Perhaps I missed it, but when selecting a due date or a defer date, is a calendar suppose to pop up, where one can make a selection? Or, is the entry for the date a manual process? Having a small calendar pop up (as seen in many programs) is a wonderful convenience feature. Thank you. Ray T.
This is possible in the inspector sidebar. With a task or project selected, show the inspector using the toolbar button or by pressing ⌥⇧I, then click the small calendar icon inside the “Defer Until,” “Due,” or “Completed” field:
The OF1 calendar was more convenient and did not need the inspector to be showed…
Personnaly, i found that this is a step back in facility
Please restore the Calendar popup in/next to the Action date fields. Having to use the Inspector requires more mouse travel and slows me down. Please restore the functionality as it was in OmniFocus v1. It worked well and it didn’t need to be removed. I use the Calendar popup most of the time.
I have just installed OmniFocus v2 and I have to say that bad UI design has taken precedence over usability. I’m also including the terrible requirement to double-click to enter/edit an Action’s fields among my many issues with OmniFocus v2.
At this point I am sticking with OmniFocus v1.
-ITG
Are you on a desktop or tablet?
The pop-up was point-of-use convenient, but the inspector is not bad. You can always add a date manually.
(Not a power user here, I only use OF on a desktop, so perhaps I’m not a good one to appreciate its absence as finely).
I think the inspector fits well with the path set in OmniOutliner.
Yet: I am all for fewer clicks. My perception is that the direction on certain other OS’s is click-intensive. Anything that keeps them down to a dull roar is probably a plus.
I too would be happy if the pop-up returns.
I can live without it, but its a visual indicator as to the day of the work week vs blindly entering a date manually.
I’m eagerly awaiting to see what the other corners around the completion circle get used for.
One would suspect that the lower right is a good hot corner for the calendar, but on a tablet achieving critical control is not all its cracked up to be.
My issue is the missing calendar popup in the date fields of the desktop version of OmniFocus v2.
I didn’t really use the inspector much before, but now I have to move the mouse constantly to the inspector to use the calendar popup. I can’t stand it and have deleted the trial version of OmniFocus v2 from my Mac.
-ITG
Not using OF2 is, after all, your prerogative.
Gosh, IT guys are so resistant to change! (heh)
Pop-up Calendar: a deal breaker?
I think the calendar pop-up was fine & worked to tell me what day of the week a given date is,
but I can adapt to the inspector. The same pop-up is there. The world does not crash to a halt.
Fewer clicks are good, if all they serve is more navigation steps, without increased benefit at the end.
Certainly in a productivity app. On a desktop this works well enough & there are other items in the inspector I can use.
I do think there is a trend on some OS platforms - to embed too many “accept action” & “did you really mean this” clicks. I suspect this is because of how sloppy it is to do real office work on a tablet.
If all the personal annoyances are addressed by various people - have we engineered back to OF1?
Ultimately was there anything at all that you wanted changed from the OF1 version, then?
No the world does not to crash to a halt. Those are your words, not mine. It’s not just the missing calendar popup that causes a great deal more back and forth mouse movement to/from the inspector. I only emphasized it as it was the topic of this thread. There are other important areas that fall short in my opinion.
I don’t have a problem with change. That’s a bad assumption on your part. I happily installed the trial version, but found the new version inferior to OmniFocus v1 in certain important areas. I’ve been waiting to upgrade for the Forecast feature to make its way from the iPad, but I wan’t expecting to be disappointed overall. I’m not going to change to something just because it is shiny and new. It has to improve my workflow, not slow me down. I will continue to use the Forecast feature on my iPad, and stick with OmniFocus v1 on my Mac so I don’t have to deal with the bad UI and loss of important functionality. The ball remains in OmniGroup’s court to make improvements to convince me to happily upgrade.
There are many other feature enhancements customers were looking for after all this time. Just take a look at the old forums for many other examples. I also don’t believe customers were clamoring for the status-based styles functionality to be removed. I certainly wasn’t, and now we have to contend with the silly status circle implementation which is far inferior and is another waste of space.
If we hypothetically engineered back to OmmiFocus v1, perhaps it set the bar really high originally. OmniGroup didn’t need to downgrade functionality and usability in the name of clean design and minimalism. That’s not the way to get people to upgrade.
-ITG
I miss the calendar popup-menue, too. But there is an easy way to set dates when you enter a new task. Using the tab key, you can jump from entry to entry and in the due date field, you can just type “wed”, “sun” or whatever. OF then automatically sets the date correctly.
This is good if the due date supposed to be in the next 6 days, though. To set a later date you have to visit the inspector, or enter the date manually (06/02/14).
No idea why the UI designers removed the date pickers from the main section.
No assumption whether you are anti-change - I’m characterizing it in hyperbole perhaps, but that’s characterizing a stance, not the person. And I might be mixing you a little with the “IT Architect” that must have had a world class bad day, ranting on about Steve Jobs, etc. (My apologies if that happens).
The trial is there to test, right?
It sounds as though you were working to the trial & not the bought version.
There is a link on this forum that gets you to an alternative view closer to what [you?] asked for, if you were also the person who didn’t like the checkboxes on the right. (Awkward to go verify from this screen).
A pop-up calendar is nice. But its absence is hardly that big a deal.
My sense of many IT guys - is a stereotype, but it covers most of the ones I’ve ever met.
They find users an annoyance & they don’t like changes that inconvenience themselves, even as they tend to be support for users. Which makes software gripes amusing when it comes from IT guys!
I have a view of many users that is no less stereotypical.
What is missing in the OF2 version that impacts usability, beyond a pop-up calendar?
I believe things like “next Sunday” and so on also work to get quick entry beyond those next six days. Also things like the bare months, etc.
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Yes, adding dates via words would be more intuitive. Specifically like Fantastical does it: “monday”, “next monday”, “in two weeks”, etc.
Yes you’re definitely mixing me up with another person. I’ll have to check out that other post when I get a chance.
Yes I installed the trial alongside v1. The cost to upgrade is insignificant, but I will only pay if I see value. Unfortunately, I don’t see the value in upgrading to v2, and I’ll be negatively impacted if I did.
It’s like OmniGroup has chased the clean and minimalist design trend as their primary goal, and then any feature or function that didn’t align accordingly was scrapped or implemented in a subpar manner, hoping that users wouldn’t notice (see Windows 8, Final Cut Pro X, iWork). So now we’re stuck with thin fonts, no choice of fonts, colors, styles, the oceans of white space, no item counts or calendar popups to disturb the clean aesthetic, and a VERY stupid status circle we have to use. I can very quickly and easily run down the list of projects in v1 and instantly identify the projects with issues, and also see how many tasks need attention. In v2, everything has to be clean and antiseptic, so we can no longer quickly review projects and tasks. Try processing Inbox items into your projects with v2. It’s an exercise in frustration.
This all shows poor judgement on the part of OmniGroup to commit to such drastic design changes, and implementing features in such a subpar manner with v2. OmniFocus v1 may be missing the Forecast feature, but it’s a much better product to use overall. Some may consider the interface of v1 to be dated, stale, or some other superficial term, but I need to use software that works well.
It’s only software, so there’s no point in getting bent out of shape over the issues in v2. My view is that until the issues are fixed, I’m very happy to keep using v1 and not have to figure out workarounds to the many issues in v2 as others are having to do. If v1 doesn’t work properly with the public release of OS X 10.10 and iOS 8, then I will consider dumping OmniFocus (I’m not resistant to change the OS when it is released). It’s pretty easy to get my data out of OmniFocus. We all know how long it takes for OmniGroup to push out new releases, so it may very well be a colossal waste of time expecting OmniGroup to fix v2 any time soon.
-ITG
Have you tried using those? Monday and next monday both work; I’m not sure about in two weeks but 2w does. (Also 2 minutes, 2h, 2d, and 2m).
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A few too many general gripes, I am afraid. INBox works for me, but I don’t know what you do different.
Circles vs square checkboxes are not a problem. I can adapt.
Checkbox location is already partially addressed, as is “data density" - if you want them to the left, you can have them there. I’d prefer to be able to switch without restarting the app, because I like both configurations.
Colors & Fonts - I’m expecting those will follow in future updates, but I find that what’s there out of the box is pretty well differentiated & not a deficit to me. How are you getting “oceans of whitespace?”
Omni’s been very good with Outliner 4 updates, so I would disagree about their responsiveness.
Perhaps you should have applied to be a beta tester if you are so worked up over this, imo.
Its been a long time for new releases of OmniFocus, but it worked well.
What I am puzzled about: if you were happy before, why then would you need constant updates? That shouldn’t matter to you. Unless you like change, for the sake of change.
I don’t follow what you can’t seem to do in the IN box, since you haven’t provided specific detail.
What can’t you do that is so different? Have you got screenshots?
I can’t simulate your issue because its not described how you work from that Inbox that is a problem. Quite simply: The calendar pop-up moving to the inspector sidebar is not a problem if you run with the inspector open!
Keeping the OF window to abt 60% of my screen real estate with the inspector sidebar open is fine.
I can run multiple desktops (spaces) for that matter, & assign apps to specific desktops if I am running on one monitor & want a bigger view.
Threatening to quit the next OS is way off topic, I think. The fact remains that desktops are waning & people like tablets, though I’m not sure that anyone can be as productive on tablet yet, let alone a phone. Nonetheless, pulling different tool types together so that the apps works across them is the trend. Omni has no direct impact on industry trends & they need to provide product that can be used on all the devices, just like everyone else.
I don’t know what magic OTHER there is that one can change to, that works precisely the way you want.
(edited to be clearer in my point)
What works for you is fine, and what seems like gripes to you may not be to others. We can agree to disagree. I’m not looking to deal with bugs, implement workarounds, or most importantly, do without functionality I deem to be important. It’s that simple.
I wasn’t inferring I was looking for constant updates, but rather updates that improved things overall when they were eventually issued. I’m hardly “worked up” over OF v2. I looked at it, provided my feedback to OmniGroup, and went back to using OF v1. I don’t need to discuss the matter any further. Software is not something to get worked up or emotional over.
I’m sure OmniGroup has feedback from myself and others and will act accordingly, something we can agree will happen eventually. Maybe I’ll jump on board with the next update if enough of those items are fixed. Who knows, but for now it’s a definite no go.
-ITG
I am having the same problem - but the old pop-up calendar wasn’t all that nice, so how about solving this problem by adding the calendar sidebar from forecast, so I can assign due dates by simply dragging the item to a calendar date? That feature works nicely in Forecast?
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