[D-Mac]

I'm not sure if this is the intended behavior, a bug, or due to my lack of how OmniFocus is supposed to work (considering there is virtually no documentation yet)...

Anyway, I have been using OmniFocus to keep a simple task list.

I guess I've stayed in planning mode and entered several tasks in my Inbox.

I have assigned due dates to most of the actions. None of the actions are assigned to either a project or context.

I can't seem to figure how I can sort the actions by name, due date, start date, etc.

Clicking the column headings doesn't seem to work. I have also tried to use the "View Bar" to filter the actions. Setting the sort to "due date" doesn't do anything.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong???

Thanks for any help or info.

-Dave

[Tim Wood]

The inbox items don't participate in the sorting in Planning mode; the sorting operations are for the projects themselves with the inbox being a staging area. The inbox items aren't necessarily even comparable with one another -- some may become projects, some may become actions, some might be deleted and those that do survive processing will scatter across across your library into projects.

Hopefully the Inbox is small enough that finding things in it isn't a chore (textual filtering ignores the Inbox too!); if not, start processing! =)

(Note there is some argument to be made here that the Inbox might be large during your initial brain dump -- if you are finding this to be a trouble spot, please let us know via Send Feedback)

[D-Mac]

Tim,

Thanks for the response.

I understand how the items can be kept as actions, converted to projects, or just completed while in planning mode.

I just thought that OmniFocus wasn't supposed to restrict us or force us into some particular methodology...

I have only read the first few chapters of David Allen's book, so I haven't learned all of the lingo and how to proceed very far in using the GTD methodology. That's why I've only been listing tasks in the most simple manner. When your documentation and training videos come out, I should be able to get a better understanding of how OmniFocus is supposed to work (along with reading more of the David Allen's book).

However, why not make it possible for OmniFocus to work as a simple task list?

Why not make it able to sort items in planning mode, or to use the View Bar to filter items?

Your point about having a long list of items during the "brain dump" phase really tends to make my point (though I never thought of this myself, as my list is not very long).

I still don't understand why there should be any problem with allowing people to sort the Inbox in the planning mode, or to filter items with the View Bar... this seems like a needless limitation to the functionality of OmniFocus, and one that should be very easy to change/fix.

Please take this into consideration. Thanks.


Best regards,

Dave

P.S. - I have sent in "feedback" about this issue (now that it seems that the behavior I experienced is "correct" or at least not unexpected). Thanks for your prompt response.

[Tim Wood]

Thanks! There is no real reason we couldn't make the inbox items obey sorting (at least the top-level items -- we'd probably still leave the proto-actions within a inbox group sorted by the user specified ordering). I just meant that we hadn't previously worried about doing it, but if people find it useful, that could change.