Custom Perspective - Filter Contexts -?

OmniFocus OmniFocus for Mac
#1

I am creating a custom perspective with contexts in the sidebar (i.e. “Don’t use project hierarchy” setting). I understand all the settings except "Filter contexts”. The OF manual is of no help, but this is what I have deduced from the behaviour of the software:

Filter contexts: All Contexts
The sidebar shows all contexts.

Filter contexts: Remaining
The sidebar shows only contexts with status set to “Active” and “On Hold”. Contexts with “Dropped” status are not shown.

Filter contexts: Active
The sidebar shows only contexts with status set to “Active” AND containing at least one active item. Is this correct? I find it counterintuitive that the status of items is taken into consideration for showing the context in the sidebar. And apparently this means it is impossible to have the sidebar show all contexts with status set to “Active” regardless of if they contain active items or not.

Filter contexts: Stalled
This one, I have no idea. When I select it most of the contexts displayed in the sidebar are empty, as I would expect since this is similar to the definition of stalled projects. However, not all. Some of the contexts do have active items, which are part of active projects, so I can’t figure out what it is doing.

Filter contexts: On Hold
The sidebar shows only contexts with the status set to “On Hold”.

Filter contexts: Dropped
The sidebar shows only contexts with the status set to “Dropped”.

Finally, the “No Context” context appears in the sidebar for all, yes all of the above settings. It is impossible to get rid of it. So if you have an item sitting in your inbox, it appears in the Main Outline, right at the top of the list.

Can anyone clarify or correct what I written above?

#2

Hmm, no replies, but I’m similarly confusted about “Filter Contexts by action”

I’m trying to have perspective called “deferred” that filters tasks by “remaining” and filters context by “active”. In this way, (i was hoping) it would include all uncompleted deferred tasks, but exclude any of those tasks where the context is on hold (i.e. I want exclude my checklists from the “deferred” view)

However, it seems that filtering tasks by “remaining” automatically includes on hold contexts and overrides the filter by context. Can anyone confirm this?

#3

Try “available” instead of “remaining” as the action Filter? I’m not sure why you wouldn’t.

#4

I can’t confirm this.
I set up a custom perspective like your “deferred” perspective. However when I change the status of a context to “On Hold” the task does disappear from the main outline.
Perhaps the software has been updated to fix this since you posted.
Anyhow, I will purchase OF3 in the near future so I am forgetting about the issues I had with OF2 at this point.