[jlindeman]

Originally Posted by pvonk

?? I use iGTD daily on numerous projects/tasks and have never had a corruption of data or freeze or anything. I can see how kGTD can feel fragile, but I never get that feeling with iGTD.

But I agree that Omni products work flawlessly and look forward to evaluating OmniFocus. "Thought management" is one thing I've worked on for many years!

- Pierre

Maybe it was the rapid pace of development of iGTD (with multiple point releases in the same day), or the fact that the new sync features have resulted in duplicate calendars in iCal. I am not 100% confident in iGTD, but I still use it because if fits me best out of everything else that I have tried. I loved using kGTD, and once I got used to it's idiosyncrasies, it worked well for me. kGTD is an amazing piece of Applescripting that has no business working as well as it does. I finally got to the point where keeping kGTD going was more work than it was worth, and then iGTD came along to pull me away.

Thinking Rock, Frictionless, Actiontastic, Inbox, Easytask, Ghost Action, and Tracks. I have test driven them all. I am still looking for the one that feels "right" to me. One that doesn't get in the way. One that doesn't try to do too much, or too little. Here's hoping that OF is what I am looking for.

-james

[Scampi]

Hi Folks, first thanks for what it looking like a truly wonderful app, and to reiterate much that has been said already, very much needed.

I agree with what has being said about betas, the sooner one gets out the better overall. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this application.

One thing I will disagree with Ethan's statement on the video regarding UI: it truly does matter what the application interface looks like. Although I also want to focus on work, and on the app not getting in the way, I'm a visual person and I spend plenty of time facing that computer screen. The interface is not mere eye candy, it is a way to help me visualize, remember, rest my eyes, focus on particular projects, like what I'm doing... in other words, that interface is my workspace and more. I'd want it to look as nice as possible also. Savvily done interfaces are more than nice looking, they facilitate my engagement with the tools I use and with my work. I'm sure OF will have a nice one.

I'm just now starting to implement a GTD system (reading and learning), and am interesting in folks who might use it in higher education. Lots of projects, lots of tasks, lots of deadlines to manage, lots of stuff that requires waiting for others to respond one way or another, plenty of dependencies, etc. Since I do so much work at home also, I would love it if OF could sync easily between my Office Mac and the one at home (I'd prefer not to have to rely on .Mac).

Again, thank you much. OF looks awesome, and I really can't wait to get it and start using it. Concerted effort by OMNI to appeal to higher education would be very good (especially if colleagues or a group could collaborate on editing a project).

Thanks,

Scampi

[JasonI]

I can't thank you enough for releasing this video- I am actually in Kauai right now and believe it or not this video is a highlight of my vacation.

I have numerous questions, but one big one- will multiple contexts be allowed? Or, at the very least, tagging of tasks or projects? I actually think of contexts as a form of tags (maybe that is incorrect but it works for me) and it is very important that multiple contexts is allowed. Nesting is great but it certainly doesn't cover all the circumstances I run into on a daily basis. This is a very big deal for me and is something where I feel many of the other applications miss the mark- not everything fits nicely into a little box (single context) but sometimes needs to live in multiple boxes at the same time.

One other thing that was brought up somewhere else was assigning tasks to a resource. The way I imagine doing this in OF is by having a column that will have either a pull-down menu or auto-fill capability. To take it a step further, it would be cool if an assigned resource were also a hyperlink that would take you to that resource's folder (to see all of the other assigned tasks). I hope this makes sense. There is a program called ActionItems that already has this capability and it makes for a very fluid work flow.

That's all for now- I have more questions and comments but I will wait until I get some play time with OF before ask something that will probably be fairly evident.

Thanks again for the release.

[Gizmo]

nice work to the guys at omnigroup and well done ethan. for a live performance that was very good.

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by Scampi

I'm just now starting to implement a GTD system (reading and learning), and am interesting in folks who might use it in higher education. Lots of projects, lots of tasks, lots of deadlines to manage, lots of stuff that requires waiting for others to respond one way or another, plenty of dependencies, etc. Since I do so much work at home also, I would love it if OF could sync easily between my Office Mac and the one at home (I'd prefer not to have to rely on .Mac).

I'm a Computer Science professor and find GTD to be a perfect fit for managing the huge variety of tasks and projects that come my way.

David Allen writes a lot about putting "hard landscape" tasks--those that must be done on a particular day--on your calendar and everything else in your project and action tracking system. It took me awhile to reconcile this idea with the huge number of project deadlines that I face as an academic. (I had a previous career as an electrical engineer. There the number of projects that I was managing was much smaller, though the projects were larger.)

I'm currently using OmniOutliner for my GTD system, along with a bunch of homebrew AppleScripts. Essentially this is like kGTD but without iCal sync. I use a column to record project deadlines, all subtasks of a project inherit the projects deadlines. My morning review includes a script that highlights tasks based on how close their project is to being due. So a task that is part of a project due in 3 weeks might have a plain white background. At two weeks before the deadline it will have a very light orange background. The color intensity increases as the deadline approaches. For awhile I had due and overdue tasks colored red, but that was stressing me out so now they just stay orange.

This coloring gives me an easy visual reference to the urgency of my next actions. It isn't the only factor that I use in choosing what to work on next, but it is an important one. Google me and send an email if you would like more info.

Bringing the discussion back on topic, what I've heard about recurring tasks and deadlines in OmniFocus sounds good. I do hope that there is support for highlighting tasks based on how close their project deadlines are.

[omnibob]

I'm not sure if it's just an alpha thing or if I'm misunderstanding how it works, but at about 60% into the video, Ethan shows how you can set a project to completed, however when the project is subsequently revealed (using Filter), the previously remaining incomplete item (replace lightbulb) was not checked. ("buy lightbulb" was earlier manually checked off as done.) Will the released product actually check off the remaining tasks, or is the project simply considered complete, but without any previously (manually) tasks not checked off as done, simply left unchecked?

Bob

[Ken Case]

It's just an alpha thing: we're planning to mark the tasks in the project as complete when you mark it as complete.

[ethan]

Ethan posted a second Omnifocus video which I have been at pains to find again. If anyone knows a URL please post. My email ethan@ethanrussell.com

Thanks

[omnibob]

The one listed as "second" is here:

http://kinkless.com/article/omnifocus_parallel

Bob

[wharper]

Hello,

Given that Ethan's videos are over four months old, I was wondering whether or not there were any plans to do a new screencast video demonstrating the use of a more current build?

Thanks