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Way to export or share project data? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I would welcome forum members thoughts on this:

The challenge:
I only have OF for iPad and am trying to figure out a way to generate a weekly report that I can share with my business partner. She has OF for Mac, and I know that she can export to a PDF.

The question:
Is OF for iPad such a closed system that my data is 'stuck' in there, absent the presence of OF for Mac?

Some background:
My partner and I are trying to work out an efficient way to perform a weekly, group status review, if you will, of each others project components, without having to actually have a physical 'here is where I am on each of the tasks on my projects' meeting. (Who needs another meeting, huh?)

We have agreed that having the ability to just scan the others weekly project progress, tasks and such would be beneficial to us in not making sure that we know where we are on our different project pieces but also because sometimes we are/might be able to provide a little help or guidance to each other based upon our past experiences and what we see the other working on. Also, we see this as a way to ensure that we are not unnecessarily duplicating our efforts at times. And it helps us to be accountable to each other.

My thinking, which works on her end, is to perform a weekly export to PDF of her working projects which she would email to me and I could review over the weekend and provide feedback, if any is necessary. I would like to do the same but don't know of anyway to do this currently with OF for iPad (outside of purchasing OF of Mac just so I could get the export feature.)
 
In this particular case, it seems to me that the easiest thing to do would be have your partner create a user account for you on her Mac. Then, you configure OmniFocus (in that account) to sync with your iPad. Now, whenever you want to print off a report, you just borrow her Mac, make sure both iPad and Mac have synced, and print it (you can print directly to Mail, too). Or she could just log in to that account and check it directly.

Now, if you want to be even fancier, you could set up both accounts to sync with your iPad. They can't both sync at the same time, but you can switch databases back and forth so that you alternately are viewing your projects, or her projects. The exact details of how you would do this depend on what you use for your sync setup, whether the Omni Sync Service (free), Apple's MobileMe, or the Bonjour/WiFi sync built in to OmniFocus. You would both have the ability to view the other's projects in OmniFocus directly, so you could use the various tools OmniFocus provides for sorting, searching, etc.

I believe this would be deemed acceptable use of a single OmniFocus for Mac license, so long as your partner's Mac was the only place OmniFocus was installed. If she wants to use it on another machine as well, then you would need another license (basically, a single-user license allows one user to use the program on all of their machines, or any number of users to use the program on the same machine).

I will also point out that this will be an all-or-nothing sharing of your OmniFocus data; there isn't any way at the moment to specify that only some of your projects and actions sync. If you are both using OmniFocus only for your joint efforts, this isn't likely to be an issue. If you wanted to use it also for personal matters that you didn't feel comfortable sharing, you would probably want to do the first suggestion only.

Last edited by whpalmer4; 2011-01-22 at 08:24 AM..
 
whpalmer4,

It took me a couple of days to get back to this post, but I wanted to be sure and thank you for your response and your suggestions.

I appreciate your taking the time to respond.

Right now, I am trying to decide if I want to set up access as you suggested or just spring for an OmniFocus license for my MacBook so I will be able to generate a PDF when needed.

It is a somewhat expensive solution in the short run, but would probably pay for itself over the long haul.

Thanks!

Last edited by Solana; 2011-01-25 at 05:21 AM..
 
Well, having access to OmniFocus on the Mac unlocks OmniFocus on the iPad in some powerful areas like perspectives. Eventually I'm sure OmniFocus for the iPad will be able to create perspectives, but who knows when that will be? Archiving is another feature not yet supported on the iPad that would be enabled, and would allow you to keep your database free of the clutter of completed projects and actions while still maintaining a long-term record of them, if desired.

As long as I'm spending your money, I would suggest having a look at Omni's other Mac offerings. If you buy them directly from Omni (not through the new Mac App Store) and you buy multiple items at the same time, you get a discount which goes up with the number of items you purchase.
 
Archiving might be nice to have but not something that would sway me one way or the other.

I vaguely remember creating a OmniGroup sync account and following some link that allowed me to get Perspectives to show up on the iPad version. So I haven't used Perspectives yet, but do have access to them in some way on OF for iPad.

i am leaning towards getting OF for Mac just for the ability to generate PDFs, as noted before, but am willing to guess that I would end up using it for more than that. Just still thinking through all the other possibilities that are out there.

Thanks again!
 
 


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