Add Multiple Topics

OmniFocus
#1

I’m a new Omnifocus user and I’m wanting to import/add multiple action items to my inbox (approx. 50 items) from a .txt file. Is that possible?

#2

You bet! If each item is on a separate line, you can Select All, Copy, and Paste right into OF.

If your tasks contain a prefacing character or anything (like “- this is a task”, you can do a find and replace on "- " (replacing it with nothing) to remove.

Cheers,

ScottyJ

1 Like
#3

Thanks, Scott, for response. That’s a great feature for newbies who are migrating multiple lists!

#4

A neat trick in the newest versions of OmniFocus (such as 2.8 on iOS): the app will automatically detect a leading dash and space, and will trim them off of the text before creating tasks. It’s not a huge change, but it might save you a second or two on the global search & replace!

#5

@tekl Hey that’s pretty clever! What all can be detected/stripped? Of interest to me is the markdown task formatting of "- [ ] ".

Cheers,

ScottyJ

#6

I’m not 100% sure, but a quick skim makes it look like OmniFocus will trim:

  • Leading whitespace
  • The “bullet” characters -, *, or •
  • The literal Markdown prefix strings - [ ] or - [x], with the latter denoting a completed task

If using the Markdown syntax, OmniFocus will expect a space between the close square bracket and the start of the task name: you’ll need e.g. - [ ] foo, not -[ ]foo. If the character between the brackets is an x instead of a space, OmniFocus will still create a task for that line of text, but immediately mark it complete. (Any character other than a space or x won’t be parsed by OmniFocus.)

Other than the Markdown requirements, the whitespace behavior is not immediately apparent to me – it looks like OmniFocus will trim surrounding whitespace along with the bullet characters, but you may need to experiment a bit with where the spaces go if OmniFocus doesn’t import your text as expected. Enjoy!

#7

That’s insane. @tekl, thanks for this, I’m excited to play with it!

Is this documented, or secret knock stuff?

Thanks again!

ScottyJ

#8

It doesn’t look like this has made it into the documentation, but it’s not meant to be a secret – just a new feature of text pasting that hasn’t gotten much attention yet.

Happy to help!

#9

How do you make trimming work? Definitely not my experience with 2.8 on iOS. All leading dashes and spaces make their way to a task name.
I have tried something as simple as ‘- task’. Copied from Drafts or the Notes app, pasted into Inbox, always gets stored as ‘- task’ rather than ‘task’…

#10

Tim didn’t notice that he was looking at the code for an update that hasn’t shipped yet (The [x] stuff already did, but not the -*• stuff). Your simple test should work just fine in version 2.8.1, which we’re about to submit for App Store Review

Sorry about that!

#11

@dave It isn’t working in the current TestFlight 2.8.1 - is there an update coming to it?

Thanks for the update - this is great stuff!

ScottyJ

#12

Yes, a TF build with this feature is coming soon.

#13

Oops – really sorry about this, @deturbulence and @dave! This is the curse of early test builds. I’ll make sure to double-check that a feature has made it out the door next time.

#14

Haha, don’t sweat it @tekl! BTW, it looks like the new test build is in TF now. It doesn’t strip markdown, though, it only strips the initial bullet and space.

Still, this is quite legit!

ScottyJ

#15

Would it be possible to achieve this copying of a task list into Omnifocus via a script?

I know on iOS one can achieve this by using Drafts and Workflow, but on a Mac?

Thanks!

#16

@sam70 Wouldn’t it just be a matter of copy and paste? What format is your content in that you want to move?

ScottyJ

#17

@deturbulence I guess you are right. Will do just that. Thanks for the reply!

Just that I often find typing todos in a text document to be more convenient then typing in Omnifocus. Especially when I am trying to make lists.

#18

I hear you, @sam70!

Some other ideas:

  1. Check out the TaskPaper format for ways to enhance your free form task-writing.

  2. In the past, I have used a custom perspective for quick list-making. Focus on the “Miscellaneous” Project, custom columns (not fluid), and only task name column showing. In this way, you can have a “distraction-free” list making environment.

Good luck!

ScottyJ

1 Like
#19

In the past, I have used a custom perspective for quick list-making. Focus on the “Miscellaneous” Project, custom columns (not fluid), and only task name column showing. In this way, you can have a “distraction-free” list making environment.

This is a great idea. I just tried to create a perspective where Focus was on Miscellaneous and only the item title shows. Will try to use that instead of the text editor in the future.

Thanks again!