[Kosjer D]

hi there... a few more suggestions for upcoming versions of omnicfocus. i already forwarded some of the ideas in a loose way to the omnifolks but also wanted to place the ideas in here for further discussions and in the case you like refinement ;)


52)
lists and perspectives are kind of abstract so far. most people are bit more visually oriented. so why not face that fact and create a third view called "focus". its just a aproximate idea so far. much space for tweaking and visual presentation. but i would recommend create a dynamic view in the veine of 43 folders. with a monthly view with squares for each day of the month like e.g. in ical and additional squares for the next 11 month and one square even further into the future.

1-31 (january)

february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
oktober
november
december

further future ;)


new tasks with existing due dates should be sorted into the corresponding squares.

tasks and projects without any starting or due dates should be presented in todays square

you can take a closer look in each square. there in contrast to planning and context mode you should be able to change the order of the shown tasks and projects so you are able to change the running order of tasks of the day. on your daily or weekly review you are able to change the running order respectively to the importance of the tasks.

and you are also still able to filter by perspective to narrow down todays tasks to-do

53)
Additionally it would be nice if not only to-dos from ical are synced but also dates. cuz overall each date inflicts also a task to perform. maybe new dates could be automatically imported into the inbox for further assignment to contexts and projects. only the due date and time set in ical should be put in task in the inbox already

54)
sub contexts should be creatable via apple+return. so far you are only able to create contexts. but it is impossible to create:

home : phone

home
phone

directly you only get a context called "home : phone" instead a context home with a subcontext phone.

[rtalexander]

1. Change the appearance of the view bar to something that has more contrast, such as black text on the grey background. Better yet, some other color that is not so depressing. Either way, do something that makes the text stand out.

2. Have the projects in the left panel grey when there are no available next actions. Alternatively, show the number of next actions available for each project.

3. Have OF provide an RSS feed that summarizes what is going on by project, by time (i.e., today, soon, and so on), what's past due. The idea is to make it easier to see what the lay of the land is without having to consult OF. This would also ennoble one to include the OF needs in a personal dashboard.

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by rtalexander

1. Change the appearance of the view bar to something that has more contrast, such as black text on the grey background. Better yet, some other color that is not so depressing. Either way, do something that makes the text stand out.

Hmm, I prefer it the way it is. I don't think it should have any more visual weight than it already has.

Originally Posted by rtalexander

2. Have the projects in the left panel grey when there are no available next actions. Alternatively, show the number of next actions available for each project.

I like this idea. It would be nice to have.

Originally Posted by rtalexander

3. Have OF provide an RSS feed that summarizes what is going on by project, by time (i.e., today, soon, and so on), what's past due. The idea is to make it easier to see what the lay of the land is without having to consult OF. This would also ennoble one to include the OF needs in a personal dashboard.

I can understand the desire for a "dashboard", but why RSS? Do you want to share your data with others or access it when you're away from your main machine? Why force users to look at a feed reader to view their OF data? Why not just look at OF itself?

[rtalexander]

Originally Posted by Toadling

Hmm, I prefer it the way it is. I don't think it should have any more visual weight than it already has.

I certainly understand this position. However, for me at least, this is a usability issue. Unfortunately I have a visual impairment that makes it very difficult to discern the text on the view bar in the current color scheme. Perhaps this could be added as an preference option.

Originally Posted by Toadling

I can understand the desire for a "dashboard", but why RSS? Do you want to share your data with others or access it when you're away from your main machine? Why force users to look at a feed reader to view their OF data? Why not just look at OF itself?

I just want a very simple view with nothing distracting. For me at least, I find the OF interface to be very heavy and too busy when all I want to do is see what's going on. As for RSS, no, I do not want to make it available from other machines. Having a local RSS feed would afford the flexibility to get that simple view using a news reader or web browser.

[scbates]

I just had an idea as I was reinstalling DocStar--I wonder if docstar-like badging-flexibility would be useful in for the OF dock icon. If I see counts by a particular CONTEXT or PROJECT as a badge, I could make badging more useful. (I have no idea how the menu-bar icon could work).

Right now, the li'l white # in red really only tells me how far I am behind GENERALLY, or how far I am about to be behind (75, recently 85). I LIKE the badge--I look at it often--but it has lost some of its value (the difference between 75 and 25 is nothing when it comes to task management).

So then,

54) Some flexibility around some of the badge data could help that.

(sorry if this one has been posted, I looked, I really did!)

-Scott

[Ken Case]

Originally Posted by rtalexander

I just want a very simple view with nothing distracting. For me at least, I find the OF interface to be very heavy and too busy when all I want to do is see what's going on.

Have you tried customizing your window layout in OmniFocus? You can turn off the view bar, the toolbar, and even the sidebar. You can also turn off all of the optional columns and resize your window down, resulting in a nice, compact list of actions.

That layout can be saved as a perspective, so you can return to it easily in the future when you want the "dashboard" view, and the original layout can be saved as another perspective for when you want to do more detailed planning.

Does that help?

[Dogsbreath]

Originally Posted by rtalexander

1. Change the appearance of the view bar to something that has more contrast, such as black text on the grey background. Better yet, some other color that is not so depressing. Either way, do something that makes the text stand out.

Have you ever looked at an app called Midnight Inbox?

That struck me as one of the most attractive GTD apps that I have seen. I just wasn't keen on how it worked.

[jbursztyn]

I would love to see OF integrate pagepacker printing, I feel this is the best way to take the GTD system with you if one does not own a iphone or itouch.

Regards,

Jack

55) Spell checking in all text entries.

Originally Posted by crispyking

28) A Completed Date column.

It would be *extremely* useful to me to be able to see (and PRINT or otherwise export) a view of completed tasks/projects, organized by when they were done.

I have to account generally for what projects/tasks I'm completing each week, and it would help so much if OmniFocus could help me compile a weekly report showing what I completed by date/time.

Thank you!