[Senseful]

Say I have the following action structure:

• Project 1

• Task A (Due 1/4)
• Task B (Due 1/2)

• Task B.1 (Due 1/1)
• Task B.2 (Due 1/2)
• Project 2

• Task C (Due 1/3)
  

I would like to see a list of these actions sorted by their due dates, while retaining their hierarchy. Here's exactly the kind of list that I want to see:

• Task B (Due 1/2)

• Task B.1 (Due 1/1)
• Task B.2 (Due 1/2)
• Task C (Due 1/3)
• Task A (Due 1/4)

I have not found a way to get this kind of list in OmniFocus. It seems that my two options are:

1) Use a Project Perspective:

While this does retain the action hierarchy, it also groups the actions into their projects, which doesn't produce the same list as the one I want. In the following example, Task A appears before Task C even though it has a later due date.

Example:

• Project 1

• Task B (Due 1/2)

• Task B.1 (Due 1/1)
• Task B.2 (Due 1/2)
• Task A (Due 1/4)
• Project 2

• Task C (Due 1/3)

2) Use a Context Perspective:

While this mode does show the actions without any project grouping, it also gets rid of the hierarchy of the actions.

Example:

• Task B.1 (Due 1/1)
• Task B.2 (Due 1/2)
• Task B (Due 1/2)
• Task C (Due 1/3)
• Task A (Due 1/4)

This makes it very difficult to understand what "Task B.1" is, if it doesn't repeat "B" in its title.

Is there any way to get the results like I want them?

[whpalmer4]

If this is a parallel project, you could try selecting all the actions and using Edit->Sort->Due Date. Note that this will rearrange the actions in the database, not just reorder the view, so examine the results closely and use the Undo command before it is too late if you don't get what you want.

[Senseful]

whpalmer: my original question wasn't clear. I just updated it to stress the fact that task A and B are in the same project, but I want task A to appear after task C.

[Lucas]

Why not sort by due date in context view? If you want the task group to be a header over its child actions in context view, I understand your perspective, but it just doesn't work like that. I know what you mean, but I would guess the best thing to do is name your child actions such that you don't have to see their grouping task to understand them.