[vegaz]

Is there a way to show the Inbox in the Contexts view? The "No Context" folder gets populated only if assigne the actions in my Inbox to a project...
I use OF on my Mac mainly in the Contexts view, and i very much miss the indication, which is always there on the iPhone version, of the things that I have put in the Inbox and that need to be filed...
It's just me?

[Brian]

As far as I can remember, this is the first time we've gotten a request for that. If you email the support ninjas, they can add an item to the development database so we can consider that for inclusion in some future build of the app.

The general concept behind the current setup is that Project view is for planning, while context view is for actually doing things. Since the inbox is intended for stuff that you haven't fully thought out yet, we thought it would be a distraction.

Maybe a workaround would be to add a "Process my inbox" item that repeats on a daily basis? That would ensure that inbox items would get attention before too long.

[eforman]

+1 on this request. just because you haven't sorted an item doesn't mean the context you assigned to it is meaningless. (if so, why can you give it a context in the inbox, as opposed to when you put it in a project?) if the inbox is for stuff you haven't figured out how to move into a project, that doesn't mean you can't get it done if you are in its context. i don't get it.

the good thing is, it's easy to add this feature without disturbing anybody. simple pref: show/hide inbox items in context view. right?

[eforman]

also, if you create a context for item in inbox, and then move it into library folder, the context is gone because it becomes a project and not an item inside a project. i just started using OF, but something doesn't seem right conceptually... but please correct me if i'm not getting the workflow thinking...

[Brian]

Sorry for the confusion here - the inbox is a special spot for items you're thinking about but have not fully committed to yet. OmniFocus wants to help you accomplish the things you're sure you need to do, so we avoid showing you the things you might need to do in context view. Once they move out of the inbox, they show up.

You can assign a context to the actions because there's no harm in doing so, so why block it. You may not be sure which project a computer-related action goes into, but you can still assign it to the computer context.

Re: the dragging issue - folders contain projects, which contain actions. By dragging a row to a folder, it was promoted to Project status.

It sounds like you want to take advantage of our single-action lists feature; they're a special kind of project that is meant to collect these sorts of one-off actions.

[Scott]

I would think that the term "No Context" should show anything that doesn't have a context assigned, no matter where it's located in OF. I've just found this thread while trying to figure out why my recently added items (via the email-in feature) doesn't show under "no context" but does show in the inbox.
When adding a quick few to-do items, I'd like to quickly see the "no context" items and assign them to "home", "errands", etc...
Scott

[whpalmer4]

Material in the Inbox doesn't appear in the Context view, regardless of whether or not it has a context assigned, because it isn't ready to be worked. Isn't looking at the Context column in the Inbox working for you to spot the context-less actions? Speaking as one who often has too much unprocessed stuff in his Inbox, that sounds like a sign that you've got too much unprocessed stuff in your Inbox :-)

[pixelwiremedia]

The reason searched for this thread is because in the Screen Casts Online Basic video the podcast shows a number of items in the context pane in "No Context".

Then those no context items were dragged to a context in the left side to give it the context that it was dragged onto.

I was following along with the video (just learning the app now) and my Omni Focus wasn't acting the same way. I have a bunch of items in my inbox without a context, but they didn't show up in No Context in the context section.

[Brian]

Sorry for the confusion here! The "No Context" item in the sidebar shows non-inbox items which have no context assigned. In other words, they items that have a project assigned, no context assigned, and "Clean Up" has been used to move them out of the inbox.

If you're hitting Clean Up and those items aren't leaving the inbox, you'll want to open the Data pane of preferences. In that pane, choose either the "A Project" or "Either a Project or a Context" option for "Clean up inbox items which have:" setting.

(We don't show inbox items in context view because it's intended to be used for items you're thinking about but haven't fully committed to yet. We didn't want to clutter up your active task list with a bunch of maybe-will-maybe-won't actions.)