[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by marcd

That's a useful method whpalmer4, thanks for sharing it.

But... I still want People to be a separate context which crosses other contexts because if I talk to someone or before I call them I want to see what is pertinent to them, what am I waiting for from them, what was that great idea i wanted to share with them, tell them not to forget to collect the kids, get some oil for the car, shave the dog etc. Any of these might be spread across any number of Place or Tool (iphone, email, home, office) contexts. People are just a different sort of category concept which overlap and just won't nest under other regular Contexts.

And while I have your attention, I'm sure there was something else I was going to mention to you, now where did I file my note?

Easy, you look in the whpalmer4 perspective if you have whpalmer4 sub-contexts sprinkled about in your tree and the perspective collates them together.

I suggest you have a look at the other discussion where Brian does his best to gently make it clear that OmniFocus isn't likely to support multiple contexts. http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=28176

[Brian]

I'm actually going to move this conversation to the thread that Bill referenced in his post in just a moment. So when future folks see a link to the same thread the posts are in, that's why.

To answer Marcd directly: sorry, no plans for multiple contexts per action in OmniFocus 2. See previous posts in the thread your post got moved to for suggestions on how to handle things, and feel free to continue the conversation in this thread. Hope this helps!

[philrob]

Watching this debate from the sidelines, my hope is that with OF2 the problem/debate will go away.

Not because OF2 will directly implement tags/contexts, but because (please, please, please) the search function will behave intuitively and allow us to either search the whole database or just the current view.

Once there is a comprehensive (intuitive) search function, people can implement tags to their hearts content.

I suspect that we will see scripts here very quickly that will allow users to set their own 'tags' (or several of them) which are written to the notes field and can later be found (filtered) using the search function.

It could probably be done now using the existing 'search all OF' script - that some of our high level practitioners and script gurus haven't gone to the trouble of writing such a script probably indicates that when you are a 'yellow belt' you think you need a solution like this. When you are 'black belt' you know that you don't.

Me, I would just like to get above the white belt stage...

[Magd36]

Originally Posted by philrob

... when you are a 'yellow belt' you think you need a solution like this. When you are 'black belt' you know that you don't ...

Brilliant. I's anologies like that that make me feel better.

[marcd]

Originally Posted by Brian

I'm actually going to move this conversation to the thread that Bill referenced in his post in just a moment. So when future folks see a link to the same thread the posts are in, that's why.

To answer Marcd directly: sorry, no plans for multiple contexts per action in OmniFocus 2. See previous posts in the thread your post got moved to for suggestions on how to handle things, and feel free to continue the conversation in this thread. Hope this helps!

Cheers Brian. Now I know this, I will follow up the suggestions in the other thread and try out alternative interesting approaches so that I am ready for OF2 shipping.

[Kevin Crenshaw]

As trainers and reviewers of GTD software, we are regularly asked about OmniFocus and multiple contexts.

Here's the perspective of a TRO productivity coach and any responses. (TRO is an advanced GTD++ type system.) The post in the other forum:

https://www.priacta.com/forum/discus...it-tro-capable

[digitalagua]

Brian,

OK, I see your point of view but it seems like you can easily come up with a scenario that would be much easier to manage with multiple contexts.

I need to talk to Bob about a new proposal.

I can do this if I have phone time, if I am on client site or I see Bob.

I would like to organize the "new proposal" under client, phone, Bob for the following reasons.

If I am speaking to Bob in person or he calls. Than that is the context I would like it under. I would like it there because I can easily say oh yeah, I have some Bob actions.

If I have Phone time, I don't want to have to review every person I have listed, 50+ because by the end of my free moment I have only had time to review, so I would like to have it categorized here as well.

If I am on client site, I'd like to have a list of actions that are specific to the client because I honestly might have forgotten that Bob even existed when I am there.

When I am finished talking with Bob, I'd like to tick the box and have it removed from all the categories.

It seems odd for a piece of software to not include some obviously desired functionality due to some dogmatic vision of how people should use it. The lack of this feature will keep me from upgrading this product.

Thanks,

james

[Cypher]

I'm not sure why this would be a problem as you could easily implement it using hash tags or something similar to get around it and then search on the tag.

Here's an example tasks with three embedded hash tags for your three contexts.

Task: Talk to #Bob about a new proposal. #phone #client-xyz

Also maybe setting a base Context of Multiple would provide a way of also finding tasks that had multiple context.
Context: "Multiple"

As there would only be one task as such, marking it as complete will close it off from all three hash searches.

I've just done a quick test of this by setting my normal phone context to #phone. Then in some other tasks, which weren't already phone tasks, I just added the hash tag #phone to the end of the existing task description.

Searching for #phone now quickly shows me a list of all my "phone" tasks and includes all those contains #phone in the description or in the context.

[digitalagua]

@Cypher
Thank you for the reply and that does work. It still seems more of a work around than functionality though. I guess I am more curious as to why multiple contexts are so taboo, and why Omni Group doesn't just add them in.

[Cypher]

If you go with the hash tag method you can also create a perspective containing the saved search on the various hash tags, probably only worth doing for the ones you use a lot but having a perspective for #phone or #bob will save you having to continually enter the search string.