In OF1 I had a perspective called “process inbox” which showed my inbox in the main window, and all of my projects on the side. I put a lot of stuff in my inbox during the week (capture everything) and then when I do my review I drag it into the appropriate project (or trash it) as needed. I might have 75 items in my inbox over a weeks time and I could also FOCUS on my three main files, WORK, HOME or PERSONAL to help process stuff quicker. In OF2, there is no way for me to do that.
Today, in order to keep using the beta, I fired up OF1 in order to process my inbox. This obviously is not a long term solution.
For me, it’s not really a matter of dragging the tasks to the projects, it’s more about remembering what my project structure is.
I normally type the project name, but I need to know where I want to place the task, and the side outline in OF1 helps me remember how I decided to structure my projects in the past.
wow. Today is the first day i imported all my OF1 data and actually tried to process my inbox in OF2. This is huge. Having to either remember project names to start typing them or use the inspector slows everything down. I always dragged and dropped inbox items directly into projects just like other posters on this thread. We need this back!
Has anyone actually emailed a feature request to Omni for this?
So the ability to simply be able to move an item from my inbox and to promote that item to a project is critical.
I use the mail clip-o-tron a lot. Where I work use’s email a lot (talking 300+ emails a day sometimes) I need to get stuff from mail to Omni Focus’s inbox fast. From there I then review my inbox and in OF1 would simply drag an item into the projects list the critical thing about this promotion to a project is that it kept the email details (as a Note) in the top level of the project as often that was where the context of the project came from I could then add and complete actions at will without risking the loosing where the project came from.
So yes your 2 window approach sort of allows this except I run full screen so that approach fails as I can’t have both windows on the same Space.
The primary purpose of this forum is for you to discuss with, and help, each other. We participate as we have time. And we read a lot more than we respond to.
As for the request to see your projects while processing the inbox, we don’t have a quick and easy solution. So we’re watching this thread and the emails sent to us, and asking questions (like Kristina did) to make sure we understand various angles of the problem, before we dig into a more complicated solution. In situations like this, we need to understand why a workaround doesn’t work, in order to ensure our full solution doesn’t have the same flaw.
I think it was I that pointed out, way up-thread, that a second window could be opened. However, the fact that the use case can be met like that does not mean that it is ideal. There are advantages in the single-window layout which OF2 delivers. Clearly, your dev team sees / believes in those advantages also, else you would not have designed the OF2 processing window thusly.
You could have had a whole bunch of modeless windows, you could have gone with tabs ala The Hit List (count me as one who loves tabs and would not object), you could have done a lot of things. You primarily went with a four-pane, single window approach - and I am sure you have noted that there have been few gripes with that layout.
And so we, your users, happily wade our way through our projects, our task groups, our contexts, our perspectives with a four pane layout which we (mostly) adapt to and (mostly) are OK with. And yet with the Inbox, that layout is not in evidence. And that adds friction to our processing. Why should I process my way through all of the above detailed views of my tasks, projects and groups in one way - and yet have to process in a completely different way with the Inbox? The friction added is kind of grating.
And so yes, we can process through the use of two windows, I think we’d acknowledge that is possible. However, it is not ideal, it is not what we want and it is not even an improvement over the manner in which we achieved the same use case with OF1. I hope that answers it for yourself, for Kristina, for Ken and for the dev team. Thanks.
I don’t see why a “No Project” item couldn’t easily be added as the top item in the project list, just like a “No Context” item already exists at the top of the context list. If someone clicks the “No Project” project they would see all currently unassigned items and they could drag them over to the list of projects fairly easily.
Technically it wouldn’t be the inbox, but it would probably satisfy a lot of the needs for the use case, and it would avoid using two windows.
Your idea would work better for the use case, because we could process the Inbox with our typical four pane layout. However, I would still have an issue with that approach, because then the Inbox still does not behave consistently with all of the other views. I hope for / ask for / expect consistency.
To answer your question, ‘why a workaround doesn’t work’…
Why do I not want to have to open a second window to perform a task that I can currently perform with just one?
GTD is about reducing friction: capture, processing, doing and reviewing should be as straight-forward as possible. Having to set up and, on my MacBook, carefully configure a second window is a pain, especially when there’s more than enough space in the Inbox window for the information I need to see. Having to do this every time I process my Inbox adds needless complexity (and irritation).
Why can’t I just leave the second window open all the time?
The reduction in data density in OF2 already means using a window twice as large as OF1 to see the same information, and now I need to open another? The minimum width of an OF2 window with a sidebar is 706px! That’s an awful lot of real estate on a MacBook, and even on an iMac. Maybe I want to have my Someday/Maybe list in OO4 open as well? I’m out of luck on the MacBook.
Why can’t I just overlap the windows as in Kristina’s screenshot?
Having the project list in the Inbox window allows the existing actions in any project to be viewed by Command-clicking on the project. Having the project list in a separate window means having to have the second window arranged to show not just the project list, as in Katrina’s screenshot, but also the Outline, taking up more screen space. The alternative, tabbing between overlapping windows, adds more steps to what is, in OF1, a simple task.
OF1 already solved this problem. As Rique has noted above, a four-pane layout is used in every other view, so why not in the Inbox?
As a workaround for now, You could make subtasks for the tasks (when the juices are flowing, to avoid the friction of solving this problem) and later create a new project, to which You then move the tasks to.
Apart from that I agree that task to project should be a right-click as well as drag/drop option.
Agree with everything proposed here. Right click to convert to project, right-click to move to project and/or context, drag and drop to move to move to project and/or context. Please consider adding these features.
The lack of drag and drop into folders and projects from the inbox is going to be a deal breaker for me. The inbox feels isolated. It’s a shame I really like OF2 but I couldn’t buy it purely because of this.
As others have said - The second line on projects is too small and indiscernible.
We’ve added “Convert to Project” to the Edit menu, but it’s also worth noting that you can open your Inbox in a second window (which you could probably make much smaller) and drag things from your Inbox window to any list that you have open in your main window.
As your aware screen estate is precious and more windows are always best avoided.
With regards to the “covert to project” - fair enough but what about inserting that project directly into a folder in a certain position; Clearly these things are possible but take longer than simple “drag and drop”. Further, it’s nice to view inbox items in relation to projects and folders.
I hate moaners who don’t attempt to come up with a suitable solution to said moaned about problem; I’m at a real loss as to how this can be overcome with your current U.I - Sorry.
