I agree it is the trend - Checkout MS365 online with its gray, white and washed out blue. Desktop Outlook is nearly as bad. Don’t know anyone who likes it. Hi-res screens for great color rendition and they stop using color!
Totally agree. The flexibility is extremely important. I really love the colorful UI (after customized) in the Omnifocus 1 for Mac. Please at least allow us to change fonts and colors.
The UI freeze meant that Omni has started to shift direction towards fixing possible data corruption, crashes, and documentation to make the June release date. All new feature requests will be filed and considered for version 2.1 and onward. This is in the release notes and in the forum sticky.
Otherwise, OmniFocus 2 will be in constant revision as more users pile on more feature requests and they’ll definitely miss the targeted June release.
This is just the beginning. Version 2.0 doesn’t have to be perfect. Here is something from the Agile Results wiki that talks about “versioning your results.”
http://gettingresults.com/wiki/Principles
It sounds like they’ve already adding “custom styling” to the feature request database. Let them get back to polishing up version 2.0 for final release. Then we can see OmniFocus 2.1 sooner.
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Is anything happening to improve the readability? The light grey is very difficult to read on my Mac. Also the flag - maybe use these as priority flags Re/Green/Amber or colour the tasks according to priority. But that light grey is a real barrier to use in my opinion.
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My fonts are black, not light grey. Unless you have tasks which aren’t available but are showing, perhaps deferred?
OmniFocus has never had a priority setting. I don’t suspect it’ll get it for 2.0 - in many cases priorities are against GTD. You can put flags or due dates on items you need to get to soon.
I agree - colors could be put to better use in OmniFocus in general. If used sparringly but at the right places, it could be very helpful. I would e.g. welcome the option to make the project headings in different colors, or give contexts specific colors. Similar to how tags work in Gmail by a combination of text + color.
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After a first very brief look, I like the new look of OF2, too. It has many good things of the iPad version and a nicer interface. It does not seem as geeky as OF1 ;)
But my eyesight is not the best and I have problems reading it. Changing the font size is ok, but the biggest size right now is still to small :( 16pr would be alright for me to read.
The same applies to the color schemes. As someone mentioned, dark grey on light grey is not very friendly to the eyes.
I can see, that the new approach (one style fits all) is easier for the implementation of the interface than the old one when you could more or less adjust it at will.
I at least would like to see a bit more possibilities for adjustment as there are now. There could be one or two alternatives to the current color scheme to choose from e.g. higher contrast. And it should be possible to increase the font size more and it should show on all text displayed - not only the description of the actions.
– ralf
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Hi I am staying with Version 1 until I can customize with some color. My eyes cannot cope with the predominance of light grey. Sorry.
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Another reason to stick with Version 1: if you print your list, the printout in Version 2 is nowhere near as good as that of version 1. Data density and colors are the two main reasons. I find the print-outs from OF1 FAR more useful and easy to read than those of OF2. In fact, there’s really no comparison.
Also, too much white for me. I’d like more customizability. Thankfully, there is a way to put all data on one line. The more tasks I can see at once, the better.
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I’m an OF1 power user, deciding if I’m going to take on OF2 just yet. My styling changes involved status-based color changes, a slight increase in contrast for notes and blocked actions, and action color changes. I don’t recall if I changed row spacing or font size.
Status-based colors are pretty important to me, and it’s one of my reasons for hesitating. I hope to see styling options in the near future.
(Now I’m off to find out if my custom perspectives will migrate.)
For what it’s worth, I had a similar set up in OF1(heavy on the custom status based color, etc) and I had one hell of a time using OF2 for a while. I was so used to things jumping out at me and being obvious I felt like I was missing out on actions, etc.
During the private beta I kept OF1 running, I had a lot of work and no time to poke around. I caved in and went OF2-only and after a week I got used to it. After two I was fine. I stressed a bit in those two weeks and my workflow slowed down.
I’m not saying it’s fine as is right now, I just wanted to offer a word of caution: if you have been using colors and contrast for some time, you might need a decent amount of time to get over losing it. I wouldn’t switch in the middle of a big project :)
Lastly, I had issues with a couple custom perspectives, but with a little work I ironed out the details.
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Seeing as how so many of the Omni apps (including OF1) offer the ability to customize the theme, I am curious as to if this could be a possibility with OF2?
In addition to being able to customize theme colors and fonts (a feature I use in OF1 to make the appearance less distracting), I was curious if any theming in OF2 could also allow:
- Scaling up and down the size of the “check circles” (I would like to improve the “data density” (to borrow someone else’s phrase) and place more items on the screen.
- Allow me to move the check off to the left hand side instead of right? Something about the check off being on the right hand side messes around with my expectations.
In Forecast view, what about an option to place Calendar Events (for a selected date) under the calendar? Seems like an awful lot of wasted space there, and moving the events there would allow me to see more items in my to do list.
Our priority was to get one particular layout working for the initial 2.0 release, so customers who liked that layout could start using the app now. But we plan to offer alternative layouts, and you can even try one of them right now in the current build:
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Thanks Ken - that’s a much better layout (I missed that thread). It’ll make it usable until the bugs get fixed (like not being able to check the box).
For me, it’s less the layout than the font customizations. I find it very hard to scan the way the fonts display. In OF1, I had a number of elements that were different colors, which made it easier to spot things at a quick glance. While OF1 may have offered too many customizations for many users, the lack of any customizations is a weakness for me in OF2.
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I’m working on a forum post describing how to customize the fonts and colors in the current 2.0 build. (There aren’t any preference settings, but you can set custom fonts and colors by providing your custom settings in a text file.)
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I was considering the upgrade, but will not do it now based on these last two reviews. I use the customization very much, as @kirkmc shares here. I like the current mac versions WAY better than the iPad version. I find the iPad version so difficult to work with that I rarely use it. :(
Density is important. Less scrolling means more efficient.
