After several months of tinkering with OF, and now a solid month of using it as my "trusted system", I wanted to share my general thoughts.
WHAT I LOVE
Most importantly, OF is a rock solid Omni product. The core functionality of data entry, task, project and context organization, and all the fine points of the user experience are typical of the great software that the Omni folks produce. I have tried iGTD, KinklessGTD and a few other GTD applications, and OF is the clear winner. I have a few critiques, but just wanted to be clear that I LOVE the product.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
I should preface these comments by saying that much of this probably has to do with my own organizational style and preferences.
Transportability
The #1 limitation of OF right now is the ability to "take it on the road". I have a Treo, but I have found the OF-iCal-Treo-iCal-OF dance quite cumbersome. Much of this has to do with the limitations of iCal and Palm software. Part of the beauty of Of is it's ability to comfortably handle lots of projects and contexts - iCal and Palm don't do that to well. If Omni can get a native version of OF on an iPhone I will be the first one in line to buy both.
In the meantime, the ability to elegantly print out a daily package of my OF tasks would be a godsend. Like others have suggested, something along the line of a PocketMod system would be really helpful. 3x5 cards would be great - but most printers can't handle that. I just keep wondering what the Omni-geniuses could come up with if they turned their attention to some creative printing solutions. PLEASE give it a go.
Clippings
I have been spending a lot of time trying to streamline the input into OF from various sources. With MailTags, Act-On, and some of the scripts that the good OF community has come up with, I have assembled a system that works pretty well. But it is kind of a Frankenstein monster of hacked-together components. I have read that much of this derives from some Mac OS limitations, so perhaps this is simply not possible. But what I would LOVE to see, is a seamless capturing system for OF tasks. When I get an email, find a web site, see a pdf - I would love to be able to just dump it, drag it, click it into OF without so much configuration. The Clippings preference tab is also just kind of confusing to me - no doubt still a beta residue that will be fixed in 1.0.
So that's my take. I'm not a particularly tech-savy dude - just an end user who really needs and like these organizational tools. I'd be interested to see what others think about the current status of OF too.
WHAT I LOVE
Most importantly, OF is a rock solid Omni product. The core functionality of data entry, task, project and context organization, and all the fine points of the user experience are typical of the great software that the Omni folks produce. I have tried iGTD, KinklessGTD and a few other GTD applications, and OF is the clear winner. I have a few critiques, but just wanted to be clear that I LOVE the product.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
I should preface these comments by saying that much of this probably has to do with my own organizational style and preferences.
Transportability
The #1 limitation of OF right now is the ability to "take it on the road". I have a Treo, but I have found the OF-iCal-Treo-iCal-OF dance quite cumbersome. Much of this has to do with the limitations of iCal and Palm software. Part of the beauty of Of is it's ability to comfortably handle lots of projects and contexts - iCal and Palm don't do that to well. If Omni can get a native version of OF on an iPhone I will be the first one in line to buy both.
In the meantime, the ability to elegantly print out a daily package of my OF tasks would be a godsend. Like others have suggested, something along the line of a PocketMod system would be really helpful. 3x5 cards would be great - but most printers can't handle that. I just keep wondering what the Omni-geniuses could come up with if they turned their attention to some creative printing solutions. PLEASE give it a go.
Clippings
I have been spending a lot of time trying to streamline the input into OF from various sources. With MailTags, Act-On, and some of the scripts that the good OF community has come up with, I have assembled a system that works pretty well. But it is kind of a Frankenstein monster of hacked-together components. I have read that much of this derives from some Mac OS limitations, so perhaps this is simply not possible. But what I would LOVE to see, is a seamless capturing system for OF tasks. When I get an email, find a web site, see a pdf - I would love to be able to just dump it, drag it, click it into OF without so much configuration. The Clippings preference tab is also just kind of confusing to me - no doubt still a beta residue that will be fixed in 1.0.
So that's my take. I'm not a particularly tech-savy dude - just an end user who really needs and like these organizational tools. I'd be interested to see what others think about the current status of OF too.
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