you do find an action missing a context, double-clicking the row handle will get you a new window focused on the project that contains that action, so that you can fix the context, well, in context :-)

But more importantly this question falls more under how to mark a project as being completed or dropped or whatever, once all of the actions within the project have been completed? As of now i'm going through all my projects one by one and will notice a project that no longer has any actions in it, since i've completed them all. Therefore the project has been completed and I right click the project title and mark it as "complete" but hate having to scan through all my projects looking for a project with no actions to tell me i'm done with that project..

Is there an alternative i'm missing in this regard? Without having to riffle through my projects ? Better yet is there a way the project itself automatically can consider itself as completed once all actions inside of that project have been completed?

There's an option to make a project or action group mark itself complete automatically upon completing all of the contained actions. It's in the Inspector, near the top. There's also an option in the preferences to make this be on by default. I'd encourage giving some thought and observation to how often you would need to be watching out for the "other case" regardless of how you choose to set this option. I find it to be a handy option, but don't have it on by default, because I often don't plan my projects out entirely before commencing work and thus I don't want a project marked completed before it should be.

I pulled up these 3 views with "completed" actions (to view what I had already accomplished). The three variations consisted of seeing these finished steps in views of:

1. Context: Where they were completed.
2. Project: Just what exactly had been done towards the finalization of an array of projects.
3. Completed: Which shows actions completed the same day, yesterday and within the last week.

I enjoy the context look to determine how much I GTD'd or slacked off at a particular location, and the project context one is interesting and the completed view shows me I got more done today than yesterday, though today's tasks were minor ones while yesterday's were bigger important tasks.

My "completed" view is context mode, grouped by completed (with all triangles except "Today" closed), sort by project, completed actions, any duration, any flag. Most of my work (at least by action count) is drawn from repeating actions, many of them in Single Action Lists, and so I don't have as much project focus as others might. If I had to report to someone, there would probably be more project orientation. If I had to report my doings in chronological order, I would change the sort to completed.

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by Toadling

See whpalmer4's post on sorting project contents. But if you're looking to sort the projects themselves alphabetically in planning mode, have a look at the sorting options in the view bar. The 4th menu from the right offers an option to sort projects by name. However, this does not impact the actions contained in projects.

Dennis, I'm a bit confused. My post was intended to describe how to sort the projects in the sidebar, and it does work. However, what I didn't say (but you appear to credit to me) is that you can use the same technique to rearrange the actions in a project, provided you select the innards of the project instead of names in the sidebar. I was hoping to avoid the sometimes confusing discussion of the difference between the Edit->Sort command and the view bar settings, but I think I confused an old hand :-)

[HappyDude]

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

There's an option to make a project or action group mark itself complete automatically upon completing all of the contained actions. It's in the Inspector, near the top. There's also an option in the preferences to make this be on by default. I'd encourage giving some thought and observation to how often you would need to be watching out for the "other case" regardless of how you choose to set this option. I find it to be a handy option, but don't have it on by default, because I often don't plan my projects out entirely before commencing work and thus I don't want a project marked completed before it should be.

I gotta ask now specifically what I need to check off in Preferences to test this out? Right after reading this I went in preferences and thought I turned on the setting but turned out I click the "automatically clean up items" button, which I noticed when I finished an action, it automatically removed it barring me from clicking the clean up button myself which gives me a sense of accomplishment. :]

But I would like to know which button under preferences automatically marks a project as being completed once all the actions within it have been completed if it's not too much trouble.

EDIT: Meant to include this photo.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

I hate having to go through each project, eyeing the ones that are empty and right clicking them to be completed.

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by HappyDude

I gotta ask now specifically what I need to check off in Preferences to test this out? Right after reading this I went in preferences and thought I turned on the setting but turned out I click the "automatically clean up items" button, which I noticed when I finished an action, it automatically removed it barring me from clicking the clean up button myself which gives me a sense of accomplishment. :]

That's one of the reasons I don't use that option :-)

But I would like to know which button under preferences automatically marks a project as being completed once all the actions within it have been completed if it's not too much trouble.

You need to look in the Data pane in the preferences window. You'll see the option down a the bottom in the Projects & Action Groups section, labeled "When completing the last item: <checkbox> Mark the project or group complete"
EDIT: Meant to include this photo.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

I hate having to go through each project, eyeing the ones that are empty and right clicking them to be completed.[/QUOTE]