Custom perspective by project types (All errand single action tasks vs. long projects)

OmniFocus OmniFocus for Mac
#1

I’m tracking different type errands as multiple single action projects for e.g.

  • financial errands,
  • family errands
  • work errands

I’m trying to build 2 custom perspectives,

  • one for showing long term projects (identified by the fact that they are either sequential or parallel projects), and
  • one for showing errands (identified by the fact they are single action items).

Essentially what I need is a custom perspective that filters by Project type. At this point in time, I cannot filter a view by Project type - nor can I filter a project by its title (only tasks are filtered, not the projects).

Is there any way I can get the same effect?

note:

I can built a manual list using focus. This could work for the errands perspective as the containing single action projects are fairly static, but definitely won’t work for other long term projects which are constantly added/completed.

p.s. I cannot use a folder to separate errands and projects, because I use folders to separate the different areas of concerns, like:

  • family
  • career
  • work
#2

The best solution to Your problem is

  1. include a keyword in the Notes field or description of your long term or short term projects.
  2. Create a perspective filtering out projects or actions with the respective key word
  3. Be intrigued by the new OF2 ;-)

Hope this helps

2 Likes
#3

Thanks Mat,

I followed your advice and created the following perspective:

It’s showing exactly what I want, i.e.:
top level folders
|_ long term projects (indicated by #project in notes)
|_ all tasks (showing all steps including the ones that are completed)

The only issue is the Sidebar is still showing all Projects, not just the ones marked as #projects, which makes navigation very difficult. Any solutions?

If OmniFocus 2 had a back button, I would’ve been happy to show just the top level project and drill down in the main “Projects” pane. But unfortunately there isn’t one afaik.

Thanks

#4

The evil sidebar again… yeah, afaik there is no constant remedy for that, sorry… As a workaround You could perhaps define a certain Folder for these lists, making the overview easier but naaaaah, that’s actually what we were trying to avoid to begin with, right? So the clever ideas end there…

1 Like
#5

I feel the sidebar should really honor all the filtration rules within a filter. Isn’t this not a bug?

1 Like
#6

Assuming you paid for pro, I was able to get it to show just one folder of projects in the side bar with a custom perspective which I think was what you were trying to do. Settings below:

1 Like
#7

I feel it is a bug… I will report this for investigation, but I also read a lot about the sidebar not adapting in this forums, so eventually we’ll be relieved of this.