[Toadling]

I don't think OmniFocus supports LinkBack yet (more info). So maybe that's why you can't edit the file and save the changes back to the original? I don't really know since I usually link all my files to OmniFocus and let Time Machine backup everything.

-Dennis

[curt.clifton]

zekereich,

This looks like a bug. Like Dennis, I always use linked attachments instead of embedded ones, so hadn't seen this problem. I was able to reproduce it using a plain text file by following your steps (in the 1.1 Sneaky Peek).

I've filed a bug report with Omni against the 1.1 version.

[Brian]

The root of the problem appears to be the fact that double-clicking an attachment actually makes a copy of the document in /tmp, then opens that copy. So your changes are getting saved to the wrong document.

Thanks for reporting this, guys - written up as a bug and kicked over to the folks on the team.

[Ken Case]

Sorry, we meant for this to be documented more clearly: you cannot edit embedded attachments directly, embedding is intended for use with reference data (e.g., pictures or attachments from email messages) rather than for active documents. (What you can do, of course, is to drag your edited document back into your note to attach the newly edited version. But obviously that's an awkward workflow.)

We'd like to let you edit your embedded attachments, but there's a tough design problem that we didn't have time to solve in 1.0: it's really hard to coordinate editing correctly across multiple applications. The simple case isn't too hard (edit and save, you expect your edits to be saved), but what happens when you undo in OmniFocus while you still have the attachment open in your other application? Or vice versa? Which copy of the document is correct now, and how do they even know there is a conflicting version out there?

Your feedback is welcome, of course, and we do want for you to let us know if you want this capability so we know how to prioritize our work. I just wanted to explain that it's a known design issue, not just a trivial bug that needs to be fixed.

[LawDaddy]

I was able to embed a pdf in the note field of an action on one machine, then sync to .Mac using SP 1.1, and open the file after syncing on a different machine. Nice! QuickView works, too.

Would *REALLY* be nice to have a file name or display style like OO...

[Ken Case]

We plan to add the option to display filenames with attachments, it just didn't quite make it into 1.0.

[zekereich]

Thanks everyone, I just made the OO lists into linked attachments instead and realized that it's ok for me. The context is that I just switched to OF from using only OO with embedded OO lists, and since I'm spending the summer away from my external HD, I liked the piece of mind that came from backing up my OO by emailing a single file to myself. Now I just have to email myself the OF file plus a folder of OO files - but this is really not too much of a burden.

That said, it's just nice to have all my lists in a single file (with the ability to edit them). This is essentially just a question of the special relationship between OF and OO, rather than about editing embedded attachments per se: given that I have both "time-based" to-do lists and "static" lists (eg books to read, someday/maybe), and find both equally important to my productivity, it would feel natural to be able to move easily from OF lists to OO lists. Thanks again!

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by zekereich

That said, it's just nice to have all my lists in a single file (with the ability to edit them). This is essentially just a question of the special relationship between OF and OO, rather than about editing embedded attachments per se: given that I have both "time-based" to-do lists and "static" lists (eg books to read, someday/maybe), and find both equally important to my productivity, it would feel natural to be able to move easily from OF lists to OO lists.

I think this is an issue many people have faced. Some keep these extra lists (e.g. books to read, films to see, someday/maybe) in text files or OmniOutliner files linked to OmniFocus. Others keep the lists in OmniFocus itself as single-action lists or parallel projects (perhaps with an "on hold" state).

I personally prefer the latter option and keep about a half dozen such SALs on hold. This also makes it easy to promote them to actions or projects once I decide to act on them. And, of course, everything gets store in one database file for easy searching, backup, and syncing.

-Dennis