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NEED assign to multiple Contexts Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nicolas_Thomsen View Post
but I think that I would find it really annoying to check several contexts og tagd while I was doing something in case of some actions overlapping.
Its not about *checking* several contexts, it's about:
- not *missing* an action, because you had the wrong context selected
- and being able to create more useful, flexible selections/views of the data on the fly (that may require less thinking)


<ps I am not saying that there is potential for tagging to also have faults/problems of its own, either>
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by joelande View Post
Its not about *checking* several contexts, it's about:
- not *missing* an action, because you had the wrong context selected
- and being able to create more useful, flexible selections/views of the data on the fly (that may require less thinking)


<ps I am not saying that there is potential for tagging to also have faults/problems of its own, either>
But how would you implement this, so that you would be sure to see all the relevant context at that specific moment?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nicolas_Thomsen View Post
But how would you implement this, so that you would be sure to see all the relevant context at that specific moment?
I am not sure what you are asking -

Maybe you are talking about the view in Project Mode, where currently see a single context in the column?

I guess it depends on how OG would implement this, and if we are talking about adding a multiple contexts feature, or using tags for that purpose...

But there are lots of different ways it could be done.

One example would be the column would show the first (main) entry, perhaps with a number in parenthesis indicating how many other contexts/tags are entered, and hovering over the field would reveal all of the other entries.

There are many applications out there that implement tagging in many innovative ways, and OF is pretty good at coming up with good UI.

If you are talking about the view in Context Mode, again it depends on if this is implemented through multiple contexts or tags.

If multiple contexts are used, I kind of think the question is irrelevant, as any selected contexts are visible in the sidebar.

The one question I think in Context mode if multiple contexts are used, is if a single action woudl be visible more than once on the screen. Perhaps a preference can control this behavior.

If tags are used, I am not sure if the information is important at in Context Mode, other than perhaps available in an inspector or popup.
 
I tried this out, and though it's a little slow, it's fairly flexible and serves as a good half measure for tagging in OmniFocus as it is . . . and it uses onboard functionality.

The key is using uncommon symbols or symbol combinations, OF search and Perspectives. This is really pretty smooth.

Say I have several franchises running at the same time. They each have rather different projects, each one running along at a different pace. Some of these projects are getting ready to ramp up for production, so in the related task or project notes field I put a "$" sign. Makes sense, it's a project ramping up for production, so it needs money. I know I will have to call the bank and maybe my key investor sometime soon, and I need to know some total numbers across each of these productions.

I do a search on "$" in the search field. Everything with "$" floats up, I move to the menu bar and save the search as a Perspective.

Now, I am not exactly sure how this works, but it seems OF saves the actual search as the Perspective. This is great! It means that adding or subtracting "$" anywhere in a task or project's field affects whether is shows up next time you call up that Perspective. One project had to be pulled off the slate? No problem, delete it's "$". It won't show up next time you call that Perspective.

You need a good and consistent system for labeling projects and tasks this way. A little patience will be necessary, too, because the Perspective apparently carries out a fresh search each time you call it up (I guess . . . totally end user conjecture). Except for the slowness, I would be tempted to say there is no real need for a specific Tag feature.

If you don't like seeing strange marks floating in your title bars, put them in the note field. It still works just fine.

. . . If somebody mentioned this before, my apologies. After some looking around, I didn't notice this solution, so posted it.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by m.wrenn View Post
You need a good and consistent system for labeling projects and tasks this way.
That's the point for using tags: If you have a defined set of tags you won't have any problems with spellings errors while searching.

You could even have nested tags and if you search for the parent you could find all the children.

And you get the bonus of being able to rename a tag and it is renamed everywhere it is used if tags are properly implemented.
 
I don't quite follow your point about nested tags. Could you explain a little more, please?

As I mentioned, the system is not perfect. However, it is a good half measure to keep us happy until this feature is added.

On the spelling issue, saving the search result as a Perspective prevents you from even having to type in the search field. You just select the Perspective. Also, I have difficulty misspelling "$".

In this proposed work around, the reason for avoiding actual words with real meaning is that those words might appear in a different sentence context. This causes undesirable search results. If you find yourself making a task with something like, "Borrow 5$ from Ed", then a slightly different system would help. For example "A$" as your tag marker.

One critical flaw that makes me still want proper tags is, I don't think you can search on multiple tags with this workaround. Does the OF search function support boolean operations?
 
Multiple contexts would be a big benefit for me. No-one can claim, I don't think, that an action with multiple possible contexts doesn't happen in the real world, so why not have that reflected in OF?

Multiple context would be even more beneficial on OF for iPhone. There's a huge amount of functionality that would be available to me in my usage of OF if it handled multiple contexts. I could get into it, but it's been talked about a lot in this tread. (And isn't the length of this thread a clue to how much people want it?)

Seems like the only areas of argument left, then, are around how confusing this would be, or how difficult it would be to add. The former is an interface issue, is it not, and the latter, well, the OF team doesn't have to do anything! I know I'd be putting it at the bottom of the priority list.

There are, what fourteen pages so far of comments? To the OF team, maybe you could come down on the issue either way? If you say, "Nope, ain't doing it. Increases complexity in the software way too much", or "We've heard the arguments, and we're persuaded that multiple contexts is bad for your GTD health", at least then I could move on to the Acceptance stage! :)
 
Oh. Nineteen pages of discussion. :)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by paulduv View Post
To the OF team, maybe you could come down on the issue either way?
I think they have, at least to a certain degree: metadata columns.

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost...&postcount=155

-Dennis

Last edited by Toadling; 2009-02-07 at 11:30 AM.. Reason: Added link to old post
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toadling View Post
I think they have, at least to a certain degree: metadata columns.

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost...&postcount=155

-Dennis
I would think that's as good a system to accomplish some of the same things as multiple categories.

Ultimately, the main impetus for me is to use OF iPhone for location stuff:

Context for actions:
• buy screws
• buy shelves
• ask about drywall

Isn't "Hardware", it's

• Hardware store 1
• Hardware store 2
• Hardware store 3

That's been totally unnecessary up to now: of course I can just decide to check my hardware location from any of those! But, the location-based functions on the iPhone, which would be so awesome for me if it was useable, can't make that decision.

The "Business Search" doesn't seem to be reliable enough, by the way. If it was, or if I could choose, instead of "Current location", multiple locations, that would work to, while avoiding another layer of multiple locations, or tags...

So yeah... If I could attach locations to tags, that'll be great, but there may be other ways to skin that cat.

Thanks for pointing that out... If tags happen, I bet that'll spawn a lot of interesting tricks!
 
 


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