Creating a custom perspective with a snapshot of current view?

OmniFocus OmniFocus for Mac
#1

I might be mistaken, but I seem to remember that OmniFocus 1 had a feature that would allow you to create a perspective by simply taking a snapshot of the current view.

I don’t seem to see this feature in OmniFocus 2. Am I missing it?

3 Likes
Multiple questions about OF1->OF2 learning curve, best practices and changed features
#2

+1 on this query. In particular, I haven’t found a way to create a perspective that filters on the current set of selected contexts. I miss this a lot - and I know the filtering exists because my ported-from-OF1 perspectives still work this way.

#3

To filter on selected contexts, create a perspective with the settings and filters desired, and at the bottom, there is an option to only include certain/selected things from the sidebar, which will accomplish this.

Cheers,

ScottyJ

#4

Yeah, that’s possible but it’s so much more obscure than a simple “snapshot” feature like in OF1. I don’t understand people who say that it’s much easier and intuitive to create perspectives in OF2.

#5

The course of doing work is what brings me to a state of realizing that what I’m seeing at this moment is exactly what I’ll need again. I didn’t get there by thinking about how the software works, rather, I got there by following the natural flow of work. Opening the Perspectives window makes me (and maybe it’s just ME) refocus on how Omnifocus works while trying to recreate what I have in my working window, thus losing focus.

1 Like
#6

Agree completely. I think Omnifocus 1 had very intuitive controls for customizing a perspective, I never even had to read how to do it. I think that a lot of new user are confused by the concept of a perspective because perspective is not a very intuitive title for a custom selection of items. Omnifocus seems to be trying to fix the wrong problem here - taking away the customizability is not an improvement.

#7

I agree that the customization of Perspectives in OF 2 is lacking and more confusing than v1.

There is an ability to update perspectives in OF2, but its not where you would expect.
After opening the perspective choose View > Show View Options.
There is a Save button to save your changes.

Unfortunately it doesn’t remember:

  • sidebar visibility state
  • toolbar visibility state
  • inspector visibility state
  • column/pane width
  • window position

E-mail support and ask for these features to be added

4 Likes
#8

Mail to OF sent a minute ago to ask for implementation.

#9

Totally agree with this post. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I have no idea why this feature was cut from OF2 when it worked wonderfully in OF1.

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#10

My guess is that it was because the program was completely rebuilt from the bottom up. You can’t keep something when you’re starting over again from scratch. Nor can you cut it, because it’s not there to be cut.

#11

That’s from a developer viewpoint. They didn’t cut the inbox, or the project view. When building something from the ground up, you have to have a view of core functionality you’re re-implementing. For me, this should have been in it.