Mine doesn’t give the option shown.
It’s a mockup of how they should do it.
I see. Thought there was a solution then - you got me running to my computer.
The relationship between Inbox and Projects is fundamental to how we use this product, and how the GTD system is designed. Inbox items are simply Projects (or actions; children of Projects) in a transitory state (between your mind and your Projects). The product should be great at completing that transition.
Using two windows does provide a functional option, but it creates an unintuitive “power users tips & tricks” class of solution to a first-order workflow function of the product.
We strive to improve the design of our products to push them further and further out of sight, out of mind- until we can use them without thinking of them, without noticing them.
I’d love to see a design that harmonizes the Inbox and Projects, and nails the Inbox processing workflow (as has been done with Reviews), getting closer to that ideal. It’s a defining attribute of the product.
2 Likes
I’m a bit puzzled by the Omni stance on this. Presumably when 2.0 launches, you want lots of new users to enthusiastically recommend to friends. If they find it difficult, or have to be a pro user when they are a beginner, I can’t see a super glitch free launch and reviews on the App store will reflect this.
I presume that at an early design stage there is something fundamentally difficult to now undo about allowing users to see their projects to which they want to process actions into. Otherwise I can’t see the benefit in asking users to do a workaround solution for a fundamental basic use of a to do program.
Please
2 Likes
What I´ve done as a temporary workaround, is create a top level (and top priority) project with the following name:
“Empty OmniFocus Inbox”
When the time comes to clean up the Inbox, I select all items and assign them to the project “Empty OmniFocus Inbox”. All the items are also assigned to the context “Any”. That way, they are automatically cleared out of the Inbox.
After that it is a question of sitting down to execute the project “Empty OmniFocus Inbox”.
This seems to be working fine, but of course it is just a workaround. Hopefully the column with the project list will soon be made visible and accessible in the Inbox view again.
Additionally, what would make cleaning up the inbox easier for me, would be that the folders to which I drag an item, not automatically open every time something is dropped there. That is because I prefer to sort the Inbox items in phases. First the very rough dumping into broad categories, and then sorting them into finer and finer categories.
1 Like
The best thing I’ve managed to come up with is a context perspective that launches in a new window with only “No Context” selected.
This is fine IF all the items in your inbox have no context AND all items not in your inbox typically have a context.
Grouping things by added date at least means items newly added to my inbox float to the top and old chaff that happens to have no context is more easily ignored.
Ironically in the perspective settings it still says:
“Preserve action hierarchy within projects:
The sidebar shows inbox folders, and projects.”
Editid: Fine. I’m a jerk for stating the obvious and trying to be funny: it’s not broken, it’s just missing an element that I would like to see too. Other alternatives to drag-n-drop that I use:
- When you are brain-dumping into the inbox, could you select multiple items via Cmd-Click and assign the project in the inspector?
- When you are brain-dumping about a project, could you do that with the respective project so the majority of the work is done for you? (I primarily do this in OF2 iPhone, but it works the same on the Mac)
I would like to see it a listing of projects within my inbox too; I personally like the one-window focus, so it would help my workflow (vs. two window).
For two window people: Have you tried any window managers? Toss the inbox to the left to split the app on the screen and toss the projects widow to the right (or top/bottom, etc)? I do this with other apps. One note of caution, there is a thread about crashes that might have something to do with window management software. Tread lightly here.
I’m sure you would get umpteen replies to your post with regards to your “enlightenment” to other peoples work flows, if your post wasn’t mildly facetious.
Replying to this post - again - to say that @Kristina with Team Omni clued me in to an important preference which governs the state of OF2’s windows after a re-start. In System Preferences, using the “General” Control Panel, simply ensure that the checkbox signifying “Close windows when quitting an application” is not selected. If that box is checked, then a re-start will not restore state. However (and channeling Ross Perot), “here is the beauty part” - if that box is not selected, the state of the OF2 windows will bounce back to their previous state when re-starting. One problem solved!
Unfortunately, we still cannot save state in a perspective (which would include all aspects of a saved state) - however, judging from some recent comments per Ken, there may be a movement supporting it).
And so - happy though I may be with the new features, I am eagerly awaiting that (promised?) future build which saves and restores our state in a perspective.
To add my voice to this thread, I agree. Not being able to view the inbox in the project view, or project list in the inbox view is a step backwards. The suggested “work arounds” obviously do just that but it is difficult to see how making a common process more complicated is a good thing.
The ability to file from the inbox by dragging into projects is something I use daily in version 1, its omission is a big issue for me and many others, and will undoubtedly effect reviews if version 2 is released without it being addressed to be at least as usable as v1.
1 Like
We’ve been thinking about this problem, it’s just not an easy one. We’ve provided several mechanisms for filing inbox items (SmartMatch in the projects field, or the popup list in the projects field, or dragging to the project list in another window), and we’ve added some mechanisms which make it easier to turn an Inbox item into a new project (dragging onto the Projects tab, or using the “Convert to Project” toolbar or menu items), but obviously quite a few of you still aren’t finding the current state of affairs in v2 as efficient as the workflow from v1 where Projects and Inbox were all in a single view.
OmniFocus is a complex app, and our best tool for keeping it from getting confusing is to make the navigation as clear as possible. As part of this we split up the Inbox from other views and gave it its own tab: listing the Inbox inside the Projects tab leads to confusing navigation, because Inbox items aren’t really projects. But now that it has its own tab, putting the list of projects inside the Inbox tab would also leads to confusion because they aren’t really part of your Inbox. We just want to be able to drag stuff to them easily.
So, I’m not sure what the answer is. For now, the closest approach to the v1 workflow seems to be to open the Projects tab in the main window, then opening the Inbox in a separate window, hiding its sidebars and making it smaller so it’s more like a floating window, then dragging stuff from the Inbox onto the projects.
But, like many of you, we’d love to see a solution that works well in a single window. (Maybe when you start to drag an Inbox item, we could swap out the right-hand sidebar for a list of droppable projects that you could drag stuff onto? We wouldn’t want to do that on the left, because your Inbox items are already in that space—but there isn’t any reason to drag an item onto the Inspector.)
I’m not sure what the ultimate solution should be, but I do know we didn’t manage to find that solution in time to build it into the initial 2.0 release. Hopefully we’ll figure something out in time for 2.1.
5 Likes
Ken, I would very much like having a list of Projects (or Contexts depending on what the perspective is) in the right-hand sidebar.
Unless an action is elected, that right-hand sidebar is empty, and seems like it’s real estate that could be used.
@kcase , thanks for your thoughtful post. I expect we will all regard it as an invitation to put on our thinking cap and come up with a decent single window interface for drag and drop processing of the Inbox. I have some thoughts along those lines myself, but want to give it more thought before vetting them with the community.
I do have one question, though. Why can’t we have a view similar to the OF1 view? In OF1, Inbox was not displayed within the Projects:
It seems to me (and perhaps to many) that OF1 demonstrated an example of a separate tab (selection control) in the sidebar which applied to Inbox, and yet did not hide the projects. It seems to me that OF2 has a similar design, yet which has not resulted in a similar function - and that is what leaves many of us both puzzled and concerned.
2 Likes
Oh well, at least we know now.
Its not the end of the world, I’ve got OF1 until you figure it out.
This sucks…looks like I may have to hold off upgrading until 2.1.
In OmniFocus 2, we use sidebar tabs for the top level of navigation:
This model offers clearer navigation than OmniFocus 1, but it doesn’t offer any way to view a list of items from one tab (such as the list of projects) while working in another tab (such as the Inbox).
Last year’s iteration of the OmniFocus 2 design did offer a way to see both at the same time:
The downside to that approach was that everything was overwhelmingly competing for your attention all the time.
1 Like
Thank you for taking the time to post that explanation.
This may be laughed out, but I’ve just imagined an answer (not for 2.0!), but I’m not a photoshop expert and so words for now:
The inbox is currently different in that there is no second window where projects and other perspectives list their tree structures. This is fine, since the inbox is different to everything else by it’s very nature, and hence whilst keeping the shape and form of your well designed software, could it work as follows (this would also make the Inbox items operate in the same space as all other actions, so helping focus):
What people want, whilst sorting the Inbox, is to be able to see their Projects… or Contexts… or Forecast, or any other perspective. So, if wanting to sort into say, Projects, I select the Projects tab prior to selecting the Inbox. The projects stay where they are and the Inbox slides over the top to place the items inside the inbox in the same place as all other actions go in the other tabs (the visual animation could show the inbox sliding out like a drawer to place the Inbox items where the actions were of the last opened perspective). This gives an impression of a 3D superimposition of the Inbox over the top of whatever tab it was that you clicked last. The items are clearly in the Inbox, since you have the tab linked without the lines, and the shading is the same as all other tabs when open, being a lighter shade when selected. The linking space between the tab and the actions would be longer than other tabs, but clearly linking the inbox actions to the tab, but in the same space as actions are in other tabs. The only other thing that would have to happen is for the relevant tree structure to slide down below the Inbox section linking the tab to the space where the actions are. You would then be free to drag and drop into whichever perspective it was that you selected prior to opening the Inbox drawer.
Did any of that make sense? I’m fully aware that this wouldn’t be a 2.0 solution, but it would I think be quite elegant.
I very much appreciate the candid response. Always nice to know people are listening. Forgive me if what I say here is a bit harsh, but I can’t help but think this line of reasoning is a bit of a cop-out.
OF1 by default shows the Inbox and Projects list and always has. The only reason OF2 exists is because of the resounding success of OF1. That feature - Inbox/Projects viewable together is not new. It is and always has been the default. How can that be confusing if that’s the way it’s always been? Complex? Yes. Confusing? To the rank beginner OF1 or OF2 is confusing. So is every other program with a modicum of complexity until you learn it.
I am happy to be able to look and play with a pre-release version of your software. But part of me thinks the line of reasoning proposed here has more to do with justifying the omission than with usability.
1 Like
