[kman42]

I'm trying to make a perspective that lists all the actions that do not have a start time or due date. When I try to clean up my actions, I usually go to the Inbox and drag things into appropriate projects, then I go to Contexts and drag things from the No Context folder into the right context. I would then like an easy way to view the actions that don't have Due Dates or Start dates so that I can assign those. I looked through the View Bar options, but couldn't find a way to just list items without Due Dates. Is this possible? Do people have alternative suggestions?

Thanks!
kman

[Brian]

OmniFocus is currently built around the idea that you'll use due dates relatively sparingly - only for items that truly need them. The philosophy here is that due dates for items that don't really need them just add stress and undermine your trust in the dates attached to the ones that really do.

That said, you can set up a perspective like you describe by doing the following:

View -> Context Mode
View -> Sidebar Filter -> Remaining
View -> Grouping -> Due
View -> Sorting -> Due
View -> Status Filter -> Remaining

Items in this window are now grouped and sorted by due dates, from past to future. Use the disclosure triangle at the left of each category to collapse them, leaving only the "No Due Date" group (at the bottom) expanded.

Next, select
Perspectives -> Save Window As -> New Perspective
from the menu bar.

Name the perspective, and make sure the "Restore: Expansion" box is checked. (If it isn't, check the box, then re-save the perspective from the menu.)

Does that help?