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Omnifocus 3.0 to come out Monday
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Posted by Jeffery Smith
Sep 23, 2018 at 10:21 PM
Other than “contexts” being replaced by “tags”, I haven’t heard too much about this app. I own everything in the OmniGroup line, with OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle used most often. For heavy duty task management, Omnifocus, Things, and ToDoist seem to be the nearly three-way tie. That makes it a pain in the butt for me, as I vacillate between all three as well as some more unique programs (DropTask and KanBanFlow). It would be really nice if one of the three would just make itself a clear choice. I spend as much time managing my tasks as I do completing them.
Posted by Amontillado
Sep 24, 2018 at 01:33 AM
I’ve never really used contexts, but I know I’ll use tags. I think they are going to be the same thing, just without the limitation of only one “context” per to-do entry.
Hopefully, nothing will upset the iOS version. OmniOutliner’s latest update has a glitch on my iPad. When I enter a note on an entry, the field doesn’t expand if I type past the initial entry box. I’m sure a fix is forthcoming.
In the meantime, I’ve done some experimenting with TaskPaper and TaskMator for cross platform outlining.
It works, but it’s a little crude. TaskMator doesn’t do folding, and it hides it’s files. If I were going to use that pair long-term, the drill would be to keep a TaskPaper file in a Devonthink project. On the iPad, I can import that to TaskMator, mess with it, and then export it back to DevonThink.
Since DT is happy with duplicate file names, you have to delete the old copy out of DT to clean up, and for sanity’s sake, it’s probably a good idea to delete the copy in TaskMator when finished with it, too.
Crude. I’m looking forward to getting OmniOutliner back on the rails.
Posted by satis
Sep 24, 2018 at 01:59 AM
Jeffery Smith wrote:
Other than “contexts” being replaced by “tags”, I haven’t heard too much
>about this app.
I was listening today to a podcast with Fraser Speirs, who’s known for having created a precursor to OF before OF was even developed by creating some insanely complex Applescripts on top of Omnioutliner that provided GTD functionality. He discussed how GTD as initially promulgated hasn’t aged well, since the original concept of contexts has eroded in a world in which people can do work anywhere with mobile devices. The fact that OF was pretty much the last major app to give up on strict adherence to to the classic GTD framework in favor of tags shows that Omni was pretty late to the game. (And OF2 had so many UI issues that they had to double back on too, suggesting that they have had a lot of internal problems deciding on what the app should be, especially compared to what customers want.)
With OF Perspectives have gotten much more powerful with OF because of tagging. Tags can have different aspects - items can be untagged, they can have active status or hold status - and with tags you can build a much more complex search.
That said, it remains considerable overkill for most people, and it retains a significant learning curve.
MacStories has a good overview of OF3:
https://www.macstories.net/reviews/omnifocus-3-review-more-approachable-and-powerful-all-at-once/
One of the main benefits (and problems) with OF is that it’s so process-agnostic, and moldable to individual user workflow. People are able to customize it significantly, but that’s a hurdle for those starting out, as well as those who
Posted by Luhmann
Sep 24, 2018 at 06:40 AM
Other than sequential projects, it seems to me that 2Do can do most of the things OF 3 can do, plus it has a much better implementation of start dates (including my favorite which is the ability to set a start date which is X number of days or weeks before the due date, without having to figure out the exact date yourself).
Posted by NickG
Sep 24, 2018 at 07:47 AM
I’ve used Things, 2Do, Todoist and Omnifocus. Heres my (personal) take on them:
Things: *Very* easy to use, almost zero effort of entry into the Things way of working. Lovely to look at.Excellent sync service. Major limitation - no perspectives or filtered views, so if you have large numbers of tasks, can be hard to view/understand the overall picture and focus on what’s needed now. Second major limitation: no online support - Twitter and Reddit don’t cut the mustard in my view. Expensive if you use it on multiple devices. Scriptable, if that floats your boat.
2Do: Very well-featured and flexible, but needs effort to get into. If you spend the time, extremely powerful, especially in filters/smart searches. Can also work well for simpler setups. Very goo information density and some nice UI features on IOS. Limitations: one-person developer, so new features/major update can be very slow. No online support - Twitter only. Sync works well if you use Dropbox. Not so well using iCloud or personal WebDAV (which is my preference). Cheap. Not scriptable.
Todoist: Very good, but needs a subscription to get the best from it. I’m not willing to follow subscription models for this kind fo application. Good support. Easy to get into.
Omnifocus: Easy to get into, and a cheap, simple version if you don’t need a lot from it. If you want smart searches (perspectives), becomes expensive, especially if you use multiple devices. Very good sync (including WebDAV, hooray!). Requires lots of thinking and effort to get the best from the power, but has a very good online presence - support and user community - so advice is really available. Lots of 3rd party resources too - if you want to spend the time. Scriptable if you want to spend even more time. Has a Review perspective which, to me, is priceless.
Things doesn’t give me the control over views that I want. Todoist needs a subscription. I swing between 2Do and OF - currently OF because new shiny version